This is part two of my two-parter (Part I can be found here). The point of the two-part guest post is to demonstrate a shared experience: writer's block and insecurities are not unique to ECRs. The below post is from a professor at a very highly ranked research university (friends in high places!). The conversation, like so many in academia, began in a bar and took surprisingly little convincing, as we were discussing the struggle of getting a paper written. When asked for the requirements, my three part response was simple: 1) write honestly about the experience 2) be as frank as you wish 3) anonymity will cover 1 and 2.
So, without further ado, LaProfesseur, unabridged and unedited.
___
When theAdmin suggested I do a blog-style piece on the
extent to which experienced academics still suffer from writers’ block, I
thought: ‘Yeah! That’ll be fun! I’ll do that right away!’ That was about six months ago.
So, the answer, emphatically, is yes. Even when the stakes are pretty low (apart
from the threat of the ire* of theAdmin) some of us never do outgrow our
love-hate relationship with writing. I
love having written something. Actually
writing something, myehh, not so much.
I still experience many of the same symptoms that I did when I was a
novice keen to break in to the world of publishing but uncertain about how to
do it. That includes: many of the same insecurities about whether
I’m saying anything worthwhile; many of the same fears about certain Imagined
Readers (I have two Imagined Readers who can freeze me mid-sentence if they pop
into my mind); many of the same
infantile procrastination strategies (eyebrow plucking, anyone?). So if you are looking for reassurance that
you will outgrow bad habits and The Dreads, I’m sorry. So if not comfort, what can an an experienced
professor at a highly ranked research-intensive University offer to someone who
shares the writer’s block affliction but has only just started to publish? Empathy: definitely.
It’s hard. My sympathies. It’s not just you. And…perhaps a little advice on how I have
learnt to defeat myself (occasionally) at my own games. A few of my more successful strategies (that
is, sometimes they work) are below.
- · Strategy one: have a really solid outline. These are not so onerous to write and once it’s done, you really are on your way. This helps to focus the mind and start the flow. It also helps to impose coherence. Entropy is always a risk in the panic of writer’s-block-meets-deadline; a solid framework helps you to avoid it.
- · Strategy two: write something; anything. The tyranny of the blank page is a nightmare. Even a title, your name, a few references that you know you will use in the correct format for your target journal: it all creates a comforting sense of progress. I often infill sections of the outline that I know I can do easily or which I feel passionately about. You can worry about how it all holds together later.
- · Strategy three: speaking of flow, find it and go with it. I don’t know the provenance of the expression and wouldn’t recommend taking it literally, but I suspect this is the wisdom of ‘write drunk; edit sober’. Self-editing from a critical place is necessary eventually, but can be paralysing when you are trying to get into the flow.
- · Strategy four: replace those dreaded Imagined Readers with some friendly, supportive people that see things your way and will appreciate your work. Write for them first. In later editing, you can defend yourself against the others.
A theme is emerging here, which is about acknowledging
writing as a process with easier and more difficult stages. Making the difficult stages easier and
picking the low-hanging fruit of the easy stages allows you to get to a place
where you feel the article taking shape.
Then it’s okay to let your more critical self out of that dungeon in
your mind.
Ironically, I think I have a reputation for being pretty
reliable. In other words, I do usually
manage to get things done despite the procrastination and various forms of
torture I put myself through. For all my
flaws, I do respect both negotiated timelines and imposed deadlines; not
respecting them only makes things much worse. That is something I HAVE learnt and it is increasingly
true as work intensifies. Postponements
and creative blocks are rarely a product of having too much to do. You can make those deadlines too – and no-one
needs to know the agony behind the scenes.
*NB – the Admin doesn’t really do ire – follow her kind and
wise advice!
-LaProfesseur
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