#ACWRIMO

After a hiatus I am back. It is November, and I have made some progress on what I am going to examine about collaboratives. But first, I want to introduce my overhaul of the writing process. November is Academic Writing Month. Academic writers all over the world are making pledges to produce a certain quantity of academic writing this month in hopes of boosting productivity, practicing writing more diligently, and avoiding the slog of winter break writing and the promise of long breaks to produce that do not happen. One major component of this is to make goals and progress public. Well, here are my goals world!

For AcWriMo, I am setting the goal of 30,000 words.

This will include all forms of writing, outlining, pre-writing and drafting. Beyond this number goal, the form the words will take will include:

- A new draft of my collaboratives and fire mitigation grant and dissertation proposal, this time focusing on collective learning

- A paper on the failure of the voluntary sector and collaborative partnerships between nonprofits and the government sector

- Three answers to past comprehensive exam questions from my major area, Public Policy

- Not word-count specific, but I also intend to get my Water Mangers Use of Weather Data paper submitted at the AZ Law School Environmental Journal

I am tracking my writing in terms of time spent and words written on a google spreadsheet, linked here. I plan on updating my progress here. I will post a link to each blog post on facebook for accountability. Thanks Brandy for the idea from the poem a day posts she did in October for that idea.

I want to share a book I learned about on The Thesis Whisperer called How to Write a Lot by Paul Silvia. Silvia talks about making writing a mundane task, one that you engage in daily just like teaching or showing up to a meeting. He breaks down some barriers commonly used to avoid writing and describes a simple process for just doing it. The trick? Set a schedule. Write during that time, and do everything that you would normally do to prepare for and research writing during that time as well. As with most goals, starting small makes sense. I am scheduling an hour a day to do nothing but write no matter what. Those times are Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11-noon, and Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-10:30. Hopefully those blocks of time will grow. I will not read for class, meet with students, wander and think or have the TV, radio or podcasts on in the background during those times. I will not be checking email, my phone, or playing with the dogs during those times. I will be writing or preparing to write at those times. And when the time is over and I am out of ideas or momentum, I am free to do whatever else needs to be done. The promise of the book is that most people are surprised at the volume that emerges when as little as 4 hours a week are blocked out in this way. Well, here's a test of that promise.

So here's to AcWriMo and productivity!