Over the past couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to talk to academic writers about their writing process. This is also a question I ask new clients if I work with them as a developmental consultant. While there is great variation in how writers work, knowing your own process is essential to staying organized and identifying (then fixing) flaws in your writing.
Just as there is variation in the process of writing, there is great variation in how clearly writers can articulate their own process. Yet, knowing how you work can save you a lot of time and frustration so that you can be more productive. Here are two reasons why.
You will always know where to start and where to finish. If you have limited time to write daily, then having a set process eliminates the time you have to spend deciding what to do. If part of your process if developing detailed outlines, then you know that you can spend your precious thirty minutes of writing time on developing the first three points, and start tomorrow on the fourth point. Similarly, if you always write a memo on each piece of secondary literature you read, you already have a clear plan in place for producing your literature review. Developing strategies for writing takes the guesswork out of your process.
You can identify the aspects of your process that might be giving you trouble. It’s important to develop writing strategies and methods, but they are only valuable if they work. For instance, part of your process might be to write in a very linear fashion – you start at the beginning and work your way through the entire manuscript. Yet, you notice that your introductions tend to be very sparse, and are always in the most need of revision. This may be because you’ve worked through a lot of ideas in the process of writing the entire paper, and you now have a clearer sense of what should go into the introduction. If this is the case, then it might serve you well to write the introduction last – or know that you will have to set aside time to revise your introduction. Knowing your process means that you can more easily troubleshoot your process, so you get the best results.
If you are unclear about your process, take a few moments to think through what it includes. If you find yourself constantly saying “I don’t know where to start” when you sit down to write, then you may not have a clear process, and you should work on developing one.
Just as there is variation in the process of writing, there is great variation in how clearly writers can articulate their own process. Yet, knowing how you work can save you a lot of time and frustration so that you can be more productive. Here are two reasons why.
You will always know where to start and where to finish. If you have limited time to write daily, then having a set process eliminates the time you have to spend deciding what to do. If part of your process if developing detailed outlines, then you know that you can spend your precious thirty minutes of writing time on developing the first three points, and start tomorrow on the fourth point. Similarly, if you always write a memo on each piece of secondary literature you read, you already have a clear plan in place for producing your literature review. Developing strategies for writing takes the guesswork out of your process.
You can identify the aspects of your process that might be giving you trouble. It’s important to develop writing strategies and methods, but they are only valuable if they work. For instance, part of your process might be to write in a very linear fashion – you start at the beginning and work your way through the entire manuscript. Yet, you notice that your introductions tend to be very sparse, and are always in the most need of revision. This may be because you’ve worked through a lot of ideas in the process of writing the entire paper, and you now have a clearer sense of what should go into the introduction. If this is the case, then it might serve you well to write the introduction last – or know that you will have to set aside time to revise your introduction. Knowing your process means that you can more easily troubleshoot your process, so you get the best results.
If you are unclear about your process, take a few moments to think through what it includes. If you find yourself constantly saying “I don’t know where to start” when you sit down to write, then you may not have a clear process, and you should work on developing one.
