Consciously deciding you are going to create a new relationship with your writing takes guts.
An enormous amount of guts.
You need a healthy dose of self-awareness, and a desire to do things differently.
Your writing practice will be your own. What works for others cannot be seamlessly transplanted onto you. You need to create something that works for you. There is no one-size fits all, but there are some common messages given in research on academic writing.
Protect and dedicate specific time. Don’t engage with things/people who derail you. Write with others. Understand how to use feedback. Understand your inner demons.
Academic writing is something that can get pushed to the margins of your day job if you let it. It is also a part of the academic job that exposes us to intense criticism, and intellectual challenge. Naturally, sometimes we want to shy away from that. But this behaviour creates a cycle of dread and unhappiness, guilt and loathing.
It should be (and is) a privilege to write for a living. It should be something that we enjoy, look forward to, even escape into from other demands of the job.
To create a writing practice that works for you, you need to spend some time consciously thinking about your own mindset, habits and challenges. There is no quick fix. It is a holistic challenge. For some, this will mean changing their thought processes about the task of writing, yet for others, it means challenging their own behaviours around writing and how they respond to the demands of others.
Creating a healthy academic writing practice is easier when you do it with others. That is why I created the Academic Writer’s Collective, where you get access to my SCRIBE Training Framework that every academic should be trained in, but are not. The Collective is where you pursue your own writing habit and set up a bespoke writing system that fits you, your life, your career stage, but you also get access to our wonderful co-writing space which brings community, accountability and joy!
Writing should be joyful. Let’s all try to be happier writers, together.
Continue reading:
How Essential Writing Time Gets Lost in Academia
Your Department Has No Memory… And What This Means For You
Academic Meetings: A Productivity Drain
Teaching vs Research. But if you care about research, aren’t you the asshole?
Managing Chronic Illness in Academia: How to Thrive Despite the Challenges
What Leads to Academic Burnout: Understanding the Key Triggers
How To Improve Writing Through Deliberate Practice
4 Things Successful Academic Writers Do (Pt 4): Constant Improvement of Writing Skills
4 Things Successful Academic Writers Do (Pt 3): Writing First
4 Things Successful Academic Writers Do Pt 2: Writer Identity
4 Things Successful Academic Writers Do Pt 1: The Power of Time Control
Academic Training (or lack of it)
When Writing is Your Hobby, Your Academic Career Dies
The Drainers and the Drivers: A 10 Minute Writing Hack
Expanding capacity as a tool of writing
The self-care narrative, gaslighting and academia
How to make time for reading as an academic
Realism and Time Tracking: a feasible pipeline