tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post4026855400714186136..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: How Do We Write? Dysfunctional Academic WritingCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-72216774710760945242016-08-08T14:17:52.096-04:002016-08-08T14:17:52.096-04:00it was the best day possible for me to read this, ...it was the best day possible for me to read this, bruised and battered from a particularly painful supervision, yet given a boost by my lovely thesis mentor. I grew up in a vortex of chaos, confusion and inconsistency, which had it's pros and cons. The pros being that I truly believe it helped shape my very creative mind, however it also makes translating my creative ideas into something tangible and completing a task very challenging (my husband affectionately, calls me 'half a job'). I love writing and love words but don't think logically or chronologically. I make notes or write lists in mind map form. It's then tough to produce 10,000 logical words, but it's not impossible and not beyond me. I just have to accept the way that I work, focus on making it work, rather than letting it stop me from working. It's just wonderful to see there are alternative ways to achieve the same result. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09292670679673487889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-53654195617371554222015-09-11T23:08:44.815-04:002015-09-11T23:08:44.815-04:00And here it is -- the fruit of many, many fruitful...And here it is -- the fruit of many, many fruitful conversations. Please read it (open access online, inexpensive paperback), comment on the essays (here or elsewhere), and let us know how *you* write: http://punctumbooks.com/titles/how-we-write/Suzannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08327248861097858131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-70566332111302865602015-07-08T05:23:07.446-04:002015-07-08T05:23:07.446-04:00Thank you so much for this post. I'm stilll&qu...Thank you so much for this post. I'm stilll" in the trenches" but now with more hope since I know that my "non-method" is actually a shared method. I feel less this "complete charlatan" !<br />I wasn't member of any writing groups but use to go to the library or to work home with friends, and we would agree on when we would do a break, and also on our goals for the day. It work, not only because there was some commitment involved, but also because we were together and I felt less like an hermit. While writing has to be done by oneself, it is a great confort to do it alongside with other people... And so is it to read your experiences and see that you managed to finish your PhD and to get a job ! Again, thank you very much for this post. Sorry if my english is somehow broken, I'm french :-)Morwennanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-74941199390282233122015-06-11T16:37:37.592-04:002015-06-11T16:37:37.592-04:00I am grateful for the reassurance from several of ...I am grateful for the reassurance from several of the above commenters that writing practices change over time. I am currently experiencing such a change, which happens to be occurring post-dissertation as I begin revising the project into a book. I am not sure whether it is the change in location, or life situation, or project (or some combination of all three) that has made my process shift, but it is definitely in flux, and I've been worried about that. What has stayed the same for me, however, is that I do my best writing during the revision process, not during new composition, so I have to write far enough in advance of deadlines that I can give myself time to do the real heavy-duty lifting work of revising (which is such hard hard work, but satisfying and yes, exhilarating). Key for me throughout dissertating and since then is a weekly writing group for support and accountability.Emily HRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02763404379207276723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1723226338619931762015-06-08T11:33:39.728-04:002015-06-08T11:33:39.728-04:00Words can't express how moving it is to see th...Words can't express how moving it is to see the outpouring of comments -- directly on this blogpost, on Fbook, through email, and in person -- arising from the conversation that was initiated by Michael Collins's blogpost (linked above), and which includes this recent intervention:<br /><br />https://theaccidentalphilologist.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/the-community-you-have-the-community-you-need-building-an-online-accountability-group/<br /><br />I'm hoping to gather these, and to collect a few more accounts, to make an assemblage of short pieces that are about not how TO write, but how WE write -- in all its messy, productive, frustrating, thrilling reality. So thank you for these comments! And please keep them coming.Suzanne Akbarinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-70157235024123366922015-06-08T08:01:38.535-04:002015-06-08T08:01:38.535-04:00Hi everyone
This post reached me by way of my sist...Hi everyone<br />This post reached me by way of my sister. I am in Ireland; she is in New Zealand. The wonders of social media allowed her to connect me to this discussion. And as have others, I'd like to thank you for pursuing this thought about being dysfunctional and how productive it can be!<br /><br />I too have had to learn to write my own way. In recent weeks there has been a series of short articles by fiction writers outlining how they write: in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning, only with sustenance, always with a ritual, never with a ritual. And so on. That gave me such heart. Despite having produced a few books and a number of articles that I am proud to call my own, I have often struggled with the idea that I should do it 'better'. Colleagues who advise me they are up late at night after the children have gone to bed, or first thing in the morning before their commute to campus, have always left me with a lingering sense of being somehow inadequate. That's not how I work; but I do work. And I love it when that work of writing is done in a way that feels right to me because that creates the conditions for my ideas, my little unique contribution, to take form.<br /><br />I share these kinds of stories with my students as they struggle with their own sense of how to begin. So many resources do not, to me, give any sense of the embodied author. I would love to see resources flow from this discussion and I'd be delighted to support it in any way, shape or form. Thank you both, and to all who have contributed comments. Oh, and thanks Tina for connecting me :-).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13369762154726497551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-49365742710407508662015-06-08T08:00:43.810-04:002015-06-08T08:00:43.810-04:00Hi everyone
