Sometimes you sit down and try to write and you just can’t. Resistance may show up as procrastination, or writer’s block, or gremlins shouting louder than usual about how you are not qualified to do this, or something else. The root of your resistance may be emotional, or you may just be really unsure how […]
Read More »Developing a Practice: Writing
Writing is central to your scholarly work and identity. And yet, you struggle to find time and motivation to do it. Posts in this category focus on the process of writing as a whole. They will help you establish an effective writing practice that enables you to pursue your curiosity, create knowledge, and communicate that knowledge through publications.
You Need a Writing Practice is a good place to start.
Using all 3 types of writing time will help you imagine how you can fit writing in even when you are also juggling teaching, meetings, and so on. It also helps you understand how your writing practice may shift with the seasons of the academic year.
when you stop writing
No matter how good you get at scheduling regular writing, sometimes you just stop. Maybe you just miss a week. Maybe you miss several weeks. It happens. There are lots of different specific reasons but it happens to everyone sometimes. Do not make things worse by berating yourself for having stopped. I can guarantee that […]
Read More »Coming back to a neglected project
In any given session of A Meeting With Your Writing it is not uncommon for someone to be coming back to a project they haven’t looked at in a while. Summer and sabbatical are also times when you might revisit abandoned projects with a view to getting some of them finished. Banish any gremlins who […]
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Early morning writing
The benefits of early morning writing can often seem like preachy, unattainable, eye-roll inducing positivity. But I have brought together some real examples of this life-changing process for your writing, just to give that eye-roll some evidence first… Rachael Herron has written eloquently about how crazy the idea of early morning writing sounds and how […]
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And you keep writing …
This is another excerpt from the first book in my Short Guide Series: The Scholarly Writing Process (A Short Guide). This post includes the conclusion. I have argued that scholarly writing is more than merely the production of specific publications. The term “writing” refers to both the process of translating ideas in our heads into […]
Read More »Writing an abstract to get unstuck
I’ve written before about how to write an abstract for something you haven’t written yet and how to write an abstract for a finished piece. Both of these situations are usually responding to some external need: a call for papers, or a requirement of the journal or book publisher. In those other two posts I used […]
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Writing as process and product
This is an excerpt from my book: The Scholarly Writing Process (A Short Guide). Designed to refer to whenever you get stuck, it breaks down the scholarly writing process into stages and provides both a description of that stage and writing prompts to help you get unstuck. Here’s the introduction and table of contents. Introduction […]
Read More »A peek at my writing process, and a new book
Today is the publication date of the first in a series of Short Guides: The Scholarly Writing Process. It seems appropriate to tell you a bit about my own writing process and how this particular guide came to be. Beginnings Last spring I read a review of Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic in Open Letters Monthly […]
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Experienced writers vs novice writers
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Experienced writers vs novice writers Inspired by a conversation on Twitter: I’m sure @ProfessMoravec is not alone. In fact on the same day another friend shared something similar on Facebook, about that stage of the writing process where you go back to the abstract you submitted to see how […]
Read More »Sabbatical + book contract = overwhelm?
I received this query at the end of August: I’m writing you today because I’m looking for some coaching for writing my first academic book. I have a fall sabbatical and a book contract to write a book on the research that I did over the past two years. I’m feeling overwelmed by all the […]
Read More »Do good work!
How often have you been in this position? Unable to move a project forward because you want to do your best? Best is a distraction. Best is an abstract goal. It is impossible to meet because there are no concrete indicators. Furthermore, best is a moving target. Future You will be a better scholar and […]
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A story from… A Meeting With Your Writing
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · A Story from A Meeting With Your Writing If you’re a long-time member or someone new researching how you can add some accountability to your writing goals, here is a story from A Meeting With Your Writing – my weekly series of virtual writing groups to help you learn […]
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