How to Appreciate and Build on Your Strengths as a Writer

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

When reflecting on your writing progress this year, it’s common to focus on what didn’t go well, such as receiving a rejection letter, struggling with a writing project, or getting negative feedback. While these setbacks can provide valuable lessons, it’s equally important to acknowledge what went well. In his book Flourish, Martin Seligman advocates for a helpful exercise called “What-Went-Well.” In his own words, here’s how to do it:

Write down three things that went well […] and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance, but they can be important. Next to each positive event, answer the question “Why did this happen?”

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Egocentric Reading: Using Literature to Support Your Own Research

By Dave Harris

When we notice egocentrism, it is usually a bad thing: who likes the know-it-all who thinks only of themself? But lack of egocentrism is also bad: we need to know where we stand on issues; we need to trust our own knowledge enough to commit to projects and tasks, and to commit to words on the page. I want to emphasize the importance of egocentrism in reading as a crucial factor in using the research literature effectively, and how writing is an effective tool for building the right kind of egocentrism.

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Three Strategies to Motivate Yourself to Write

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

To be happy involves feeling satisfied with the progress you are making toward your life goals. If you are a writer, completing writing projects is likely part of those goals. Therefore, you feel good when you sit down to write. However, I bet there are days when you don’t feel like writing, even if you know it will ultimately bring you joy. So, how can you motivate yourself on those days?

Here, I share three strategies that can motivate you to write, especially when you’re not feeling up to it.

Break down a big task into small tasks

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Habit and the Love of Wisdom

By Dave Harris

As a writing coach, I focus on practice and the idea that, for any skilled activity, practice develops skill, and that no matter what our level of mastery, we always benefit from practicing the skill. In this context, “practice” means both small-scale, focused, repeatable, low-consequence activities to increase a skill that will serve their larger purpose (e.g., musicians practice scales to support their ability to play music, tennis players practicing serves to support their ability to compete effectively) or, at a larger scale, an entire career involving actual performance (e.g., a doctor’s medical practice, which has very real consequences for patients).

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