This post reached me by way of my sist...Hi everyone<br />This post reached me by way of my sister. I am in Ireland; she is in New Zealand. The wonders of social media allowed her to connect me to this discussion. And as have others, I'd like to thank you for pursuing this thought about being dysfunctional and how productive it can be!<br /><br />I too have had to learn to write my own way. In recent weeks there has been a series of short articles by fiction writers outlining how they write: in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning, only with sustenance, always with a ritual, never with a ritual. And so on. That gave me such heart. Despite having produced a few books and a number of articles that I am proud to call my own, I have often struggled with the idea that I should do it 'better'. Colleagues who advise me they are up late at night after the children have gone to bed, or first thing in the morning before their commute to campus, have always left me with a lingering sense of being somehow inadequate. That's not how I work; but I do work. And I love it when that work of writing is done in a way that feels right to me because that creates the conditions for my ideas, my little unique contribution, to take form.<br /><br />I share these kinds of stories with my students as they struggle with their own sense of how to begin. So many resources do not, to me, give any sense of the embodied author. I would love to see resources flow from this discussion and I'd be delighted to support it in any way, shape or form. Thank you both, and to all who have contributed comments. Oh, and thanks Tina for connecting me :-).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13369762154726497551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-23854761310323917002015-06-05T10:13:58.255-04:002015-06-05T10:13:58.255-04:00Such a great two-voiced post & generous commen...Such a great two-voiced post & generous comment thread. Somewhat similar to what Maura describes above, we've been having faculty & grad students do process-related events & talks. One set of these talked is keyed to book publications, so it's perhaps more triumphant and certainly less funny than this post by Suzanne and Alexandra. But the idea is to configure the big tent of the English dept, from First-Year Writing classrooms to grad students to faculty, as all struggling with the same writerly struggles. We're trying to promote a culture of awareness and a sense of writing as multiple and messy. And, btw, after just having spent the last week working with the copy-edited ms of a book that'll be out next fall, I certainly agree that the fear of exposure never goes away. It's a strange feeling to send words out into the world.Steve Mentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02927244468764583378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-89485767688547021242015-06-05T10:13:49.364-04:002015-06-05T10:13:49.364-04:00Maura, thanks - Jeffrey also made the point, in co...Maura, thanks - Jeffrey also made the point, in comments elsewhere, that writing strategies can change... and while my basic approach hasn't - it's true I do now use every spare moment I have on writing, bc there are so few. So I write on train, I write while walking to train (in notebook, I look cray cray), I write while feeding kids dinner - etc. But I still only do it when that deadline is right there. <br /><br />And you are sweet to say - 'not how I normally do it' on your response - truth is, I gave you no option: Wed for a Sat paper. Let me say as I have elsewhere but not here, the thing I cannot not self-flagellate about, is the way my techniques inconvenience others - when I am late, when I am writing up to 11th hour, all those things. I quite seriously dislike that about myself. I am working on it (and getting a little better).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08624771366686560907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-44893379205489238992015-06-05T07:59:56.694-04:002015-06-05T07:59:56.694-04:00Thanks, Alex, for saying that -- they were 6000 br...Thanks, Alex, for saying that -- they were 6000 brilliant words, too! Responding to you was such a pleasure that I found myself writing a whole lot very fast, which is not the way I normally work.<br /><br />A couple of thoughts occur to me in response to you and Suzanne. The first is that writing habits change over time in response to our life circumstances; what works when you are young and healthy doesn't always work later in life, for example; you might acquire a disability of some kind that changes the way you do work; you might have a baby, which for a lot of people dramatically changes the way they write (while once they had to have perfect writing conditions, a full day set aside, a beautiful clean space, etc, they learn to be satisfied with a snatched twenty minutes of naptime, with the iPad on a kitchen table covered in toast crumbs and last night's dishes!), you might become an administrator, which can similarly fracture writing time, and so on. So while early in life it is about finding what works for you, what your writing style is all about, later in life it becomes much more about fitting writing into the limitations that your body and your family and your job set for it,<br /><br />The second thought I had is that these conversations are really good for undergraduates to share, too. We did an event in the English Department