I am half way through my data collection process.
This is what I notice about autoethnographic research:
The line between data collection and analysis is much harder to maintain. It is very tempting to begin noticing themes already.
I am in a sense trying not to think too hard in my journals but just allow what is in me to dance onto the page.
I am naturally being influenced by the other theories I am reading, and so the line between my own thinking and that of the scholars I read also becomes more blurred.
But the deeper into the inquiry I go, the more I am seeing the interconnectedness of everything and this makes the 'woven feel' of all the stages of the inquiry feel organic and meaningful.
I remind myself that just as a choreography evolves from techniques and outside influences as well as the inner vision of a choreographer, so does an inquiry. So long as this is acknowledged and appreciated and celebrated, there is nothing to be afraid of.
