The year-long process of writing a paper includes:
- reading hundreds of literature
- crummy first drafts
- ideas that never made the final cut (but at least now I know what to exclude)
- learning new tools (because using the right tools make the job manageable)
- unquiet showers (because I keep thinking about perspectives I might have missed in my paper)
- headaches (because learning new things physically hurts my brain)
- self-doubt
- denial
- quiet moments where I question everything
- overthinking
- rearranging ideas until they sound better when read aloud
- editing, ruthless editing
- blank pages
- entertaining distractions
- flow
🌿
I have reached a point where I no longer know if what I do makes sense. However, my believing friends and family convinced me that it did and helped me get out of my black hole.
So here I am now at the other side of the slog, the bliss after the flow. Because finally, after working drip by drip (which I sometimes think would never end), I’ve almost reached the shore of where I am supposed to be: a finished draft.
Finished drafts are the beginning of the end. I know because I’ve been here before. So if you think I am celebrating too early, there’s no bubble to burst.