I'm stuck in an exhaustion spiral. My non-dissertation chores all seem to have caught up to me in the past few days. They eat into my writing hours and into my sleeping hours. I cook and bake and clean, I make travel and lodging arrangements for various conferences, I track our finances to the penny, I apply for jobs, I tutor. I don't write much or sleep much. This takes its toll: I get more withdrawn, when I don't get to write. And lack of sleep leads to illness. I currently seem to be battling a case of thrush, and let me tell you: NOT FUN.

But what can I do? These other tasks simply must get done--and it isn't as if my husband isn't also dipping into his own sleep and research time to get a bunch of other tasks done--or to help me with mine. We'll get past this.

And, hey, I did get some writing done today. Let's see...206 words. Not much, but I had to spend some time researching some related historical details.

Also, I tried out some anti-fungal cream on the thrush. Pro: it has greatly improved the symptoms. Con: it gave me a rash. I'm still in no hurry to visit the student health offices on campus, though. Their job seems to be providing substandard care at a pace that even a snail gets impatient with. I do not have three hours to wait around in their offices, only to be given treatments or tests that are ineffective/inconclusive, expensive, or both. Their special trick is to order tests which require one to wait upwards of five hours for some technician to become available, which don't reveal anything pertinent, and which, although partially covered by my (crappy) student insurance, invariably results in a bill of a couple hundred dollars. (And I get anxious at having to spend an unexpected $10, right now.)

They also specialize in wrong diagnoses and protracted insurance feuds. My husband caught both in one go, when some incompetent practitioner diagnosed him with asthma and sent him home with an inhaler. He returned a few days later to express that the inhaler did nothing for his symptoms. She proceeded to discourse on how "people with his type of asthma" ought to care for themselves. He demanded at this point that she actually send him to be tested for asthma, which she vigorously refused for some time to do. (Oh, yes! Pointless tests are always OK, as when they insisted I have my gall bladder ultrasounded after I showed up for treatment for a flare-up of my bursitis, a known and pre-existing condition. That was an all-day affair, too. People, I have had bursitis for damned near ten years! I know what it feels like when my bursa gets inflammed! Oh, but gods forbid you want any of their off-the-cuff diagnoses to be backed up by evidence.) The test, which she eventually and huffily agreed my husband could have--oh, you know where this is going--revealed not a trace of asthma. The real kicker? A few months later my husband was billed for the full cost of the asthma test, and had to go several rounds with the insurance company and the health center to get them to admit that one of their doctors had, in fact, ordered the test, albeit at the patient's insistence. (Insistence that should never have been necessary in the first place.)

No, I don't run right over to those people when I get ill. I wait and see, rest and hydrate and try out a home remedy or two first. Seriously, can you blame me?

But here I am bitching, when I really and truly sat down with something positive to say today. You see, recently someone asked me what the worst piece of advice about writing was that I had ever received. I wasn't really sure what to say, because it seems to me that just about every piece of writing advice has been useful at one time or another. As one of my advisors puts it, sometimes more really is more. In no particular order, here is some advice about writing:

Write! Write something, anything. But write!

Don't write. Take a break from writing for a set period of time, maybe a day or week.

Try writing a few pages of your draft on paper, instead of on a computer.

Freewrite. Put down whatever comes into your head, for 15 or 20 minutes, to help you loosen up.

Keep a blog. You can track your progress!

Don't keep a blog. It will sap your writing energy!

Never delete anything you write.

Have a great purge and delete stuff that just isn't working.

Keep one eye on the main points of your current passage and your chapter/paper over all. Even write them down on a notecard you keep next to you.

Outline carefully and thoroughly in advance.

Begin right in with your writing, and only outline a little as you go, if you need to.

Write first thing in the morning, when you are at your freshest and most creative.

If you get stuck, use the time to work on other, related tasks, like research and bibliography-building.

Don't let your work on related tasks turn into a means of indefinite procrastination!

Carry a notebook with you at all times, to jot down your ideas. Otherwise you may forget them.

Talk aloud while you write, to keep yourself focused and lively.

Write in a private, quiet place, to avoid distraction.

Write where other people are writing. That way, if you are tempted to procrastinate, you'll know other people will see it. Harness the power of shame!

Write in a noisy place, like a cafe. With so much background buzz, you will not notice your neighbor with the stuffy nose or the sound of other people tapping on their keyboards.

Listen to music. Let its rhythms push you forward or move you to deeper contemplation.

Don't listen to music. It will distract and unfocus you.

Don't try to sound smart; that will result in you sounding weird, instead. Just focus on the concrete details of your argument.

Prize clarity above any other rhetorical value.

Drink lots of tea.

Avoid caffeine; it will make you jittery.

Write! Write first and write last. Always be writing. Write!