Getting back on the bike

Some of you may know I'm on sabbatical leave from Sacramento State this spring. 

It's nice. Eligibility for sabbatical is an incredible job benefit.

There are, of course, expectations associated with the leave.

To earn this time, I had to propose a project. I proposed a series of papers on my work coordinating the writing assessment of juniors at Sac State. 

The project is progressing, but I'm learning (or relearning) a lot of not-so-obvious things about writing along the way.  

I'm getting close to finishing the first paper and that one feeds into the others. Overall I feel good about things. But it was not easy getting here. I'm working on these scholarly papers, and it took until last week for me to rediscover my flow - a.k.a. that focused mental state conducive to productivity described by the Hungarian-American scholar Csíkszentmihályi.

I think most of us know it's frustrating when you have a lot to say but have a hard time putting it into words. But I like writing. A lot. I've got that 'mediocre white guy confidence' that lets me enjoy reading my own words back to myself (see 15 years of self-indulgent blogging). 

The thing is, writing scholarship requires a lot of different types of mental activity to sync up. And I was out of practice. 

Which is hard to imagine when you think about what I do. I teach writing and 'how-to-teach-writing.' But that work is not the same as writing scholarship. 

Don't get me wrong. I really like my job. Working at a comprehensive regional university is aligned with my life goals and ethics. But that kind of setting asks me to do a lot of teaching and administrative service. I plan classes, assess student work, advise students, chair some meetings, attend other meetings, and coordinate a large-scale assessment program. 

There isn't much time for scholarly writing. And that shit ain't like riding a bike. I couldn't just hop back on and get back at it. I had to rediscover a lot.

It's a good reminder of what I'm asking my students to do (especially the grad students). It's also an excellent argument for sabbatical leave and protected writing time... and, yes, it probably also a good argument for being disciplined about my scholarly writing goals even when things are busy.