Category: writing
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2014
The year of big, scary life changes. The year in which my husband is likely to retire and in which I need to become the main breadwinner for the family. The year in which, 20 years after starting at the University of Manchester the first time round, I should earn the title of doctor. So…
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Christmas 2013
I’ve been rather unpredictable in my blog posts lately, mainly because I used to write them on Friday evenings as a review of what I’d done during the ‘normal working week’ (Show me a scholar who works a normal working week? No? No, me neither…), but since the summer the whole family has been going…
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Seminars and an article
An interesting week. I’ve spent most of it smoothing out the wrinkles in my epitaph ballad article. I think it’s nearly ready to go, which is quite pleasing. The process of refinement is interesting and one that I really quite enjoy, as it brings out the pedant in me. I’ve spent most of the week…
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Back on track?
You may have noticed that I didn’t post a blog last week. This was mainly down to the tremendous amount of stress I was under – several problems, nothing to do with my PhD and way beyond the scope of this blog, came together to make last week the week from hell. What few attempts…
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The Way Through the Woods
Yesterday I met my supervisors to Discuss the Chapter. I took a list of questions and comments, a piece of work on some manuscript miscellanies that I’ve been studying and some examples of ballads that fitted some of the categories I’d been working on. Between us, I think we’ve managed to find an approach that…
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The Bog – Part 2
You may have noticed that there wasn’t a blog post on Friday evening. Nor was there one the Friday before. There reason was that I didn’t feel like it; I didn’t want to acknowledge in public that I’m still stuck in the bog, probably waist rather than ankle-deep now. In fact, if truth be told,…
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The bog.
I’m stuck in a bog. Or at least, that’s how my work feels. It went overnight from ideas coming out of my ears to being trapped in icky-sticky mud that won’t release its grip on my feet and let me move. I’m not sure how it happened. One day everything was chugging along as normal…
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More planning
I’ve spent most of this week writing my common weal chapter and despite my misgivings about how much I would get for it, I’ve actually written about 4200 words. Last Sunday I spent the afternoon at my kitchen table, cutting 4 different versions of the same ballad into little pieces and sticking them back together…
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The Common Weal
This is the first time since I started back at work that I’ve really felt like I’m back at work. I’ve begun work on my fifth chapter, ballads and the common weal. But it’s been a funny sort of week. I spent Monday with my head stuck in my source material, trying to find the…
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Summer goals: the final score
The results of my summer goals: • Definition of ‘ballad’ for introduction. I’m part way through this, although it needs a LOT more work. I’m discussing it with friends that I met at the Psalm Culture conference in London in July and I’ve given it a lot of thought, but so far, there’s only a…
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