Day 1—Monday
Every dissertation-writing-process has to have a moment in which things go really, spectacularly wrong, right? In my case that happened yesterday morning, when my laptop decided that it had come to the end of its natural life. With no prior warning, I had a very expensive paperweight instead of a functioning computer.
Luckily I had the vast majority of my files backed up to the cloud and I think I have an even money chance of retrieving what’s on my old hard drive, but let me be your Ghost of Christmas Future reminder of the importance of always, always backing up your files. Possibly in multiple places.
Since I’m still feeling a little scatter-brained thanks to all of this, and I’m still feeling my way around this new computer, I’m going to set myself a very easy word goal for today—just as a reminder to myself that progress is possible!
Session Goal: 250 words. 400 words—disjointed and added in here and there, but words on the page nonetheless!
Day 2—Wednesday
I’ve ordered a hard drive enclosure which should arrive today and will let me know if it’s possible to pull the hard drive from my old laptop and pull my photos off it—there was nothing in my iPhoto files relevant to my dissertation, but there are some photos of my grandparents which I would very much like to recover.
And while I’m waiting for that to get here, it’s time to get this morning’s session underway. I’m going to be doing some more writing about issues of space and the Premonstratensian women, but this time focusing on them inside a given monastery rather than their houses’ presence on the landscape.
Session Goal: 400 words. 455 words.
Day 3—Friday
Operation Hard Drive resurrection was a success! Let’s hope this morning’s writing session will prove likewise. Or at least, will do so now that we’ve kicked out our unwanted cockroach visitor. That was my first time seeing one of them in person, and they’re every bit as disgusting as they’re made out to be.
- Read Chibnall chapter.
- Finish translating Lefèvre.
- Work through Floreffe necrology.
- Email proposal and accompanying schedule.
Session Word Goal: 250 words. 269 words.
End-of-week total: 1124 words.