I went to the office at 6 PM and stayed there for 8 hours, writing furiously. Now I have a complete draft of my manuscript. Against custom I was fueled by two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which do stick to your ribs, I will tell you; I will remember this and take some of those camping one day. My text is about 7500 words, plus appendices and a long bibliography. It took 5 weeks which works out to 1500 words a week or 250 words a day on a 6 day week.
This is of course my precise dissertation speed, with the difference that then I taught one class and was doing research as I went, whereas now I am teaching five and doing administrative work, but had done the research already. I think it still means I am getting stronger.
Does anything ever change? No. As an undergraduate I had an average of one five page paper every week and that meant a day to think about it, five days to write, and one day to rest. As a graduate student there were about two 20 page papers every 10 weeks, which once again worked out in practice to about 250 words a day after some initial research.
All of this means that dissertation time is in fact the most leisurely time, when you factor everything else in, but that 250 word a day baseline, with a day off every week, seems to be a real constant.
I did not plan this or choose it, I merely observe it: one page a day, it’s my thing. Is anyone else so invariable? Para no hacer mudanza en mi costumbre I will say I am very upset about the loss of my computer and my cat, whom I last saw seven months ago today; and
…marchitará la rosa el viento helado.
Todo lo mudará la edad ligera….
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 