This book helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. Author Michelle R. Boyd introduces the Writing Metaphor as a reflective tool that can help you understand and overcome your writing fears: going from "stuck" to "unstuck" by drawing on skills you already have at your fingertips. She also offers an experimental approach to trying out any new writing strategy, so you can easily fill out the parts of your writing process that need developing. The book is ideal for dissertation writing seminars, graduate students struggling with the transition from coursework to dissertation work, scholars who are supporting or participating in writing groups, and marginalized scholars whose write struggles have prompted them to internalize the bias that others have about their ability to do exemplary research.
Preface Acknowledgments About the Author Chapter 1: Down but Not Out: What It Means to Be Stuck What It Means to Be Stuck Flow and Forward Writing The Promise of Writing Process Chapter Overview: From Problem to Puzzle Solving the Writing Puzzle: How to Use This Book Chapter 2: More Than You Think: How Head, Hand, and Heart Make Writing So Hard Actually . . . It Is Hard: The Inherent Challenge of Writing Institutional Challenges: Running the Risk of Writing Interpretive Challenges: The Impact of Risk on Writing Chapter 3: Turning Toward Yourself: How Writing Process Can Help You Get Unstuck What Is Writing Process? Stages of the Writing Process What Writing Process Looks Like Using Process to Get Unstuck Chapter 4: Finding the Writer Inside: How to Get Unstuck and Start Writing Again Why It's Hard to Draw on Process How to Uncover Your Writing Process Chapter 5: Growing From the Inside Out: Exploring and Expanding Your Writing Process Initiation: Purposefully Making Mistakes Saturation: Choosing a New Audience Incubation: Accepting Our Lack of Control Clarification: Taking Your Ideas Out for a Test Run Submission: Leading Yourself to Release Hibernation: Immersion in Play, Not Work Conclusion Chapter 6: Thoughts on Building a Writing Life Making Space for Yourself and Your Writing The Promise and Perils of Slow Scholarship Writer's Oppositional Consciousness Making Space With Social Writing References Index
Wisdom and kindness emanate from every page of this revelatory new guidebook, where renowned academic writing coach Michelle Boyd shows us how to find our own unique approach to living the messy, rewarding process of creating scholarship. I can't recommend this book highly enough! -- Margy Thomas This book is an attempt to acknowledge the struggles of academic writing and propel confidence through the development of sound habits. It offers a friendly and intimate companion to the varying emotional and circumstantial challenges inherent in the writing process, and provides a specific process by which to develop more competence and confidence as a writer. -- Raymond Blanton If you are struggling with academic writing, you've already read the other books, and you still can't figure out how to "fix" your problem, this book may help you understand. -- Christine Colwell I recommend this book to doctoral students and colleagues who are dedicated to writing and scholarship as an addition to their reading on the craft of writing for publication, and as an extension of their efforts to constantly enhance their research and writing productivity. -- Marilyn L. Grady This is a book on the academic writing process that helps to demystify that process and provides concrete strategies for dealing with the emotional side as well as the practical side of writing. -- Kevin P. Lyness This book helps the reader understand that writer's block happens to all of us, and that it is not something to pathologize or internalize in a negative sense. It moves the reader to an appreciation of their vulnerabilities, but also understanding that those personality quirks can be transformed into a strength when faced head on. -- Barbara L. Pazey A helpful guide to brainstorming and conquering the blank writing screen. I love the examples and the conversational writing style. -- Robert Dennis Watkins