at Berkeley called "How I Write," in which a panel of grad students and faculty spoke to undergrads about how they got motivated to sit down and write, what they did when they finally sat down at the computer, and so on. What we found was that it was hugely transformative for the undergrads to hear that writing was hard for their teachers! They had all assumed that by the time you were a grad student, and *certainly* by the time you were a faculty member, you were good at writing, and being good at writing meant that it was easy for you to do. So professors just sit down and whip out books in no time flat! Therefore, they assumed that the fact that they struggled with writing means that they weren't very good at it. When our undergrads heard senior faculty members with multiple books talk about how hard it was to make themselves write every day, or at all, they realized that *writing is hard for everyone*--and the fact that you find it hard does NOT mean that you are bad at doing it.Maura Nolannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-78709142054542582512015-06-04T05:35:37.972-04:002015-06-04T05:35:37.972-04:00One of the best pieces of advice I got when I star...One of the best pieces of advice I got when I started my PhD was to find my "two golden hours" per day and exploit them. I found that I write best mid-morning and did my best to ensure that I had at least a few mid-mornings per week free to write...of course this didn't always work, but when it was good it was really good! I also started a "shut up and write" group (still ongoing). Having these regular writing sessions is great because it takes the isolation out of writing and gives peers and colleagues a chance to talk about their work, any problems they are having with their writing etc. Thanks for writing this post! I think it's something we need to keep talking about.Donna Maria ALexanderhttp://americasstudies.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-81190770312961755072015-06-02T12:23:26.204-04:002015-06-02T12:23:26.204-04:00Thank you so much for this, Suzanne and Alex! It&#...Thank you so much for this, Suzanne and Alex! It's so moving and empowering to know that some of the people I look up to most in academia use and have made successful writing practices which I've internalized as 'bad'.Anna Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11501983444625970733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-52281200691473341892015-06-01T10:16:33.504-04:002015-06-01T10:16:33.504-04:00Check out another perspective too, sparked by my c...Check out another perspective too, sparked by my collaboration with Karen Overbey, posted on the Material Collective website: http://thematerialcollective.org/working-practice/<br />Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10260881414969867744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-40876668662473899602015-05-31T22:43:16.798-04:002015-05-31T22:43:16.798-04:00What a wonderful discussion and what fascinating w...What a wonderful discussion and what fascinating writing stories. The flip side of self-contempt, I think, is that it's important to communicate to students that writing habits are not fixed but can be developed and modified if and when necessary. I don't mean "everyone can write 300 words a day" but rather: if your approach to writing is very much your own, but still produces lots of stress and unhappiness (and contempt), are there ways to make changes that make it more about pleasure and less about agony? My approach to writing has always been close to Alex's and Suzanne's, but in the years between the dissertation and the first book I worked hard to be ready for the lightning burst without having to stand out in the rain shivering miserably for too long waiting for it. Or at least to wear a raincoat. And I've found that making deliberate changes has resulted in a more pleasurable relationship to my own writing process.David Goldsteinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42151290603031111072015-05-31T19:02:02.447-04:002015-05-31T19:02:02.447-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Friends of Margaret Fairley Parkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09580157660300620860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-37854548367826046052015-05-31T18:03:56.251-04:002015-05-31T18:03:56.251-04:00To practice being ok in my own skin, I try judge w...To practice being ok in my own skin, I try judge without judging. My favourite students - the ones on whose essays I write the most enthusiastic comments - are often low C and D students - bc I am like, well, either you have some pathology/silliness that means you fail to see you need to try harder; or you have some kind of impediment to learning; or you just need to learn more - all of which, I can help with! And I sure do love to "help". Same goes for reading of manuscripts and articles and stuff. I do lose my cool when I spot an asshole though. Like a privileged scholar who is just taking the piss, as we say in my country. Anyway ,all this helps me be a bit more accepting of my own failings. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08624771366686560907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-63570211765650875122015-05-31T11:15:10.013-04:002015-05-31T11:15:10.013-04:00On self-contempt: it is real, and I think many of ...On self-contempt: it is real, and I think many of us have it. Alex is right that it can be crippling early on and becomes less so over time, but we still tend to hide it, even as established scholars. It emerges, I think, from the very habits of mind that make us good scholars: we judge, almost constantly, the merit of work - the articles we read for research, the book ms we read for a press, abstract submissions, student work - and so naturally we judge ourselves as well. This is a good thing, because we hold ourselves to the same high standard we hold others. But while with a ms review, a tenure file, or a student paper, we begin by praising the positive before turning to critique, we rarely stop to praise ourselves. Suzannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08327248861097858131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-49601344189231658222015-05-31T11:01:08.691-04:002015-05-31T11:01:08.691-04:00On