Roll up roll up Autumn Writing Challenge!

[bigkidsdidit]

Welcome everyone to Autumn Writing. Post your targets to be done before Christmas. Small or large!

[PeteMe]

Good luck @Yogafire and @NeverEverAnythingEver

I had a productive morning and made good progress on the paper. Need to work on it on Monday and hopefully get it finished before the end of the week.

[Yogafire]

I did finish (it’s not final but ok to move on). However I started reading the next one and a third of it is utter crap. I’m now thinking of the other chapters I haven’t read for a while that will have me shrinking in my chair

[bigkidsdidit]

I have started paper 2 but re-analysed a lot of the experiments and they're not good enough - need repeating. Damnit

[PeteMe]

Morning all, how is everyone getting on? My journal paper is almost ready, hoping to getting it submitted by the end of this week (fingers crossed).

[worstofbothworlds]

Grant 2 submitted!
Well, until the research office spots an error of course.

PhD student 1's paper is a bit more problematic than I thought (partly because the references have imploded) but I will work on it for now, planning a couple of half hours on that and a couple on yet another lecture, today.

Everything else is with a co-author except for PhD Student 2's data paper which is a collection of mad scribblings at the moment. I'll go on to that when I have nothing else to do I think!

[Yogafire]

I’m ploughing on. Revisions (some major) on part 1 of monograph (=3 long chapters). One chapter of part 3 is utter crap so racing to get to it.
If I can nail all of that by 1 December I’ll be kind of happy (though generally fed up and think the book is no longer relevant, so long has it taken me to get this far ☹️)

[worstofbothworlds]

Lecture needs a big push today but I think I can squeeze in one or two half hours on Student1Paper. I'm really just polishing it TBH.

[JustAnotherManicUsername]

I think I might be getting somewhere with my writing by doing 45 minutes first thing every day (from when I get into the office at 9.15). I'm chipping away at a first draft of a new article that I'm feeling enthused and interested about and so far I've managed to do some every working day for the last two weeks except one. The one day I missed was because I had an early meeting and then I couldn't make myself do it later that day - first thing before my head gets sucked into other stuff is definitely one of the key tricks for me.

My remaining target is to get the second draft of a funding bid done by the end of this month. I'm not going to get to it today but maybe if I have a spectacularly productive day tomorrow...

[Hatstand]

Just read back and I've done everything on my list! Can't quite believe it. Next up is to transcribe notes from a huge stack of critical sources and to brainstorm ways to restructure the thesis... aiming for a full first draft by April.

[bigkidsdidit]

I'm completely fed up and achieving very very little. Just treading wAter until Christmas, really ☹️

[Yogafire]

I'm cancelling Christmas! Been getting up extra early and working before the kids wake - mainly because of childcare fail this and last week but it may be the pattern for the rest of the month. I have to get over the hump so jan work is more cosmetic and mechanical. Deadline 31 jan

[Thetreesareallgone]

I think I might be getting somewhere with my writing by doing 45 minutes first thing every day (from when I get into the office at 9.15)

I haven't been doing this every day, but this tactic works for me too. I find if I can do an hour (two pomodoros) before I really wake up/become fully conscious of how awful it all is, I've kind of got ahead of the game.

A really clever colleague suggested to me this strategy, of just doing one hour, even if you just remind yourself where you are and read the paper through. Otherwise, if you leave it for months, then look over Christmas, you've totally lost the thread of it all. This way you stay familiar with the paper/grant and are more ready to make headway in those rare opportunities within the term.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Just checking in. Term is officially over (yay!), admissions next week. I have a talk to write for the 14th. I'm stressing over it because it's my first invited talk and it's for historians rather than English Lit people (this isn't weird - medievalists tend to be a bit interdisciplinary - but it means I need to make my history side very strong). I need to start writing on paper instead of nervously planning in my head.

On the plus side I have made some progress on book chapter 3 and I've just had some conference sessions approved which is a relief because my co-organiser and I put a shedload of work into them over the summer.

[CuddleStock]

Am I allowed to join this thread with a research paper I'm trying to submit for an undergraduate journal?

I'm a part-time mature OU student and loving my course, but struggling with feeling a bit isolated at the moment.

Student support is excellent and (touch wood) my marks for the course overall are good but the "extras" I'm trying to do are a bit "me only".

I've got till the end of the year to do it, then it is back to retail/service industry work for a while... (which can be Ok - a bit of a break from books - but also fairly thankless at times!)

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Hello! When's your deadline?

[worstofbothworlds]

We are having a mini writing retreat and I've almost finished the updates on two chapters of my manual that colleagues just butchered commented on.
I hate Track Changes.

[purplepandas]

Another one who is fed up. Teaching has killed me this semester. I started out this thread with the aim of submitting two papers. I submitted one. That has come back as a reject (not surprising as highest ranking journal in field and not known for publishing qual work). But, I aim to resubmit before Christmas if poss. The other paper is nowhere to be seen.

I am seriously lacking energy now too. I can't be the only one!

[bigkidsdidit]

No im the same. Speaking at conference this week then I'm going to finish my HEA fellowship and hibernate. Paper been rejected five times now 🙄

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Can I update? It's the end of term so I am reassessing what I can do with the next couple of weeks (though 'Christmas' really means until the vac is over, right?! good.)

Targets:

1. Finish an article by November 1st.
   Done
   
2. Finish an abstract by November 1st.
   Done, though it was a week late
   
3. Finish book chapter draft no. 1
   Done
   
4. Finish book chapter draft no. 2
   Not done.
   
5. Write book chapter no. 3
   Done.
   
6. Draft (?) book introduction.
   Not done (but book deadline extended to April)
   
7. Write invited talk
   Done and given
   
   I've also done admissions, which I knew I was doing and have done before, but which I still forgot would be this tiring, and a colleague and I have organised three conference sessions and got the preliminary shape of an edited collection sketched out so we can pitch it next year, so that was good.
   
   New thing on list: write my conference paper for a January conference.

[Yogafire]

Update -
Monograph due January. Plan was to finish by xmas. I have worked so hard with various family crises. Pretty fed up with it all. I have a draft done (excluding conclusion) but lots of revision needed and need to add some sections. I don't think I'll have finished by the end of jan but I couldn't have worked any harder. I don't like the near finished product much ether 😯

[worstofbothworlds]

All new thread for SPRING (ha ha).

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/academics_corner/3141476-The-all-new-SPRING-writing-challenge?watched=1