Crafting and Drafting

Can it be done? Writing drafts of papers and having time to craft, I mean. The first time through proved to be impossible. But it could also be the fact that it has been about 4 years since I last had to write an important paper--my dissertation. I'm probably a little rusty, and couldn't find the dang oil can.

My first draft has been submitted to my favorite editor, Christine from CBC Editing. She's been editing my papers since around 2007, and in my not so humble opinion, she's the best. She knows exactly what you need out of an editing experience, and her impossibly positive attitude makes you feel like a billion bucks. More importantly, she does an excellent job at everything: conversing with you about your needs or concerns, delivering the paper back to you in a timely manner, and offering opinions which make solid papers in the end. My draft is in good hands.

The writing experience has been a tough one. Not the kind of tough where I rewrite the whole thing because I didn't like where it was going. I had a ridiculous time getting out the gate. It felt like I was trying to separate sludge into neat piles. Gross metaphor? How about: It felt like I was trying make muffins on a baking sheet. Mmm. Muffins. Mr. IT Guy has this wonderful habit of wearing treads in the floor as he walks back and forth hashing out his ideas in his head--something I recently adopted so I could write my arguments more coherently on the first shot. It helped, but it still didn't feel like it was working. So I sat down and wrote.

And it was terrible. It was literally 5 days of "Well, this could go here..." and "When should I talk about..?" Even with an outline, I still had a terrible mess. I remember thinking that I should just finishing knitting my sock(s). Or maybe I should replace my drive band on Beth which has been broken for a week. Meh. I just didn't feel like tackling any projects. Perhaps I was stuck in my bored phase? Hmm...probably not.

I made progress in my head, just thinking about stuff. The papers I was reading were leading me to exciting places in my mind. But every time I tried to write them down in a logical order, it felt like nailing jello to the wall. Every time I thought about dragging some fiber out to spin something new--maybe I just needed a new project--I just stopped and stared at the wall like a cat. ^-^

These next several weeks will show me if crafting and drafting can be done. Once I get some much needed help with the organization of my paper (Christine is a magician because she always turns my ideas into things which actually make sense), I won't have these writing woes anymore. So, will I feel inspired to get some crafting done while I work on my final rough draft? I hope so. My crafting table is starting to look like a fibery wasteland. I swear I saw a tumbleweed made of angelina and sari silk blow by me when I was cleaning earlier last week.