Category: Academic Writing

The 5 stretches that kept me going during my recent final book edit

This year was the year of so much editing for me. Having two books coming out a few months apart meant that I had barely submitted responses to one set of edits than the edits for the other book would arrive in my inbox (sometimes I could count the breathing space in hours). It was tough for my brain to stay focussed, but it was also tough on my body.

You don’t have to feel ready to take action

All of this works because we start doing the work. By not delaying the real work through endless reading and procrastination, we start working towards our end goal, in ways that actually contribute to our goals. That is, we start making words on the page that can be added to and refined until you have enough good enough words to submit a passable PhD thesis.

Questioning the super-productivity push – from the productive side

But I’m just submitting my third book manuscript in a year (not to mention a book chapter, two commissioned poems, a book review, some peer reviews, and a short non-fiction piece that I also submitted in the last 12 months). So it’s not that I’m excluded from super-productivity, it’s that I’m benefiting from it and succeeding at it and I’m concerned by it.