Focus on what you know

I've been working on a research paper for my theatre history class for the past month or so... although you could say I've been working on avoiding it for the past month. No, not completely, but doing research has been a lot more challenging than I expected, thus I've stalled the actual writing.

I just feel so inept writing about a subject I know imperfectly (sometimes this perfectionism can really get in the way!). But today I had this epiphany as I walked to one of my classes yesterday.  The thought came to me:

"Focus on what you know"

It was one of those moments that make you say, "Of course!  Why didn't I think of that before?"  It's just like the gospel where you can get caught up on all the things you don't know or are too complex for our little human minds.  We can get stuck and frustrated trying to understand how we came to be when there is no beginning of time OR we can focus on what we know.  From my experience, focusing on what we know brings so much more peace, calm, and eventually more enlightenment.

I was pleased when I realized that the same idea applies to studying and writing.  And guess what?  As soon as I started focusing on what I know about the decline of Roman theatre the task didn't seem so daunting.  I realized I knew more than I thought I did and I actually did have something to write about.  

I've got an outline and I'm ready to go.  There's still much to learn, but I've got a place to start.

And all these books and more to learn from:

Now lets see if I can crank out 10 coherent pages for Monday. Thank goodness it's only a first draft!