I hadn't posted in a few, so thought I'd check in.
Sometimes writing comes really easy for me. The little "Short Guide" stuff I've done is stuff I've been mulling over and teaching for years. It flows all too easily.
Not so when I'm trying to write a scholarly article. I'm trying to squeeze one in before the semester begins. To start with, I have all these little thoughts from going through the biblical text in so many different contexts. But what I'm bad at is reading. I'm a horrible reader.
So I get my idea, "Hey, I ought to try to write an article on that sometime." Then I begin to write. As I write, I begin to make my way into the commentaries or any other relevant books I might have in my library, the IWU library, or David Smith's library. This process is usually both encouraging and depressing.
It is usually encouraging because I realize that inevitably, a lot of the possibilities I've thought of are the thoughts of more reputable scholars as well. I it usually discouraging because a) I find out someone who published in 1928 had my idea and b) there are a 1000 other ways to look at the subject that I didn't think of. Finally, I then reach the limits of IWU's library and must either drive to Notre Dame or begin doing interlibrary loans.
These obstacles are often enough to stop the project right there. It takes great will power to follow through with a publication, especially with a library like IWU's. You can't write doctoral level work on the basis of IWU's library. Our library just isn't designed to support that level of research--who would use the German and French books necessary, not to mention the obscure journal articles from, yes, 1928?
Then there are the rewrites. Some of the things on my web page basically came out with very little need for substantial changes.
Not so with any article I've written (or dissertation or slightly more scholarly book). I inevitably get caught up learning all the things I didn't know when I started the article. About 6 pages later I realize that I'm off task and that I need to go back and only allude in the barest way to what I've been writing.
So Angie comes up to me just now and asks how it's going and why I'm blogging instead of grading Asbury or working on the article. The reason? Because I've just moved those 6 pages to a miscellaneous scrap document of all the things that I've cut out of the article, realizing I have to go back and rewrite the section I'd been working on. And beside all that, I'm wondering whether my opening thesis is really all that great anyway.
Hats off to all the James Dunns and Richard Hayses of the biblical studies world. I can't imagine it's this much work for them to crank it out! They write articles like I think of novel titles. :)
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6 comments:
on the top of a syllabus for one of my writing classes at IWU was a Hemingway quotation which said: "We are all apprentices in a craft that has no masters." or something like that. i think that's true, and it's more comforting that someone like Hemingway said it. or rather, wrote it.
keep writing, Dr. Schenck. the end result i'm sure will be well worth it.
If it makes you feel better, Richard Hays is probably only able to do what he does because he has an office the size of the entire IWU religion department which allows him to have three desks, plush leather chairs, a long table with matching chairs, and enough shelves to hold every substantial book published on the NT (even those from 1928!) So, when IWU builds larger offices, you'll no doubt be on your way to easy street when it comes to publishing.
Hey Blake! How's Nashville? I'd probably be a better writer if I read more Hemingway in the first place.
Kevin, Dunn's office was small and cozy, but he had several rows of bookshelves with minimal room between them, kind of like a little library in itself. Then there were all these boxes of complimentary books on the floor... sometimes he would give you an extra one if he'd already bought one. I'm sure my Philo book is sitting on some floor somewhere...
But one thing I think you'll find about Duke is that it's incredibly easier to remember who said what in relation to whom... when these people are wandering through your halls on sabbatical or giving guest lectures or coming in for a conference. I always gave myself a small consolation in how Dunn remembered all these discussions--he'd participated in them all.
Heck, I have this problem too...although mine is more related to finding something substantial to say on my blog. Therefore, my hat is still off to you. But that's just my opinion, feel free to disagree. :)
As much as I love IWU, I just could not agree more with your comment on the library. Inter library book loan is amazing...when it works...and when it comes in on time. But it is such a hassle. Circleville Bible College's library tears ours apart. Their theology and Bible sections are four times as large as ours (which I suppose is to be expected seeing as how it is a Bible College, but come on, we're the mighty WU!). Not that I plan writing a scholarly article on the level o' schenck, but it would be nice to have a better selection to throw in my bibliographies at the end of a slopped together essay in order to sound smarter.
That's interesting. I've never been to Circleville but would have thought our library would be bigger since we're bigger. That's a little embarrassing.
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