Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Writing: the Boring and the Fun

In the paper I'm currently writing on insect farming, there are three main sections: how things have been done in the past, how they are done currently, and how they might be done in the future. I've spent most of the past two weeks slowly writing the first two sections and spent the past two days, the most productive I've had in a while, writing the last one, which ended up being longer than both the others.

Why were the first parts more of a drag to write? It was, in large part, reporting what is already known. The facts themselves are interesting and I would happily have a boring discussion explaining them to someone, but putting the facts into a coherent essay structure is not as exciting. Almost every sentence needs a source or two, so there's a lot of tabbing between what I'm writing and what I'm reading, which really slows things down.

Why was the last part more fun to write? I do enjoy thinking of possibilities, and it's also quite likely that the future of insect farming will be larger than the past of insect farming. In addition, I get to write more of my own thoughts as long as I use enough qualifiers and conditionals. In many ways, it's the part that feels most original, and for better or worse, being original is the real battle in these circles.

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