I’m in a writing mood today, so here goes my fourth post for the day. Each post has either approached or surpassed the 500 word mark, so I should have written about 2000 words by the end of this one. Something tells me, as well, that this may not be the last post of the day. I’ve got my writing on.

Freewriting has really helped me to become a more productive writer, so this is an exercise I am going to continue for a while. At some point, though, I will need to make the transition from pure freewriting to a more academic form of freewriting. The ultimate goal, of course, is to improve my professional skill set with regard to writing.

For that matter, practicing music is also part of my professional skill set. Perhaps I can, at some point, approach my practice routine in something like the same way I have done with freewriting. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be in music practice. Maybe I should start by using a timer to limit the amount of time I spend practicing per practice session. One of the major issues I have found with regard to musical practice and my academic work is that I tend to obsess about one to the exclusion of the other. In other words, when I am going through a period of academic work, my musical practice falls away. The opposite happens when I am going through a period of regular musical practice - I am less likely to read and write.

It would be nice to find some sort of balance between reading, writing, and musical practice. Writing doesn’t need to take up much time, it just needs to happen regularly and consistently. Freewriting has helped with that. If I can find a way to incorporate the other aspects of my professional practice in a more sustainable way that would go a long way toward improving my productivity.

Coding is fast becoming part of my professional skill set, especially if I develop my broad interest in digital humanities. I do need to be careful, though, once I have a tenure-track job, to make sure the work might be counted toward my tenure progress. Of course different institutions have different requirements with regard to what counts toward tenure, so wherever I end up I need to make sure I am not spinning my wheels.

Ultimately, I need to turn my writing energies toward getting my dissertation published. Probably I should start by reading the book I have on turning a diss into a book manuscript. First, though, I need to write and send out a book proposal. There is no sense in doing a lot of editing before I have some idea of what a specific publisher is looking for. Maybe, though, I can do some of the formatting required to produce a manuscript. It would be nice if I can send a properly formatted MS when asked.