Writing stalled? Send yourself a letter

When I scanned the mail the other day, one letter caught my eye. I couldn’t quite place the handwriting and tore open the letter. To my shock, I saw I’d written it to myself.

Maybe I should have recognized my own handwriting, but it was like seeing yourself reflected in a window. Even though certain aspects look familiar, we often don’t have a clear picture of what we look like—or write like.

Three weeks earlier, I’d received a rejection for a particularly important writing project. After I poured out my despondency to a friend, she suggested writing a letter to myself venting my frustrations, extolling my virtues, and declaring my writin goals and mailing the letter without a second glance or draft. It should be postal mail, she emphasized—email wasn’t quite the same. I thought this idea a little hokey, but desperate followed her advice.

Writing stalled? Send yourself a letter Read More

Why you should be podcasting. Right now

TAA Vice President, Kevin Patton, is an award-winning professor and textbook author in human anatomy and physiology (A&P). He has a podcast and several blogs about teaching and writing, including TheTextbookAuthor.org. On Thursday, July 9th, as part of the TAA Summer Webinar Series, he will relate his podcasting experience, outline many different benefits of podcasting, and give you loads of practical tips for starting and running your own podcast in his webinar session, “Why Textbook & Academic Authors Should Be Podcasting. Right Now”.

Why you should be podcasting. Right now Read More

Jumpstart your writing productivity this summer: Join the TAA Writing Gym

Flex your writing muscles in the TAA Writing Gym! This 6-week work-out-on-your-own gym time will serve as your writing accountability partner as you work to achieve your writing goals. The gym is open to those writing textbooks, scholarly journal articles, and dissertations.

Here’s what previous Writing Gym participants have had to say:

“The writing gym was fantastic. It raised my commitment to writing productively.”

“I loved the opportunity to change my writing habits. Now I am feeling guilty if I don’t at least find 30 minutes to work on a project!”

Jumpstart your writing productivity this summer: Join the TAA Writing Gym Read More

Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: June 26, 2020

Just “shut up and write”. Right? It seems simple to be a writer, until you realize that it’s not. Writer’s block, editing, reviews and criticism, etc. place barriers in a process that on the surface is quite simple. However, when we stop writing, when we stop moving forward. When we blame the culture, environment, timing, or circumstances around us we avoid failure. But, we also avoid progress.

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we see a lot of opportunities to avoid progress as well as ways to embrace change and opportunity. How you perceive the content in this collection will determine your continued success as an author. Whether facing changes and challenges related to COVID-19, equity, open access, and accessibility issues or embracing opportunities for marketing, managing your time, grant seeking, and overall success, this collection has something to learn.

Someone once said, “Avoiding failure is to avoid progress.” This week, let’s focus on failing forward together. Happy writing!

Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: June 26, 2020 Read More

Strategies for revising and editing

During our last #AcWriChat Tweetchat event on June 12th, we discussed the difference between revision and editing in addition to strategies for completing both of these essential elements of the academic writing process. Chat participants Marc Ouellette and Sonal Mehta added their perspectives to the discussion.

Below is a summary of the ideas and resources presented during the event.

Strategies for revising and editing Read More