Before you join that writing group, I have a question for you. Do you trust yourself to get writing done when nobody is watching? In today’s episode, we are going to talk about accountability, self-trust, and community for academics. Let’s get into it.

Welcome to Academic Book Writing Simplified. I’m your host, Jane Joanne Jones, a writing coach and developmental editor who’s here to give you some tough love about the way you write. This podcast is for women and non-binary scholars in academia who are writing academic books but feel as if the process is a little or a lot like a mystery. If you’re ready to trade your confusion and frustration for ease, clarity, and purpose, you’re in the right place.

Let’s head into today’s episode.

Hello, hello and welcome to today’s episode. I am recording this in mid-August, which means that many of my listeners are probably winding down their summers and getting ready for the fall semester. So I hope your summer is ending as peacefully as possible given the circumstances we live in right now.

And this is a time of year where I see a lot of activity on social media, within my own networks of talking to academics, where people begin to look for writing groups to join, right? Like they want to join a writing group, they want to start a writing group. People are, you know, sharing that they have a writing group, inviting people to join. And this is, you know, the time of year. And it’s understandable for many reasons, right? Like you’re going back into the year, you have less control over your time, so you want to make sure that the time you do have to write has some structure to it, right? Like that there’s some support there for you to make sure you get your writing done. Hence the writing group, right? Like when you’re writing with other people.

And that could be really important. The other reason why I think writing groups are going to be especially important this year is because academics are really going to need to be in community with each other because of all of the threats to academia — people losing funding, departments being shut down, all of these horrific things that are happening. A writing group certainly isn’t going to solve them, right? But being in community with other academics and other writers can be really affirming and supportive during this time. And that’s really important.

But what I want to talk about today is some of the different aspects of writing groups and what to think about when you are joining one. And I talked about this a little bit on my newsletter a couple of weeks ago, because when we talk about these writing groups, a word that always creeps in is the word accountability, right? Like I’m going to join a writing group because I need accountability. And I want to dig into that a little bit in today’s episode because I think that it could be a self-defeating term sometimes, and I’m going to explain why. And I’m going to use writing groups as kind of a way to think about it.

So first, let’s talk about some reasons beyond the ones I mentioned that somebody might join a writing group, right?

So you may join a writing group because you like being with other people, right? Like you like seeing their work. You want to have this reciprocal relationship where you’re there for them, they’re there for you, and you’re working together towards a common goal — which is to complete your writing, right? That could be one reason.

You could be excited by the exchange of ideas, right? Like seeing your colleagues’ work evolve, seeing them move into publication, right? That could be really exciting — to support somebody through that journey, right? And to get support yourself through that journey.

You may join a writing group because you don’t want to work in isolation and you enjoy the social aspect of writing groups. Seeing other people, hearing what they’re up to, and then writing, right? Or perhaps you might feel motivated when you’re with like-minded people working on similar tasks. That might be a source of motivation or inspiration for you — that we’re all here for the same purpose and doing kind of the same thing. Like obviously your projects are all very different, but you’re doing the same thing and you’re doing the same tasks, right?

And these could all be great reasons to join a writing group. And those really get into the communal aspect of writing groups, right? That we’re here in community, it is a reciprocal relationship, we are supporting each other, we are sharing goals, we are helping each other, right?

That can be really great. And it can combat some of the isolation that is fairly typical for academics who are writing solo-authored books — which is, you know, as you know, if you’re listening to this, you probably are writing a solo-authored book, right? So being in that kind of environment can, you know, stave off some of that isolation or even loneliness that happens when writing a book, right?

But then there’s another side to this — another side to this idea, to this decision to join a writing group. And this is where we get more into the accountability, where you’re not trusting yourself, where you’re using accountability as a way to compensate for your lack of self-trust, right?

So let me explain what this means and I’m going to give you a couple of examples.

