Write Everyday

My colleague, Anne, and I were on a team recently, and she brought up a great line from our book. She wrote that we as students writing our dissertation need to write from the “outset of their study.” 

Although I was not struck by that particular line and page as Anne was saying, but I will say that I have heard similar advice from many people in my journey so far. The most prescient being "write a little everyday." I might not be following that to a "T" just yet, but I am "moving forward every week." 

I see this process as being very much like sculpting with clay. I was going to say whittling, but that requires taking a large block of wood and shaving it down. I find this writing dissertation process to be more like sculpting wherein we may carve off some here and there, then add a bit more there, we might even say we're done and fire the piece in the kiln only to find that it falls under it's own weight and we have to scrap it and start over, but it's a constant chore to continue to refine, perfect, add, and edit.  

What I find myself doing now is setting aside Saturday mornings to do nothing but write. I've broken down the dissertation into subjects and I find myself writing in them to fill them out. I might not use it in the end result but it helps to write and get thoughts on paper. 

I really like the idea of writing critiques in APA that can be immediately (or at some time in the future) cut and pasted into the document. To go back to the sculpting analogy, it's like working on the tail of the horse then attaching it at the end. I like that you are thinking about using it and won't need to go back and fine tune much more. I wonder too, if by doing this you're not subconsciously trying out different aspects of the critique to see if it will fit within your focus and in your dissertation. 

I will gladly and brazenly steal the "Anne Brown method" and look forward to reporting back on it's efficacy in a few months or years. 

Reference:

Wallace, M., & Wray, A. (2016). Critical reading and writing for postgraduates (3rd ed.). Sage