At some point, I thought I would get back into writing for fun during this quarantine time period. You see, on occasion I actually think I’m pretty decent at writing and like reading what I write. Not so much my academic work. That stuff is important and it keeps me employed but it’s not what I would call fun to read. It also isn’t what I would call good. It is adequate, clearly, but it’s so easy to pick apart. I can critique it no matter how much effort or time goes into it. I guess that’s also part of the job and helps keep me employed.
But my fun writing, I am usually satisfied with and even impressed by. I recently reread the Acknowledgements in my dissertation, the only fun bit in there, and I nearly cried. I could remember what I was feeling when I wrote it. I could remember the process of putting those words together to create those narratives and feel the effect I wanted from that.
The problem is I am (or was, when I started writing this) always home and my boundaries for work and life are bad and also I am not very productive with work. Revisiting these paragraphs months later, maybe I should do fun work writing? Like about getting a Ph.D. and being a new faculty member – that’s a very popular genre and relatively easy to write. Plus, it isn’t like anyone reads this part of my website that I can tell. So my hot takes will probably go unnoticed. This idea was sparked by a tweet thread I started but then abandoned about comprehensive (or general) exams. A tweet thread probably better suited to a blog post no one will read…
Maybe if I get the academic writing done that I need to get done today I’ll reward myself with that blog post.
Until then, I will hit post on this rambling stream-of-consciousness, and get back to that literature review I am avoiding.
