A Week of Writing Abandon

One comes back refreshed from vacations, typically. I’ve just been back from a “writing vacation,” and it sure is good to be ensconced in my cubicle.

Most people express surprise at the idea of a writing vacation. The idea is this: one takes paid vacation off in order to write professionally. This isn’t the casual blogging sorts of writing. This is about source citations. This is about research. This is about organizing materials into chapters. This is about calling in favors, so others will write. And this is about getting a jump on work due in early 2009…

Setting up for Writing Abandon

It always seems helpful to set an ambitious agenda. Even writing down a list of a few things to do is helpful. It also helps to remember (somewhat painfully) that one has already had some 8 months of catch-as-catch-can research, drafting, outlining and building the roughs to build on. And there are three sample chapters that have been sent in, so there’s a template to follow.

And it seems wise to stock up on plenty of food. It helps to create a siege mentality especially if one is planning on hanging out in a home office to write.

Focusing

Getting the focus right seems to be one of the toughest challenges. There’s always something else I can be doing—mowing a lawn, mopping the kitchen, putting together the weed whacker, or assembling a new vacuum cleaner. There are sales in stores to explore. And then, with sunny brisk fall weather, there’s always the local park for a casual crunching walk through the leaves. So my strategy was to actually give in to the temptations. That seemed to help me focus faster than if I would have gone the self-denial route.

The worst distractions would have to come from other work. That would be another chapter for another text. And that had an even earlier deadline, later this month, so that had to be addressed as well.

Having a few rewards on hand also seems like a wise approach. I actually only followed through on the M&Ms; treat, but it helps to have the lure of a lunch out or something else to stay focused.

Discovering what One Truly Has

The most disconcerting part of a writing vacation is seeing what one actually has in the way of research, structure, and ideas. It’s truly a moment of truth. When a project exists on the periphery of one’s awareness, one can imagine it’s coming along quite well. When it’s sitting there in digital form—a morass of symbols and half-completed diagrams and vocabulary words—that’s a pretty humbling moment.

The five days away feel like they were much longer, and plenty got accomplished. I have some breathing space to focus on the manuscript in my free time now…until maybe Thanksgiving.