So here we are at mid-semester. You each wrote to me about your work and how things are going, and I want to respond to all of those thoughts and concerns and goals and fears. But first, I want you to know that you can do this. You can do this!
Here are some things that are holding you back: You don’t have time. You don’t know how to get started. You don’t know what to write about. You don’t know how to finish. You don’t know what idea from our reading to include. You don’t know how to add your work to our OpenLab site.
If you don’t know how to get started or what to focus on, I strongly encourage you to go back through those questions I posed in the Project 1 assignment instructions, and choose a few to start answering. Remember in Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” how she had to write twice as much as what was required and even then she got a few ideas to start with? That means there were a lot of ideas that didn’t make it past that first draft.
If you’re feeling like you don’t have much time, or that you don’t know how to get started, a few things that might also help: try writing for just a few minutes. See what you can get on the page. Take a short break. Try writing for a longer stretch. You might try the Pomodoro Technique, which is really just a series of focused work and short breaks. It’s called that because the person who popularized it used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato (pomodoro in Italian).
Or you might try talking instead of writing. If you have a Zoom account, you can turn on the transcription feature to have a transcript (with many mistakes) of what you said in your verbal drafting session. Maybe do a Pomodoro of verbal drafting to get started.
I’m also always available to talk or email if you want more input from me. That’s also my advice if you’re stuck with something like what to include from our assigned readings. You don’t have to figure that out without help! I’d recommend posting your draft (again, you can make your post private if you want) and getting feedback from me. That’s one of the reasons we work in drafts!
If you’re stuck on how to submit your work: let’s get you comfortable using the OpenLab. When you’re on the site and signed in, you just have to click the + at the top of the screen and you’re ready to write a new post. Add a title, a category, and paste in your work, then switch from public to private if you want, and click Publish. We have instructions for writing a post in a few places on our site, too.
Looking forward to seeing all the brilliance you have to share!
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