Hello, fellow writers!
Let me double down on my greeting: hello, fellow writers.
In the last year or so, as I’ve continued to develop my editorial work, I’ve learned a startling fact: not all academics see themselves as writers.
I knew that some of us feel inadequate about our writing skills and that there are some unfortunate stereotypes about academic writers, but wow! Some of us experience far more self-doubt than I imagined.
The benefits of identifying as a writer
Embracing a self-image as a writer who happens to be an academic can be useful for a variety of reasons. Research suggests that it’s empowering. (See for instance Banks & Flinchbaugh in Working with Faculty Writers.)
If you’re struggling, giving yourself permission to engage with writing as an ongoing learning process can shift your negative perceptions of your abilities. Focusing on your writing may make your teaching better. For some, writing can become a welcome source of creativity among the administrative tasks of academic life.
Then there are those of us who leave academia behind. Being a good writer—and having the confidence to offer yourself as one—is a useful skill out there in the world at large.
As it happened, the first draft of my book was largely done by the time I decided to take myself off the academic job market. Briefly, I wondered whether it was worth continuing.
But the license to do what was most important to me as a writer became its own reward. Like some creative writers—or like some academics who sweat their writing because of tenure pressures—I benefitted from having the space to grow as a writer even in the face of uncertainty.
In fact, thinking of myself as a writer gave me the courage to pitch my first journalistic article, which in turn led me to more of the writing and editing work that I’m doing now.
Getting started
Of course, you don’t have to be looking to leave academia to benefit! Nor do you have to have the desire to speak to non-academic audiences.
Also, it’s not necessarily the case that people will look down on your scholarship if you’re a good writer, as some academic writers fear. If you think you’re working in a discipline that’s less amenable to writerly expression and experiment, be sure that your hunch is accurate.
As Helen Sword discovered when doing the research for her book, Stylish Academic Writing, many academic writers have more freedom than they expect. She demonstrates this through a systematic analysis of academic publications and by highlighting the work of compelling writers in a variety of fields, from the hard sciences to the social sciences and humanities.
When you’re ready, you can take an easy first step towards becoming a more adept writer. Maybe you can even draw on previous experience to help you embrace a writer’s self-image: a love of reading.
Nothing prepares you to write confidently more than absorbing a thorough feel for language via reading. It especially helps to identify models of writers you admire who are working within your discipline.
As a grad student, I was fortunate to train with faculty who prompted me to think critically about my writing and others’. And I was operating within a discipline that, in some corners, embraces overt writerly experiment.
Ethnographers are often great storytellers. While a dissertating grad student, it was a pleasure to discover ethnographies that foreground storytelling so much that it shapes their structure and argumentation, books like Kath Weston’s Traveling Light: On the Road with America’s Poor, Michael Taussig’s My Cocaine Museum, and Kathleen Stewart’s Ordinary Affects.
But really, any models will do. Do you love reading novels or magazines? Find time for pleasure reading. Go ahead, use the excuse that it will help you with your professional writing if need be!
Digging in
Beyond simply embracing your inner reader, there are tips and resources that can more directly support you in your journey to become a more fluid and self-assured writer. I’ll address some of them in the weeks to come.
For now, let me draw your attention to some further reading. Because so many people want to share their stories and ideas in print, there are many, many books and articles designed to help them become better writers. (I’m sure that there are also websites, podcasts, videos, and other multimedia resources that I haven’t even begun to discover.)
Some resources are style guides, which provide technical guidance. Some involve research on what makes writing great more broadly. Many more are centered on advice based on the author’s own journey as a writer and perhaps as a writing teacher.
To help you winnow down the options, I’ve created a resource of my own, an annotated bibliography of writing on writing. Feel free to download it from my website.
And watch this space for further ideas and suggestions! We’ll be in touch.
Also! This newsletter represents a writing challenge I’ve created for myself: to compose posts of 1,000 words or less that are both informative and engaging. How am I doing? Please share your feedback if you’re so inclined.