1 November 2012: here beginneth AcWriMo

Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy, by Louis Lié Périn-Salbreux (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the first day of Academic Writing Month. I began by adding my details to the Spreadsheet of Academic Writing Accountability,where I’ll need to record my progress every day of the month. My goal is to have full drafts of three papers and articles intended for publication, in addition to having an already completed article submitted for publication. I also plan to blog about my writing and the AcWriMo process. Having given it some thought, I don’t intend to have a specifi word amount goal for every day. Instead, I’ve committed to writing for one hour a day minimum on days when I am also at work, and for two hours a day minimum on other days. I will never write for more than three hours on any given day. Having been introduced to the Pomodoro technique by AcWriMo, I’m going to use it as my method of working.

This morning I submitted an abstract of the completed article to a journal for their consideration. I expect that, if they then wish to read the full manuscript, that I will have some editing to do; I have included this in my AcWriMo goals.

Another reason for participating in AcWriMo is to learn more about the craft of writing; I’ve been blogging a lot recently about writing techniques and tools, and last night was lucky enough to listen to Audrey Niffeneger and Erin Morgenstern talk about their own writing. SO another of my tasks this morning has been to look at the resources avaialble via the official website. Charlotte Frost has posted some advice taken from Wendy Laura Belcher’s book Writing your journal article in 12 weeks. This initial post focuses on how academia teaches – or doesn’t teach – writing skills, and looks at how academics and students feel about writing and researching at the start and end of individual projects. I love that she emphasises the importance of creativity in the writing process and of a personal relationship to one’s writing.

If you’re particpating in AcWriMo, don’t forget to use Twitter to keep with others taking part. After looking at the official post, I trotted over to Twitter to see what was happening under the hashtag #AcWriMo – and there is a lot going on. I’ve found some great blogposts giving people writing advice, such as Ten Ways you can write everyday from Get a Life, PhD. Don’t forget about the official Phd To Published AcWriMo-ers list.

There are several different perspectives on how to do AcWriMo and on its significance. I particularly like this one by the Thesis Whisperer. The attempts to force universities to adopt a business model are in my opinion decidedly short-sighted. Education is not a business; it is something all its own. It would take another post and then some to define exactly what it is. For the purposes of this post, research and publication are crucial parts of education and academia. Thus breathing space to ponder, read and write is essential. The process may well be more important than the end result, and definitely more important than the tools used to measure output. I like the idea of a slow academia movement; it fits perfectly with my personal aim of making life in general a more considered and slower process.

The last bit of preparation that I did was to book my place for Robert Hewison’s talk on the Art of Writing: Sight and Insight: words and ideas, taking place at the Association of Art Historians’ HQ on 26 November. It’s the second talk in a lecture series on writing for art historians, organised by my colleague Christina Bradstreet at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Ayla Lepine at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

And now I better get down to the writing of papers, not blogs. Happy AcWriMo, all!

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