Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
Put another way, my work has been all over the map. I have notes jumbled up in the margins of books, several dog-eared printouts from lord-knows-where, and a terrible catalogue (a sloppy excel sporeadsheet) of actions taken so far.

I'm trying to clean it all up, streamline the process so I am not wasting effort and can in turn actually write better, and want to do a better job of capturing the footstomps in the material.

Good links and references so far.
What I think you have here is more of an organization problem if anything. I would suggest you try these two actions simultaneously:
-- Make an outline (fully annotated and cited) of your paper (I got the sense you were working on several, but I think you should choose one and get going.) Note: When I mean outline, I mean a heavy duty outline. I mean something that you could almost take out the bullet points, numbers, etc. and have a paper. This may seam difficult, but it really isn't. If you organize your research by applying it, the citations, as well as the paper, will all fall into place.
-- As you go along make a "catalog" on another document if you wish to organize all of your research. The odds are, that as you outline you will probably go back to source material, which will allow you to get momentum while accomplishing the tedious.

Getting started on a paper, or whatever the the project may be, is always hard. You most likely have a good idea of your paper in your head. Get out a first draft (always the hardest task.) Then you can fill in the gaps, re-write, edit, etc later. If you don't mind me saying, I think you are stalling a drop (as we all do.) I always find myself trying to organize and organize before I write, but in the end what I need to do is get started. Remember, research is the fun and easier part of it.

I hope I'm not going out on too much of a limb here, but I would strongly suggest you just give it a shot.

Adam L