On Writing EVERY Day (Advice from Twitter)

As a person who follows hundreds of academics across social media, I very frequently see reminders that we should all be writing something every day. Indeed, that was the main reason for making this blog, so I could practice stringing sentences together at least several times a week. But, as anyone who has seen this blog can see, I haven't actually been writing about what I'm researching, only how I'm researching.

The problem is, I haven't known what to write about my topic. I'm researching a number of rather obscure people, groups, and communities, so I don't feel like I have enough information about anything or anyone to write about in any way worth my time quite yet. I did start an annotated bibliography recently, but other than that, I haven't really been "writing" anything yet. Outside of the hundreds of index cards I've been furiously scribbling my notes onto for the past week, that is.

So, during a work break this morning, I shot off the following tweet:

Many academics say it's important to write EVERY day, but what about when you're in the early days of a project, just really starting to take notes and gather information?

I feel like I *should* be writing, but *what* @ this stage? 🤔#twitterstorians #AcademicTwitter #PHDchat

— Ameya Warde (@ameyawarde) March 13, 2018

Now usually, when I ask questions on #twitterstorians or #AcademicTwitter, I almost never get a reply. But, by some magic (and kind RTs from @AcademicChatter, @raulpacheco, & @erin_bartram!) I actually did get a slew of them this morning, and I think they're worth sharing here, too.

Prelim literature review, summaries of works read, essentially annotated bibliography.

— Spring Forward Spice (@errabund) March 13, 2018

In the beginning of my PhD, I wrote a couple of paragraphs summary for each paper I read as in overview why this paper is important for my project. That was quite helpful at a later stage :)

— Mara (@CuriousZebra_) March 13, 2018

That’s when I find my favorite pen and some quality paper and just start jotting down notes or start a mind map. For me, that tactile endeavor is enough in the early stages.

— Daniel Martínez (@dmmartinezphd) March 13, 2018

I like to do literature review when I start a project, to get a feel of where the field of research is at. I also jot down lots of notes/ideas for current (or future) research projects!

— kelsey rose (@kelseyrosemcd) March 13, 2018

Idea dumps are game changers

— Caroline (@carolinecpro) March 13, 2018

I wrote blogs on some of the empirically or theory, or just to explore ideas in a short, low pressure way.

— Professor_of_Power (@Prof_of_Power) March 13, 2018

There were also a number of tweets in support of note-taking itself being considered academic writing:

I count all of that as writing. Early writing just looks different than what you write when your project starts to gel.

— Erin Cassese (@ErinCassese) March 13, 2018

.@ashley_edes @ameyawarde thanks for the kind words! Any sort of written reflection (even "God I don't know where my project goes" IS #AcWri

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) March 13, 2018

My website is temporarily down (hopefully back soon) but here's a blog post on what counts as academic writing (surprise - A LOT) https://t.co/eVTrXjvzTq we can't just count "putting words on the page"

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) March 13, 2018

And I think @HthrLynnJ's points are especially important and worth highlighting:

When I don’t know what to write, I free write about ideas I’m having related to the work, including what I’m finding challenging. I try out different lines of arguments. I make notes on things I’m reading. Idea generating is tough. I write through it to learn and grow from it.

— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 13, 2018

Last semester I tasked one of my PhD students to write to “Notice and Wonder.” As academics, our job is to develop new ideas. When we write, we record how our ideas are evolving. Our papers become contributions by nurturing and growing those ideas.

— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 13, 2018

You bet! Learning to write to learn has been one of the most valuable processes I’ve developed in this endeavor.

— Heather Johnson (@HthrLynnJ) March 13, 2018