One Step Closer

I like word searches.
I don't know why; there's no particular skill set needed to complete them (aside from basic literacy..but not really even that), but I find I have a knack for the thing.

Well, writing research papers, for me, is just like a really long (way more literate, hopefully) word search.
The word search is even in it.

Now, you've endured reading my complaints about that all-inclusive poetic list of every.single.notation of weather-related terms in Derek Mahon's poetry and also my long and instructive post about my theories about the most effective way to write a research paper.

Today, I actually completed one.
(and everybody said "AMEN!")

5 days, 1,000 words per day, and here we are, folks. Alive and well.

And, thank goodness, it turned out that that personal file of meteorological facts came so so much in handy.

I'm a little neurotic about writing papers.
And everything.

There has to be a method to it.
It doesn't have to be my method, but it has to be a method.
Preferably a my method...

It may be an ISTJ thing. 

a. I make a Quotes Page
b. (particular to this paper) I had my weather notes
c. "The Draft"
d. a clean, unsaved, new document which acts as the "under construction" page.
e. Later, there is a "final" page.

Nothing is to be written on the actual drafts page. I try sometimes. Then my mind just gets cluttered and overwhelmed with how much crap is going on.

Section at a time.

I write a section, pulling all the quotes I think I may want from my quotes page, as well as their citations, and write my paragraph(s). When that's done, I take both the paragraphs and the citation and insert it into the draft. Only there is it formatted.

Delete draft page.

Make new draft page (important for some weird reason).
Piece by piece, I work my word search.

By the end, I have a beautifully color-coded Works Cited page, a single-spaced (double is overwhelming) draft, and my name at the top.

Wait a week (so I can catch errors more easily).

Copy and paste all of that into a new document, put it in a weird font (so I can catch errors more easily), read it aloud to somebody (so I can catch errors more easily), edit the heck out of it, making sure everything is correctly punctuated and referenced, change my Works Cited page to black, change all of it to double spacing, and SAVE.

Submit.

I'm currently in the waiting phase, but my 5,000 words are carved and crafted and waiting to be cleaned.
This is such a good feeling.

One more 3,000 word paper.
One 3,000 word bibliography (which weirdly and wonderfully counts as a paper).

Then I get to fly home.

Hallelujah!!!