Day 10

Are we there yet? I feel like the kid in the back of the car wishing to be at the destination instead of on the road.  This part of the challenge has been very hard for me. I’ve managed to write 25 minutes every day, but I can’t tell you how much I want to avoid it. It makes sense that it would be hard at this point in the journey. I can’t tell you how many writing challenges/schedules/”new starts” I’ve quit during week two.  How’s it going for all of you? If it’s going great, share your story of success. I know I could use some inspiration today.

In my writing, I spent most of the day trying to find the right data to support my point. It took the whole morning to systematize my data and try to figure out how to best express it. I’m not there yet, but I’m thinking that a figure might be able to do the task better than my words.  It’s been really helpful to take a step back and look at the global picture. I tend to focus on word counts when I’m working on a writing project. Today reminds me of all the other kind of work that underlies successful writing and that to fully account for my writing productivity, I need to measure other forms of production that aren’t words.  As a qualitative researcher I often discount this kind of labor.

Keep up the hard work! The end is in site and it will feel so good to have made a dent in our projects before the semester starts. Let us know how are your projects going? How is the challenge feeling as we near the end? Share your successes!