Paul J. Silvia

"All academics need to write, and many struggle to finish their dissertations, articles, books, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. This revised and updated edition of Paul Silvia's popular guide provides practical, lighthearted advice to help academics overcome common barriers and become productive writers. Silvia's expert tips have been updated to apply to a wide variety of disciplines, and this edition has a new chapter devoted to grant and fellowship writing"--

A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

How to Write a Lot

All students and professors need to write, and many struggle to finish their stalled dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. In this practical, light-hearted, and encouraging book, Paul Silvia explains that writing productively does not require innate skills or special traits but specific tactics and actions. Drawing examples from his own field of psychology, he shows readers how to overcome motivational roadblocks and become prolific without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and vacations. After describing strategies for writing productively, the author gives detailed advice from the trenches on how to write, submit, revise, and resubmit articles, how to improve writing quality, and how to write and publish academic work.

Scott Wilson

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!

This was a most excellent guide to formulating a strategy on writing more consistently, on schedule, and with purpose of mind.

Dr. Silvia has created a 
  very
 readable text that should be read by any aspiring academic and graduate students alike. It is well worth your time.

I particularly enjoyed his chapters on writing journal articles and books.

Mostly specific to data-based scientific writing; the author is a psychologist, writing and publishing studies and fairly straightforward histories. Much of the criticism about writer's block etc. is not applicable to either fiction writing or to the sort of contemplative/philosophical writing involved in my academic niche (in classics, there is very little reliable data and even then, I'm not an archaeologist with findings, I'm discussing layers of social history).

This is a quick read and probably worth it for the scientists out there, but for a more general audience the only tangible takeaway is: schedule writing time. Which, again, isn't super applicable for anyone who spends almost all their 'work' time writing (including researching and planning, which yes is 'writing,' but which isn't helping my word count or stress-induced inability to string a sentence together).

In essence: it is a solid reality check for procrastinators and the excuse-prone.

Riley

Mostly specific to data-based scientific writing; the author is a psychologist, writing and publishing studies and fairly straightforward histories. Much of the criticism about writer's block etc. is not applicable to either fiction writing or to the sort of contemplative/philosophical writing involved in my academic niche (in classics, there is very little reliable data and even then, I'm not an archaeologist with findings, I'm discussing layers of social history).
This is a quick read and probably worth it for the scientists out there, but for a more general audience the only tangible takeaway is: schedule writing time. Which, again, isn't super applicable for anyone who spends almost all their 'work' time writing (including researching and planning, which yes is 'writing,' but which isn't helping my word count or stress-induced inability to string a sentence together).

In essence: it is a solid reality check for procrastinators and the excuse-prone.
(I just wish that were my problem.)

How to Write a Lot A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

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