A couple of nights ago, I wrote about the entire concept of “developing a writing practice”. From that thread, I derived two sub-themes: the first one can be defined as “which books do I need to read to develop a writing practice”. The second theme was “how do I go about developing a writing practice”. I develop the first theme here.
I have become a MUCH better writer by PRACTICING WRITING. I write a metric ton of text. I write a blog. I write journal articles, book chapters, and I’m writing three books (don’t ask, I’m just… unable to say “no” to interesting opportunities).
I have explained before that I firmly believe we can ALL develop A WRITING PRACTICE.
In order to learn how to develop a system to regularly produce text, you DO need guidance. The books I’m going to write about and the posts I’m going to link to will explain how to develop this writing practice. Now, you may ask me “Professor Pacheco-Vega, HOW EXACTLY DO I DEVELOP A WRITING PRACTICE?”
Well, I have some guidance on my blog, which I develop in the second blog post of this series (you can read it here), but first of all, I seriously believe you need to read and peruse “Writing Practice Developmental Books”. I have previously written about the three types of books on writing: Developmental, Inspirational, and Thematic.
Obviously “The Writer’s Practice” by @biblioracle. Easily my top recommendation for as “Writing Practice Developmental Book”
Then, I would recommend @WendyLBelcher ‘s “Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks”. I recommend the SECOND edition, though I wrote about the first …
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2020
At the same level, I very strongly recommend @ThomsonPat and Barbara Kamler’s “Writing for Peer Reviewed Journals” https://t.co/vvvirqPfrY
Thomson and Kamler develop the concept of “Tiny Text” that allows you to build a writing practice by producing “Tiny Texts” all the time.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2020
Patricia Goodson’s “Becoming an Academic Writer” is chock-full of great, sequential exercises to help you go from Zero to Hero (well, probably not that far, but you get my drift). https://t.co/Bb6iet4Nzf
So here’s where the advice is going to become a tad mixed.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2020
The books I mentioned before sort-of assume that you have the motivation to develop a writing practice (and that you need little inspiration, but more you need to do A LOT of perspiration and get words on screen).
If you are de-motivated and need both inspiration AND tools…
Second, I believe @ANNELAMOTT ‘s excellent “Bird by Bird” will inspire you and gently nudge you to sit down and get some words on paper (or screen). https://t.co/p4i0pZcB6Q
In the end, everyone who writes about writing will agree on one thing regarding writing practices:
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) September 6, 2020
The last piece of this Twitter thread pointed to my second set of ideas, on how to develop a writing practice. That blog post can be read here.
In the end, I strongly believe that having a small library of writing books will help you develop a writing practice.
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