Establishing a Writing Practice
(that works for you)
Is writing part of what made you want to be an academic in the first place?
Is there something about writing that is making your job less enjoyable or less meaningful right now?
Do you wish you could magically make the writing part of your job better in some way?
Establishing a Writing Practice is a class that helps you transform your writing practice, so that you feel better about writing and write more.
In almost 20 years of supporting academics with writing and research, including through the Academic Writing Studio, Jo VanEvery has become familiar with how many and varied the frustrations are.
The specifics change regularly, but being frustrated with your writing and research is not something that goes away with more experience. Nor is it evidence you shouldn’t be doing this work. It’s just part of how things are.
This class can make you more confident that you can surmount whatever obstacle you are facing, big or small.
You can write more and enjoy your writing more, despite all the things that make it frustrating.
“Establishing a Writing Practice was spot on in every way, and just what I needed to help with the start of a very long-delayed period of sabbatical leave.”
(Ruth Morello, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester)
“Magic is using energy to intentionally transform and affect outcomes.”
Establishing a Writing Practice is a kind of magic.
We’re not just saying that. One of the Academic Writing Studio team happens to have a PhD in magic.
You need clarity of intention and special tools.
You focus on one thing.
You take specific actions in a particular order.
You trust that doing so will affect the outcomes in the way you want.
If it doesn’t work, you have a process for figuring out what to do differently.
It would be great if the people in charge made it easier for you to focus on the parts of your job that you excel at and are interested in.
Since they haven’t, I invite you to come learn this magic so you can do the work you want and need to do with more joy (or at least less frustration.)
“I signed up for Establishing A Writing Practice in the fourth year of my PhD, in the spirit of ‘well, I need to do SOMETHING’. I knew that in December my scholarship would be running out and I had very little time left to produce convincing progress. I was carefully optimistic, because I had found a promising approach to my data earlier this year.
The first session helped me realise that in order to write, I needed to transform my desk into a writing space. A few days later, I finally built the work cave for myself that I had been planning to build for over a year, installing curtains to create a cubicle, hanging fairy lights, ridding my desk from the gazillion to-dos that did not belong there.
When I watched the second part of your class, I realised that I actually have been able to write in the last six weeks. Partly because I was actually drawn to my cosy desk whenever my responsibilities and exhaustion allowed me to.
Thank you for your work, thank you for Establishing A Writing Practice <3. It really exceeded my expectations, even though I could not attend the live sessions.”
(Elisabeth, PhD Student)
How it works
This class is delivered in 2 parts using Zoom.
Each 2-hour session guides you through the practical steps, helping you learn why and how each of them works.
There is time for people to ask questions and get coaching support to apply the steps to their own situations, because everyone’s situation is unique.
Participants are also encouraged to share their experience and knowledge, bolstering the magic with the energy of the group.
Session 1:
Dates to be announced
Session 2:
Dates to be announced
In Part 1, you will learn how to visualise the outcome you want, build on what works, and focus your energy on a specific frustration. You’ll come away with an experiment to try for the next several weeks.
During that period we will use email to provide encouragement as you cycle through excitement/dip/argh.
Part 2 will teach you how to evaluate your experience, and support you as you determine how to proceed based on what you learned.
We encourage you to attend both sessions synchronously to fully benefit from the group’s wisdom and Jo’s coaching. Recordings will be available on the class website for those who are unable to attend or who join after 24 January and wish to catch up.
£125
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