Dr Catherine Pope

Most of us start out with good intentions to get some writing done. Then we hear the unwelcome voice of our Inner Critic: “You’re not really a writer” … “Who on earth are you, anyway?” … “Have you seen the state of the kitchen floor?” Sometimes this adversary can be silenced with a chocolate biscuit, but often a more robust method is necessary. It starts with ABCDE.

ABCDE is a tool developed by Professor Martin Seligman, one of the founders of Positive Psychology. His books Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism are indispensable for unpicking the stories we tell ourselves and how that affects our lives.

Here’s how you might use ABCDE to overcome your writing challenge.

A is for ADVERSITY – Consider the situation you’re in right now and describe it in as much detail as possible. But here’s the thing: you have to do so using only facts. So, it’s OK to say “I didn’t get any writing done today,” or “I missed my deadline,” but not “I’m a useless piece of baggage.”

B is for BELIEFS – What did the situation say to you? Did it confirm any long-held beliefs, such as “I’m not really a writer,” “I simply don’t have time”? Look out for any absolutes, e.g. “I never get anything done,” or “This always happens”.

C is for CONSEQUENCES – How did that make you feel? And what were the consequences? Did you abandon all hope of getting anything done and eat a tube of Pringles instead? Note, these are the consequences of your beliefs and not of the situation. If you’re familiar with Cognitive Based Therapy (CBT) you’ll probably know that our thoughts cause feelings that then determine our actions. Once we’re aware of what’s going on up there, we can intervene.

D is for DISPUTE – We’re not going to sit back and take this nonsense – it’s time to deploy some hard-nosed evidence. I probably don’t know you, but I’m willing to bet you’ve achieved a great deal in your life. This is unlikely to be the first time you’ve attempted a piece of writing. What’s your track record? Did you successfully complete a Masters’ dissertation, publish a book, or submit a journal article? If not, there will be other comparable achievements that seemed impossible at the time, yet you actually conquered. It shouldn’t take you long to establish that those Beliefs above just aren’t true.

E is for ENERGISE – Next, reflect on how you’re feeling now. What’s happened to your mood? Can you see any solutions that were invisible in that pit of despair? Are you ready to get going again in the knowledge that this writing challenge is completely within your capabilities? The Inner Critic won’t necessarily go away, but you’ll be able to vanquish it in moments.

This exercise is especially effective if you write down your responses. It’s then easy for you to whip out the document in moments of despond. Although it can take a matter of moments for our mood to slump, it can just as quickly move in the opposite direction. In short, trust the evidence, not your emotions.

You can download an ABCDE worksheet in either PDF or Word format.

If you’d like more support with your writing, I offer 1-2-1 coaching by phone or in person.

It’s all very well having a plan for your writing, but how do you actually get going? “I’ll just quickly check Twitter, then I’ll make a start on this chapter.” 5 hours later, it’s time for dinner. In this post, I’ll share three strategies for dealing with an unwelcome visit from the Procrastination Fairy.

1.Think about why you’re procrastinating

• Are you bored? Find a part that stimulates you and start there.
• Is it hard? Why is it hard? Do you fully understand your research material. Perhaps there’s a gap in your knowledge? (NB: this is not an excuse to read another 500 journal articles).
• Does nothing make sense? Go back to the planning stage. This will save you time, as you’ll write much faster with a clearer sense of where you’re going.
• Would you rather be doing something else? Remind yourself why you’re doing this and how pleased you’ll be when it’s done.
• Distracted by other ideas? Write them down, then get back to the task.

2. Try some warm-up exercises

Most of us can’t suddenly switch into writer mode and expect words to tumble from our fingertips. Easing yourself in gradually gives your brain a chance to adapt and focus. Five minutes’ freewriting is the perfect warm-up exercise. The point of freewriting is that you just keep going: type whatever’s in your head, and don’t stop to reflect or edit. If you’re terrified of what’s in your head, you could try some prompts:

• What are you most excited about?
• Why is this research important?
• How has your thinking changed?

I often find this last prompt particularly helpful. Usually, a slump for me is caused by pursuing an argument that has actually shifted. By examining that shift, I can suddenly see the path ahead. One of the challenges of academic writing is that our ideas are constantly evolving, even as we’re trying to capture them. They’re slippery little beasts.

