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Elements of Writing Productivity

The document discusses strategies for improving writing productivity, recommending establishing a daily writing routine of short, frequent sessions rather than long binges, maintaining physical and emotional comfort while writing, and finding social support through writing groups to develop accountability mechanisms that can increase productivity four-fold compared to writing alone. Key recommendations include committing to writing for 15 minutes per day, breaking large projects into manageable chunks, and rewarding accomplishments to form beneficial habits.

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Younes El Manz
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165 views

Elements of Writing Productivity

The document discusses strategies for improving writing productivity, recommending establishing a daily writing routine of short, frequent sessions rather than long binges, maintaining physical and emotional comfort while writing, and finding social support through writing groups to develop accountability mechanisms that can increase productivity four-fold compared to writing alone. Key recommendations include committing to writing for 15 minutes per day, breaking large projects into manageable chunks, and rewarding accomplishments to form beneficial habits.

Uploaded by

Younes El Manz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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At Least One Small Thing a Day: The Elements of Writing Productivity

Michelle LaFrance, Ph.D.


Director, Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing productively is about actions you could easily do. Making a schedule, setting clear goals,
keeping tack of your work, rewarding yourself, and building good habits.
Paul Silva, How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing (2007)
Daily Routine/Frequent Short Writing Sessions
A sometimes counterintuitive and difficult habit to build, which has proven to be effective for many
writers. 15 minutes each day is recommended and no more than 2 hours. Why?
Binging corresponds to low productivity (Boice 1987).
o [O]ne never feels truly ready (Albrecth and Polehemus 1997).
o When a project has gone cold, warm-up time/getting back into the piece can take up
an entire longer session.
o It is a misconception that making progress requires longer sessions.
o Our ideas about the effectiveness of our work often correlate with mood, level of
tiredness, and other emotional factorsthe goal is to write through these suppressants.
o Binges may reinforce negative associations with our writing sessions.
Writers who follow a routine or a schedule have been shown to be more productive over time:
o From Albrecth and Polehemus 1997: Faculty who find an hour per weekday to work on
their research generally manage to submit about 1.5 manuscripts per year.
o From Boice 1989 and 1997: Binge writers completed about 17 pages a year on average.
Those who wrote daily, however, completed an average of 157 pages a year.
Mindfulness/Physical and Emotional Comfort
Academics do not frequently talk about the emotional life that accompanies the professional
research/writing life. Strive to build a positive and enlivening relationship with your writing.
Anxiety, fear, dread, and other strong emotions can seriously impede writers (Keyes 1995).
Boices research also found that mindfulness (here, denoting an awareness about emotions and
physical reactions to situations) was key to maintaining productivity (1992).
Take breaks. (No session longer than two hourseven when its going well!)
All those strategies that keep marriages/relationships working effectively apply here as well:
Kindness, listening, acknowledgement, validation, excitement, dates, rewards, planning, etc.
Your body is as important as your writing brain. (Your body will remember discomfortNot a
great undercurrent to have for those who feel overwhelmed, anxious, or uncertain already.)
Social Support/Engaged Communities
Writers Groups are discussed by many who research writing productivity as a key component of success.
As Moore (2003) notes from her work with faculty writers, People writing as part of a
community of writers are more likely to learn faster about the conventions and challenges of
writing, to support each other at times of blockage, and to demystify the process of writing by
sharing each others successes and failures.
Some write consistently well without having to talk about it Belcher (2009) suggests, but most
of us need to admit our struggles [as writers] if we are to move beyond them.
Use group time to talk briefly about how you feel (imposter syndrome or fear of success, anyone?), to
share and set goals, discuss progress, and reflect on what makes your writing project and process
yours. (See Grant & Knowles 2000.)

Mechanisms of Accountability
A number of researchers on writing productivity argue for the importance of developing mechanisms of
accountability.
Grays (2010) work with faculty writers, for instance, has demonstrated that writers who share the
daily progress they make in small groups outperform writers without mechanisms of
accountability by a factor of four. These mechanisms not only support writers in keeping to
their writing schedules, but also keep them focused on small steps and daily progressthe
primary factor that leads to more prolific writing output for professionals at all stages of their
careers.
Getting Started with Your Plan:
Its takes time and focused intention to build a new habit.
Set goalsbut check them. (Keep goals realistic. Practice self-care in your goal setting.)
Commit yourself to one small thing a day (or 15 minutes of writing). You can increase this once
the habit is developed. Complement these shorter sessions with weekly or bi-weekly longer sessions.
The old adage of writing first thing in the morning holds trueto avoid interruptions, calls to
firefighting, and other distractionsDO NOT OPEN YOUR EMAIL.
Break up the project into manageable chunks, e.g. This week, Ill work on my methods section.
Keep your iPad, a notebook/paper with you at all times, so that you can take advantage of spare
moments. Once you get into this process and a project gets rolling the momentum will build.
Moments of insight will occur with more frequency.
Keep track of how many pages, words, or tasks you complete. Reward your successes!
Keep a to-do list for your project, so that you know what to do next when youve completed a
task.
Be prepared with strategies for when the writing gets hard. What will you do if you are blocked?
Cant find that source? Cant quite figure out how to do THE THING?
Talk to other writers about their experiences, strategies, work habits, and struggles.
Remember: Everyone falls off the productivity wagon. All you have to do is get back on when

you realize youre off track.

Select Sources

Albrecth, Steve W. & Craig E. Polehemus. (1997). Habits of research productivity. Accounting Education News.
(http://aaahq.org/facdev/research/aen/ltfall97/item19.htm).
Boice, Robert. (1989). Procrastination, busyness and bingeing. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 27: 605-611.
---. (1992). Combined treatments for writing blocks. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 30: 107-116.
---. (1997). Which is more productive, writing in binge patterns of creative illness or in moderation? Written
Communication, 14: 435-459.
Grant, B. & Knowles, S. (2000). Flights of imagination: academic women be(com)ing writers. International Journal for
Academic Development, 5.1: 6-19.
Gray, Tara. (2010). Publish and flourish: become a prolific scholar. Ashland, Oh: Bookmaster, Inc.
Jenson, Joli. On scholarly writing. https://chroniclevitae.com/news/tags/On%20Scholarly%20Writing?cid=vbl
Keyes, Ralph. (1995). The courage to write: how writers transcend fear. NY: Holt.
Silva, Paul J. (2007). How to write a lot: a practical guide to productive academic writing. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.

To consult with us, please email: [email protected]

Our website: wac.gmu.edu

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