Jump Starting Your Summer Writing Practice

Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite season. There is something about the quality of the light, the blueness of the sky that settles my soul. But I love summer for the change of pace—the days are longer, the mornings are a bit slower, life feels simpler. I have more time to read, reflect, and pursue personal and professional goals.

For many of us working in higher education, summer gives us space to design new courses or retool existing ones and to engage in extended periods of research and writing. But with the broad expanse of summer stretching before us, we might struggle to take the first steps toward achieving our research and writing goals.

Here are four strategies for developing a professional writing practice that will ensure your goals are within reach by September.

1. Make regular appointments for writing. We know from research that expert performance results from deliberate practice or sustained engagement in an activity that demands intense concentration. Writing more frequently—at least four times a week if possible—increases fluency and minimizes the time it takes to warm up between sessions.

These writing appointments don’t need to be long. Start with 20 minutes a day if that is all the time you have. In fact, more extended sessions might be counterproductive. Four hours is the maximum amount of time that most people can sustain deliberate practice. I mostly wrote my dissertation in one-hour sessions before my toddler woke up in the morning. These short, early-morning sessions were supplemented by longer sessions holed up in my office on campus.

Does it matter when you write? The best time to write is when you can protect the time on your calendar and when you are most likely to honor the commitment. That said, experts often engage in activities requiring deliberate practice (e.g., writing, playing an instrument, developing a specific skill) in the morning. Research suggests our capacity for sustained, engaged, and demanding cognitive activity is greatest in the morning. From a practical standpoint, you are less likely to get derailed (e.g., pulled into an emergency meeting) if your appointment is early in the day.

2. Set a task goal for each writing session. In addition to setting aside a specific amount of time for writing, your sessions are likely to be more productive if you identify a specific task or tasks that you would like to accomplish. Your goal might be to review and synthesize an article you would like to include in your literature review, write a portion of your method section, or it might be writing 250 words (about 1 manuscript page).

You may also want to have a list of important tasks that don’t require a lot of bandwidth for the days when you just don’t feel like writing. These might include cross-checking in-text citations against the reference list and adding missing citations, formatting citations, tracking down page numbers for direct quotes, requesting required permissions, and proofing tables and figures, among other tasks.

3. Cultivate a writing colleague or support group. In The Work of Writing, Elizabeth Rankin highlights the value of writing with others. She suggests finding a trusted colleague who can read your work and offer you feedback (and for whom you are willing to do the same). Your writing partner doesn’t have to be in the same discipline. In fact, having people outside your research area respond to your work can be particularly valuable—especially if you are looking for ways to engage non-academic audiences with your writing.

To make the most of accountability circles or a writing partner, establish a regular meeting time to discuss your writing projects. Commit to producing some writing for each session and hold your partner or group members (and yourself) accountable for that commitment.

The pandemic has made in-person writing groups more challenging, but virtual meetings can boost your productivity. I am currently participating in a group coaching program, where we meet via Zoom one Sunday afternoon a month to work on current projects. Our facilitator opens the session by asking us to share our goals for the session. We all log off Zoom for 90 minutes or so and then come back together for a 15-minute debrief to close out the session. I find these sessions incredibly productive, and I love hearing about what other people are working on.

4. Start an idea file. So, I have presumed that you have a project you are currently working on, but what if you are just getting started and trying to find ideas for your professional writing? Here are a couple of strategies for doing just that.

• Jot down ideas that you would like to write about in a physical notebook, in a Word doc dedicated for this purpose, or a notetaking app (I’m currently using Notion, but I have also used OneNote extensively). Take 5 minutes and write as much as you can about the idea. Even if you don’t come back to it for six months, taking a few minutes to flesh it out means you’ll be ready to run with it when the right time emerges.

• Keep a running list of places where people in your field publish. In addition to top-tier research journals, think about newsletters, practitioner-focused outlets, or policy publications that might offer you a wider audience and more opportunities for entering the conversation. Match your ideas with publications from your list.

• Create a commonplace book. Commonplace books have a long history and are systems for recording facts, observations, memorable quotes, and more. The items recorded might serve as inspiration or models for your own writing. You can create your commonplace book with a notebook, 3x5 cards, or simply by opening the notes app on your smartphone. I have recently taken to keeping a 3x5 card in whatever book I am reading—it makes a great bookmark and offers me a place to jot down ideas about future writing projects or my impressions of the book. When I am finished with the book, I transfer the notes to a more permanent location.

Developing a writing practice is highly personalized. Your mileage with these strategies may vary. If you are looking for more ideas, Helen Sword’s Air & Light & Time & Space offers insight into many techniques used by successful scholarly writers.

You might also consider working with a writing coach who can help you identify strategies that work for your current situation and project. A writing coach can also provide accountability for putting those strategies into practice.

Let’s connect if you would like to explore working with a writing coach.