Textbook update or why I haven't been blogging

This summer is the big push on Sourceplay, the textbook I am writing with Liz . Even though the project is extremely time-consuming, making any thoughts of doing other writing like blogging seem painful, I have learned so much.

• Even though it seemed to make sense to work separately for a period of two weeks while I traveled, we ended up falling way short of our goal. We do best when we work together, even if that means simply sitting across from each other at a coffeeshop, silently tapping on our computers. When we are working together, it's much easier to problem solve areas where we get stuck, get quick research assistance, or find words when they get lost. Additionally, the writing sessions together always produce much more work, even with some side chatter and surfing, than when we attempt to work alone.
• Writing takes time, more time, and then more time. Numerous times I've sat down to work on a small section of a chapter, confident that I could knock it out in an hour. Most often this is not the case. Last writing session, I spent almost an hour revising five paragraphs, with a majority of the time spent internally debating where to put a new section.
• A good acquisitions editor is crucial to a textbook project. LB totally rocks; her attention to such detail as headings that make sense to a reader or a need to tie areas together always seems like something we should have caught, yet again and again, we need her to fine tune those details for us. Even though some of the restructuring has been difficult at times, when time has passed and we have more written, it's clear that those adjustments have made for a stronger text.
• Time travel is difficult. As we choose selections for the text, we have to constantly think about a 2010 copyright date and the currency of material. Additionally, in choosing selections we also have to consider permissions costs (or what we imagine they might be since we are clueless in terms of $), relevancy to students, and range of genres.

I am certain that if I could articulate more what rambles in my mind regarding the text, that I have learned so much more, such as conventions of graphic novels, photo essays, and collages. I have learned to read a range of visual texts such as environmental art installations and t-shirts. And I have learned that writing can at times be rather painful, yet when I look at us nearing completion of two solid sections of the textbook, probably more than 150 pages of our text, I am thrilled.

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