Must be Tuesday

[lunabee34]

1.

When a Writer Can't Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing Problems by Mike Rose

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a compilation of essays from the 8os that includes the usual suspects I've been encountering in my research into writing anxiety (such as Boice, Daly, Larson, etc). The essays are moderately interesting but nothing I'd urge someone who wasn't researching this topic to seek out. Boice's essay is probably the most interesting to me; he's a psychologist, and he talks about psychotherapies that he uses in his practice to treat blocked writers. He has them conduct automatic writing (which is more hardcore than just freewriting; it's in the spiritualist and Surrealist vein where they aren't looking at the paper they're writing on and they're being distracted by being read to so that everything they're writing is supposedly coming directly from the subconscious). I also liked the essays that have sample student essays and specific interventions that instructors used to help those students.



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2. I'm really looking forward to Yuletide. It's one of the only times of the year that I truly feel like a fan again.

3. Y'all, I am so exhausted. All the time. It sucks so hard. I'm going to bed at 8:45, 9:30 and waking up exhausted and staying exhausted all day. About 2 every day, I could just fall out and sleep until the next morning. I just went to my endo, so clearly there's Nothing Wrong with Me. It's just sapping my motivation to do anything. I'm still exercising every day, but it is so hard to make myself. Ditto work. *sigh*

4. Emma's sink is now leaking. Plumber coming today. At this rate, we'll have had to repair every damn sink in this house by Christmas. I'm fully expecting the AC to go next week followed by the eruption of a sinkhole in the living room floor.

5. Josh got a new phone, and Emma got her first phone this past weekend. Damn, have phones gotten expensive since the last time we bought them. Sheesh at the price gouging. I'm intending to keep my current phone until it is a brick. Dang.

Comments

[zulu]

Ooh, that book sounds interesting - what sort of instructor interventions?

[lunabee34]

I wrote this up a bit ago and can't remember much. A lot of it was metacognition stuff--let's think about your process and why you are doing each step, etc. One essay talked about modeling writing, basically sitting down and showing the student step by step how to write an essay (my husband does this all the time in his remedial classes, but with the class as a whole; they brainstorm together and come up with a thesis together and outline together and etc., and he's typing it all up on the projector while they're talking).

[zulu]

Sounds good. I'm going to be teaching a non-majors class in the winter so I'm trying to gather some 'how to teach writing an essay' tips in advance.

[lunabee34]

I just posted about Peter Elbow's 70s classic, Writing without Teachers, which is a must-read if you have not.

I think Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones would be useful as well.

If you want to talk about strategies I use for teaching essays I'd be happy to do that or make a post about it inviting others to join in, too. And I'd love to hear what you do as well. I think I learn best from talking about teaching with my colleagues.

[zulu]

That would be terrific! I don't think I do anything extraordinary but I'm trying to improve. I'm definitely going to check out that book, thanks.

[lunabee34]

Sweet!

I'll make the post.

[china_shop]

I just went to my endo, so clearly there's Nothing Wrong with Me.

I dunno, that really doesn't sound like normal levels of tired. Maybe it's not something endo-related?

*hugs and hugs and hugs*

[lunabee34]

It doesn't feel like normal levels of tired. I feel pretty miserable. But I'm also tired of going to the doctor and paying them money for them to be like whatever. Can't find nothing wrong here. Blergh.

[spikedluv]

Damn sinks!

Good luck figuring out what's making you so tired.

Phones are hella expensive! I think they've always been this expensive, they just hid it better before. We were paying for it, we just didn't know it. Good luck keeping yours. I know Apple (and I wouldn't put it past Verizon) does things to actually slow your phone down (and kill your battery) so you are forced to buy new ones. They suck donkey balls.

[lunabee34]

I refuse to get an apple anything.

Mine is an LG, and I really like it. The battery drains more quickly than I would like, but that's mostly not a problem.

*crosses fingers*

[wendelah1]

Maybe you haven't anything wrong with your endocrine system but that doesn't make it normal. There are other problems that can cause extreme fatigue.

We bought new phones when we switched from Verizon to Project Fi. The new service is so much cheaper that it paid for the phones in six months. The phones are fine, and we usually get money back each month because we don't use all of our minutes. We are not heavy users.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

I know you are right, and if this continues much longer, I will go back to the doctor. I just know they won't find anything, and it'll be a waste of my time and money and I'll still feel shitty. I am so disillusioned. :(

[slightweasel]

House repairs are the worst, so...sympathies. <3

[lunabee34]

We tried a new plumber. He came out and fixed it in like ten minutes and didn't charge us anything. So even if he didn't really fix it, we're not out anything. LOL Score!

[timespirt]

"HUGS"

I feel like that all the time too. My doctor told me he doesn't do tired.

[lunabee34]

Well, fuck him very much.

I just *hands in the air*.

I don't know what else there really is to check, but I definitely feel more tired than usual, I am going to bed early, and I don't get it.

I want a tricorder like yesterday.

[timespirt]

I second on the tricorder or an Ancient scanner machine!

[kore]

I feel like that all the time too (plus have to take naps), consensus is vitamin deficiency, anemia, sleep apnea. "Solution" was "take supplements" (no fucking thank you) "and really focus on losing weight!" SIGH.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

It really sucks.

Taking a nap makes it even worse for me no matter how good it feels at the time.

And I have such good sleep hygiene (except for screens). Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[archersangel]

about #3: hope you can figure out what is going on & fix or at least help it to be a bit better. it just occurred to me that it could be a sleep-disorder. if i recall, if you don't get into that "deep sleep" you can wake up feeling tired.

about #4; the joys of home owner-ship, eh?

[lunabee34]

I do think my sleep plays a role. I have insomnia and I wake up a lot in the night. But nothing about that has changed; in fact, I'm probably sleeping a little more lately than I have been. IDK So frustrating. :(