This is the first week in which I’ve fallen behind my completion schedule. It’s all the more strange given that the week which has just gone by, on first glance, would seem to have been the ideal stretch of time in which to plow ahead with the book project.
Why? Well, I’ve somewhat sophistically convinced myself that I can work on the book during strike days (for the strike and what it involves click here) as that will be working for myself rather than for my institution. Whether that’s a valid argument or not is another matter, but either way it should have meant that I had three clear days of book time earlier this week. On top of that, the “Beast fae the East” ensured that classes were cancelled on both Thursday and Friday, meaning two more days at home (in heavily snowed-in Doune – see the picture at the top of this post), which – even allowing for the need to mark student essays – ought to have helped matters along.
But I think in the end that a regular routine is more productive to writing than any number of more or less unexpected bonus days. Somehow I’ve managed to explore the Leighton Library, sort press furniture for our home press, clean a giant pile of brass rules for the same, write a paper which ended up being canceled by snow, and do pretty much everything conceivable this week except for actually moving forward with the book.
And so, I’m now about a week behind. With luck that will change next week: the strike is due to continue and I’ll be sitting at home with little else to do. But this time I’ll have to knuckle down and impose a routine on these otherwise all too slippery days of strike and snow . . . .
Copyright © 2018 Kelsey Jackson Williams
Kelsey Jackson Williams 
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