The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: August 28, 2015

“Scripturient.” What a great word that I’ve only now just discovered! According to Merriam-Webster it means, “having a strong urge to write.” Do you ever have a strong urge that you have to sit and write? I get these urges from time to time. It can be a glorious thing (if you don’t get in the way of yourself and your writing). For me, as soon as I start thinking too much or try to form the perfect sentence, the words stop flowing so easily. Embrace those urges to write and just put everything on to the page that you can. Editing is for making sense of it all!

How to have a writing room of your own

My writing buddy’s face turned dark pink as she shouted over her latté. “No one can do anything worthwhile without a private writing place!” She thrust her face into mine. “It’s gotta be your own!”

I was as adamant. “Oh, come on. All you need is the desire and will and your stone tablet and sharp tool. It doesn’t matter where you write!”

Our little debate embodies two often-discussed viewpoints about writing. Despite my vehement response to my friend, I have long puzzled about the most effective place to write. If you too are in a quandary, or lament you have no writing spot to call your own, I’d like to help you enlarge your perceptions about your own physical and mental writing places, spaces, and times.

New 2015 TAA Fall Webinars – Improve Your Skills

Summer is rapidly coming to a close, meaning fall and classes are just around the corner. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about and planning your fall writing projects. Whether you are interested in learning the steps for developing a textbook, creating an online presence to build your academic brand, educating yourself on textbook royalty audits or publishing agreements, or how to write clearer academic pose, TAA’s fall webinar series for textbook and academic authors has you covered. Join us as various industry experts share their expertise on academic and textbook writing topics.

The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: August 7, 2015

Summer is coming to a close. Maybe you are even already back in session. Were you able to meet your summer writing goals? What would you have done differently? Now is the time to make note of what worked well and what didn’t work so well. Keep this on hand so you have a better plan in place or a better understanding of how you work so that you can (if need be) accomplish more next summer. You may not feel you need to accomplish more, but you may feel that you need to work more efficiently.