Regardless of whether you are writing a short piece for a newsletter, a
book review, an article or a book, time has to be allocated for writing. It’s a
mistake to think you need large swathes of time in order to write. Many busy people including myself find time to
write; perhaps at the kitchen table, on trains, in coffee shops and at a desk. Some
such as myself are at their most creative in the morning; others at night. Rowena
Murray (Writing for Academic Publication) writes about snack and sandwich
writing. Snack writing is where you have a small slot of time, perhaps 15
minutes; the sandwich is a longer period, perhaps a few hours or more. If your
schedule is very tight and you have a lot of commitments which make making time
to write difficult, the snack writing habit may suit you. It’s likely if you
are writing this way – perhaps a few hundred words a week, it will take about
two months to draft a 2,000 word article. There are many journals in different
disciplines that are actively seeking short articles; frequently these are
based on practice rather than research. When I started academic writing it was
mostly 2,000 word articles for practice-based journals. I learned to write by
writing. My first 2,000 word practice-based article probably took about 10 to
20 times as long to write as a recent 2,000 word article for the same
publication. During 23 years writing I learned a lot about the mechanics of
writing; the need for structure; the need to put a fence around my writing
(what you leave out is as important as what you leave in); the need to write
and rewrite and when finished to put it aside and return to it a few days or a
week later with a fresh eye to do a final edit; the need to let go when I’m 90%
complete and let the editor or peer reviewers do their job and work from their
guidance. My writing habits are somewhere between snack and sandwich. After 23
years I still find it difficult to sit down and begin writing. I tell myself
that I’ll write for 15 minutes (snack), but once I get started I often find
that I don’t want to stop after 15 minutes and might continue for an hour or
more (sandwich).
Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi, world-renowned
writer on creativity talks about finding flow in various activities. He
suggests that flow is more likely to be found in active activities such as
writing rather than passive activities such as watching television. He writes
about activation energy; that is the effort you need to put into something
before if begins to be enjoyable, suggesting:
Each
of the flow-producing activities requires an initial investment of attention
before it begins to be enjoyable. One needs such disposable “activation energy”
to enjoy complex activities (Finding flow. P. 68).
Frequently after the first fifteen
minutes investment of energy in writing, I find myself in a state of flow,
finding ideas I didn’t have at the outset.
Try writing for an initial 15 minutes;
then continue without stopping for another 15. Was it easier to write during
the second 15 minutes?
Realistically assess how much time you
can devote to writing. This is likely to influence what you write. If you’re
new to writing and have significant time constraints, consider a professional
journal article (generally practice based and usually don’t require research)
or book review, conference report or short piece for a newsletter.
The important thing is to write!
Helen Fallon
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