I’ve been really struggling with the writing of a paper for the forthcoming LIANZA conference*. I seem to freeze up whenever I am faced by the blank screen of the wordprocessor. Thankfully, I think I have found the antidote: I can work with paper, and pencil. I’ve been scribbling with a nice 2B pencil on sheets of lined A4 paper. (The pencil is the important tool in this equation; the paper, not so much.)
For the time being, I’m not worrying about how I’m going to transcribe all these scribbles.
The PC is still on, but only so I can listen to music. Currently playing: Preludes, Airs and Yodels by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
* What I’ll be presenting. (I’m working on this with Kathryn. my name’s not there, but no matter.). Thanks Kathryn, name’s now there 🙂
9 Comments
I’m with you on the pencil… i love the scratchy feel of writing with one.
So are you coming to Auckland too? If you are we definitely should meet up!
I’d LOVE to meet up, Penny 🙂 Will you be attending the conference too?
You know its funny I have just recently (last night) found the same thing. I had to write a presentation for today and found that writing down my ideas they seemed to flow from my pen. In the past I found the opposite when it came to assignments =^]
That’s my usual strategy for essays, when I’m stuck. I hide away in a room as far from the computer as I can get, and scribble stuff down with a pencil. The pencil is important – it doesn’t work with a pen. Pens are too permanent & final. But that usually gets me out of my stuckness.
Not a comment on this blog, but a thank you for dropping by with a welcome, generous Constance! (from slibrariAnne)
Whoa! An unmoderated comments section! I am new to this game. I was also fooled by the Name (required) – ha – thought it meant my name, not my “blogname”. Also, not sure if this is the norm, but as I’ve come back to add this, the Leave a Reply section (which says Welcome back [real name] (Change) doesn’t actually let me change anything – the textbox for the name has disappeared, although the words “Name (required)” are still visible??
Bookishgirl and Akkadis I just wish I figured it out earlier. It makes perfect sense to have a change of scene, so to speak. And after all I used to write essays and things by hand all those millions of years ago… The block seems to have disappeared for now – wordprocessor or pencil, either does the trick. Because my current problem is actual lack of time to write, I am now trying to use the wordprocessor as much as I can so I don’t have to transcribe everything from pencil.
Hi Anne, thanks for stopping by, too 🙂
Anne, I suspect it’s just that your machine has stored the details you entered the first time as cookies. Possibly clearing the cache (or coming back later- depending on how long your system’s set up to delete cookies?) will fix things. I’m not sure why the “change” option didn’t work for you (as it has for me) – which browser were you using?
And no, I don’t bother to moderate my comments. I have a reasonably effective spam filter and that’s all I worry about, really. Seeing as many blogs aren’t official you don’t have to leave your details unless you really want to. Although I suspect most bloggers who leave comments will leave the URL of their blogs, so that the blogger they’re visiting knows where they’re from, and other commenters can check them out if they’re interested. E.g. see Akkadis’ blog and Penny’s blog (click on their names).