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Replenish the Well

Best Practices in Sustaining Creative Development

Whether you breeze through your writing or experience pain with every word, it’s difficult to sustain a writing practice in the midst of a busy life. Creative work requires mental space in which to grow. If you’re teaching, practicing, or advising, not to mention parenting, it’s all too easy to let the writing habit slip.

Feed your writing self every day – even if some days you only have time to jot a few notes while stirring the spaghetti sauce. Academic calendars usually offer concentrated periods in which you can focus on research and writing, but if you wait until those opportunities, you have to lurch the machinery into action. If, on the other hand, you maintain your momentum every day, you can quickly dive into projects when you have the opportunity.

What is the hardest part of the research/writing/publication cycle for you?

A1: Motivation. There are so many other things that take priority, so it is easy to push aside a task that is time-consuming and uncertain as to the end result. Writing requires extended time for reflection. Sometimes taking oneself away from other distractions is the only way.
-- Crystal Sharp, author

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