Napping and the writing process
Been s-t-r-u-u-u-u-u-g-g-l-i-n-g with the revision of a certain article which shall remain nameless but which readers of this dear blog will surely recognize as the damn thing which has been haunting me for 2+ years now. Anyway, as I was in the space between waking and sleeping last night, I got a fantastic idea for an introduction, and now I realize what at least part of the problem has been with my writing process: no naps. When I let the ideas just kinda "go" in my head without consciously trying to figure out the way to go with an argument, 95% of the time, I have a great insight. The other 5% of the time I fall asleep.
And if I don't write it down immediately, instead convincing myself that of course I'll remember that great insight in the morning, well, I never do remember it.
And while we're on the subject, does anyone else out there dream in complete sentences?
posted by aerobil @ 11:14 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Sharing your frustration--mine a book review that is like pushing a car up hill. And I like the book. Go figure.
Indeed, I often dream in complete sentences when I have a particularly looming writing task. In fact--often full paragraphs building from outlines (and I only grudginly outline when I'm awake). Never seem to wake myself before morning...
When I was an engineering major as an undergrad, I used to have anxiety-ridden dreams of mathematical equations prior to mid-terms and finals. This, however, only added problems because I'd work through a complex formula to discover the answer was something like "horse" (or another charming vertibrate animal). Probably why I quit the hard sciences.
Matt
maldridge@wayne.edu (because I don't have a blog to link to yet)
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