I kept a research journal as a blog while I was writing my doctoral thesis. I was teaching Masters students who were writing a thesis themselves at the time, and I was therefore interested in being accountable, authentic, to model learning in public.
In case anyone wants to go back to those distant shores and see what it was really like for me, feel free: http://reasearchdiary.blogspot.com.au
I wouldn’t go there if I were you though, I kind of terrify myself.
If you have ever been to one of my workshops in the last decade, you will probably have done this warm up. In fact, if you came to a multi-day writing retreat I ran, you would have done this at the beginning of each day. It is the most powerful, most flexible, simplest tool in my writing tool box.
As I was getting to the end of the recent book, I was buying books at my usual pace but not reading them (as that brainspace was completely taken up with reading my own draft or references for the draft).
Now the book is in and the summer has started, I felt excited to dive into all these books but I also felt stuck. I couldn’t get into gear, let alone find my groove.
So I rummaged around in my toolbox, and came up with this list of techniques. None of them are perfect, but little by little we are turning the dial back to reading.
Here is a list of 12 writing gifts to give the writer in your life this Christmas. (The writer is you).
