As my thesis submission deadline looms, I am finding myself more and more anxious about my writing progress. And, to be honest, a bit afraid that I will miss the mark! After all, there are just three months left, so I don’t have time to waste!
To help keep me motivated, my fellow PhDer and friend, Iris Buunk, and I have decided to dedicate the whole of February to writing. Yes, February will be one big, long Write Now! session for the both of us.
However, Iris is no longer based on campus, so we have to do our writing sessions from a distance. To do that, we decided to start a virtual writing group, using Twitter to help us stay motivated. And since virtual communities make it easy for everyone else to join in, we’re going to attempt a massive, month-long, virtual Write Now! session. (We like to aim high!)
The writing month will allow people to share their process with others at the end of a Twitter hashtag (#WriteSaidFeb). The hope is that people will use the hashtag:
- To share their daily/weekly/monthly writing goals
- As a way of creating some (personal) accountability for their writing goals
- To seek and share motivation with others
- To ask for help/advice on writing
- To seek and share support when the writing process is overwhelming (or non-productive)
- To celebrate daily/weekly/monthly writing successes (no matter how small)
February is a short month, but with a bit of motivation, we can write just as many words (and hopefully more!) than a long month would allow.
My own goals are to have (at least) 40,000 words “in chapter form” by the end of the month. That doesn’t mean that I will write 40,000 new words, but rather I will have that many words ready for my supervisors’ comments ahead of my final submission in April.
I will also be working on the final submission of a journal article (it is very close!) and a grant application that is due next month.
Whilst those are my big goals for the month, I will be breaking them down into smaller chunks to tackle each day. I will share my daily goals on Twitter and hope that others do the same.
Whatever your writing goals are, I wish you all the best in your endeavours.
Right. It is time to stop blogging now so that I can start writing. Because #WriteSaidFeb means I have to!