Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here.
In October 2019, two colleagues and I met to discuss a book project idea. After a day with a whiteboard and possibly too much caffeine, we mapped out the full project. By December 2019, we submitted the book proposal to our preferred publisher, and by January 2020 we had the editor’s go-ahead to proceed. We were on our way!
And then, the funniest thing happened.
I have written before about dealing with unexpected events. To once again quote Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Our original book plans took a number of punches to the mouth. Changing career roles. Academic leaves that didn’t happen. More pressures on our calendars than we anticipated. And of course a global pandemic.
Last week we submitted the manuscript. 🎉🎊🥳 It was seven months past our original submission goal (we gave our editor plenty of notice) but is SUBMITTED. We now await peer review and the next stages.
I like to use self-reflection when completing projects to figure out what worked and what didn’t. In thinking through this book project, a critical success factor I notice is how our team continued adapting our strategies to move the project forward as life kept changing around us.
And that is what today’s small thing to try immediately is all about.
One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Mix Up Your Writing Strategies
Academics tend to hold strong opinions about their writing approaches. Daily writing is the secret! No, binge-writing is the secret! No, blocked writing time is the secret!
In my experience, all of these approaches work, but under different circumstances. The trick is to use an approach until it stops working for you, and then switch to another. Here are the strategies that worked for us:
Chipping away. When we started the project with a lot of motivation and without the “punches in the mouth” to our plans, we were able to move the writing forward by simply … working on it. We had a shared Google Doc for each chapter and we all just plugged away. I used the Write for 10 Minutes approach. I am not sure what approach my coauthors used. It didn’t matter. We were making progress!
And then we weren’t.
Blocked cowriting time. While the initial enthusiasm for the project carried us for many months, it wasn’t long before other commitments pushed book writing onto the backburner for each of us. (See: “global pandemic” above). To reset, we agreed to all block time for writing each week - at the same time.
The blocked cowriting time was a game changer. We were working across three time zones and it took some coordination, but it was an extremely effective approach. We could see each other writing within Google Docs, which created a sense of team community. Because we were all focused on the book at the same time, we would share questions back and forth over Slack when needed. This blocked cowriting time approach worked for quite awhile. But then our schedules began to intrude upon these cowriting sessions. (See: “changing career roles” above.)
Time for another change!
Writing sprint. By late spring 2022, our book manuscript had officially moved into “past due” status. While the manuscript was close(ish) to “shitty first draft” status, it needed a push to get to there. A big push. Around that time, I was fortunate to learn about the writing sprint idea on Cathy Mazak’s Academic Writing Amplified podcast. As Cathy explains, “The idea is to give your attention to just one writing project for only two weeks and sprint to the finish line.”
My coauthors and I agreed to dedicate two weeks over the summer to getting the first draft done. That focused attention was what it took to get to the first manuscript draft. Once we had the first full manuscript, we returned to the blocked cowriting approach. We gave the manuscript a strong edit to fill in holes, tighten the argument, and get the manuscript to second draft. My amazing research assistant (👋) helped with manuscript preparation. And then we did a final review, took a deep breath, and hit “send” on the submission email.
The lesson I take away from all of this is that writing approaches work until they don’t. Once an approach quits working, there is always another approach to try. Forward is forward.
Another lesson is to pick your coauthors well. A special thank you to Lisa Young and Jonathan Malloy for being so fun to work with. Fingers crossed for positive peer reviews! 🤞
(Unrelated tip: if you are interested in Canadian politics - and who isn’t?!? - be sure to check out Lisa’s fantastic Substack, What now?!? An Alberta Politics newsletter. Strongly recommended.)
Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To
A quick update on some of my own activities since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:
My latest University Affairs The Skills Agenda column discusses using non-disposable assignments in teaching. Not sure what these are? Click the link and find out!
Returning home from Ottawa, my “get to the airport far earlier than needed” strategy was rewarded with an earlier flight. Shout out to anyone else who habitually shows up at airports on the assumption that the security line will take an hour to get through.
Until next time…
Are you working on a book project or another large project? If so, what approaches do you find effective to keep you moving forward? Please comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you!
P.S. The line “And then, the funniest thing happened” is from Bo Burnham’s song “All Eyes on Me.” He tells the story of how panic attacks that prevented him from performing for five years, and how he worked to get past this to return to the stage. As he explains, “I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020 I thought, "You know what? I should start performing again. I've been hiding from the world and I need to re-enter." And then, the funniest thing happened.” If you haven’t watched Inside, I strongly recommend it.
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