Devin shared with the other day that he often drifts off as he reads only pick back up some few words, sentences, paragraphs, or pages later trying to make sense of what he just "read." I have had the same experience has long as I have been a reader. Sometimes I find my way back into it, but often I am just completely lost and have to back track. It is infuriating! But, I was thinking like psychologist about that conversation earlier today and wondered if I was a certain "type" of reader, that perhaps someone like Boice had a diagnosis and remedy for.

Though I didn't find my type in this week's readings, some of Boice's prewriting strategies got be thinking about ways to fit the sweet hypnosis of words in a line and thoughts in my head. The fact that some piece of writing get me thinking is not a bad thing, the problem comes when I get too many degrees away from the page to find my way back to The Bacon. Perhaps, in these more contemplative lapses, I could try some freewriting. I can allow myself to get unfocused for a second all the while making sure I leave some bread crumbs behind. That way, I can spend that time I would of spent daydreaming and backtracking getting my imagination on.
 
Though I have not made a habit of journaling the few times that I have been motivated to (by a grade, of course) I have been really happy with the quantity and quality of the thoughts that I am able to produce. I even go back to read them sometimes. It is something about the need to do it regularly, but also the easy chronology of it, and the chance to reflect. Sometimes, I start writing about something that happened to me and reflect as I write. Sometimes, I go through the events of the day in my head, reflect on them, and the ones that I am able to have deep thoughts about get chosen as the stories that I put down.

I am not training to be a creative writer, but I need to remember that many of my best ideas come from the chances I get to tell stories to myself. Now, I just have to figure out how to tell thoughtful, witty, and heartbreaking stories to myself about critical works on Margaret Oliphant. The story might be written in a stream-of-consciousness, but this can "serve up the very questions that reflection can productively tackle" (Rodgers 849). Ok, maybe that is not the best use of my time, but I like what Boice said about carrying on dialogues with yourself. I like talking to myself. I get all my jokes. Mantra of the week: Make it personal, make it memorable, make it regular.

Rodgers review of Dewey was so dry, but it did get me thinking about whether I  need to think more systematically. I often lose a train of thought because I don't even get to naming the problem properly. I need to learn how to hold the spontaneous thoughts at bay, again perhaps freewriting is a way that I can fence them in, so that I can wait till my data is rich enough to ask the right question.