I used to be one of those folks who would get up in the morning, make a cup of coffee, turn on the computer and start a blank Word document. Then I would sit there and stare at the blank Word document for an hour or two. A couple of hours later I would start taking notes on the computer, work through some thoughts on the computer and then every so often delete it all at the end of the day. This blank-canvass process didn't occur every day, not even once a week. Sometimes (luckily) I had papers that needed editing, sometimes I had a couple of good outlines and one or two sections of a paper. But then there was the done-with-old-projects-onto-new-ideas phase.
I was younger then, I had fewer responsibilities, no kids, only a limited amount of committee work, few refereeing responsibilities. I could afford wasting hours drinking coffee and looking at the blank screen. But it certainly was a time consuming process. Not counting the hours of staring at the blank screen, it took time to get the first ideas flowing, type them, delete them, type new ones, sometimes write, sometimes finish whole papers only to delete them again.
Then I grew older, had a kid, was advising more students and had a long list of administrative responsibilities. I no longer had hours to waste on coffee and aimless messing around with little, clever arguments on an otherwise blank piece of electronic paper. I asked a friend of mine who was in the habit of writing books in three weeks and papers overnight how he was able to do this and even get praise and prizes for the results. I thought he would have told me that it just came to him, that he was some kind of savant with supernatural abilities, but that wasn't his answer. "Well," he said, "I may write a book in three weeks or a paper overnight. But I don't work on my books for just three weeks or my papers for just 24 hours." "What do you do then?," I asked impatiently. Was he going to tell me about secret time machines that would set back the clock or worm holes that would allow you to disappear into the 17th dimension and come back out with a finished manuscript without any time having elapsed? No, there wasn't any magic, hocus pocus or extreme physics involved. "I work it all out in my head," he said. "I get an idea, think through the argument, counterexamples and objections. Sometimes I discard the idea because I realize that it doesn't work but every so often it expands into a paper or a book." I looked at him in disbelief. "So you work out whole papers and books in your head?" He took a deep breath. "Well, it's not like I have every word written in my head," he said, slightly annoyed. "I just have the main arguments worked out and replies to objections ... and then the writing really doesn't take that long."
I realized how much time I was wasting. It wasn't just the time spent with my jamocha in front of the computer. It was also all the hours of driving to and from work, sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's or doctor's office reading silly magazines, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, waiting for the rice to cook, tossing and turning in bed. All those hours wasted could have been spent working out my arguments, putting myself in the shoes of my opponents, trying out my ideas in front of my inner audience.
So I started working out things in my head. I don't write papers overnight and I don't write books in three weeks. But it certainly takes less time writing papers and books when many of the ideas have been tried and retried in hours of being stuck in traffic or tossing and turning in bed. I am not sure how I managed to write anything back in the days when I needed a computer even for notes that I might discard a couple of hours later.
I have an uncle who uses only pen and paper until the whole paper or book is a "done deal." I haven't experimented with that approach yet. I can see why he finds it appealing. There he is, sitting with his java, his pipe and his pen and paper. It used to be inside, now it's outside even in the winter (because of the pipe, of course). It looks like another great approach but not one I have time for right now. Maybe I will explore it when my daughter goes to college in 10+ years.
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