If you find yourself saying things like, “Oh, I know I won’t get any of this work done on my own. That’s why I’m joining a writing group — I need the accountability.” Or, “I have a track record of missing deadlines. You know, I always miss deadlines, so I need to join a group of some sort or have a writing partner so that I have somebody who’s kind of, you know, looking over my shoulder, making sure I get things done.” Or that, “I have…” Fear might be too strong of a word, but like, “I’m worried about disappointing them, and that is my motivation. That is the reason why I’m able to get work done.” Right?

Or, “I need them to be there to make sure I get work done.”

When we say things like that — when you say things like that — you’re acknowledging, really, that you don’t trust yourself to get things done, right? You need some type of external reinforcement to get things done. And that’s a precarious situation to be in as an academic because ultimately, you are going to have to work by yourself.

Like, we all know this, right? Writing groups can be helpful. A writing partner can be helpful. A writing coach can be helpful. But at the end of the day, a lot of what you do is going to be by yourself — on your own terms, right? Not on the terms of a writing group, not on the terms of a coach, not on the terms of anyone really besides you.

Okay? So when we kind of outsource our agency to get things done to some type of group or coach because we feel like we won’t do it ourselves — not that we don’t know how, and that we need someone to help us figure out how to do it, like that’s a different situation — but when we feel that we just simply will not do it, then we need to really stop and think like, okay, what is the bigger issue here?

Because a writing group will only be — or any type of accountability (I’m just using writing groups as an example) — any type of accountability will only be a short-term solution because there’s no single source of accountability that is going to last you for the entirety of your career, right? There’s no writing partner, there’s no writing group, there’s no app, right, that is just going to exist for the entirety of your career.

The only thing that’s going to exist for the entirety of your career is you, right?

So it’s on you to figure out how to sustain your work. And community might be — community might be part of that — but we also need to figure out how we can do it on our own.

And related to that, if you are joining a writing group because you need a deadline, because you need someone to tell you when to write, because you need accountability — that’s kind of… and I’m going to be a little tough on you here — that’s a rather extractive reason to join a community, right?

If you’re only thinking of how it’s going to benefit you and not considering what you will offer that community, right? And this is why I say, like, then you’re just treating it as a group and not a community — if you’re only going in to get something for yourself. And there might be some instances where you do do that — where you pay for a service, for instance, and you go and get what you need. And that is the relationship sometimes, right?

But if you are joining a group where the expectation is that it is going to be a community, then it’s important for you to offer something too, right?

And if you don’t believe that you can, then again, like that is something worth investigating and thinking through — like what am I joining this group for, and how can I be a good member of this writing group?

And remember, I’m specifically talking here in terms of like accountability. I’m not talking about community writ large because not all communities are based on one-to-one reciprocal relationships. Of course, we know that.

But I’m talking about you going into a group with a specific goal of getting a specific task done — which is your writing — just to be clear about that. I know that often in communities people have lopsided commitments for good reason, right? The reason I’m being more specific is because I want to encourage you to really think about how much you trust yourself to get your work done, right?

And if you are not trusting yourself to get your work done, what are you doing about it? Like are you trying to build that self-trust, or are you just looking for like some flimsy substitute for it, right?

And I mean flimsy in that it is something that might be fleeting. It’s something that might not have been designed to compensate for your lack of self-trust. Okay?

So if that trust is not there, what can you do to build it, instead of only looking for short-term remedies that ultimately are not going to help you create a sustainable long-term writing practice?

Here’s what I want to say in conclusion:

Writing groups or any other type of writing support are not inherently good or inherently bad. They’re neutral. What matters is your reasons for seeking that type of support. What are you hoping to get out of it, and is what you’re asking of that support fair, and what does it reflect about what you think about your own writing habits?

And finally, don’t rely on any type of support like this to rescue your writing practice. It could certainly help, but ultimately, any work you do to build up your writing practice and make it more reliable is going to have to start with you — not a form of external support.

All right, as always, thank you for listening and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Remember, writing an academic book is challenging, but that doesn’t mean you have to overcomplicate it. If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, please leave a review. This helps get the word out about the podcast so more people will listen and we can continue the conversation.

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