Becoming the Writer You Already Are

by Michelle R. Boyd

Overview

Becoming the Writer You Already Are helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. Author Michelle R. Boyd introduces the Writing Metaphor as a reflective tool that can help you understand and overcome your writing fears: going from “stuck” to “unstuck” by drawing on skills you already have at your fingertips. She also offers an experimental approach to trying out any new writing strategy, so you can easily fill out the parts of your writing process that need developing. The book includes a number of helpful features: Real Scholars’ Stories provide insights into overcoming writing barriers; Wise Words from other scholars capture the trials of writing as well as avenues through those trials; and finally Focus Points highlight important ideas, questions, or techniques to consider. The book is ideal for dissertation writing seminars, graduate students struggling with the transition from coursework to dissertation work, scholars who are supporting or participating in writing groups, and marginalized scholars whose write struggles have prompted them to internalize the bias that others have about their ability to do exemplary research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483374147
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	11/09/2022
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	1,132,100
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michelle Boyd, Ph D is the founder of Ink Well Academic Writing Retreats, a transformative, retreat-based training program that teaches scholars to overcome their writing fears. She is also a self-described “struggling writer” whose success as an award-winning, former tenured faculty member belied the challenges she faced throughout her career as an academic. Scholars who work with Michelle call her coaching “magical,” but it’s not magic—it’s science. Her coaching programs are rooted in research showing that each scholar has their own natural writing process, and that many of their struggles come from external barriers that prevent them from recognizing, accessing, or trusting that process when they need it. Michelle has been leading retreats since 2012, when she cofounded and coached her first retreat as a faculty member. The only thing she loves more than writing is helping scholars who dread writing develop a calm, confident, productive writing practice.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

About the Author xvii

Chapter 1 Down but Not Out: What It Means to Be Stuck 1

What It Means to Be Stuck 4

Flow and Forward Writing 8

The Promise of Writing Process 10

Chapter Overview: From Problem to Puzzle 12

Solving the Writing Puzzle: How to Use This Book 13

Chapter 2 More Than You Think: How Head, Hand, and Heart Make Writing So Hard 17

Actually … It Is Hard: The Inherent Challenge of Writing 19

Watch Your Head: The Cognitive Demands of Writing 20

Take Me by the Hand: The Mastery That Never Comes 21

Be Still My Heart: The Emotional Toll of Writing 23

The Whole You: Head, Hand, and Heart in Writing 26

Institutional Challenges: Running the Risk of Writing 28

Sources of Risk 30

Interpretive Challenges: The Impact of Risk on Writing 35

Chapter 3 Turning Toward Yourself: How Writing Process Can Help You Get Unstuck 43

What Is Writing Process? 45

Stages of the Writing Process 48

Initiation 48

Saturation 48

Incubation and Illumination 49

Clarification 50

Submission 52

Hibernation 53

What Writing Process Looks Like 54

Using Process to Get Unstuck 57

Chapter 4 Finding the Writer Inside: How to Get Unstuck and Start Writing Again 61

Why It's Hard to Draw on Process 62

How to Uncover Your Writing Process 66

Step 1 Describe Your Experience of Writing 70

Step 2 Identify the Stages of Your Writing Experience 71

Step 3 Characterize the Writing at Each Stage of the Metaphor 73

Step 4 Describe Your Response to Each Stage of the Metaphor 75

Filling in the Blanks 77

Step 5 Follow Your Process Every Time You Write 78

Chapter 5 Growing From the Inside Out: Exploring and Expanding Your Writing Process 81

Initiation: Purposefully Making Mistakes 85

Core Fear: Nothing Worth Saying 85

Common Pitfall: Devaluing Before Development 86

Essential Skill: The Beautiful Oops 86

Try it Out: How to Oops 87

Tier I Getting It Out 87

Tier II Getting It "Wrong" 88

Saturation: Choosing a New Audience 88

Core Fear: Knowing it All 89

Common Pitfall: Endless Pursuit of Confirmation 89

Essential Skill: Phone-A-Friend 90

Try it Out: How to Phone-A-Friend 90

Tier I Friends You Love 90

Tier II Friends You Lead 91

Incubation: Accepting Our Lack of Control 91

Core Fear: Falling Too Far Behind 92

Common Pitfall: Refusing to Stop 92

Essential Skill: Finding Rest Stops 93

Try it Out: Finding Rest Stops 93

Tier I Turning Away 93

Tier II Turning Off 94

Clarification: Taking Your Ideas Out for a Test Run 95

Core Fear: Getting It Wrong 96

Common Pitfall: Hiding Our Work 96

Essential Skill: Mocking Up Your Manuscript 97

Try It Out: How to Mock Up Your Manuscript 98

Tier I Mock Up with Your Mouth 98

Tier II Mock Up in Your Manuscript 99

Tier III The "Mean Ole Lion" Writing Group 99

Submission: Leading Yourself to Release 100

Core Fear: Being Found Out 101

Essential Skill: Patch Up and Let Go 101

Try It Out: Patching Up 103

Hibernation: Immersion in Play, Not Work 107

Core Fear: That Just Can't Happen 107

Essential Skill: Take a Deep Dive Into Delight 108

Try it Out: Deep Diving 108

Tier I Preparing to Dive In 109

Tier II Test Out the Waters 110

Conclusion 111

Chapter 6 Thoughts on Building a Writing Life 115

Making Space for Yourself and Your Writing 116

The Promise and Perils of Slow Scholarship 117

Writer's Oppositional Consciousness 119

Claiming a Writer's identity 120

Identifying Unfairness 121

Refusing to Comply 121

Seeing Shared Struggle 121

Making Space With Social Writing 123

References 127

Index 137

Editorial Reviews

This book is an attempt to acknowledge the struggles of academic writing and propel confidence through the development of sound habits. It offers a friendly and intimate companion to the varying emotional and circumstantial challenges inherent in the writing process, and provides a specific process by which to develop more competence and confidence as a writer.

Raymond Blanton

If you are struggling with academic writing, you've already read the other books, and you still can't figure out how to "fix" your problem,
this book may help you understand.

Christine Colwell

I recommend this book to doctoral students and colleagues who are dedicated to writing and scholarship as an addition to their reading on the craft of writing for publication, and as an extension of their efforts to constantly enhance their research and writing productivity.

Marilyn L. Grady

Wisdom and kindness emanate from every page of this revelatory new guidebook, where renowned academic writing coach Michelle Boyd shows us how to find our own unique approach to living the messy, rewarding process of creating scholarship. I can’t recommend this book highly enough!

Margy Thomas

This book helps the reader understand that writer’s block happens to all of us, and that it is not something to pathologize or internalize in a negative sense. It moves the reader to an appreciation of their vulnerabilities, but also understanding that those personality quirks can be transformed into a strength when faced head on.

Barbara L. Pazey

This is a book on the academic writing process that helps to demystify that process and provides concrete strategies for dealing with
the emotional side as well as the practical side of writing.

Kevin P. Lyness

A helpful guide to brainstorming and conquering the blank writing screen. I love the examples and the conversational writing style.

Robert Dennis Watkins