Making writing-related New Year’s resolutions can be a great way to kickstart your writing in the new year. But just making a resolution isn’t enough. You also need a plan and support to keep you on track. If your resolution is to finish your textbook or complete your dissertation, you will need to break that project up into manageable steps and create deadlines that will keep you on track. You might also want to join a writing group to provide feedback and support along the way. If your resolution is to write every day, you will need to decide what time of day works best for you, create a writing space that is free of distractions, and let your friends and family know you are not available during your writing time.
3 Most popular TAA Blog posts
The three biggest mistakes academic writers make has been viewed 11,133 times. How to write a sophisticated, dynamic scholarly argument has…
When you need writing inspiration
Sometimes you just need a little inspiration to help you jump-start your creativity or break your writer’s block. Here are some writing inspirations. To view more, visit TAA’s Pinterest board, Writer’s Inspiration. Share your writing inspirational quotes in the comments section, or email them to Kim.Pawlak@TAAonline.net
5 Tips for sprinting past writer’s block
For most writers, whether they need to start a new project or pick one up that’s been left on the back burner for a while, their biggest writing challenge tends to center around getting started, says Margarita Huerta, Assistant Professor of English Language Learning/Early Childhood Education, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Huerta, who will be presenting a 30-minute webinar entitled, “Writing With POWER” for TAA’s September Virtual Dissertation Writing Boot Camp, shares her strategies for getting past the “block”:
11 Bookish quotes for book lovers
11 Bookish quotes from Text and Academic Authors Association
The three biggest mistakes academic writers make
I grew up in an academic family. When we would gather around the table at holidays, everyone but my bipolar aunt had a Ph.D. My ex-husband once told me he felt I needed to get a Ph.D. to be considered a grown-up by my family. So I know the culture. I am fluent in tenure and promotion, refereed articles and revise-and-resubmit, and the heaven and hell of the sabbatical and adjunct worlds.
As a creative writer and scholar who specializes in teaching mindfulness and writing as ways of dealing with chronic stress and healing from trauma, I bring my expertise in stress-reduction together with my personal experience of what it means to “be an academic.” I want to share with you some insights about the three biggest mistakes I see academic writers making.