We’re in the homestretch now for #AcWriMo 2014! It’s hard to believe there are less than 10 days left in this madwriting frenzy.
I’ve made some really good progress on my first goal (revising my grant proposal) since I last posted an update on my progress. I’ve spent much of my writing time writing code instead of words, but it’s been time well spent. (And as one of my colleagues in the writing program here likes to point out, coding IS writing!) I’ve been programming a simulation that will hopefully “prove” (for some definition of “prove”) that the ideas that I’m putting forth in my grant proposal do have merit and are feasible.
It was writing words in the first place (“writing when I have no clue”, from my last post) that led to the coding frenzy of the last week and a half. And when I got stuck on the code for my simulation, which is largely what I’ve been writing, I went back to writing about the simulation, and boom, I figured out how to get unstuck. With any luck, I’ll be able to start running some simulations with the code the first week in December, and then integrate the results into my grant proposal.
The awesome progress I’ve made on my first goal makes up for the fact that I haven’t even touched my second goal—drafting a conference paper. Oops. At this point, I’ll be happy if I just have a rough outline of a conference paper by the end of the month, which I think is do-able given the time I have left.
The good news is that fall term classes ended on Wednesday, so aside from grading (projects and final one-page papers), my time is largely my own for the rest of the month. This means I (theoretically) will have more time per day to devote to AcWriMo from here on out, and can be a bit more aggressive in this final push.
So what do I want to accomplish between now and the end of the month?
- Write for at least 2 hours every weekday (excluding Thanksgiving!), and at least 1 hour on Sundays.
- Finish coding up the simulation.
- Start reviewing and revising some of the supporting documents for the grant proposal.
- Read over the grant narrative and highlight the main areas I need to revise.
- Figure out the topic for my next conference paper and make a rough outline of the paper.
I’m not sure how far I’ll actually get on these goals, but hey, it can’t hurt to aim high. Regardless, I’m excited for the writing days ahead, and excited about my research in a way that I haven’t been for quite some time. That alone makes this AcWriMo completely worth it and completely successful in my book!
This is what a computer scientist looks like 