The assignment, due in a week, is a three to five page paper on the effects that factories have on the environment. Tonight I need to write everything I can think of on the topic to sort out later. I call this the "vomit draft", because it reads like a bunch of nonsense vomited out of my brain. So environment...trees, yeah start with trees.
Trees depend in sunlight and clean air to grow, and in turn...
I like grilled cheese sandwiches...with a slice of tomato.
Where did that come from? I am kinda hungry. I'll get an apple to snack on, it'll help me focus better.
Okay, back to paper. Trees provide us many aspects of our daily lives. Everyone knows trees provide wood, but have you ever considered the living beings inside the wood? Birds, squirrels and many different species of insect would have to find new places to live if we started cutting down trees in favor factories. This means squirrels would start making nests in your house and you might have baby squirrels in your cupboards.
Do squirrels build nests? How come I have never seen a baby squirrel? When I was growing up, there was a squirrel in our neighborhood that would come up and eat marshmallows out of your hand. I bet marshmallows weren't healthy for him. Wonder what baby squirrels look like? I'll Google it. No, I have to write this paper.
Factories, while beneficial to communities, are increasingly devastating to the environment. That sounds like a thesis statement. It will go toward the beginning of my paper when I polish this up. I have an important part of my paper written already! I should take a break and check my e-mail.
Two hours later:
As I was logging in to check my e-mail, one of my friends sent me an instant message. I hadn't talked to her in a awhile, and so I chatted and did some research for the paper. Baby squirrels are cute. Learned that not only should I have never fed that squirrel a marshmallow, but it was possibly sick to be coming so close to humans. So after quickly researching rabies I discovered I would be dead by now if I had been infected. Then I got concerned over the nutritional value of marshmallows. After some quick discussion, my friend and i realized neither of us knew what was in a marshmallow. I looked it up, found out it is mostly corn starch and sugar. Disappointing, but not unexpected. However, I did find instructions telling me how to make a marshmallow bra, information that was shared with my friend over IM. Finds such as that must be shared, so I sent out an e-mail to all of my friends. I then responded to a few other messages, and logged off IM as I was getting sleepy.
As I stood up, a piece of paper fell off my desk. My assignment landed on my foot, the typed words glaring at me. Which has led me to sitting here, writing explaining why I have to close out of all open applications, turn the radio off, and begin to focus on my paper.
How often does this happen to you as a writer? Have you found anything to help combat this? Did any of you have a neighborhood pet? Does the destractibility help or harm your writings?
6 comments:
*laughs* I do love you, Karalea!
As for writing... my strokes of genius tend to come at silly-early in the morning, i.e. 3:00 a.m. while an episode of X-Files is playing in the background and the cats are chasing each other like tiny four-legged cops and robbers.
I guess the silliness and brain-numbness that comes with insomnia allows me to pour out that rough draft. The week prior is usually spent procrastinating, but I do usually get some really good sources from the library. I think the porch of Quinn Library still has some wheel tracks from my poor little luggage-thingy that was forced to cart around 50 books on Michelangelo for me.
This past year, since I've pretty much done nothing but work and put in some time as a theater tech, I fear I've grown rusty when it comes to paper writing.
I have a month to scrape off the rust, apply a little WD-40, and whip myself back into shape for the impending grad school experience.
*eep*
Thanks for sharing how to make marshmellow bras!! I love this post, Karalea.
If only all assignments could be Woolf-inspired stream of consciousness writing!! Then, we'd be much quicker as writers--even if reader's had to sort out the details.
Did anyone see the new _X-files_ this weekend??
The way I begin a paper is very strategically organized. First, I have to have my topic, then I get all the information I can find on that topic, next I will read and take notes on all the information I have found. Now I'm ready to begin my rough draft.
During this first phase I must have total peace and quiet. However, once I have the rough draft written I tend to want people around me. Mostly, because I like being able to grab someone and asking them to take a look at it as I go.
Once I have turned my rough draft into a real paper, I let it stew for a couple of days. Now, I'm ready to rip it to shreads. I go through it with a fine tooth comb and pick it apart.
Once I deem it suitable I then allow a writing tutor to review it and give me suggestions. I then begin the ripping it to shreads process all over again. I may do this three or four times before I feel it's ready to turn in!
And yes, I ask for help from other tutors...even though I am one!
I love the different ways you approach writing: how you begin, where you get your ideas, when you let other readers look at drafts . . . even though I must admit, Leona's ripping and shredding sounds a bit more, well, violent, than others . . . :-)
Sometimes ripping up bad ideas is therapeutic. I tend to think so hard about my words, it might be physically painful to rip them up.
I bring papers in to be proofread as well. I have seen the difference peer review makes, having done it myself.
And I _still_ haven't seen the new X-files. Which makes me do a small frown.
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