I always used to think that I was a great note-taker. In class, I could get down not only the details, but the overall point of the lecture in an organized outline. But as I’ve progressed through my graduate career, I’ve begun to realize how ‘in my head’ I really am. There are so many things that I think about, think through, and decide in my head without ever writing anything down. You can imagine the result: I have these amazing ideas in my head, but they never make it to paper… and when they do, they somehow don’t have the ‘bite’ or the succinct nature that they had in my head. I’ve found that I am actually not a great writer.
But now as I contemplate the fieldwork experience, I realize that I must make note-taking a practice. In the past, I’ve taken fairly brief and sporadic notes, and I have rarely gone back and summarized my interviews or observations, which I know is good fieldwork practice (SP taught me that so many years ago!). And that means not only getting ‘outside of my head’, but also taking the time to sit and write each night. If I don’t do that, I will come back to the US with gaps that will need to be filled.
And oddly enough, I’ve found it difficult to really ‘find my voice.’ I’ve written in journals since I was in middle school, but always with a very self-aware attitude that almost ruined the ‘authentic’ voice of my writing. This blog has been extremely difficult, because I haven’t figured out if I’m writing as the ‘expert’, the student, or the traveling poet. It would be best if I could write without being aware of my audience, or even of my own perceptions of my writing.