3) Set yourself a modest target

Do you have a masochistic streak? Congratulations, you’re eminently suited to being an academic. We’re Olympians at making stuff difficult for ourselves. If you’re struggling, try a more kindly approach by setting yourself an embarrassingly small target. Does 500 words feel overwhelming? Aim for 50. Still too much? How about a sentence? Keep going till it’s manageable. After all, you can only write one word at a time. Those words become sentences; the sentences form paragraphs, and so on. Slow progress is better than no progress.

If you can squeeze out 500 words per day, this would add up to 10,000 words over a month. Yes, really! Steady progress is wonderfully motivating and much easier to sustain. To keep track of your efforts, you could stick a chart on your door and make a mark for every day you’ve achieved your goal – try not to break the chain. This 30-Day Challenge from Austin Kleon is ideal. There’s even space to set yourself a reward: a taco dinner / a pony / your life back.

I hope that helps. Please do share any tips in the comments below. In my next post, I’ll be talking about the importance of creating time for writing, and staying focused.

As a writer, there’s nothing more intimidating than a blank screen. As we stare into the void, our brain goes into spasm and is unable to retrieve even rudimentary ideas. Anything that does pop into our head feels like utter rubbish. No wonder it’s often easier to faff about on Facebook or talk to the cat.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through three simple planning techniques to make your next piece of writing less daunting. You can use them in sequence, mix and match, or adapt them for your purpose.

1) Think About Your Audience

Unless you’re keeping a secret diary, the main aim here is to get ideas out of your head and into somebody else’s. Often we’re so befuddled by our own thoughts that we forget to think about the reader. What do they actually want or need from us? Drafting responses to the following questions can help structure your content and improve focus.

• Who is your audience? e.g. expert / peer / examiner / general public
• What do you want them to know? e.g what’s important or exciting about your research?
• What do they want to know? e.g are they looking for an introduction, originality, or evidence of impact?
• What do they already know? e.g. can you omit some of the context and get straight to your argument?
• What don’t they know? e.g. do you need to explain your terminology or set the scene?

2) Tell Your Story

Now you’ve worked out what you need to include, you can move on to the narrative of your piece. You might think that narratives are for novelists, but us researchers are also telling stories: what we did, why we did it, who was involved, what happened next. Your reader will appreciate a strong storyline to propel them through your article or chapter.

First, consider your starting point. How are you going to pique the reader’s interest? You might quote an alarming statistic, challenge a misconception, or promise a new perspective on an old problem.

Next, decide on your endpoint. Perhaps you want to inspire the reader with an aspirational statistic, issue a call to action, or share a success story. Your number one task here is to leave your reader with a strong grasp of your argument or claim.

Here comes the creative bit …

• Find a BIG piece of paper and draw a horizontal line across the middle.
• Write your start and end points on Post-It notes and place them at either end of the line.
• Use Post-It notes to work out the steps you’ll need to guide your reader from beginning to end. Don’t worry about the sequence just yet – get all the ideas out of your head and onto paper.
• Review your Post-It notes critically. Which actually belong in the story? Are any merely confusing sub-plots? You probably don’t want more than half a dozen.
• Spend some time experimenting with different sequences on your storyboard. You can take photos to easily compare variations (or create duplicate storyboards).

3) Create Your Structure

A storyboard might be enough to get you going. If not, let’s try some more detail. My favourite approach is what I call The Rule of Threes. I work out the three main ideas I want to address in my piece, then the three main points within each of those ideas. This gives me a firm outline. I can also work out how I’m going to going to allocate my word count. For a 5,000-word article, you probably don’t have much space left once you’ve allowed for the introduction, methodology, and conclusion.

If that’s still too loose, you can produce a tighter structure by writing a bullet point for each paragraph of your article. This should summarise what each paragraph is doing: explaining a concept, providing evidence, advancing your argument. When you’ve finished, review your bullet point list:

• Are any of the points very long? If so, you might want to break them down.
• Are any of them unnecessary?
• Are they in the right sequence, or jumping around?
• Are there any gaps?
• Are there duplicates?

You can then use these bullet points as scaffolding for your writing. It’s much easier to fix the structure of a list than it is to wrestle with a giant Word document.

You might find this approach too prescriptive, especially if your writing is reflective rather than empirical. Sometimes structure is helpful, other times it gets in the way. Experiment to learn what works for you in different contexts. And don’t restrict yourself to a structure that isn’t working – you can always go back to the storyboard.

I hope that’s helpful. Do please share any tips in the comments below. In my next post, I’ll address the tricky business of overcoming procrastination and staying motivated.