Dr Catherine Pope

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.

If you’re an academic researcher, you’re also a professional writer. And if you’re a professional writer, then you’re probably suffering from a range of health problems. Most of us spend a lot of time hunched over our desks, so engrossed in work that we give no thought to the long-term consequences. Joanna Penn’s new book The Healthy Writer is based partly on survey responses from 1,100 writers, who reported stress, back pain, weight gain, anxiety, depression, headaches, and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). I’ve heard very similar stories from attendees at my workshops and writing retreats.

In this post, I’m going to share some of my writing-related health problems, along with a few tips on how you can look after yourself.

Disc Error

I learned the hard way. Eleven years ago, I was studying part-time for my MA and working full-time as a web manager. This meant long days spent coding at my desk, followed by 2-3 hours of scribbling at the dining table in the evening. I was completely sedentary. I’d been affected sporadically by muscle spasms in my lower back, but then it got much worse: I ruptured a lumbar disc. Essentially it exploded, and the stuff inside wrapped around my sciatic nerve. I could barely move and it felt as though my left leg was immersed in a barrel of paint stripper. I’ve been reliably informed by two women that this type of injury is precisely 11 times more painful than childbirth. I won’t be conducting any further empirical research, so am happy to accept their claim. I was in agony for six long months and it took several years to resume a normal life.

Although my back is much better, I’ve been left with permanent nerve damage and a rather unpredictable left leg. Fortunately, I’ve never been a sporty type, and the pain responds well to gin and crisps. It’s taken me a while to develop good habits, and recidivism is usually swiftly punished with unbearable pain and sometimes a trip to A&E. Three years ago, I decided to make my health a top priority. Since then, my lower back has been pain-free. If you’re a fellow sufferer, you’ll know how miraculous that must feel.

So, here are my tips for looking after your wellbeing.

1.Take breaks

I know it’s tempting to put in a long session at your desk, especially if you’re facing a tight deadline. But sitting in one position for hours (especially when you’re tense) is bad for you. And you’re probably not being productive, either. It’s a good idea to stand up and stretch at least once an hour. Set a timer, as you won’t remember to do it. I try not to sit for longer than 25 minutes (I use the Pomodoro Technique), as this is the point at which my body starts to grumble.

Yes, I’d much rather immerse myself in writing for long stretches, but it’s just not worth it.

2. Get a standing desk

Standing desks are very on trend at the moment, which is often a good reason to ignore something. Although the medical research is inconclusive, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest they can help.

I finally relented last year, after insisting that vertical writing was a preposterous idea. I secretly hoped to be vindicated but was converted by my experience. I invested in a cheapish contraption that sits on top of my existing desk. I use this for all my typing, and only sit down when writing longhand. This has helped my posture and also reduced strain in my neck and shoulders. Probably the biggest benefit, though, is improved focus. When you’re standing up, you really have to pay attention to keep yourself upright. If we’re sat at a desk, it’s easy to start slouching and enter a fugue-like state.

Standing is also tiring, so I tend to plan specific tasks on the PC, and not just fiddle about on the internet. My legs definitely hurt if I spend more than 4 hours a day in an upright position (I also look like a giant meerkat), so it forces me to pace myself. I also invested in an anti-fatigue mat. This is a thick rubber mat that reduces the impact on your joints when you’re standing for long periods of time. Apparently, hairdressers often use them. You probably don’t need one if you’re wearing cushioned shoes when at your desk.

There are hundreds of different standing desks available, for all budgets. Mine cost around £100 and I’m fairly happy with it. Supposedly, it’s adjustable, so I could use it in either a sitting or standing position. However, it’s a complete faff to move the sections around and also quite dangerous if you have a heavy monitor. I leave it permanently in a standing position. I struggled to find one that was tall enough for me. I’m just over 6ft tall. With my anti-fatigue mat and shoes, I’m probably 6ft 3in. Some of the desks I investigated were only suitable for people 5ft 10in and under. It’s very important to check the specification and to read user reviews.

You can get fancy motorised desks that whizz up and down, but they’re much more expensive – around £600. I considered investing in one, but it would’ve been almost impossible to get it up the stairs of my Victorian cottage. I also learned from Joanna Penn that the motors tend to wear out quite quickly. I’m planning to revamp my workspace this year and will probably invest in a wooden desk from Humbleworks. These models look good, are fully adjustable, and also fold away.

3. Rethink your mouse and keyboard

Even if you’ve been spared the misery of back pain, you might have suffered from Repetitive Strain Injury. This affects many deskbound workers, sometimes to an agonising degree. Often the culprit is your mouse or keyboard.

After noticing neck pain a few years ago, my physiotherapist deduced it was caused by my outstretched mouse arm. I was doing quite a bit of design work at the time, which meant bouts of frantic activity and a lot of pressure on my tendons. I invested in a RollerMouse, a device that sits under your keyboard and allows you to perform mousey tasks without having to move your hands away. There a roller under my spacebar, and some programmable buttons for right-clicking. It certainly took a while to get used to it, but the neck pain disappeared very quickly.

If you’re an employee, you can ask for a workstation assessment from an occupational therapist. They can advise you on suitable equipment for your particular circumstances. For those of us who are self-employed or setting up a home office, this stuff is expensive. But, it’s cost me much less than I’ve spent on physiotherapy over the last decade. Plus, I don’t want to think of all those lost earnings when I was lying on the lounge floor with an ice pack down my trousers.

In case you’re already lying on the lounge floor, or otherwise incapacitated, take a look at my post on using voice recognition software. You should also visit the Simple Back Pain website.

Conclusion

Don’t forget, you’re a professional writer, and professionals invest in the right tools for the job. They also look after their most important assets: their minds and bodies. I speak to many academics who accept physical pain as a way of life, but it doesn’t need to be this way! Please take care of yourselves.