A Month Goes By Quickly

I have spent the past two weekends deep into library books because all my holds seem to have come at the same time. I have read over 1,540 pages in the past 14 days (620 this week,  920 last week) which amounts to 5 books. I clearly love reading and I decided that I needed this time to revisit that love. However, because I have been reading so much I have not been writing nearly enough. 

I had a conversation with a colleague this week about him following my book list as the year goes on. I have just finished book 20, and we were joking about how I should slow down. However, I did acknowledge that having the space and time to read that much is a privilege and not everyone has that opportunity or space. 

After finishing this last novel I starting thinking about writing and words. It was a 400 page novel that left the ending open to a sequel and sure enough when I checked the library the sequel is 700 pages! I then starting thinking how long it would take me write 700 pages and the kind of dedication and space it would take to write something of that length. 

I decided to check when I last wrote a blog post and realized that a month had gone by without me writing here- so I am not going to be the next person to write a 700 page novel any time soon. I do have some writing deadlines coming up and I probably (no I certainly) have indulged in reading instead of writing so that I could not have to think about those deadlines. However, the more I read the more I realized that some of that writing I simply did not want to do. It was something I agreed to do months ago and I realize now it was probably not a good fit. So now instead I am going to have to use my writing ability to write a contrite email to a friend saying that the two things I was going to write for her may just be the one because I honestly know of about 3 different people who would better versed to write the thing I was going to write and she should talk to them instead- with about 5000 Canadian sorrys. 

Sometimes a month goes by quickly and no words come out and that is okay. Sometimes you need 2 weeks of intense reading to allow you to remember how much you like words in the first place. Oh and if you like words you should pick up the books I have been recommending on my Twitter feed. I have been blessed with picking up some great ones lately.

Many have written about how academe is premised on writing deadlines, page limits, and word counts. Last month I was at a conference where I was on a round table and also on a panel delivering a paper. I wrote down about 20 double-spaced pages worth of paper/notes for that conference and I haven't written anything substantial since. Writing is an organic process and you can't push and hope that the words show up magically (at least it doesn't work for me). Taking some time away from the screen and the keyboard can actually be beneficial to writing. I am always of two minds about this for as you can see if you don't write every day a month goes by without you writing at all. But lexicological burn-out is a thing as well.

What I have discovered over these 2 weeks is that I need to be more discerning in where my yeses go and be okay with saying no to stuff every once in a while. This goes for a lot of us in academe. Try it. The sky won't fall I promise.