I hate writing papers. You would think that as an English major in college I would have found an approach that works for me, but no. Unless procrastinating and writing at a rate of about a paragraph an hour counts as a valid approach. It certainly doesn't count as a good approach. It's like pulling teeth. Write a bit, distract myself until the pain eases up, write a bit more.

I don't mind the research and outline portions of papers -- in fact, I usually enjoy those. As long as I'm at least slightly interested in a topic, I'm happy to seek out articles, essays, etc. and skim them. Taking information from those and coming up with a rough outline usually isn't too bad either. It's just taking everything and pulling it together into a coherent lengthy paper that I have trouble with. By the time I sit down to write, I've generally thought about the topic so much that I'm tired of it. I just don't care anymore. This is one of the reasons I'm going to become a librarian. I'll just need to find information and resources; it'll be up to other people to take those things and create a paper from them.

Of course, right now I'm in library school, and guess what? I have to write papers. Currently I'm working on writing a research proposal, a mockup of something that could conceivably be published if I actually performed the study, sent out the survey, etc. I'm interested in my topic/question (How have advances in technology and digitization impacted artists' book collections?) but as usual, the paper-writing process is brutal. (Note to self: try to avoid jobs that want me to actually publish things. An academic librarianship with faculty standing is probably not in my future.)

On the plus side, I'm learning some interesting things, such as the names of places that have collections of artists' books. Did you know that Yale's Arts Library has an Arts of the Book collection? It does! This is from their website: "The Arts of the Book Collection (AOB) / Arts Library Special Collections Reading Room is a research facility housed in the Sterling Memorial Library. Wooden bookshelves with decorative carvings hold the collection, which contains both examples of and reference materials about the arts related to the book. Topics such as binding, book history, illustration, calligraphy, graphic design, paper making and decorative papers, typography and more are represented. Contemporary examples of artists' books and fine printing are housed alongside more traditional publications." Someone please give me a job here when I graduate, okay?

Sadly, in order to graduate and be qualified for a job at a place like that, I really need to finish this paper. Curses. Back to work I go.