on writing

when you earn your ph.d., one of your biggest feats is producing a dissertation. most dissertations range between two and three hundred pages. it seems that, on average, people take between one and three years to write them.

i started writing my dissertation on fellowship in santa barbara. my only obligation during my first five months as a fellow there was to write. and so, i would get up every morning with writing in mind. on good days, i would go for a brisk run along the coast. i would drive to a coffeeshop, obediently toting along my laptop, which, in those days, did not have wireless capacity. i would order a cup of coffee, and i would write.

my goal was to write three pages a day, five days a week. some days, i would reach my writing goal in one hour. other days it would take me four. some days i spent revising. most days i drank several cups of coffee.

it was an extremely productive time for me. i didn't have any friends in santa barbara. some days the only people i would speak to in person were my baristas. sometimes i think i ordered a second and third cup of coffee for the brief human contact it would allow me.

though isolating, writing on fellowship was a luxury.

after i finished the diss, i decided that i deserved a break. a year passed. in that time, i was productive in other ways--mostly teaching. but still no writing. and now this lack of writing is beginning to matter.

(to be continued)

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