We could stretch our legs if we had half a mind, but don't disturb us if you hear us trying to instigate the structure of another line or two Cause writing's lighting up and I like life enough to see if through from "Writing" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 1975 Big Pig Music Writing - tedious (mostly) difficult (often) enjoyable (seldom) rewarding (temporarily, when something is finally finished)
For me the time consuming part is often the 'mulling over,' hours and hours and days of half thinking about something, so it is just at the edge of my mind, ready to emerge when I sense a reminder and jot down a note on whatever I can find (these moments happen with too much regularity while I am driving a car, which I do not do very often). I actually by that time often do not even need to make the note; the thought has already been absorbed by and incorporated into the idea-as-a-whole. Sort of like the game blob tag, if you know what that is. When I discovered or rather, was introduced to the process of qualitative memo writing, I found it immediately identifiable and comfortable. These thoughts often come far before the project/paper/findings have any structure, so there is no 'whole' yet to hold them. In fact, the memos seem to conspire to form the initial bits of the whole, such that it is at that early point. The lyrics above are from "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," the album that, if not actually, then symbolically marked the end of The Elton John Band, and those days of glam and glitter and high high heels (think of the Pinball Wizard shoes from Tommy) - Elton's music, for me, was never the same after that album (for a lot of people, unfortunately, I think the glitter was beginning to sparkle less even before that although "Someone saved my life tonight" was a huge hit). If I learned anything from following music and musicians during my earlier years, it was 'reinvent or die.' And the fans often dislike the reinvented image, but if they don't like one, they might like the next. It worked for Bowie for years (still does, I would say) but Elton John instead ended up working with various (not as special) lyricists and having hits that just seemed to lack the heart and honesty of the early to mid period John/Taupin works (although eventually he seemed to do very well scoring Disney films). But the point of this is that after weeks of mulling, something I wanted to (actually need to) write just started pouring out. It still needs/will need a lot of work and I ache a little imagining the fine-tuning-word-by-word that needs to follow. But it is a start, and a direction, in a place where I fumbled and fizzled and didmore than a couple of times
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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