What to Say, and the Curse of the Working Man

I no longer understand how people manage to blog every day. I actually never did blog 'every' day, but I used to get a post up every 2 days at least, and then every 3. Now the days sweep past and I seem to have less to say and less time to say it in. One reason is that I'm trying to get back to the science book on Charles Darwin that I started several years ago. The book is over 2/3 rds done but every time I get ready to make the final push some major issue or a host of minor issues arise. I even got some release time this semester to work on it, but as soon as the world found out I had the release time it began dumping stuff in my lap. And there's also the matter of revision. Science doesn't stand still and in the couple of years I've been away from the book some major changes have occurred in scientific thinking on evolution. I'm finding that the chapters I thought were "done," are not done. All my facts need checking to make sure they are indeed still accepted. That has slowed my progress considerably.

I generally find nonfiction easier to write than fiction, but I'm starting to realize that this may be true only for short works. A short, nonfiction essay or article can be completed fairly quickly and sent off for publication before the world changes out from under it. But a long nonfiction work, a book, creates its own set of problems, particularly in a rapidly changing field such as science.

Despite the fact that I'm carrying a cold with me everywhere I go, I actually made a lot of progress on the book this week because I literally stayed home from school for 2 days, shut off my phones, and largely stopped checking my email. But when I got in this morning I found that the work I'd skipped had caught up with me. I even came in an hour early this morning for just that purpose, and I made a dent but not much more. At least part of my weekend will be dedicated to finishing up the stuff I let slide this week so I could write. In other words, I didn't really gain much of anything.

If this post seems to ramble, that's because I had no idea what I was going to say when I started typing. I just noticed that I'd not posted since Friday and it seemed like I ought to get something up. Maybe I should have just let it slide another day, or three.

OK, I'll shut up now. Doesn't seem I have much to say.
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