inspiration is a wonderful thing!

I have been plugging away, far too slowly, on chapter six for a while now. I thought I'd finished the part wherein I summarize my results and compare them with the previously published data, and have sort of made some progress on part of the "so what" part of the chapter. However, on several occasions, when I thought I ought to be working on "so what", I'd think of yet another topic I'd not yet addressed in the "summary of my results" part, and I'd go back and do that. Or I realized that I really needed a figure illustrating a specific point and go back and do that. Meanwhile the stress was building in that I wasn't getting the "so what" part done, and the chapter really should have been finished before now.

Today I started my day by deleting some 600+ words from the "my results" summary when I realized that I'd covered that topic well enough in chapter five, and it really doesn't need to be repeated here--this chapter really only needs the information which supports the "so what" part--the other details are in the chapters themselves if needed. Then I worked a bit at actually organizing an outline of the "so what" part, looking (yet again) at the published literature that I ought to cite in this chapter, and, eventually, around 5 am considered calling it a night, though I hadn't accomplished all that much yet for all of the hours put in, and I have been staying up till more like 09:00 recently.

Then, out of the blue, inspiration hit--an explanation for a question which has been bothering me ever since I noticed that particular pattern in the data. Words poured forth from my finger tips, and I feel good about the addition (1,434 new words!). I've also remembered a couple of other topics that need to be addressed, and made note of them. But now it is nearly 07:00, and while I have been staying up later than this, I am sleepy, and once I do my walk and yoga it won't be early any more anyway. So I will wish you all a good day, and I shall get some rest, and return to the project in progress in a few hours...

inspiration is a wonderful thing!

I have been plugging away, far too slowly, on chapter six for a while now. I thought I'd finished the part wherein I summarize my results and compare them with the previously published data, and have sort of made some progress on part of the "so what" part of the chapter. However, on several occasions, when I thought I ought to be working on "so what", I'd think of yet another topic I'd not yet addressed in the "summary of my results" part, and I'd go back and do that. Or I realized that I really needed a figure illustrating a specific point and go back and do that. Meanwhile the stress was building in that I wasn't getting the "so what" part done, and the chapter really should have been finished before now.

Today I started my day by deleting some 600+ words from the "my results" summary when I realized that I'd covered that topic well enough in chapter five, and it really doesn't need to be repeated here--this chapter really only needs the information which supports the "so what" part--the other details are in the chapters themselves if needed. Then I worked a bit at actually organizing an outline of the "so what" part, looking (yet again) at the published literature that I ought to cite in this chapter, and, eventually, around 5 am considered calling it a night, though I hadn't accomplished all that much yet for all of the hours put in, and I have been staying up till more like 09:00 recently.

Then, out of the blue, inspiration hit--an explanation for a question which has been bothering me ever since I noticed that particular pattern in the data. Words poured forth from my finger tips, and I feel good about the addition (1,434 new words!). I've also remembered a couple of other topics that need to be addressed, and made note of them. But now it is nearly 07:00, and while I have been staying up later than this, I am sleepy, and once I do my walk and yoga it won't be early any more anyway. So I will wish you all a good day, and I shall get some rest, and return to the project in progress in a few hours...