Thanks to a relatively extended bout of health, I have been writing a lot. Even more exciting than that, I’ve been FINISHING UP a lot of papers. This afternoon, I managed to finish a journal article that I had long overdue. I consider this achievement a major victory. Most of the stuff I’ve been writing and finishing up is part of a package of papers, books and articles I had to put in the back burner because of my poor health.
Yes, I have submitted one revise-and-resubmit back to the editor, two journal article manuscripts for peer review, one book chapter. I have completed all of these under the current trying circumstances of a global pandemic of a coronavirus and shelter-at-home orders. Admittedly, I’ve been productive, and my feeling healthy is probably the major factor, plus the fact that I am not teaching this semester, and because of the pandemic, I am also not travelling at all.
But people still seem to think that I write extraordinarily fast. The truth is that whenever people think I am a super fast writer, they’re probably thinking I literally *just* started a paper 24 hours before submitting it.
This process doesn’t work well for me.
The truth is, whenever you see me finishing something up, I probably already had a huge chunk of the manuscript pre-written in small bits and pieces.
I write by memorandums.
OK.
I just watered my Mom’s garden, made coffee and now I can explain to you my 3,000 to 10,000 growth in number of words.
You can guess the TL;DR
I DO NOT WRITE 7,000 WORDS PER DAY.
I write papers based on a strategy called “Writing by Memorandum”.
I write memorandums.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 29, 2020
I learned to write memoranda (memorandums?) in graduate school, and like many of the things I do now as a professor, I still write memos.
… memorandums about my data, my methods, analysis, results, etc.
In this post I gave you 8 sequential steps to quickly produce a Shitty First Draft (hat tips Anne Lamott) https://t.co/QtktllEpGs
I always suggest assembling the paper about 70-80% of the way before finishing.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 29, 2020
As you can see from my Twitter thread, my process is very similar to the one championed by David Sternberg and Joli Jensen: having a Project Box. The only difference is that my Project Box is digital: I open a folder in Dropbox for each paper and a sub-folder for the PDFs associated with that particular manuscript.
– I can write bits and pieces of memos (not even a full memo!) every morning. Even if it’s only 50 words of a memo. https://t.co/Aedss19GxQ
– I write pieces of a memo as part of my #2ThingsADay before shit hits the fan.https://t.co/SisKeE7eN0
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 29, 2020
What I find is that memorandums can be part of a global strategy that is much chiller and less stressful than trying to remain focused on the big picture. Memos can be simply quick “notes-to-self” written in adhesive Post-It notes, or scribbles on the margins of a paper.
– Often times, just looking at (and adding comments to) my Drafts Review Matrix (DRM)https://t.co/kjfJikTGqR is the one activity I consider “staying in touch with my writing” https://t.co/gEC5S4pU8j
– Other times, I just open the document & read https://t.co/b1HPoVsgzo
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) April 29, 2020
What I did this morning was to assemble all the memos I had already written for this particular paper. To note: I did not have written 10,000 words in memos. I probably did have about 7,000 which means that yes, I did write 3,000 words in one day. But that’s because I had he mental space, the physical space, the time (and an impending deadline that I cannot avoid because it means letting someone down that has been incredibly kind to me).
Now, all I have to do is edit, cut words/add words, move stuff around, re-read and format the paper. But again, I insist: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WRITE 3,000 WORDS PER DAY.
Whatever you can add to a memorandum is good enough (yes, 15 words IS good enough).
Whatever time you can devote to your work is good (yes, 10 minutes is enough).
We’re in a pandemic. BEING WELL (YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES) IS THE PRIORITY.
There’s enough pressure on us to take what I just wrote as 1 more reason to feel pressure. On the contrary. If I share my process (and my life) is to remind you that less than 6 months ago, I almost died of chronic pain and chronic fatigue.
I am writing now because I’m healthy.
DO WHAT *YOU* NEED TO DO.
Don’t listen to your inner demons or the external pressures. Right now the goal is to survive this !@#% pandemic. If my process helps you in any way, take it (or adopt parts of it). Don’t feel pressured by it. Or by academia, writ large.
Such an excellent piece, thank you so much. Have implemented this in my own doctoral studies and actually feel rather silly that it didn’t occur to me before.