Hi friends,
A brief intro for new folks—if this isn’t new to you, scroll to the picture of the feet!
First, welcome to all of the new folks who have subscribed in the past month or so—thanks for being here!
I wanted to quickly (re)introduce myself and say a few things about we do here. My name is Kelly Clancy, and I was a tenured professor of political science and chair of my department at a SLAC in the midwest before the pandemic and birth of my third child happened at the exact same time (almost exactly four years ago today!) So I took a deep breath, moved my family back to the east coast, and founded Epilogue Editing, and started editing and consulting about writing full time. It’s the best job in the world—I get to read fantastic books and articles all day and only work with people I like. You can find out more about the kind of work I do here.
This newsletter (which will always be free) is where I chat about writing and academic life every few weeks. I also feature occasional guest posts from smart people who are writing books and doing work I’m excited about (feel free to get in touch if you ever want to write!)
I also share opportunities for writing together (like the writing retreats that I co-host with the fabulous Mirya Holman—more details on our next one soon!). Here are a few upcoming opportunities you’re very welcome to join:
ApWriMo—free! If you want to get a lot of writing done before the summer, I’m hosting a free writing sprint from April 15-May 1 (ApWriMo!) with daily co-writing opportunities and a Slack group for accountability and camaraderie. On April 19 we’ll have a free all-day mini-writing retreat to get alllll of the writing done. You can sign up for both here, and I’ll send you links to the schedule and add you to our Slack channel.
So You Want to Write a Book is my book writing workshop that will start in May, giving you a solid action plan to work from before the summer starts. I am SO excited about this, and there are only a few spots still available.
Editing and Coaching! We also offer coaching, developmental and stylistic editing, support for scholars for whom English is an additional language, and grant and job material assistance. We do have availability for the spring and summer, so feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to schedule a free 30-minute Zoom call to talk through what working together would look like!
Sit, Stroll, Stride, Sprint
So, let’s come back to my question of the year: how does writing actually get done in a way that feels sustainable and productive? How do we actually stop trying new programs that promise to hack our productivity and instead, you know, actually get things done?
I love planning writing sprints, and I started thinking about how to extend that metaphor to the rest of the writing process as well. I was definitely the kid in high school and college (and maybe a little in grad school) who pushed the envelope in terms of writing things at the very last minute and still expecting to get As. I will confess to never having read all of Heart of Darkness, but still got an A+ on my feminist critique of Joseph Conrad based on my strategy of flipping to different pages and finding problematic scenes to analyze hours before the paper was due (I regret nothing. This was the 1990s, so no ChatGPT was around to do our bullshitting for us. And feminism +heart of darkness has 242,000 hits on Google Scholar, so clearly I was on to something).
The adrenaline that comes with being up against a deadline is real, and for some writers it is intoxicating and for others it’s paralyzing. In the perfect world, we can figure out ways to harness some of that adrenaline strategically so we have just enough push to get things done.
I’ve started thinking of my writing projects in terms of times that are good to sit with the project, times to stroll, times to stride, and times to sprint. (This is also the logic behind the Book Writing Workshop—building in intensive periods, consistent periods, and latent periods of writing is key to a big project like writing a book).
Sprint: At beginnings and ends of projects, sprints can be really great. By sprinting, I mean setting aside a focused amount of time for more intensive writing. A few times a year, I host writing sprints (like ApWriMo and AcWriMo) where we clear the decks, set some ambitious (or modest) goals, and do as much writing as we can in as short of a time as possible, and then we take a break. I also like writing retreats (one-day, weekend, and treat yo’ self varieties) for the same reason—you focus, you get stuff done, you take a break.
As a parent of little kids, sprinting is also a way for me to make a lot of progress in a crunched amount of time. I will never be a writer who can write for two hours every single morning. But I can skip watching reruns of Bluey for two weeks to get writing done. Most weekends I save for family time, but I can check myself into a nearby hotel to eat Thai food and finish a final round of revisions once a year.
I will say that AcWriMo in 2022 and 2023 unquestionably gave me the push I needed to get my book done and into the world (we have a pub date! June 15! I’ll share the cover with you so soon!)
Strolling and Striding: Sprinting, for most of us non-athletic types, is not sustainable over the long term. You gotta do a little strolling, a little striding (I picture Don Draper here for some reason), and then a little strolling again. I think the trick, especially for folks who have a bunch of projects in the air, is to “say hi” to them all each week.
Two things that I think are helpful here.
Update those to-do lists! Some version of having a regular meeting with yourself. Some people call this executive function Fridays, some people schedule a calendar invite to check in with themselves for two hours every other Monday morning. Whatever it looks like for you, spend time every week touching every single project. Open the file. Look at it. Make a list of next steps. For every project.
Actually, you know, touch the project. My advice is to make sure that, every month, you have a block of time on your calendar named for each project you’re trying to move forward. The projects that are striding along will probably have multiple writing sessions a week! But even the ones that are on the backburner, just strolling away, should get regular check-ins. Again, open the document, pull up the to-do list, and commit to 3 poms worth of work on it. You’ll be glad you did.
Sit: My friend Wendy told me once about a colleague of hers who, for various reasons, needed time away from research—what she called her “fallow” year. When she came back, she had this incredible burst of energy and creativity. Spending a year not pushing had allowed things to begin cultivating underneath the soil so that, when she was ready, they could begin to bloom.
I’ve been thinking about this metaphor as I’ve walked through my rainy neighborhood of Brooklyn this month, amazed that all of the pear trees bloom on the same day, and then all of the cherry trees know to bloom a few days later.
Sometimes if you sit with something, you’re giving it room to become what it needs to be.
One thing I’ve learned from talking to writers over the past year is that we don’t give ourselves enough time to sit and do nothing before we burn ourselves out. We should stop that! For example: I didn’t have any meetings on Wednesdays this semester, and it was great. It let me focus on more significant tasks that took longer periods of concentration (writing and editing). I also have blocked out weeks on my calendar when I’m not writing or editing (I’ve heard non-academics call this “vacation”).
Doing so lets me shift responsibilities around on my calendar, so when I’m not doing things…I’m not doing things. Next week, we’re going to see the solar eclipse! And opening game of the Brooklyn Cyclones! And we’re celebrating our anniversary! So this week I’m getting all the things done so that next week I can mostly stay off my computer and be present.
Pro tip: I’ve found that whenever I decide not to work for a week, inspiration strikes. I’m all of a sudden a genius, brimming with great ideas. It’s not cheating to jot down all of those great ideas for new projects or old projects in a note on your phone and then implement them when you’re done sitting. I also recommend buying a fancy notebook and nice pen for just such occasion.
And after I take next week to pause, I’m going to be ready to sprint again—ApWriMo is waiting on the other side, and I’ve got a new book to write!
Write good things!
Kelly