Do Proliferating Ideas Threaten to Overtake You?

Do ideas flood your brain like a herd gone wild? Are you flailing around, physically and metaphorically, trying to corral them and drive them into the barn? Going mad trying to figure out how to use them all?

I am almost constantly barraged by ideas for essays, stories, poems, novel slivers, quirky descriptions, and metaphoric pearls. Ideas surface everywhere: as I work on the current creative piece, edit clients’ manuscripts, wash dishes, huff through workouts, wait on line, watch people, meditate, fall asleep, and even at business dinners.

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Why logging your writing is so powerful and how to do it

Have you ever noticed that pretty much any advice related to making progress suggests the same idea?

Track your progress.

  • If you want to lose weight, track your daily calories and weekly weight.
  • If you want to reach a financial goal, track your expenses.
    So, why shouldn’t we do the same when it comes to our academic writing?
  • If you want to finish your dissertation, grant proposal, manuscript, or book, track your writing.

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Confronting the anxiety of academic writing: Reconceptualizing writing to clarify your ideas

The first article in this series, based on Rachael Cayley’s October 19, 2022, TAA webinar, “Confronting the Anxiety of Academic Writing,” considered the importance of taking academic writing anxiety seriously. The second discussed Cayley’s suggestions for tackling the intellectual and practical difficulties associated with writing.

In this third article, we delve into the first of Cayley’s three principles for reconceptualizing writing: using writing to clarify your own thinking. In subsequent posts, will discuss the other two principles: committing to extensive revision and understanding the needs of the reader.



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Three principles for greater writing productivity and satisfaction

For our writing productivity and fulfillment, of course we need time management, self-discipline, and all the pomodoros (Cirillo, 2018) we can muster.  Sometimes, though, as ardently as we apply these, they don’t seem to be enough. I’ve found three additional perspectives very helpful. These are “laws” that are described simply and eloquently by author, speaker, and spiritual and practical teacher Deepak Chopra (1994) in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

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