From the author of Stylish Academic Writing comes an essential new
guide for writers aspiring to become more productive and take greater
pleasure in their craft. Helen Sword interviewed one hundred academics
worldwide about their writing background and practices. Relatively few
were trained as writers, she found, and yet all have developed
strategies to thrive in their publish-or-perish environment.
So how do these successful academics write, and where do they find the
"air and light and time and space," in the words of poet Charles
Bukowski, to get their writing done? What are their formative
experiences, their daily routines, their habits of mind? How do they
summon up the courage to take intellectual risks and the resilience to
deal with rejection?
Sword identifies four cornerstones that anchor any successful writing
practice: Behavioral habits of discipline and persistence; Artisanal
habits of craftsmanship and care; Social habits of collegiality and
collaboration; and Emotional habits of positivity and pleasure.
Building on this "BASE," she illuminates the emotional complexity of the
writing process and exposes the lack of writing support typically
available to early-career academics. She also lays to rest the myth that
academics must produce safe, conventional prose or risk professional
failure. The successful writers profiled here tell stories of
intellectual passions indulged, disciplinary conventions subverted, and
risk-taking rewarded. Grounded in empirical research and focused on
sustainable change, Air & Light & Time & Space offers a customizable
blueprint for refreshing personal habits and creating a collegial
environment where all writers can flourish.
