Re: Staring into space

[Wally Glassett <wallyg1 -at- PACBELL -dot- NET>]

Me, too. Or, as one of my physics professors once told the class, "You
should never put pencil to paper until you know the answer." Of course, that
was in the pre-historic days when almost all work was done with pencil and
paper - before MTSTs and WYLBUR, and that dates me!...

Wally Glassett

>
> What a great subject, Kevin!
>
> Yes, I too stare into space. Fortunately, I have a great manager
> who doesn't
> mind this as long as I meet the deadlines. She understands that different
> people work in different ways. I tend to do a combination of the
> two styles you
> talked about.
>
> I spend a good deal of the time at the beginning of a project
> designing the
> structure (outlines, visual maps, lists, whatever) while getting
> the basics of the
> software down. During this design stage, I do a good deal of
> staring into space.
> I have to think about the project and visualize it. (Heck, I even
> dream about the
> darn things, sometimes!) When the design is finished, I do some
> more futzing
> with the software and talking to the experts before writing a draft.
>
> Then comes some heavy-duty staring into space and maybe working on un-
> related stuff. The unrelated stuff gives me distance from the
> draft and allows me
> to edit that much better when I go back to it with my team's
> comments. This
> process repeats itself as many times as I have time for, depending on
> deadlines. The more times I go through the cycle (up to a point), the more
> layers and details I can add to the material. I usually need two
> cycles to have
> some good materials.
>
> I have not worked as a contractor, so I don't know how this may
> work differently
> in their situations. But, this technique works for me whether I'm
> writing papers
> for school or doing creative writing. I'd love to hear what works
> for others.
>
> Joy Prescott
> joyp -at- carecomputer -dot- com


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