Many academics find sitting down at the computer and starting to write to be the most difficult challenge facing them. One of the reasons for this, as one of my students put it so well, is that “if I never start, then I never fail.”
#AcWri #PhD
1/23

Another reason academics can't get started writing is getting out of the habit of writing–or never having had a writing habit.
While tough to overcome, this obstacle does have some straightforward solutions.
Here are ten (10) solutions.
#acwri #PhD
2/23

1. Make other tasks contingent on writing
An excellent way of dealing with the difficulty of getting started is to make a preferred task contingent on a nonpreferred task, as the behavior management experts put it (Boice 1983).
3/23

In this case, writing is the nonpreferred task you have to complete before you get to something you prefer. For instance, do not allow yourself to read the morning newspaper or check your e-mail before you write for thirty minutes.
4/23

Most academics flip this & tell themselves "I’ll watch TV for an hour & then write” But it is better to make the pleasurable activity a reward Turn your procrastination tactics into productivity tools But, denying yourself a real pleasure doesn't work. Delaying a pleasure does
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2. Make writing low stakes
Someone told me that she tricked herself into writing by promising herself, “I’ll tweak a few lines while the tea kettle boils.” That sentence, she said, was “the gateway drug to at least fifteen minutes of scribbling.”
6/23

3. Start by revising
Start by looking back over what you wrote the day before.
Anthony Grafton says “I always start by rapidly revising what I wrote the day before” (@NoahCharney 2013). The word “rapidly” is essential here. It’s easy to get bogged down in revising.
7/23

4. Plan your next session
Plan the agenda for your next writing session at the end of the last one.
That way you will know what to do when you sit down to write. This will also help you stay focused on your article as a series of small tasks.
8/23

Some authors even recommend that you always stop in the middle of a sentence, so that you have somewhere to pick up. “Deliberate interruption” can spur your motivation to return: “an almost done project lingers in memory far longer than one that is completed” @bencareynyt 2014
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5. Start with ancillary writing
Another method is to start by writing something else.

Some academics begin by typing a quote from their reading.

Others write a plan for what they would like to do in that writing session.
10/23

If you really feel shut down, it is useful to start by writing down the thoughts of your inner critic (e.g., It’s hubris for me even to pick up a pen"). When you get bored with this inner critic, then you can start writing your article. It’s not very good company!
11/23

6. Start by writing badly
If you can’t get started because your first sentence has to be perfect, this method can be useful. For fifteen minutes, write down every thought you have about your article without stopping to edit. Just let it all hang out.
12/23

This is writing what one writing guru has celebrated as “a shitty first draft” @ANNELAMOTT. If you set out to write something horrible, this roadblock is erased. Again, eventually you write a sentence or have an idea that sounds pretty good. And then you are on your way.
13/23

A variation on this is to try reading. I don’t mean getting up from your computer and finding a nice chair. I mean, reading at your computer, and reading material that will help you with that article, not your teaching or future books.
14/23

7. Get social support
Another method is to have a video call partner

Arrange with another prospective author to agree to write at the same time. Start up your video call when you are supposed to start, encourage each other, and then get started writing with the video call on
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That way, you can hear them typing and they can hear you typing. It helps knowing that someone else is going through the same horrible suffering, I mean, wonderful process that you are. Lots of my students have found this (or doing the same by phone or email) really helpful.
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It seems to be more helpful than the plan of meeting at someone’s house to write together, which often ends up being a talking session rather than a writing session.
17/23

8. Keep your writing file open
If you are in an extremely busy period, determine to at least open your article every day & do one thing to it—changing a word, adding a citation, or cutting a sentence. About once a week or so, you will find that turns into 15 mins of writing
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9. Connect to the pleasure of writing
One of the academic writing gurus, Helen Sword (2017), argues that if you want to become a productive author, you need to take greater pleasure in writing Her evidence is empirical, interviews with one hundred successful scholarly authors
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It’s easy to give ourselves negative messages about writing. Because some aspects of academia are dreadful, we get in the habit of complaining about writing as well. But, productive scholarly authors are often those who look forward to writing and see it as a privilege.
20/23

Even if you find that tough to do, remember that, as the popular performance scholar @stinkylulu Brian Herrera put it, “Taking the time to write is a gift you give yourself. Don’t be stingy.”
21/23

10. Use WYJA
Finally, many scholars have developed better #writing habits by using my
Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success,
which provides daily writing guidance.
22/23

The book breaks #writing down into manageable step-by-step tasks for each of five days a week–you simply open it up and do what it says. Hundreds have written to tell me the book got them into the habit of starting writing every day.
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press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…