and the draft comes back

Any readers who have been paying attention for a while know that I have yet to actually publish the results from my PhD research. My first attempt at a paper draft, written during the first month or two after starting my first post-doc position got a "this reads too much like a thesis, you are putting in too much information" reply from my advisor. Somewhat discouraged I set that project aside and didn't make much more progress on it during the 1.5 years of that post-doc position—only really managing to take it out once in a while, dust it off, work on it for an hour or three, and set it back aside.

However, when I was back in Australia this July (applying for my visa to settle in Scandinavia with my partner), I met with my advisor. Together we determined what I needed to do with the paper, and I managed to leave him what felt to me like a very good draft before boarding the plane to return to the northlands. Today, at long last, he has returned that draft to me with comments. Not surprisingly, his main point now is that the paper has become too short—while culling stuff from the too long version I got over-enthusiastic. Fortunately, this time he has concrete suggestions as to what should go back in, and why. Therefore I now have a goal: try to get a new, improved, draft back to him before my job interview next week (since, if I get the job I will want to focus my energies on learning the new position, rather than finishing up overdue projects). With luck I will not only accomplish that goal, but it will land on his desk at a time when he is actually able to reply promptly, rather than having a month or more slip by before he can even look at it. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future I can change the status of that paper from "in progress" to "submitted"…