The Struggle

The tangible product of my effort on my paper is essentially nothing. I have the skeleton of a paper written on the back of a meeting agenda. I have a few papers that I think will give my work some context while supporting the interpretation of the data. Despite my lack of physical evidence, my early efforts to prepare my manuscript have been unexpectedly productive. The hard part is almost finished, now I just have to write.

Writing is the easy part. Figuring out how to mold a few related observations and associated conclusions into something that addresses an active research area is the daunting challenge. How do I make my research relevant and interesting? What aspect of my work is the most significant? The story that I expected to tell when I tried to get a draft started Wednesday night has been consumed in the process of addressing these concerns. What I thought would be a minor observation near the end of my paper has emerged as a critical component of my argument. The context has broadened to include several other interesting research areas. In the course of thinking through the context of my work, I realized that I could actually write a second, more focused paper, using results that I was not planning on incorporating into this manuscript.

That second paper will have to wait until the winter break. I have forgotten (or repressed) the struggle implicit in writing a paper. My current approach to this kind of project, working on it a little hear and a little there, will not suffice if I'm going to get this thing ready for submission in a time frame that would support exploring academic positions this time next year (most of the academic jobs for the following year are posted in September). I will need to maximize every night if I'm going to get it done. That means not mock fantasy football drafts, Tetris games, or blog posts. I look at how much I diffuse my energy on various interests and I wonder if I'm trying to do too many things at once. This paper needs must reflect my best effort. Anything less than my top work will not suffice. Time to put away the games and get serious.