Date:         Sat, 7 Mar 1998 11:19:10 EST
From: how sharp the guillotine <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [WRITERS] TECH: Desperation time!

At 07:57 AM 3/5/98 -0500, Faith wrote:
:)
:) What do you do when it's the day before you were supposed to have written
:) something (*anything*), and you still haven't written a word?
:)

Somewhat too late to solve this time, but perhaps these will help:

"quick" organizers:

1.  Try taking the question or problem apart.  Then put it back
together, along with some information.  Often this will be enough to
do the job.

2.  Take whatever information you may have about the answer or
response, and build an answer based on the natural "partitions" or
"areas" of the information.  I.e., there is some kind of structure to
the information--talk about that structure.  Put it into a nice,
easily remembered metaphor/analogy.  Point out the areas that aren't
included, or the ones that haven't been as thoroughly explored as
others.

3.  Tell 'em what you are going to tell them, tell it to 'em, then
tell 'em what you told them.  I often write the middle (in chunks,
without much attention to order, with a computer).  Then write an
intro: I'm going to talk about 1, 2, 3... Arrange the points to make
sense, then rearrange the middle blocks (and remove the extra pieces
that usually collect when freewriting--I find it marginally easier to
cut those golden phrases that really don't belong in this piece if I
put them in a "bits" file for later use.  Of course, I have "bits"
files everywhere that will never be used, but the mental trick works).
Now, write a closing that explains the important point(s) you have
just made.

4.  Try building a set of relations.  E.g., what does this (whatever
the topic or problem is) mean for me, my family, my community, my
nation, the world?  Or what did it mean in the past, mean now, and
will it mean in the future?  This can be a very nice way to structure
your response...

5.  Build a set of questions about the topic, problem, etc.  What
would you like to know about it?  What would your friends like to know
about it?  How about your reader(s)--what should they know about it?
What's interesting about it?  What's boring?

"been there, done that, don't want to keep doing it":

6.  Learn the lesson and start planning ahead next time.  If you can
easily write 1,000 words a day, a 5,000 word paper will probably take
at least 10 days to write (allowing for the inevitable slippage,
interruptions, and other problems).  Depending on what else is going
on, you may want to start working on it even earlier, instead of
waiting for the last possible minute to begin.

Setting yourself little "deadlines" within the larger period may seem
silly, but it really does work--and builds some good skills/practices
for bigger jobs (*like that novel--200,000 words?  Say 100 days at
2,000 words per day, plus editing/rewrite time.  Work out the "little
deadlines" along the way and celebrate reaching them--and the "big
deadline" will be easy!*).

Perhaps others will contribute their "instant organizers" and ways to
avoid getting stuck in "deadline panics?"  Although, looking around
MIT, there is a certain fascination among the students with the
adrenaline rush of "last minute crises" (even when self-induced).

hope this helps
tink