--- layout: post status: publish published: true title: ! 'A dissenting voice on #AcBoWriMo' wordpress_id: 1583 wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/2011/11/02/a-dissenting-voice-on-acbowrimo/ date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMjo0MjozNCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMjo0MjozNCArMDEwMA== categories: - Academia tags: - academia - AcBoWriMo comments: - id: 6555 author: Sarah-Louise Quinnell author_email: sarah.louq@gmail.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMjo1NTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMjo1NTowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! "I agree with you. I am organising my controbution to my joint monograph with the thesis whisperer but i certainly am not going to be targetting a certain amount of words a day. I tried this when I was writing my thesis and it backfired because the number of words did not match the quality of words. So the idea of trying to increase productivity in this way I know wouldnt work for me. I'd rathr write 500 good words than 1000 / 1500 that were a complete waste. Maybe I over think my writing, I dont know. \n\nHowever, as a motivational concept i think it is a great idea. Writing can be a lonely process and maybe this is a good way of bring people together and motivating them to shut up and write to use another frequent hashtag. " - id: 6556 author: Charlotte Frost author_email: charlotte@digitalcritic.org author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMzo0MTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMiAyMzo0MTowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! "\n\nHey,\n\nThanks for this, I know we talked briefly in an email and I'm glad to have\npeople like you asking important questions about the academic process. I really\nwant someone to cover this angle on PhD2Published, as you know, and am hoping\nto have some kind of reflection time at the end of all this to discuss the\nplace of speed in academia. \n\nReally the origin of this experiment was the notion of productivity. I'm on a\npost-doc, I need to make the best use of this non-teaching time, so colleagues\nand I started to think of ways we could foster a community conducive to getting\nlots done. I'd heard about a friend doing NaNoWriMo and while I thought it was\nout of kilter with academic processes, I was also really intrigued as to\nwhether there was something in it - at least so far as setting goals and being\npart of a similarly-focused community. \n\nEarly on, said friend raised some of the points you and others have (of which I was\nalready aware) and I so I've been careful to word everything so that people\nwould see the light-hearted element and would feel they could set their own\ngoals. In fact many participants are using time as a measure of productivity.\nThe Pomodoro technique is proving really popular and I'm thrilled to have discovered\nit. Likewise, it seems most participants are working on whatever academic\nwriting they most need to (and few of these projects are books), seeing it as a\nway to banish procrastination. \n\nMaybe the real problem is not with the effort itself but with the fact I called\nit AcBoWriMo. Perhaps if I'd called it National Academic Productivity Week or A\nNovember of Encouraging Each Other While Sharing Writing and Productivity Tips it might have\nbeen better - but less snappy don't you think?! ;-)\n\n\n" - id: 6557 author: Martin Paul Eve author_email: martin@martineve.com author_url: https://www.martineve.com date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODoyNzowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODoyNzowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'I''m a big fan of the less catchy titles you suggest there! I suspect you are right on many of these points. Procrastination is a killer and it''s easy to not get stuff done and then retroactively blame it on "thinking time" or "academic process" -- I''m all too aware of that. On the other hand, I think we need to be critical about the incursion of productivity into academic life; we are not sausage-factory-esque machines and, often, research and writing can take a different path as part of the process, if you allow it the time to so do. Cf. response below to Sarah.' - id: 6558 author: Martin Paul Eve author_email: martin@martineve.com author_url: https://www.martineve.com date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODoyOTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODoyOTowMCArMDEwMA== content: The different conceptualizations of the how AcBoWriMo works are part of why I wanted to write this piece. It's interesting to observe the different ways people are responding. @Lizith:twitter has just pointed out on Twitter that different incentives drive different people and so perhaps, with all the caveats mentioned, there is scope for this being a valuable tool for some. - id: 6559 author: Martin Paul Eve author_email: martin@martineve.com author_url: https://www.martineve.com date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODozMzowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwODozMzowMCArMDEwMA== content: P.S. thanks for being so supportive of a debate and not reading this as hostile; would have been very easy to be riled, I'd suspect, having instigated the initiative! - id: 6560 author: Imarais author_email: imarais@yahoo.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwOTo1MTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAwOTo1MTowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'This is an interesting debate that I think you have opened up. I am partially trying #AcBoWriMo because it suits my purposes at the moment. I have to hand in a full cohesive draft of my thesis by end November to my supervisors. At this stage there are days that I am really tired of my own work so it helps if I feel I have to ''report'' to Twitter or a friend what I have achieved today, which I do periodically anyway using #phdchat.  But I also think you raise two separate issues - the process vs. the purpose of academia. I completely agree with you that academic writing isn''t suppose to be fast, and if you are at the point of writing a book, or writing your thesis, it implies that you have already put a certain amount of thought and behind the work. Basically if you are striving to write the thesis in a month there need to have been a lot of thought behind it already. Just I am sure that if you are really serious about writing a novel in a month that you already know who the characters are, what the story is, and it is the discipline that #NaNoWriMo could provide that is useful. I am sure just as any serious writer (and I''m not familiar enough with NaNoWriMo to say) knows before the start of November everything must be worked out, any serious academic writer or student will know that before you start pounding out on #AcBoWriMo that you must have spent the thinking time already. AT the same time different people have different ways of working, I had a friend that wrote just about 50 words per day, but those 50 were incredibly beautifully crafted words that didn''t need any revision ever. I am different, I need a long process of writing and revisions, and revisions and more revisions, but boy can I pound out a 1000 words out per day. Of course one way to think about it is that perhaps I should take the time to rather craft the 50 beautifully crafted words, but that has not worked for me previously for various reasons. The question of the purpose of academia seems to be a different debate from the process one. And it is one that I have less of an answer for. Possibly because I can see the beauty and contribution of a single well crafted book, but I also know academics that has made a large contribution through just about publishing a book a year.  My own personal purpose at this stage is to get my PhD done as best as possible in the quickest way possible (the order is important here). So anything that can contribute to that is extremely useful, and I will use it or not as it suits me.  I once heard the story of an academic who wrote a book a year. His wife locked him up in a room with his type writer every day and he wasn''t allowed to come out until he gave her two pages (I can''t remember the exact target) per day that he wrote. In the absence of anyone locking me up in a room (without Internet), reporting progress to someone out there through an initiative like #AcBoWriMo is handy.     ' - id: 6561 author: Charlotte Frost author_email: '' author_url: http://twitter.com/charlottefrost date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAxMzoxODowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAxMzoxODowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! "I think you've hit an interesting looking nail on the head there by addressing the term 'productivity'. I am using 'productivity' very much in contrast to 'procrastination', but I see how it speaks of a more business-orientated model, and that's not my point at all. \n" - id: 6562 author: Martin Paul Eve author_email: martin@martineve.com author_url: https://www.martineve.com date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAxODoxMjowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wMyAxODoxMjowMCArMDEwMA== content: Some really good points here; I may respond more fully at some point when I'm not dashing off but, for now, I'm just anxious that my wife doesn't get wind of the "locking in a room" trick! - id: 6563 author: Nick Blackbourn author_email: '' author_url: http://twitter.com/nickblackbourn date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wOSAyMjoyOTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0wOSAyMjoyOTowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'Hi Martin - some great points worth raising. As Charlotte has mentioned, I think this is an event designed to create a supportive community, encouraging each other to work on productivity habits over the month. My own goal is to get into the habit of writing every day. I fully intend to heavily edit, re-edit and then edit again this month''s output. I value the community forming around the #acbowrimo hashtag and Charlotte gets my thanks for organising it. I hope this is the just the start of an academic writing group on twitter; maybe the ''mo'' will be dropped after November and the hashtag will live on...' - id: 6571 author: dacia mitchell author_email: hautenegro@gmail.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0xMyAwMzozNjowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMS0xMS0xMyAwMzozNjowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'Martin - Thank you so much for writing this post. But I would like to ask a tangential question: Can you talk more about your 600 word daily limit? How does that work for you? How do you not get caught up in needling every single word? What if you still have more writing in you after 600?  Thanks in advance.' ---

