area scientist finishes 'pretty complete' draft of manuscript

The kinds of writer's block I encountered as I struggled to draft my latest manuscript:

1. Existential. Only after the I'd collected and analyzed the data did I question whether this study was worth the time and energy (compared to the other studies/manuscripts on my plate). As nonsensical as it was, I dragged out writing the study up because I felt it was a small study that wasn't particularly compelling. Even after I added another, smaller, but very compelling story to the manuscript, I still had a hard time finding the narrative that would make me want to write the paper and want to share the data with the world.

2. Sleep-deprivation. Writing is one of the few science activities that is noticeably impacted by my not getting enough sleep, which is usually caused by my working very very late on science activities. Or, perhaps in the future, blogging.

3. Temporal. Especially for the introduction and discussion, I need large blocks of time for writing. I need to immerse myself in the literature, to reassure myself that I'm not overlooking an already-published discussion point that I had been thinking was my own novel observation. I know there are books that advise how to write papers or dissertations in 15 minutes a day... but I tend to write best when I don't shift gears. Even to the degree of one week of only doing lab work, one week of only writing.

None of this excuses taking nearly a year (!) to go from finishing the analysis to complete draft... but it amused me to realize that my writer's block with this manuscript never involved sitting down in front of a blank word document with no idea of what to work on.