I just finished writing a grant proposal which, while I spent more time on it than I wanted, I had purposely left not much time for it.  I do tend to spend as much time as I give myself on things, which is why I like teaching in the morning and not preparing for lecture until the day of.

Anyhow, when I started working on this, I was having difficulty with writer’s block.  I had plenty of notes, and somewhat of an organization, but I

just

couldn’t

write

a

complete

sentence.

Frustrated, I decided to just get something down on paper.  I started writing an introduction that was entirely self-depricating, riddled with bad puns and references to “self-abuse” – generally amusing myself.  I very quickly wrote two pages and dug into the meat of the proposal, now adopting the usual (more dry, formal, self-congratulatory) tone that is more common to NSF proposals.

I have to say, though, I think being on an NSF panel could be quite a bit more fun if we actually submitted such … honesty?