This is a bit of a spoilsport post, but I wanted to set down, in writing, some of the reasons that I am extremely wary of the #AcBoWriMo experiment that is currently underway on Twitter.

#AcBoWriMo stands for Academic Book Writing Month. It has been put together by the excellent Charlotte Frost of PhD2Published and the idea is, as with #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) that people will bash out words to get as close as possible to writing a book; in this case, an academic book. I voiced some concern at the time this was being organized and I don't want to be hostile. Instead, I just want to open up the debate. It could be that it works for people. Great; I'm hardly an academic tortoise myself! However, here's the parts that alarm me.

Academic writing isn't supposed to be fast

It seems to me that, to write academic pieces quickly, three things are required: 1.) the research data (however conceived within one's discipline); 2.) a sound knowledge of the original thought that one wishes to express; 3.) a solid grasp of the literature review. Do the participants have these aspects to hand? I would suggest that it is the accumulate of these three aspects, with a massive focus upon the second, that take the time in academic writing.

This boils down, for me, to a single point: the process of writing is part of the process of thinking. Good thinking takes time and, as a consequence, so should good writing. If you can think it quickly, it's probably been thought before and is less likely to be startlingly brilliant.

Publish or Perish

I enjoy frequently publishing; it's among the reasons I blog. That said, there is an inordinate degree of pressure on academics to publish early, often and fast. Does #AcBoWriMo contribute towards this pressure? I've used this example before, and I'll use it again. Ludwig Wittgenstein published a single book during his academic career. But what a book. The current climate wouldn't permit Wittgenstein to exist, yet his works are among the most well-regarded philosophical writings of the 20th century. Perhaps we should query whether this is the culture we want. Does the public-facing nature of #AcBoWriMo mean that the general public could get the wrong end of the stick and demand that academics publish faster and faster? ("She did it in 2 weeks. How hard can it be?")

The purpose of #AcBoWriMo

I've put this section in because I think it's important to ask participants: how are you regarding the project? Is it an effort to get writing? How does it differ from an arbitrary 750 words? Are you going to go back and edit (would it have been better to produce something of higher quality the first time around?)

Anyway, as I mentioned at the start: I'm not saying don't do the project and I'm not trying to do it down. I do, though, have questions and would love to hear some reasoning from those who are enjoying and/or finding it a useful way of working.

Featured image by jjpacres under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.