Process
Some resources to help you get writing done—and approach it with less anxiety.
Writing with Pleasure
Michelle Boyd: Becoming the Writer You Already Are
This wise book by Michelle Boyd, coach and creator of Inkwell Academic Writing Retreats, “offers an approach to developing your process--one that strengthens your sense that your writing belongs to you.” If you sometimes feel stuck or overwhelmed but like much productivity advice doesn’t resonate with you, you might find this book helpful and reassuring.
Margy Thomas of ScholarShape interviews Michelle Boyd on her podcast about writing metaphors as reflective tools.
Helen Sword: Writing with Pleasure
Here’s a 20-minute conversation between Michelle Boyd of Inkwell and Helen Sword about writing with pleasure—and about Helen’s new book.
Fitting Writing Into Busy Academic Schedules
Cathy Mazak: Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing
Essential reading about how to organize your working life so that writing is at the center. Cathy Mazak also offers terrific advice on her podcast Academic Writing Amplified.
Leslie Wang: Your Words Unleashed podcast
Warm, practical guidance on a range of common issues that academic writers face.
Joli Jensen: Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics
Jensen’s book suggests practical strategies for making writing sessions happen and for dealing with fear and isolation.
Helen Sword: Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write (interview with Rachel Toor here; my blog post on the book here)
Sword draws on interviews with one-hundred academics to show how diverse successful writing practices can be.
Eric Hayot: “Eight Strategies for Getting Writing Done” (chapter 3 in The Elements of Academic Style).
Hayot gets specific about his own routines for fitting writing in and for getting himself into the writing zone.
Various contributors: “How to Make Time for Research and Writing”
Erin Marie Furtak: “My Writing Productivity Pipeline”
Focusing in an Age of Digital Distraction
Turn off your phone and block distracting websites on your computer while you write.
Embrace the 20-second rule: add a 20-second obstacle to accessing your favorite distractions.
Check out mynoise.net or Rainy Cafe if you need to block noise.
Jocelyn Glei: Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done (a useful book on managing email)
Cal Newport: Deep Work (especially Part 2; interview here) and Digital Minimalism (interview here)
Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber: “Time Management and Timelessness,” chapter 1 of The Slow Professor
Some helpful suggestions here for “turn[ing] down the commotion,” creating space to think and be engrossed in our work—as well as acknowledgments of the institutional pressures that have exacerbated “time poverty” (29, 32).
Making Writing (a Bit More) Social
Kerry Ann Rockquemore: “Shut Up and Write”
“Connect with a writing group that meets your needs.”
Helen Sword: Part Three, “Social Habits,” in Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write
“Writing for Others,” “Writing with Others,” and “Writing among Others”
There are various online accountability groups out there, including Focusmate and the Academic Writing Club.
Dealing With Stress, Shame, & Anxiety
Jocelyn Glei: “Productivity Shame” (about 15 minutes long)
In this mini-episode of her podcast, Glei discusses "productivity shame: what it is, why we have it, and how we can start to lay down this toxic burden."
Brené Brown: all of her work, but especially The Gifts of Imperfection (which introduces her idea of shame resilience), Daring Greatly (which discusses institutional cultures of shame and scarcity), and Rising Strong (which explores the process of picking oneself up after failure). Her TED talk also provides a great introduction to her work.
Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber: The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy
The Slow Professor—at once a manifesto, a self-help book, and a critique of the corporate university—focuses on the importance of nurturing attention and connection, “cultivating emotional and intellectual resilience” to the shaming culture of higher education today (90).
Emily and Amelia Nagoski: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, especially chapter 1 (on the importance of dealing with stress as well as with stressors); interview on Brené Brown’s podcast here
This book is geared towards a female audience—it focuses in part on issues that women deal with in a patriarchal society—but I think many of its points could be relevant to anybody.
Charlotte Lieberman: “Why You Procrastinate (It Has Nothing to Do With Self-Control)” (NYTimes)
Sindhumathi Revuluri: “How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome”
Strategies for Different Stages of Writing
Kerry Ann Rockquemore: “Stuck in a Writing Rut”
Katelyn Knox: “3 Ways to Get Yourself Unstuck”
Daphne Gray-Grant on Mind Mapping to Generate Ideas
Rachel Cayley on Reverse Outlining to Reveal Structural Issues
Pat Thomson: “Revising with a Reader in Mind—Ten Questions”