why oh why

[athene]

why oh why can't i get this paper written?

I've been thinking about it for weeks. I've spent many hours looking through files, analyzing things, making charts, and preparing for this. I've written a number of pre-writing question answering lists. But it won't come together in a coherent way.

I guess it comes down to how I usually write papers: read everything/do all research, come up with an outline, write paper, revise paper. The problem with this paper is that there really isn't a good outline that I can come up with. I think the best solution is just to start writing and reorganize everything later. Not my favorite idea, but it'll get the job done.

Right, off to start writing. And, of course, this post just adds one more file to think about...

Comments

[jhrtirjfgfjkcfh.livejournal.com]

haha, my chart looks like that...only shitty!

i've barely started it, and i will not even be THINKING about that paper until the end of this week. too much else to do!

[athene.livejournal.com]

that's only 1 chart of 3 that i made. i love procrastinating OmniGraffle.

[sukipot.livejournal.com]

It's kind of like what I've been noticing in all my iSchool writing; I have to write first, organize later, and that's not how I like to do things. I think it still all comes out all right, but the process is still so alien to me I don't feel at all good about it while I'm going through it.

Good luck! (Back to my paper about cleaning magnetic wire recordings...)

[threegee.livejournal.com]

just write the paper. go to the library where no one will bother you, listen to some tunes, and do it. if the assignment is garbage, no one else will produce anything worthwhile, either.

[athene.livejournal.com]

actually, it's a great assignement. My problem is that my thoughts are all jumbled because I've been thinking about it in bits and pieces for so long.

[oracle-tx.livejournal.com]

Two things that usually help me in that sort of situation:
Get a different perspective.
Decide that at least 20% of the data is garbage.

Perspective shifts can include going from topical to chronological or vice versa, deciding to just cover the material while acknowledging that coherency is nonexistent, or just getting somebody else to help you find a common thread.

[parathalyn.livejournal.com]

I think the best solution is just to start writing and reorganize everything later.

I've written a lot of good papers that way. Sometimes you just need to start writing to get into the flow of it and the paper just comes to you naturally.