Zip File Zipped! Could this be it?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Well, folks, I have a preface, revised introduction, seven revised chapters and a revised conclusion … all in a zip file. I finished my revised book manuscript last night, ready to go off this morning. And it feels – Strange. I wondered if I’d feel triumphant when I clicked ‘Send’. But, at the moment, it’s cautious relief with a side of exhaustion. Let’s put the kettle on.

I did my PhD part-time, in my spare time, between 2004-09. Then there was more spare-time work turning it into a monograph, published in 2013.

From 2012-15, I was part-time RA to a major AHRC grant (but still 80% a librarian), and then – there’s a common thread here – I was awarded an AHRC networking grant (which I did part-time) on a different topic, before my hybridity changed to 85% librarian as I started research for this, my second monograph. The initial draft was submitted last summer, a decade after the first book was published.

It was with some envy that I read about an academic starting their research leave this year. I’m sure it’s well-deserved. I’m just wistful, because, apart from being allowed a month for writing up my PhD (yes, I know – we all know – it took much longer than that!), I’ve basically taken annual leave whenever I needed it. That’s what happens when you are more of a librarian than a researcher.

Apart from a brief visit home last summer, I didn’t take a proper break, because I was writing. I only took a week’s pause for Christmas, before jumping back into book revisions. It’s not surprising I’m knackered.

I can’t pretend I’m a full-time academic. I cannot, and should not, compare myself with people in a fully academic role. I’m mostly a librarian – admittedly, an academic librarian – but I’ve been a research fellow (part-time plus some annual leave), and I’ve just finished writing a second scholarly monograph (ditto). Given the time constraints, and the fact that I can’t be researching or writing when I’m being a librarian, I’m modestly proud of that.

Never Mind the Partridge …

Exhausted but provisionally exhilarated … it’s the Twelfth Day of Christmas. After the obligatory drummers drumming, etc, etc, never mind the partridge! 

Greetings card showing partridge in a pear tree
Partridge in a Pear Tree (greetings card from Motor Neurone Association, image courtesy of Advocate Art)

And a book, with best wishes, from me.

Cover Image by Circe Denyer from Pixabay

Killing Your Darlings

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It’s an expression known by novelists. But it might be applicable to this musicologist too, over the next fortnight!

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-kill-your-darlings

I do have a first draft of my second book, it’s true. But it’s a bit too long, and I am sure it can be tightened up. So, I’ve devised a formula. I need to lose 11%, and I’ll try to apply that across the whole manuscript. I’ve tried it on the introduction, and it worked a treat. Start with a word count, reduce every thousand words by 11%. But that’s just a small part of a much longer thing!

I’ve taken the next fortnight off as annual leave. It won’t be a holiday! Ideally, I’d like to do this in under a fortnight, to allow time for any extra fact-checking or writing. I really need to work out how much I need to get through per day, too, if I want that writing time. This morning, I reduced approximately 6.5k words to 5.8k, which is not enough to allow for the bibliography required at the end of each chapter.

It probably sounds very formulaic. But I timetabled the writing of my PhD, and the revision of my first monograph. It works for me! So … watch this space.

The official deadline is the end of July 2023. Luckily, my editor is quite forgiving!

MONDAY. Introduction done. Chapter 1 done. Chapter 2? Getting there. And there I had to stop. Tomorrow is another day!