Where's dilliwag?

Writing and reading! Despite the fact that school technically ended on May 23 (that was the final faculty meeting), I've been pulling together an extended abstract for a conference I'd like to attend. The interdisciplinary conference examines the impact of Barack Obama's entry into the political realm. The proposal I'm submitting uses Obama's campaign oratory to support my contention that rhetoric is, quite literally, a magical endeavor. I've been giving the five page document the final edit this evening; it goes out in tomorrow's mail.

I'm such a dreadfully slow writer, and increasingly disorganized, that I usually can't generate more than one original page a day. Of course, I only have about a two hour window each day to get any real writing done. If I could go back to the days of staying up until 5 AM, I'd probably be far more productive. Having a three year old who wakes up between 6-7 AM kind of puts a kibosh on that kind of writing behavior. So, after dropping TLO off at daycare around 11:30, I head back home, take the dogs for a walk, make some lunch, and adjourn to the computer to eat and write. The first half hour of the writing process is typically a review/rework/edit of my last completed section. Once that ritual is complete, I can spend a couple hours generating new material. And that's about all the time I have to write. If I'm feeling scholarly, I can usually eek out another hour after STK and TLO retire for the evening. That's when I go back, reread my latest work, decide it really isn't all that great, and rewrite the entire section.

Does anyone else agonize to this extent about writing? I enjoy the process, believe it or not, and manage to put out decent work at the end of the day. I've come to the understanding that I'll probably never be a ground breaking rhetorical rock star scholar, but I think I can make some interesting and enlightening contributions to the field. Most days I'm okay with that.

Next week, instead of writing, I'll be attending a seminar on representations of Islam. Should be interesting. I hope to incorporate some of what I learn into my upcoming popular culture class.