9. Lessons on writing, system for writing long papers, remembering to breathe!

Insights

Writing is a pain and writing well, even more so. Anybody who says otherwise is either lying or delusional.

I ended last week’s post by asking what conditions would best enable me to write (and finish) the paper for an upcoming conference. Now that I am on the other side - with a draft ready to go - I thought I will share some ideas on what worked for me. 

1) Start with what you know best: When I began writing on Tuesday, there was a lot of struggle. That was mostly because I was trying to write ‘from the start’. I was stuck on writing the Introduction for a few hours, before I realised that I had started in the wrong place. Start with what is clearest in your mind - which in most cases would be the central argument of your paper and the examples used to illustrate it. That should also get you into the flow of things. And then move on to the others parts, from the next most clearest to the least - in decreasing orders of clarity. 

2) Completely disconnect: Since writing can be so stressful, I found myself incessantly checking email or messages every few mins, so as to distract myself away from the pain of having to think of the next line. So, I decided to completely disconnect. I turned off my internet, threw away my phone and started writing offline on Microsoft World, instead of the usual Google Docs. I was then able to start writing with more focus and flow.

3) Lay down some rules: Having restricted my activities online, I now had to come up with a rule to restrict my activities offline. And the rule was this: I could either write or do nothing. When I was not writing, I could walk around, let my mind wander, stare at trees or think about dinner - but I could not go online, check my other devices, read other things (however interesting), or engage in typical procrastination-friendly activities such as cleaning or organising the house. Anything of importance that I wanted to check or do, went immediately into the notepad I keep next to me - to be attended to later. So, I either wrote or took a non-invasive, non-engaging break from it.

There were also other obvious things. When I was stuck and words were refusing to flow, I went back to my texts and re-read sections that were most pertinent at that point. Interspersing your writing with relevant reading, as and when is required, can be quite helpful. If I was still stuck, I went back to the drawing board to carefully think through my ideas again. Sometimes what you need to do is think more about the things you have already read and gain more clarity before you can start writing again. 

Perhaps, you have other tips and ideas that you have found useful while writing? Do share them in the comments below.

Ideas

This week, I thought of a simple yet brilliant system to approach the writing of journal-length papers. In philosophy at least, a typical journal paper is about 7500-8000 words. That’s the standard length across all the major journals I know of. In terms of actual writing, this translates to about 15-16 pages (at about 500 words per page). 

That is a lot of writing, to be sure. And frankly, quite daunting to even contemplate. ‘How on earth do we get up to that many words? Can we even?’

But then, all daunting tasks can be decomposed into smaller, manageable ones. And once broken down, anything becomes relatively easier to handle. 

Writing a full journal-length paper, then, comes down to: Writing just 500 words a day. No more, no less. If you follow this system and write only five days a week, that’s 2500 words each week and in three weeks, you will have hit 7500 words. Viola, that’s a full paper! 

If 500-words-a-day still seems unattainable, you can bring it down even further. The basic idea is to set your goals so small that you have to try really hard to fail at them. I know some people whose writing quota is only 200 words per day. At that pace and five days of writing, you can still finish one full paper in two months. And usually much sooner. That’s not bad at all, eh? 

Do you have any writing system that you follow?

Inspiration

There are too many things happening this week, on all fronts, all at once. And I am in serious danger of being overwhelmed by all that.

So, here’s the reminder I hope to carry with me: just focus on one thing at a time. And remember to breathe!