November is Academic Writing Month #AcWriMo (formerly Academic Book Writing Month, #AcBoWriMo)

A few years ago, I thought of using NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which happens in November) as a driver to force me to complete my academic books (all four of which are at various stages of publication at the moment). Like it happens with almost anything, someone else thought of this idea too (PhD2Published, by Charlotte Frost), and a couple of years ago, if I’m not mistaken, this notion was formalized as AcBoWriMo (Academic Book Writing Month) and now, from what I read on Dr. Anna Tarrant’s blog, it’s going to be AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month).

While I don’t have an actual full academic/scholarly book to write and finish in a month (I have 3 proposals by academic presses wanting me to write textbooks, but I don’t think I’m going to go that route this November 2012), I do have a few journal articles that need to get out, so I’m going to join and would encourage you to join as well. 50,000 words is not a lot if you think about it and if you can focus enough.

I find that the toughest part of writing academic prose is not so much the willingness to just drop thoughts on paper (or on online documents), but editing and refining. Also, keeping myself accountable for word count and how much writing I am going to get done in a month. For me, participating in AcWriMo will probably mean that those journal articles my co-authors were expecting to get out for peer review *sometime* will actually be out *end of November 2012*. I think that’s a win-win situation!

My goal for AcWriMo 2012 is to get 8 journal articles out for peer review during November 2012. This may sound crazy, but from my previous experience, it is something I can achieve. Also, one of my books needs to be in press by then.

What are your crazy goals for AcWriMo?

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