We're excited to introduce our first Book Club episode! Writing instructors and PhD students Kacy and Cheryl chat about Paul J. Silva's How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. Whether you've read the book or not, listen in to hear what Kacy and Cheryl found particularly useful, what advice was less relevant for them, and how they are using the suggestions in their own writing practices.

Resources:

• How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
• Productivity 101: An Introduction to the Pomodoro Technique
• Mytomatoes.com
• WriteCast episode "How to Start and Sustain a Writing Group (Episode 62)"
• WriteCast episode "Meet Your Reviewer: A Conversation with Cheryl Read, Writing Instructor and PhD Student (Episode 49)"
• WriteCast episode "5 Tips for Establishing a Writing Practice (Episode 17)"

Kacy's favorite quotes from the book:

• Specious Barrier #1: “I can’t find time to write." "Why is this barrier specious? The key lies in the word find. When people endorse this specious barrier, I imagine them roaming through their schedules like naturalists in search of Time To Write, that most elusive and secretive of creatures...If you think that writing time is lurking somewhere, hidden deep within your weekly schedule, you will never write a lot...Finding time is a destructive way of thinking about writing. Never say this again. Instead of finding time to write, allot time to write" (12).
• “Struggling writers who ‘wait for inspiration’ should get off their high horse and join the unwashed masses of real academic writers. The ancient Greeks assigned muses for poetry, music, and tragedy, but they didn’t mention a muse for journal articles written in APA style” (26).
• “On my list of maladaptive practices that make writing harder, Not outlining is pretty high—just above Typing With Scratchy Wool Mittens, just below Training My Dog to Take Dictation. Outlining is writing, not a prelude to ‘real writing.’ Writers who complain about ‘writer’s block’ are writers who don’t outline” (79).
• “You don’t need special traits, special genes, or special motivation to write a lot. You don’t need to want to write—people rarely feel like doing unpleasant tasks that lack deadlines—so don’t wait until you feel like it. Productive writing involves harnessing the power of habit, and habits come from repetition. Make a schedule and sit down to write during your scheduled writing time. You might spend the first few sessions cursing, groaning, and gnashing your teeth, but at least you’re curing during your scheduled time and not in binges” (129).

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