I am in the second week of my second sabbatical, and I find myself beset by sabbatical anxiety. Ideally, I would be using the sabbatical to write a highly theoretical, paradigm-shifting monograph, an extended discourse pulling together the various strands of my previous scholarly works into one coherent and compelling whole. But that’s not how I roll, I guess. Instead, I’ve got five projects going, and several of them promise to be largely doctrinal. I worry that this is a “waste” of my sabbatical. After all, shouldn’t a sabbatical be used to think great thoughts or to try something new and different rather than to pursue business as usual? I even thought about postponing my sabbatical until the Muse spoke to me about what highly theoretical monograph I should write, but I felt very acutely the need for a break to re-invigorate my classroom performance.
My sabbatical anxiety is tied to a more global anxiety about the scholarly process. No matter how experienced I’ve become in this business, I still imagine that all you other scholars are out there cranking out page after page of brilliant thoughts in an assembly-line-like fashion. It is at times like this that I have to remind myself that not only is scholarship personal, but so is the process of producing it. I have known one and only one colleague and co-author who appeared to be able to come up with an idea, make a detailed outline of an article, and then simply follow that outline in writing the article. He is so brilliant and so efficient that I’ve often envied the process he uses to produce scholarship. But I will NEVER be able to follow that process. My process looks more like the following. Come up with an idea. Question whether it is a good idea or not. Talk to a few close colleagues about it. Agonize. Read the cases and the scholaship in the area. Agonize some more. Write the introduction to the article. Then re-write it roughly ten times until I’m sure what I want to say. Write the rest of the article, at every increasing speeds and with ever increasing fluidity. The last ten pages will be written at breakneck speed, and they will probably be the best ten pages of the article. By the time the draft is finished, it isn’t really a draft, except for the introduction, which now has to be re-written. This process is not efficient, but (as I’m trying to remind myself as I embark on this sabbatical) it has served me well for 15 years, and it is probably too late to change it now.
I am sure that some of the readers of this post won’t be able to relate. But for those who can, perhaps it helps to know that you’re not the only scholar out there whose creative process isn’t efficient. Regardless, I’d appreciate any sabbatical tips and tricks you have to offer.
Posted by Lyrissa Lidsky on January 19, 2010 at 10:58 PM
Comments
Hi, what helps me is a daily routine i stick to and not to put too much pressure on myself. When you have a routine (only a few things you do every morning) its way more easy to be concentrated on your next step. Than you do yout thing for maybe two or three hours without any disturbance. Just focus on ONE thing at a time, than the next. Make a list, what is important and what can wait and collect all the small things and do them together.
Posted by: Daniel | May 20, 2015 6:43:59 AM
My immediate, internal reaction to this post tells you all you need to know about both my process (used generously) for writing articles and my anxiety over it. Here it is, in its entirety:
“OUTLINE?!!”
Posted by: Mark Edwards | Jan 26, 2010 12:32:16 AM
Dave — after you finish the article, do you then start working on the outline? 😉
Posted by: andy | Jan 20, 2010 11:46:44 PM
I usually write the body of the article. Then the conclusion, which is easy. Only then do I turn to the beginning, which is the hard part, and easier to write after the body has come together. At that point I can worry about the title….
Posted by: Dave Hardy | Jan 20, 2010 10:41:49 PM
Write a chapter or two for an open access casebook project – eLangdell Ecasebook Stimulus Project sponsored by CALI. Here’s the link with the info… http://www.cali.org/content/elangdell
With your help, CALI is stimulating the creation of an open repository of high-quality ebooks for teaching the law. And we’re offering a $500 stipend per chapter when you write and contribute casebook chapters to the project.
Posted by: John Mayer | Jan 20, 2010 10:00:14 PM
Reading these comments makes me wonder, what exactly is the purpose of a sabbatical if not to delve more deeply into a single, sustained scholarly project? I’m sure that folks in many jobs would love six months off from their primary responsibility in order to learn a new language or get to know the various constituents in their place of employment better. Of course, with summers off and only three (or four) courses per year, law profs already have time to delve deeply into a single, sustained scholarly project. So can we still justify making our students take on more debt in order to let us take entire semesters (or years) off from teaching?
Posted by: rob vischer | Jan 20, 2010 11:18:10 AM
I’m not an authority on this matter since somehow in doing this academic thing since 1997 I haven’t yet had a sabbatical (long story), but I’ll offer up something along the lines of what Rick Bales said – you might want to consider this time for learning and developing new skill sets. I have no idea what those skill sets might be for any given individual, but it (a sabbatical) can be a good time for making an effort to push your comfort zone and think outside of the box. This might entail learning a new language or studying your doctrinal field from a comparative perspective, or it might be learning computer applications that would aid your practice area – I don’t know – but I think that something like this may have more long term benefits than writing another article or two.
Posted by: Jeff Yates | Jan 20, 2010 8:51:56 AM
There are lots of effective ways to use a sabbatical. When I took one a few years ago, one of my goals was, yes, to write another article. But another goal was to do things around the law school that I had always wanted to do but never had time for — creating programs, meeting alums, learning more about law school administration, working with student groups. Those projects ended up being far more important for my long-term professional development than a single article.
Posted by: Rick Bales | Jan 20, 2010 8:11:18 AM
Your process sounds a lot like mine, except I would add: “After 200 hours of research and 50 hours of writing, conclude that the topic is dumb and that the paper will be a pathetic contribution to the literature. Two days of reflection and 1 bottle of Jack Daniels later, decide that the project is worth pursuing and march on with renewed vigor. Repeat cycle of despair–> reflection–> Jack Daniels approximately every 3 weeks until draft is ready for submission.”
Posted by: andy | Jan 20, 2010 3:37:19 AM
When I saw the headline I thought this post was going to be about how you finished all your writing projects over winter break and now were set for a few months of skiing followed by a trip to Europe. I have to admit I’m disappointed by the reality of it all.
Posted by: Matt | Jan 19, 2010 11:28:13 PM
I’m afraid I can’t help you. My primary accomplishment during my sabbatical last spring was watching all five seasons of LOST.
Posted by: Orin Kerr | Jan 19, 2010 11:13:01 PM