As it’s November 1st, I thought I’d do a quick #AcWriMo post. AcWriMo posts are something of a tradition on this blog, with 2014, 2015, and 2016 posts on the topic. In 2017, I seem to have forgotten that AcWriMo even existed, but let’s assume I was busy with other things. This year I am trying to get back on the AcWriMo train.
As public declaration is a key tenet of AcWriMo, I’ll be using this post to declare my goals for the month – here goes!
- finish exhibition catalogue essay (5000 words, 1877 written)
- write conference paper (3000 words, 0 written)
- turn conference paper into book chapter (c.14,000 words, primary research complete)
- revise material cut from a thesis chapter into an article (c.8000 words, much of the research complete)
- revise and resubmit an article (tweaking needed).
A couple of notes: my goals are *stretch* goals, and deliberately so – they’re designed to push me beyond my normal writing habits for the month, but the likelihood is that I won’t meet all of these targets. The catalogue essay and conference paper are non-negotiables though, so anything else is a bonus! And the reason my goals can be so, well, stretching, is that I’m currently on a break between postdocs (I start my next position in January), and I have no teaching this month.
In terms of strategy, I’m writing daily, and aiming for a around a thousand words written, or a certain amount of pages edited (I haven’t worked out quite what that number will be yet). I’m also engaging with several online writing groups, via the Slack workspace app. If you’d like to join one of these, then send me an email and let me know, and I’m also keen to discuss AcWriMo progress via twitter.
Finally, as AcWriMo is all about accountability, I’ll be posting an update on my progress in early December!
Dr Freya Gowrley 