The writing process

I've had my door shut a lot this last week. I've been working on a new paper, and I've been getting increasingly chuffed about how it's coming out. Because as I write it, and have gotten more immersed in it, I've actually been generating a lot more new ideas than usual. And though I say it myself, I think there are a few pretty darned interesting ideas.

It's interesting how the process of articulating something generates new ideas. I think part of the reason why is that in the last week, I have really tried to concentrate a little more on completing this paper. Just forcing myself to have uninterrupted time on something helps, instead of being interrupted every few minutes by various odds and ends, as my days often are.

Most of the good ideas haven't come while sitting in front of the keyboard -- they've come while I've been at home. Even when I'm not actively writing, that I'm spending more time on the process means that the ideas are squirreling around in my head much more than usual.

Even though this paper started off as a relatively mundane summary of stuff I've talked about before, I think it's going to push significantly beyond that. I hope I'll be able to convince and editor and a couple of reviewers of that!