For the past 20 years, I've worked alone at home. The lifestyle is great, but it can be really hard to work alone. It’s lonely. So how do we motivate ourselves to work? How do we find the energy to not only get started, but to keep going?

As the new year approaches, you will be tempted to make resolutions about writing. But when mid-February rocks up, we all know that “writing” will be relegated to the bottom of the to-do list. Join us in our “Finish That Paper!” Workshop: We’ve put together a workshop that starts in the New Year and helps you realise your New Year writing resolutions and more.

So if the last post resonated with you, and you suspect you might need to procure a developmental editor for your manuscript, you can read on to get a sense of what it’s like to work with a developmental editor, what the process may look like for you, and how much it might cost [not as much as you might think].

Chefs practice mise en place—the key culinary technique we covered in our previous post—whereas most PhD students are expected to learn how and what to write on their own! This lack of training is a paradox, especially considering the importance of writing skills to academic success.

So, you want to finish a piece of writing you have been working on. Or you are attending a writing boot camp. Will you waste precious hours writing, deleting, writing and then eventually surfing the internet? Or will you create something of good and promising value?

I started using the Pomodoro technique last year when the pandemic hit and the kids stayed at home to study, and it’s the best thing to ever happen to me.

Guest post by Dr Chris Hill.

Previously, I wrote about the role of inspiration and mental well-being in productive writing practice. Here I explore how good sleep habits can improve your writing productivity.

If I am not happy and balanced, then it is no surprise that I am easily distracted and uninspired. And so, achieving balance and happiness will involve some kind of reflection on my thoughts and emotions. Let’s use techniques that can improve your mental well-being and cognitive performance to make you a more productive writer.

The writer Peter De Vries once famously quipped: I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock. It sounds like a quote about discipline and the rigour of regular practice, but seen another way, what De Vries is really talking about is inspiration.