self-contempt - well, it's real right? For ...On self-contempt - well, it's real right? For whatever reason I don't experience it with respect to my writing practice and never did - but heaps of people do (and I experience it in other places in my academic life). Almost all my PhD supervisees exhibit some degree of self-loathing about their writing practice. It's quite something to see someone as established as Suzanne express the feeling honestly, and yet lightly. The lightness is critical: the difference between my younger and older selves' self-contempt, is that when younger it was cripplingly painful. Now it's more, wryly amused. I find my pathologies endearing - I like them, bc I like myself (most of the time). Suzanne has to speak for herself, but it seems to me that she doesn't take her self-contempt, any more than she takes herself, overly seriously. When I say - practice patience and empathy with yourself, I'd say, for god's sake don't beat yourself up for beating yourself up, if you can help it, bc you can't help it! Chillax about being totally not chillaxed! And other paradoxes.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08624771366686560907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-31532686436802465262015-05-31T10:50:30.617-04:002015-05-31T10:50:30.617-04:00It's funny that to me, both Suzanne's and ...It's funny that to me, both Suzanne's and Alex' styles seem to be quite similar, and both seem to fit into my own writing... It's truly amazing to see that the best people out there do not exactly fit into the XYZ-words-per day model! For myself, I TRY to discipline the process by giving myself impossible deadlines and limits ("I *will* write 5 pages a day every day, to finish the chapter in two weeks") so that even when I finish half of what I intended to, it's still enough, and I think that corresponds to the productive anxiety, or fear, that Alex wrote about. But for me, it's inseparable with that sense of readiness and ripeness that only comes after structured procrastination, that Suzanne wrote about. Except, for me, the best time to chew over any academic thoughts, arguments, conclusions, and even doing close reading, in my head, is when I'm doing something physical. Preferably, gym :O My students struggle with various aspects of writing, from the very *sit down and start* moment, to the more risky, and tiresome, blocks on the way. But I absolutely agree that self knowledge is key here, because "success is 10% discipline and 90% self-knowledge" as a friend of mine always says. With permission, I am going to show this blog to some of my students (and I am going to read it again myself!), for encouragement,tips on how to learn what your style is, and accept it as your own individual way of writinh. So, thank you so much!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04573579116371111555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-74286658544536840182015-05-31T10:33:56.852-04:002015-05-31T10:33:56.852-04:00Thanks, Suzanne and Alex, for this excellent guest...Thanks, Suzanne and Alex, for this excellent guest post. It is good to know we ALL struggle with writing and we all know its pleasures as well, no matter the career stage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2011/08/habit-routine-writing-and-creating.html" rel="nofollow">I wrote a little bit about my own writing process a a few years ago here </a>, and the same routines [as well as breaking out of the sameness of routine] assist me in getting writing accomplished. There are some GREAT comments to that post so I'd encourage anyone reading this to follow the link.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-54628288101556016512015-05-31T02:30:49.691-04:002015-05-31T02:30:49.691-04:00I don't understand why Suzanne is so hard on h...I don't understand why Suzanne is so hard on herself? Every other sentence seems to be self-deprecating to the point of self-contempt. If it works, celebrate it. I am a novelist as well as an academic and I work like this in both modes.Victoria Whitworthhttp://vmwhitworth.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1260762116425665792015-05-30T22:51:58.100-04:002015-05-30T22:51:58.100-04:00Thank you so much for initiating this conversation...Thank you so much for initiating this conversation (Michael) and for offering these reflections (Suzanne and Alex). We need to demystify how writing happens and be more upfront about the process. There are so many aspects of academic life that can be a kind of mysterious "black box" -- especially for grad students and earlier-stage scholars -- and whenever we can break things open and be more transparent, it can offer some degree of comfort and reassurance.Jonathan Hsyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13214201468052661183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-46160078376792300332015-05-30T21:26:18.795-04:002015-05-30T21:26:18.795-04:00Thank you, Heide! It would be great to learn more ...Thank you, Heide! It would be great to learn more about your experiences, and those of your students -- the more of these stories of personal writing practice we get into circulation, the better.Suzanne Akbarinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-59569832497178848402015-05-30T18:08:15.897-04:002015-05-30T18:08:15.897-04:00So, so, so good. Thank you!So, so, so good. Thank you!Irinahttp://irinadumitrescu.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-62908023418788738052015-05-30T16:51:10.707-04:002015-05-30T16:51:10.707-04:00I love this. Thank you. I write in long apparently...I love this. Thank you. I write in long apparently unproductive gaps followed by fits of activity, and I routinely do tell my students that they have to find their own way of writing -- but I still am very glad to hear others work in the same way. Thank you for opening up about your own writing, and thank you for the opportunity to have this conversation. I will be sending students to this post.Heide Esteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08022964463219865228noreply@blogger.com