November: the month for writing

November is the month for writing for some reason. It could be that the nights are drawing in so we spend more time indoors, and writing is definitely a good indoor activity. Alternatively, it might be that the end of the year is approaching, maybe people start taking a look back at resolutions made in January, or September, and realising that action is needed for those plans to be fulfilled. Whatever the case, it’s a great opportunity to look at changing your relationship with writing, and starting to integrate it more regularly into your day-to-day work. Studies have shown that writing regularly, even in short bursts, even if you don’t get what you had planned finished by the end of the allocated time, boosts overall productivity and fluency.

To encourage you to do this, now rather than later, you can take part in the “submitted before the holidays challenge”. Working on a paper can take many forms – reading, planning, thinking, searching for references, analysing the data, etc. – but it is crucial to make time for the actual writing despite all these other pressures. The idea of the challenge is to take some time (at least 1 hour) every day between 19 November and 20 December to write. To help you do so, I will be opening an online meeting room which you can join from wherever you are to write in the company of others. 

How should I prepare for these sessions? Set yourself an objective that you would like to have achieved by 20 December (e.g. paper submitted or first draft completed). Then break it down, with intermediate objectives each week (e.g. section X completed or sent to your co-authors). And finally, decide on a writing task for each day, what do you expect to get done in an hour? These objectives are guides, they give you something to aim for. Sometimes it will be necessary to readjust them (up or down), but that’s fine, it’s all part of the process of learning what sort of a writer you are. 

How do these sessions work? We all join the meeting room at the scheduled time (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 8.35CET; Tuesdays and Thursdays 11.25CET), we do a quick presentation of who we are and what we have planned to work on that day, and then we write for an hour. In addition to setting your objectives, simply telling others what you are going to be working on is often all that is needed to get a good start, and we all know that a good start is half the battle! Working in parallel also helps to create a sense of community, we’re in it together and we can encourage each other.

What if I’m stuck? If you find yourself blocked during a session, we can take a time-out to discuss ways around whatever is at issue.

Is it all online? No! I really believe that nothing beats an in-person experience, which is why I facilitate a monthly writing retreat where participants come together to write for a half-day or a full day year-round – the Vendredis de la Rédaction. November is no exception, and there are still a few places available for the 29 November session, so if you prefer in-person to online, sign up here now.