Writer's Bootcamp: Commitment (to write) - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Writer’s Bootcamp: Commitment (to write)

February 23, 2010, 3:38 pm

Over the past few weeks at ProfHacker, we’ve discussed writing, and these discussions have turned into a new series: Writer’s Bootcamp. If you are a part of higher education, you know about the ongoing need we have to produce written words. We write all the time (or at least most of us need to). We write for publication (hopefully), for university purposes, for our classes, for our communities, and for ourselves. We write so much, in fact, that we don’t get done the kind of writing that matters: writing for publication.

We’ve heard the bare-bones advice: Just get the writing done. Just do it. We’ve made the comparison about how being a writer is like being an athlete, about how we can have excuses why we don’t exercise and we have similar excuses about why we don’t write. We’ve joined writer’s groups (face-to-face and online), in order to have that accountability that is necessary in the writing process.

But let’s take a few steps back from joining a writing community. Let’s take a step back from “just doing it.” Some of us might have forgotten the first step, that most important step: Have you made the commitment to write?

This commitment step might seem implied to many of us, as writing is a part of our jobs. We are committed to keeping our jobs; therefore, we are committed to write. Right?

Uh, not so much.

Joining a gym in order to exercise can be a commitment. But if you have ever joined a local gym (paying good money in the process) and not attended a single class or workout session, or only sat in the swimming pool or the sauna, you have not committed to exercise. You have only committed to give your money to other people.

Have you made a commitment, a promise to yourself, to get writing done? If you are struggling with your writing, maybe you need to take this step.

Write your Commitment. Mine looks like this, “I commit to writing 250 words each day. Those words might not be pretty or deep or profound, but I will write them.
Identify a daily word limit. 50 words? 200 words? 2,000? You know yourself better than anyone. Set a limit you can feasibly reach. (My goal is usually 250 words a day. I don’t always make it, but I strive for that number.)
Set aside a daily time for writing. Maybe it’s 5:30 in the morning, or 2:00 in the afternoon. You know your schedule. Allot time to write. (I write each afternoon after I’m done teaching.)
Use creative words or phrases to get you started (if you have trouble starting the writing process). I literally pick a book off the shelf, a book I really like, open it at random, find a sentence, type that sentence onto my screen, then I start writing about that sentence.

How about you? What kind of commitment have you made to be successful in your writing? Please leave comments below.

[Image by Flickr user Billie Hara. Used under Creative Commons.]

This entry was posted in Productivity, Profession and tagged writers bootcamp, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Writer’s Bootcamp: Commitment (to write)

William Patrick Wend - February 25, 2010 at 4:57 pm

I give myself two hours in the evening for writing. I try to write a page per project I am working on (normally one or two). But I very strongly agree in general with the idea of setting your own standards according to your life/schedule/etc.

Elise A. - February 23, 2010 at 9:54 pm

Timely post. I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the “waves” I experience in my commitment to writing. I start to feel like it’s an impossible task (or, even worse, a chore) sometimes, losing sight of the many reasons it’s valuable and perhaps even necessary. You might check out a recent article (How Writing Leads to Thinking ) on writing from Perspectives (the newsletter of the American Historical Association). I found it a profound and inspirational reminder of why it is I believe in and do writing, after all.

Lisa Maruca - February 23, 2010 at 11:20 pm

I went to a workshop on academic writing which recommended the ten minutes a day, first thing in the morning system–the idea being that you do this before you can manufacture excuses not to (yes, just like with exercise!). I did it for a while and it seemed to work well, but my day already has to start at 6am and any earlier is just too early for me. A measly excuse, I’m sure. My point, though, is how manageable yet effective just ten minutes can be (though my periods invariably stretched to 20 or 30 minutes). If you really do it every day, you’re able to jump back into it. Not feeling like you have to carve out a large chunk of time in an already packed schedule (kids, teaching, committees, grading etc etc) is liberating in itself –and gets rid of the largest excuse/stumbling block. Knowing there is only ten minutes forces you to get past writer’s block and procrastination habits (I’ll just check my email first…). So what if you only write an hour or so a week? That’s a lot more than many of us accomplish currently.

Of course, that’s ten minutes I could be reading ProfHacker. Are you sure you want me to give that up?

Jake - February 24, 2010 at 9:51 pm

Another useful tool: use Mac Freedom to turn off Internet access. This is among the most useful tools I’ve found.