Friday, December 3, 2010

Proposed Process: How I'll Renew and Finish my Rhetoric Thesis Day-by-Day

1. Follow Gilles Deleuze's advice to help Felix Guattari overcome frantic activity and writer's block: send out a draft or diagram of all your ideas without any secondary revision or organization at the end of every single day, no matter what. (if you're interested in the conditions of their collaboration, check them out @ http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14560-2/gilles-deleuze-and-flix-guattari.


2. Ask smart people besides your advisor to read over your work and help you sort your ideas in the best way possible--consider Jon, Ben, David, or others, in addition to your advisors and other professors that know you.


3. Always put your priority on research concerning as directly as possible your chosen topic before moving on to anything like psychoanalysis or pleasure reading.


4. Keep strict hours and take breaks, yo. Five to eight hours of work means 25-60 minute total break-time.


5. "Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer." -W. Burroughs
     In other words, you can only force things so much before you wear yourself out and lose the receptive capacities    vital to careful observation and creative thought.


6. Think about using voice recordings or video, particularly when you have thoughts but no notebooks--only your phone.

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