Slowly, but surely, I have been editing the human evolution chapter. The difficult part is simply finding the time to do it! Classes come first, then I have to keep the material coming here and on Dinosaur Tracking, and then I work on the book during whatever time I have left. The chaotic semester schedule certainly doesn't make things easy. When I write, I like to sit down and keep going for as long as I can. Stealing 20 minutes to edit a paragraph here and there isn't the way I like to do things, and sometimes it's difficult to get the motivation to work on it.
As it stands now, about half the chapter has been edited. In other chapters, like the one on the origin of whales, it was fairly easy to construct a narrative because of the relatively narrow focus of the research and relatively small number of researchers investigating the problem. Human evolution is a much more difficult problem, not only because of the sheer mass of research, but its diversity. It would be easier to focus on fossils alone, but I can't ignore that studies of living apes (either in the lab or in the field). What we think about them certainly influences what we think about ourselves, particularly in terms of cognition and behavior.
Some days I doubt whether all this work is going to lead to fruition, but I have to keep working. My academic future (i.e. whether I'll go to grad school or not) is uncertain, and I don't have high hopes for finding a job related to my interests after I graduate. Writing is not only my outlet and my passion, but my hope that maybe, after all these years of floundering in college, I can finally start doing what I really want to do. Even though I am an expert at sabotaging myself, I have put too much time and effort into this project to simply give up now.
Here is the Wordle for the last iteration of the human evolution chapter;
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For previous posts dealing with this project, see the "Books" and "Great Book Project" archives.
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I gotta give you credit, cause I don't know how you do it. Granted I had some medical issues this semester, but carrying a 17 credit load and trying to keep up with the blogs became impossible this semester. Adding in a book with as many and high-quality posts as you have... well done!
I totally have that finals feeling!
Indeed, well done.