the chutry experiment

I found it hard too.
I think blogging has made me used to writing in disrete chunks, and I found it a real struggle to write more fluidly, joining up ideas and paragraphs. Bad habits learnt by blogging, perhaps...

I think one of my problems was that I was trying to write about blogs without having my internet browser running. For whatever reason just knowing that I could switch windows to look at blogs helped a lot.

I also think the "writer's block" comment represents a necessary stage in my essay writing process.

quick question that perhaps has a short answer:

does the gesture of declaring a "writer's block" externalize the "obstacle" and therefore serve as a motivating force?

can the gesture be reproduced in the flow of writing [i.e. using asides to self in the process of writing] and is such a possible reproduction an enactment of some polyphony?

all to say that a writer's block may not be about writing but about listening... creating a moment to give the writing self permission to pause and play with introspection, intuition, perceiving and thinking-feeling?

I'd certainly support the observation that identifying writer's block externalizes it. Implicitly, at least, that's my reason for even mentioning it. In fact, as the entry and my later comments imply, naming it also allowed me to identify *why* I wasn't writing and to reframe the way I was thinking about this paper.

I've been reading recently about writing as a method of qualitative inquiry - and wonder why weblog-style writing is not considered appropriate for academic work ...

My dissertation will use a "fragmented" approach - similar to Benjamin's Arcades Project and Latour's Aramis - and I just finished writing a conference paper that plays with narrative structure and more easily resembles a blog post than an academic piece ...

I've been thinking about how blogs function within the academic institution (especially given the work I've been doing on the paper), and I'd certainly like to see blogs receieve a bit more credit. Some of the best writing I've done has been within the blog and because of the format of the blog.

I'm also *very* intrigued that you'll be writing your dissertation in a fragmentary style. In grad school, one of the projects we did *was* a montage styled after Benjamin's Arcades Project. I didn't quite "get it right" at the time, but I think I could do something interesting with the form now.

Jason and KF had some really interesting posts about this issue (whether or not a weblog should be considered as publication or contribute towards tenure) a while back:

http://misc.wordherders.net/archives/000773.html

http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/po/archive/000139.php

Cool - and thanks for the links.

If I couldn't write the way I think I don't know what I'd do!

(And my first draft is promised for this time next year. Fingers crossed.)