Do What Works Research-based strategies for writing success

Guiding Principles Talking about writing is less productive than doing something (anything!) Support, sense of community, and sharing difficulties can help with writing problems Good resources are available to help with your writing issues By the end of the session, you’ll be further along than you are right now, writing-wise

Identify Barriers and Eliminate Them What stops you from writing? – Family or friends – Too much to do – Internet or other distractions – Worries and fears – Major life events Brainstorm ways to eliminate Try one each day and record results

Exercise: List Your Barriers What real-life stuff stops you from writing, or might? What mental junk stops you from writing, or might? With the person sitting next to you, share your worst barrier and brainstorm solutions

The 80/20 Principle You get 80% of your results from 20% of your time You get 20% of your results from 80% of your time Find the valuable 20% and expand it

80/20 Exercise Take two minutes to list your writing-achievement islands: the short periods when you’ve achieved a much higher ratio of value to time—the periods that have resulted in the bulk of your success Take two minutes to list your writing-happiness islands: the small amounts of time, or the few years, that have contributed a disproportionate amount of your enjoyment of writing

Take two minutes to list/brainstorm the times and projects that gave you the LEAST return of success or happiness on your investment, such as: – A time of day—say, early morning writing – A particular genre that didn’t work for you – A type of project

What did you learn, and what will you do with the information? Can you increase the 20% to 40%?

Important vs. Urgent: What’s the Difference? The point: much of what we do feels urgent, but isn’t really all that important A big part of time management involves separating the two, and then doing more of what’s important

Why Time Management? The upshot of the research: Successful writers write a lot. Writing a lot makes you get better, and gives you better odds for getting published.

Schedule Magic Why do schedules work? Why do creative people hate schedules? How do you find time in your schedule to write? What would make you commit to try writing by a schedule? What are some possible writing schedules?

Exercise: Schedule Week of Nov. 8 Find at least five hours for writing-related tasks. Write the tentative schedule down Write down the small reward you’ll give yourself for sticking to it Share your schedule with someone sitting near you

Boice’s Research: Effects of Different Writing Strategies

Efficiency: Nibbling at a Project Don’t scorn 20 minutes per day—you can write well over a book a year in this amount of time Try to give prime time to writing and “tired time” to more routine tasks Make use of deadlines

The Perils of Taking Writing Seriously Make writing a regular part of your day Write for short periods Most successful writers are less attached to results Focus on process, not outcome

Don’t Take It Personally Think like a businessperson, a non-creative type Rejection happens to everyone Revisions happen to everyone Even if a critique or rejection is meant personally, it does you no good to take it personally

I know writing would help my career, but: My colleagues dump too much departmental work onto me My teaching consumes too much time My institution really values service the most, anyway

Johnson and Mullen contend that: Even departments that claim to value teaching and service actually value scholarship more There are strategies to turn down requests and glean more writing time Commitment is crucial

But I don’t know what to do first! Designed for grad students, but works for everyone Works best if you have a conference or school paper to revise Detailed schedule with explicit directions for each day

But I’m a procrastinator... If you are: A perfectionist Self-critical Resentful of never having time to enjoy your life Overwhelmed by all you have to do... Procrastination may be your way of coping

Ways to beat procrastination: Eliminate the words “must” and “should” from your self-talk. Instead, ask questions: – What can I do now? – When can I start on this project? – What is one small step I can take now? Work for 30-minute stretches and then reward yourself

Create an “Unschedule” Schedule in all your essential non-writing activities for the week Schedule in time for guilt-free socializing, family time, and self-care like exercise Leave the remaining time blank. After you’ve worked steadily for ½ hour on your writing project, write that into your unschedule

If all else fails, try

Questions before last exercise?

Exercise: Start Your Writing Project Write the first 100 words, or List five tasks you need to do to get started, or List possible sections, or Free-write article ideas

Research on Writers, Productivity, and Success Belcher, Wendy Laura: Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks Csikszentmihaly: Creativity and Flow Fiore: The Now Habit Johnson & Mullen, Write to the Top! Koch: The 80/20 Principle O’Hanlon: Write is a Verb Silvia: How to Write a Lot Stone: Time to Write