This paper will track my battle to ‘get conceptual’ in the production of a Grounded Theory. It will discuss early attempts at creating substantive codes through the process of open coding which, despite my best efforts, merely produced descriptive codes. It will illustrate the process by which these descriptive codes became more conceptual, earning the title of substantive code and how their presentation in essay form produced a perfect example of ‘conceptual description’. It will then describe the slow dawning of the purpose of ‘theoretical codes’ as organisers of substantive codes and the emergence of a Grounded Theory.