Writing support thread

[ejecoms]

Is anyone up for a writing support thread? I'm really struggling to review and resubmit a paper that got rejected (pre-COVID) and finalise a couple of other papers - one is nearly there and the other needs quite a lot of work (first my co-author hasn't been doing much on but we have a meeting next week to progress and the second I have someone who will do a lot of the work, I just need to clarify for them what needs doing). I completely lost my motivation when COVID came and need to get back on track.

Me! I'm working on a book manuscript and an article.I'm aiming to have chapter 6 (out of 7) written and the article more or less complete by October.

I've had my sabbatical for next year cancelled, which was a big blow and I've struggled to be productive since then.

Thankfully DH is a SAHP so I haven't needed to care for my DD's while working, but having everyone in the house has made it difficult to concentrate. I would usually decamp to a coffee shop, but they have only just opened this morning (in Scotland). I was in at 8am and have made some progress.

Great to have you join this thread @historyrocks. Are you just writing at the moment or to you have to do other things as well?

I'm going to work on re-submitting my rejected paper first. The things I have to do are:

• review the comments from reviewers and decide if I need to re-write. I don't think there is much to do.
• look at the criteria to re-submit to the next journal and how to reformat the paper.

I'll do these two things tomorrow and then I'll have a better idea of what I need to do to finish this.

Good luck with everything.

Alongside the writing I'm re-planning all my teaching for next semester. I've been allocating the last hour or two of each working day to do some of the teaching.

I've been on annual leave so I've decided to take the next couple of days to pull all my research back out and decide what I'm going to tackle first.

OK if I join in? I'm a bit under the weather at the moment but was hoping to submit something I've been working on and off over the last two months, amidst the craziness and without a proper workspace.

Then it's on to another longer piece that I need to whip into shape but I also have to write a book review.

Can I join? I'm aiming to write a funding application and revise a book chapter by the end of this month, and then write the second half of an article over the summer.

I'm not even going to think about the teaching prep until I know whether I have a room to teach in, and how many students can be accommodated in it. No point investing lots of time in something that might well need to be ditched.

Writing is easy, but finding time to write, omg, that's a challenge.
I think I've turned into a Professor but still on RA pay. People keep sending me things to comment on, and that's not counting journalist queries. I find myself twitching & taking over the writing sometimes.

I have ? 9 articles on the boil actively progressing towards getting submitted/published, and 1-8 others in simmering (idea) stages. Is this normal for others in STEM?? I feel like I'll never catch up...

Welcome to all! I am nearly there at submitting my article. I am aiming to submit today. Maybe then I'll take myself out for breakfast at my favourite cafe which has just re-opened.

@MedSchoolRat I'm no expert but I would say I'm involved in a similar number of articles (not quite as many). Three I am leading on and it is really down to me to push for them to get published, the rest I will be a co-author on but my role in writing the paper is minimal, but I will review once written.

Well, I've submitted it! It took about 45mins to do, so I don't know why it has been hanging over my head for the last 6 months or so...

My next job is to look at the stats that my co-author sent me for a paper which was nearly there. He really needs to write his section of the methods though! We have a meeting about it next week. I'll try to have a look at this today...

Good morning daca, medschoolrat, ejecoms, gcacdemic.

Congrat's on submitting the article ejecoms.

I'm currently working on chapter 5 of the book. I want to get the structure sorted out so I can then write it in chunks.

I'm attending a virtual writing retreat on Wednesday. It's not something I've done before, but it's worth a go. They've arranged monthly meetings over the summer. I'm hoping it might help with some of the isolation I feel when writing, which is particularly bad due to lockdown.

Make that chapter 6, not chapter 5! (I've already written chapter 5, thank gold). I have such bad brain fog at the moment; I don't know what's happening.

Good morning! How did the virtual writing retreat go @historyrocks? I've never heard of that idea, but it sounds like a good way to motivate yourself. What's your subject (without being too outing)?

My paper I submitted got bounced back almost immediately but fortunately the changes they wanted (to fulfil the journal submission criteria) were very minor so I have resubmitted.

I've also finished a section I had to re-write for another paper.

Now I'm working on finalising the first draft of yet another paper. I don't have much more to do on this - it is working on the tables ATM and then I need to add in another figure and I can send it to the other authors... I will try and get this done this morning!

These things have been hanging over me for about 6 months and I just haven't been able mentally to get on with them. My writing mojo seems to be returning now.

I have got an article to submit for the end of this month. I have struggled a bit over lockdown (but to be fair I did write a co- authored textbook) so need to do it. I have another article that I haven’t started based on research I did before I went on maternity leave. I basically need a boot to get it all done. I find that I am very critical of my academic writing and just delete most of what I write but the text book was easier to write as it was in a more accessible style.

Can I join in? Got an article due by end Sept plus have all my prep to do for a brand new module (loads more prep than usual on two counts - all new material plus having to pre-record lectures and map out seminars for our ‘hybrid’ teaching). Plus all my usual admin duties and induction stuff.

I’ve been massively unproductive since March. Luckily my mojo reappeared last week, but I’ve got my work cut out to get it all done.