Balance

When I first began my graduate career, I struggled with Boice’s point in Chapter 14: let go of negative thoughts. I was really angry in general at the time, but I had a lot of negative thoughts—about my own writing, about my peers’ writing, about the program that I was in. I’m a lot less angry now, and much more grateful to be doing what I love. Which leads me to Boice’s point in Chapter 13: Work with Balance. I feel like Boice already addressed this issue in several of his other areas: Stopping (CH 12), and working frequently but in moderation (CH 11). My personal writing style is to spend ages on pre-writing and drafting. This is just what works for my brain—I do a lot of free-write and outlining. But more importantly, I also think of the runs I take and the times that I walk my dog as a part of my writing process. For me this equates Boice’s suggestion to spend as much time writing as ‘meditating’. Getting out of the house, being outside and moving, pushing my body, is my form of meditation.

Boice suggests that one use this balance to keep a second writing project going. I love this idea, especially now when I am not taking any courses in my field and feel hungry to do my own work. I should reward myself with an hour or two a day to work on my own research (which is currently quarantined to Saturday morning coffee-time). This might make the other work that I must do for school feel less demanding, less tedious.

But how to make this work in my classroom? Can I have students do two projects at once? I guess I am having them do this, draft and write for their research paper, while also doing short writing on basic writing-skills throughout the semester. I wonder if my students feel balanced…..