The writing process

Managing your writing time

Writing isn’t just a skill – it is also a practice. How you approach your writing, and build writing into your research schedule, is really important to the process of writing your thesis. Other researchers also find these approaches useful:

How to Be Productive by Writing Two Hours a Day – Get a Life, PhD This blog post advocates writing for two hours a day, five days a week to increase your productivity and help maintain motivation.

How to Write 1000 Words a Day (and not go batshit crazy) – The Thesis Whisperer This blog post outlines a strategy from The Thesis Whisperer, with a step-by-step guide to getting more works down on paper.

Ten Ways You Can Write Everyday – Get a Life, PhD This blog post outlines 10 different ways you can ‘write’ every day – from get new words down on a blank page to checking references.

The Pomodoro Technique

You can also download a text version of this infographic.

Shut Up and Write

As part of the Supporting PGR Writing Annual Fund Project, we have trained a team of PGR facilitators to run regular writing groups online. These are structured spaces for you to bring your own work and get some writing done, with scheduled breaks and activities. We have a very active PGR writing groups Microsoft Team, with Shut Up and Write sessions running several times a day using the Pomodoro Technique. You can find more information on the website.

Feedback

Here’s some feedback we’ve had from PGRs about the impact of these groups.

You can also read a blog post from facilitator and attendee Jo Sutherest, PGR in Art History and Visual Culture.

Thinking as you write

You can download a transcript of this video.

Dealing with writer's block

Writer’s block happens to us all, and will definitely happen to you as you are writing your thesis. It can be demoralising, but there are ways of dealing with it. Here are some suggestions:

Writer’s Block – Patter This blog post from Pat Thomson includes some useful strategies to help you deal with writer’s block.
5 Helpful Ways to Combat Writer’s Block – University of Glasgow PGR Blog This post from the University of Glasgow offers some useful tips to deal with writer’s block and be more productive.
Writer’s Block: Can’t Write Won’t Write – Patter Here Pat Thomson talks about the connection between ‘writer’s block’ and our fixed view of writing practices and habits.
Write Your Way Out – Explorations of Style This blog post by Rachael Cayley explores the difference between writing difficulties and writer’s block, and how to use writing as a ‘way out’ of it.
Looping – A Free Writing Strategy For Generating Ideas – Patter In this post Pat Thomson proposes an alternative to free writing, where you free write in ‘loops’ to refine your writing.

Here’s a video of Skye Marshall, PGR in Physics, talking about how she deals with writer’s block.