Thread by @HistoriErin

Okay, I promised to share my thoughts this week on Paul Silvia's *How to Write a Lot* for #PhDSkills and since I'm at a break in the conference and it's Friday, I'd better do it now! Ready? #amwriting

Silvia's entire approach centers on writing productively. As in producing words, pages, articles, books, etc. And in his view, productive writing is a skill, which means you can learn how to do it. #PhDSkills #amwriting

My POV? I just wrote a lot. I turned in my dissertation last week. It included a massive data project and the research took years. But I wrote the whole thing in about a year; the vast majority of it in a 4-month window at the end of last year. #PhDSkills #amwriting

So I may creep into a "Silvia says, I did" pattern here for whatever that is worth. #PhDSkills #amwriting

So let's dive in: Silvia offers a practical, behavior-oriented approach to being productive. He says: you already have the skills to be a productive writer. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Silvia is a psychologist but his tips for changing your behaviors to make you a productive writer can work for any field. I’m only going to focus on chapters 1-5, which are the most general; 6 & 7 are about psychology writing in particular. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Silvia first tackles all of the excuses we give ourselves for not writing and offers tools & strategies to overcome them. I can’t find the time to write, he argues, means you are waiting for a big block of time to write. Stop it. #PhDSkills #amwriting

The reality is that you need consistency over time to be productive, not big hunks of time here and there. Because very few scholars can get away with binge writing. #PhDSkills #amwriting

His answer: set a writing schedule, which are personal & unique to each writer. Whether it’s 2- or 4-hour blocks of time or 30 minutes each day, figure out what kind of schedule you can actually stick to & start there.
You may need to adjust it as you go. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Beware of schedulus interruptus. People will not respect your writing schedule and you are going to need to be the cop who polices your own time. And this is hard. #PhDSkills #amwriting

When can you be consistent? For my project, I wrote from ~3pm until about 6 or 7, stopped for dinner and then often worked again until ~10. Regardless, I managed ~3 to 4 hours every day during the week for real writing. When I was on a roll I wrote more. #PhDSkills #amwriting

The key: do what you can, but do it consistently.
Silvia: any action that advances your writing project counts, but make sure you do it during this allotted time and give yourself time to do other things. You need these breaks. #PhDSkills #amwriting

More classic blocks that trick us? I’ll write when: I’m inspired, I have a good desk/printer/computer, I’ve done more research… they’re all excuses. Set a schedule and use that as your work time. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Next he suggests setting concrete work goals, words/day, pages/day, etc. There are GREAT communities on Twitter for this, BTW. And if you can’t find one, start one. Lots of #twitterstorians might join your #wordsperday group for shared accountability. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Then prioritize your project goals. By deadline is the most obvious way to prioritize but this will depend on what you are trying to accomplish. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Silvia recommends monitoring your progress so you can adjust goals & priorities as you go. On a broad level, I agree with this, but he shows progress charts & spreadsheets. I worry about a procrastination cycle with that level of detail But that might be me #PhDSkills #amwriting

I much prefer being responsible to someone else, which we’ll get to in a sec. Now Silvia does not believe in writer’s block.. we can debate this. He believes block is simply not writing. For me, block comes from not knowing how to communicate my thoughts. #PhDSkills #amwriting

But we both agree on the method to get over it. Write. For him, it’s sticking to a schedule. But that won’t help if you are struggling to communicate what you’re thinking.
#PhDSkills #amwriting

For me getting over writer’s block has more to do w/writing my way into my thoughts. It’s painful. And I had to write a lot of bad sentences to get myself to a point where I could revise them into something clear. #PhDSkills #amwriting

My tactic FWIW: I wrote out exactly what I was thinking w/ all the bad grammar & circular logic. And then once I could see it on the page, I could usually make sense of it with a few passes. If not, then I shared it with friends who could help get me there #PhDSkills #amwriting

And this brings me to something I firmly believe in. Accountability & friends. Start or join a writing group. Silvia shares a weekly model & gives tips: set goals, stick to writing, use carrots instead of sticks, drink coffee too if you like. #PhDSkills #amwriting

I'm in an awesome group & honestly it’s the only way I finished. There are only 3 of us: 2 of us actively writing dissertations and 1 who recently finished and writing other things. #PhDSkills #amwriting

We’re not co-located, so we started a @Slack group. We have a thread of Dones to track our work. We have a channel where we can discuss work. We shared chunks of writing. Then once a month or so, we had a webchat & talked through it all. #PhDSkills #amwriting

The two writing dissertations had a "standup" every Mon to talk through our goals for the week and to help unstick the other if necessary. And we prodded each other. How’s it going? What can I help with? Where are you stuck? #PhDSkills #amwriting

And it was tremendous. This is a lonely process, but the circle of friendship and support that this group provided was so helpful. #PhDSkills #amwriting

They held accountable for when I couldn’t produce & helped me get over the points where I couldn’t communicate my thinking. I'm happy to chat more about this if you’re interested. #PhDSkills #amwriting

I do recommend Silvia's book *How to Write a Lot* -- It's very short and handy esp if you're just starting a big project. #PhDSkills #amwriting

Okay, that's all from this end.. back to my conference! Holler at me with thoughts and your tips to get through all the words. #PhDSkills #amwriting