Putting writing in the daily schedule

8 June 2018 at 09:53 (science)

If you do research, you probably enjoy it. Research is oddly fun. Talking about ideas and finding ways to test your ideas is intellectually gratifying. Data collection is enjoyable, too, especially when other people do it for you. Even data analysis is fun–it’s exciting to see if a study worked. But writing about research isn’t fun: Writing is frustrating, complicated, and un-fun. (p. 4)

Writing is grim business, much like repairing a sewer or running a mortuary. Although I’ve never dressed a corpse, I’m sure that it’s easier to embalm the dead than to write an article about it. (p. 11)

Only a fool… rewards productive writing with skipping a scheduled writing period. Never reward writing with not writing. Rewarding writing by abandoning your schedule is like rewarding yourself for quitting smoking by having a cigarette. (p. 44 – 45)

Paul J. Silvia
How to Write a Lot