Back from Holiday and time to be getting back to writing

Well that is Dora shaking her head telling me not to do it, she would really rather I stayed up with her and took her for long walks at least twice a week. I do not own her, but she seems to think I am the fun senior female in her pack.

Anyway I am back from holiday, and though I am not going to post a word count this week as though my official length has changed somewhat it is quite small. However I have spent lots of time preparing for writing the central bit of my chapter on belonging. This is important. It seems to me that at the core of a congregations identity is the question "What does it mean to belong?" That is both a question congregation try to decide for themselves and one that individuals negotiate as individuals. What I have therefore to do is demonstrate the "work" that both congregations and individuals do to sustain that sense of belonging or not belonging. For anything to be defined there must be a boundary but often that boundary is mutable and changes according to situation.

I have spent the mornings of my holiday trawling through the descriptive chapters looking for bits and pieces that are there that relate to this work. I am hoping that that lays a good groundwork for writing  as I need to write 6,000 words next weekend so as to have the belonging chapter drafted. So I will be in thesis purdah. I expect I will do it but it is going to take an effort.