Last week when I talked about creating a summer writing plan, I stated that you should ask yourself how long each writing/researching task would take. Well, estimating how long it will take you to complete any particular portion of a project is easier said than done. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible! By looking
Writing plans are essential if you hope to complete projects without pulling your hair out. Yet, when I ask academic writers about their writing plans, I usually hear something along the lines of “finish this manuscript before the deadline.” While that’s an important goal, it certainly isn’t a plan. A writing plan requires much more
Summer is around the corner and you probably are planning to get a lot of writing done. Away from the noise of teaching and administrative work (for the most part), you’re probably looking forward to long periods of time to work on manuscripts that haven’t received attention over the academic year. But going from
What’s the first thing you think when you wake up on a Friday morning? It’s the weekend, finally! Then you might think to yourself, “this weekend is not going to be long enough.” That’s no way to start your weekend. To avoid that feeling of dread, take some time on a Friday afternoon to
A Peek into the Process My work as a writing consultant is different from the work I do as an editor. When clients need writing consultation, it is usually because they are in the early stages of writing, and they would not be served well by copyediting or even substantive editing. They need an
As of late, I have been working with a few clients who desire time management consulting or accountability coaching. It makes perfect sense – one of the most difficult aspects of writing is finding the time to do it. Over the course of doing such work, on more than one occasion I have heard
Selecting a journal is a tough decision for all researchers, but especially for early career researchers. There are a seemingly endless variety of journals to choose from, and even when you narrow the selection down to those specific to your discipline or specialty, you are still left with quite a few choices. What should you
It’s no secret that here at Up In Consulting, I’m a fan of the close read. I talk about it in this blog post. One of the best explanations of the value of the close read that I have come across is in Francine Prose’s book, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People
Have you ever dreaded doing something that you thought would be hard, only to realize it wasn’t nearly as hard as you thought it would be? There are many reasons we claim that something is hard to do. For academics (and mostly everyone) thinking something is hard means believing it to be complicated, or
Much of our self-care is relegated to the weekends. We think of sleeping a bit later, moving a bit slower, maybe even treating ourselves to some small indulgence. But during the week we just rush through the motions as we strive for peak productivity, thinking there is never any time to stop and take
We read for a lot of reasons. Sometimes we read an article because everyone else is reading and citing it. We might read an article or book because what we really wanted wasn’t available at the library (don’t claim you’ve never done it). Hopefully, most of our reading is done because we recognize the
If you’re writing a book, you might think that you should hold off on writing your proposal until the manuscript is complete. Don’t! There are two reasons you should write the proposal earlier than you think. First, so you can give it the attention it deserves rather than treating is as an afterthought. Second,
If you look on the homepage of this website, you’ll notice that one of the services I offer is “diversity consulting.” This descriptor is admittedly vague, and has remained under-developed, as I have devoted most of my time to building my editing practice. I’d like for this to change. To be clear, I do
The deadline for paper submissions to the American Sociological Association Annual Conference is January 6th. The ASAs are a bit different than other conferences in that you are expected to submit your entire paper on January 6th, rather than just an abstract. That does not necessarily make the abstract any less important. Organizers
Many of you will be taking the opportunity of the semester break to catch up on your writing. How can you do this in a way that is mindful and productive? After all, you still want your break to be a break – not just a continuation of an overburdened work schedule. You also want
A common misconception I face in my work is that I work exclusively with “bad” writers. I’ve been told time and time again that my clients must be very bad at writing, because why would a good writer need an editor? Well, there are plenty of reasons, which I will explain below. First, I
How many times have you finished a manuscript, ran your word processing software’s spell-check function, and crossed your fingers that all the grammar mistakes have been corrected? You’re mentally drained by the time you complete a manuscript, and the last thing you want to think about is taking another pass at your work – you don’t
Now that you’re keeping a dissertation diary, you might be wondering what to write in it. The true but unhelpful response is that you can write anything you want! As I discussed in my earlier post, your stream of conscious writing can lead you to a better understanding of your subject matter. If
Finding time to write is not always easy, but sometimes the even more difficult task is committing to writing once that time is found. Do you do your best writing when you’re on deadline? If so, you might be what Gretchen Rubin calls an “obliger.” Rubin is a lawyer turned writer who researches happiness and how
There were many occasions during graduate school where I encountered what I believed to be writer’s block. I would sit for hours, or even days, staring at my computer, pondering what I should write. Even though I had the ideas in my head, I could not get them onto paper.Talking to a friend about
This post is the second in a series called “From Course Paper to Article,” where I explain how to transform your course paper into a manuscript ready to submit to a journal. This series will walk you through the process of selecting a topic, preparing for writing, making the most of the data you collect and
It’s absolutely no secret that one of the biggest obstacles to writing is finding time to write. Suggestions abound for how to find time: set a timer, lock your office door, write at the same time every day, go on writing retreats, assume a new identity and hide out to write (if only there
This post is the first in a series called “From Course Paper to Article,” where I explain how to transform your course paper into a manuscript ready to submit to a journal. This series will walk you through the process of selecting a topic, preparing for writing, making the most of the data you collect
