Are you looking to branch out into authoring other nonfiction works? The Nonfiction Authors Association is holding its 13th annual Nonfiction Writers Conference online May 10-12, 2023. Opening speaker, Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and Tiny Beautiful Things, will speak on the writing life.
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.
Friendship and writing desire: both last
Always craving more writing time (aside from the procrastination), I’ve chosen to keep up or reconnect with only a very few friends. And I realize an essential characteristic of real friendship: time doesn’t matter. However long the moments, weeks, or years between contacts, real friendship knows no steel-banded boundaries of time, distance, erratic mobile phone connections, or sporadic emails.
I recall a friend of twenty years ago, and I still cherish our many calls and visits. When we both moved, our interests diverged and contact ended.
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.
The prelude: Preparing to write a scholarly textbook
Many think about writing a scholarly textbook years before actually picking up the pen to do so. That prelude is like musicians tuning up before a performance. It is an investment of time that is as critical to finishing a book as to beginning it. For a writer, the prelude is a time to organize notes and references. To draft and redraft a table of contents. To organize notes. To connect with potential editors. To investigate potential audiences and find colleagues who would consider adapting it in their teaching. The prelude contributes to the ease with which you can write the book and lays the foundation that there is an audience for it.
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.