rebeccmeister | Writing for Work (Reply)

I think I've mentioned that I just finished reading How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing, by Paul Silvia. He's a psychologist, so the book's audience is psychology professors. But when it gets down to it, biologists have plenty in common with psychologists, including the need to develop and maintain a productive writing schedule. I've been trying to treat this postdoc as a chance to develop into a full-fledged scientist, and part of that involves figuring out how to manage the whole process of science, from coming up with ideas and designing experiments, to conducting the experiments and collecting data, to analyzing samples and then data, and then writing up findings. I need to do writing in more than just that context, however. Scientists also have to write grants to obtain funding to pay themselves, to cover the costs of experiments, and to pay other people. I just finished writing a grant for funding for an awesome undergraduate minion, for example. This summer, I need to write more grants for whatever job I take on next. I'll need to write more job applications in the fall, too.

It doesn't stop there, either. Inasmuch as I wish to make scientific contributions, I must also evaluate the contributions of my scientific peers, by reviewing manuscripts submitted to journals in my field. That involves writing, too.

It's a lot of writing, which raises the question of what practices one should use to manage it all relative to other aspects of one's work. Silva does a good job of debunking many of the excuses people use for not getting more writing done, and you know, I have to listen to him. After all, my time as a postdoc is just about the only time in my career when I'll ever have this tremendous amount of scheduling flexibility. It's a double-edged sword, though, because free time can also mean extra time to procrastinate. Facebook has never been so thoroughly checked. At least up until now.

So far, in this first week of trying to schedule my writing time, I've seen a pattern develop. When I sit down to write at my scheduled writing time, I start a bit slowly and check the clock. Minutes drag on. Internet isn't allowed. If I'm stuck, I have to stare at the wall of the grim, empty postdoc office. But then, by the time the finish time rolls around, I'm not finished and want to keep going! I've had the luxury of doing so, for this week, usually for an additional hour. Next week, well, we'll see what happens.

I keep reading things that suggest scheduling writing time, but most of them then say, "For example, I write best first thing in the morning, so I leap out of bed, dash over to my typewriter, and get to work for an hour or two before I even have breakfast."

You'd think something like that would work well for me, as a morning person. Au contraire, I've never been that sort of person. It's probably because I either wake up with a list of ambitions, or I wake up to go rowing. I'm just not ready to write until I've had time to recover from rowing and work on other things. For now, I start in the midafternoon. Dissertation-writing also gave me a good indicator of my writing stamina. On my best dissertation-writing days, I would write for three or four hours in the morning, then eat lunch and go in to campus, then write for another three or four hours. Three hours in one sitting is therefore enough.

Silva suggests keeping a log of one's writing activities - he keeps a spreadsheet, which allows him to datamine his writing habits, and which also serves as a motivator, much as keeping track of one's spending habits helps keep mindless spending habits in check.

I am my father's daughter. I can feel the urge to start the spreadsheet coming on.