Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: January 14, 2022

Why do you write? Are you writing to share you knowledge with others? Are you writing to get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper? Perhaps, here at the start of the year, you are writing (or not) because you have resolved to do so. Or are you like Flannery O’Connor who said, “I write to discover what I know.”

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we find insight on new years’s resolutions for authors, writing deadlines, writing strategies, the end of writer self-doubt, and the future of open access. Whatever your reasoning, we encourage you to write every day. Happy writing!

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Tips for anxious writers: Series introduction

Over the years, as a writing coach trying to help others write more effectively, and as a writer seeking to improve my own ability, I have read a lot of good advice on writing. Too rarely, however, have I found advice that really helped me in my struggles with writing anxiety or that resonated with me as a coach seeking to help other anxious writers. Too often, the advice boils down to “be disciplined and write.” And that’s great advice, of course. At least in a general sense. But for people struggling with anxiety in their writing process, it’s not necessarily good advice. Depending on the degree of anxiety, “be disciplined,” can lead to vicious cycles in which each anxiety-drenched attempt to write only confirms the fear that writing is a painful ordeal.  If you’re feeling enough anxiety, writing is a painful ordeal, as I will attest from personal experience.

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Member Spotlight: Cason Murphy

TAA Member Cason Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Iowa State University and a textbook and academic author in the theater, music studies, dance studies, media studies, critical reinterpretation of the canon, and contemporary performance practices writing disciplines. His latest publication is The World at Play: Performance from the Audience’s Perspective.

Since he just completed his first textbook earlier this year, he has engaged in several smaller projects for now: a few performance reviews for theatre journals; fleshing out an essay from a conference proceeding on teaching a musical theatre performance class during the pandemic; and a survey of several video game-inspired theatrical performances that resulted from experimentation over the past 20 months.

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2/10 TAA Webinar: Connecting With a College Textbook Publisher in Changing Times

College textbook publishing has changed in many significant ways over the past twenty years. While the industry is still dominated by a small number of large publishers, their product and business models have evolved greatly. Pressure to create a variety of low-priced product options and resulting decreases in growth and profit have caused many publishers to pull back on the acquisition of new products. Consequently, acquisitions editors have often begun to focus on managing existing titles rather than on acquiring new products. If you are flexible, persistent, and creative, you can still find opportunities to write or contribute to a college-level textbook.

Join us Thursday, February 10 from 1-2 p.m. ET for “Connecting With a College Textbook Publisher in Changing Times”, presented by Sean Wakely, Vice President of Product and Editorial at FlatWorld. Wakely will describe the current college textbook publishing landscape and provide you with actionable ideas about how to approach and form a relationship with the editorial staff who are responsible for bringing new writing talent into a publisher.

Register Today. Members Only. Join TAA.

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: January 7, 2022

How do you write? As we begin the new year of 2022, it’s a perfect time to reflect on your writing goals, habits, accomplishments, and shortcomings from last year and look at what adjustments may be necessary for the year ahead.

Our collection of articles from around the web for this first week of 2022 includes The Scholarly Kitchen‘s year in review, Jane Friedman’s insight on what writers need to do, and the publishing industry’s projection on the continued effect of COVID-19 on returning to the office. The set continues with a vision for a new model library, Joanna Penn’s creative and business goals for the new year, and ends with four strategies for writing in a world of distractions.

Stephen King once described his answer to our opening question, saying, “When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time’.” It may be too much to look at the entire year ahead and plan your writing projects, so if necessary, start with just the next word in your project. Happy writing!

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Get academic writing into your bones

How do you get academic writing into your bones—and mind? If you’re an experienced professor, you may not need to immerse as much as your students do. In my dissertation editing and coaching practice, I’ve noticed that many student writers write like they speak—conversationally and colloquially.

If you’re a closet novelist, fine. Write like your characters speak. But academic writing is a breed unto itself, and not giving it the proper attention is the downfall of many a previously good student.

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