Zooming out on your writing practice: what, why, how

This two-part online event, on consecutive Friday mornings (30th October and 6th November), offers a chance to rethink your writing (academic and other) from the ground up.

At the start of week 1, we’ll start with the “what”, by mapping out your existing commitments, testing out criteria for making future decisions about how to design future writing projects and whether to take them on or not, and practising breaking projects down into tasks: the things that collectively will result in you completing the project.

Then we’ll take a step back to the “why”, asking what this writing you’re doing is actually for. We’ll include investigation of two extrinsic motivators: 1) what these pieces of writing are intended to achieve in themselves (as pieces of writing with which readers engage), and 2) what they are intended to achieve as professional milestones, i.e. processes and/or outputs that may achieve certain desirable, or undesirable, career effects. We’ll also consider what intrinsic rewards writing as activity has for you, and how (and whether) to maximise them.

This exploration will be followed by time for planned writing, as a chance to reflect, in action, on the questions we’ve raised. For the rest of the week you’ll be paired with an event partner to continue active reflection around your writing and the role it plays in your life.

We’ll begin week 2 with a recap of what you learnt in the first week, followed by a deep dive into effective habit cultivation strategies to support meaningful writing practice aligned with whatever dimensions of value you have identified as primary. The rest of the second week will be your opportunity to test out the new habit change strategies you’ve created for yourself, again with mutual support from your event partner.

This event is open to all graduate students and early career researchers. Find out more and book your place here >>