Writing and exercise

Sorry for the lack of posts lately -- it's been a strange week. This one has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while, so I thought I'd finish it off.

Over the Christmas holiday, I developed an ambitious plan to finish my D.Phil. by starting each day with three hours of writing in the library. I'm so glad I didn't try it. Knowing myself, I'm confident that I wouldn't have been very productive under that scheme, and would soon have ended up feeling even more lost, frustrated, and weighted down by the burden of 100,000 words.

The day I left to come back to England, somebody gave me a short book of advice for Ph.D. students. My flight ended up being delayed and I read most of it while sitting at the airport. The two most valuable tips were these:

1) A good dissertation is a done dissertation.

2) Write every day. Write a certain number of pages, not for a particular length of time.

So I started writing two pages first thing every weekday morning, and I've learned that writing is a bit like running or doing sit-ups. If you haven't done it for a while, it's really painful, but if you make a habit of it, it gets easier. Even then, though, there will be good days and bad days. Sometimes I write two pages of absolute rubbish.

The best thing about working this way is that it makes the pressure of the D.Phil. more bearable. I don't sit down at my computer in the morning with the knowledge that I have to write 100,000 words. Two double-spaced pages is really only about 600 words, which is very manageable, even if I'm struggling with a headache. Also, writing the two pages means I've accomplished something, so even if there are interruptions later or if I'm not terribly productive in the afternoon, my work is still moving forward.

I've also learned that I do my best thinking while writing. Outlining does have value, and if I'm giving a talk, I prefer to know the subject well and speak from bullet points, but for written work, no amount of planning can clarify things as much as putting some words down on paper. I've spent three years in the wilderness trying to narrow down my topic appropriately, and I'm still not there yet, but I'm learning that insight doesn't come through trying to plan everything out in advance -- it comes through the actual writing process.

You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel from the beginning. Sometimes you have to start walking. People say that it's in the darkness that light at the end of the tunnel will be most plainly visible. I hope it's true.