On Frescobaldi

Apparently, I'll be writing about composers here (in addition, I hope, to other things), but my subject matter doesn't matter so much, since I'm the only one who knows I'm here. I'm supposed to be writing a paper on Frescobaldi right now - actually, ideally I'd have already written it, and now I'd be revising it - but instead I don't really have the first word down. It's due in less than 48 hours. Why haven't I written anything?

1) I don't really care that much
2) The format - the academic paper format - seems to be difficult for me right now. I know it's something I have to learn to do, and I feel as though I've been able to do it sometimes, but now isn't one of them. Now would be a damn good time to figure it out.
3) I'm distracted by things that have nothing to do with the work I'm meant to be doing.

Going back to #2, though, I think the format is part of my problem, not just an excuse. (It's probably both). I wrote a paper about six months ago that was personal and non-academic, though for a seminar setting, and I felt so much more expressive and so much more able to articulate what was important, find a tone that worked, and synthesize not only my own ideas and experience, but the secondary materials I was working with as well.

So that's a possibility, for a draft at least: to write the first draft as though I'm writing in a different style. Headings make a big difference to me! I hope it helps. This is so boring and so stilted - even here, even with nothing at stake - that I can't believe I used to think I had a way with words.

There are other factors, like the distractions (they are welcome, but would be easy to think only about them), and the end of the
academic year, and generally indifference, but the fact is, I should be writing better and thinking more clearly here at the end of year 1 in a doctoral program, and the opposite seems to be true. So - and this is part of the purpose of practice, both in theory and practice - at least now I have An Idea. From there I like to think I can get somewhere.