karindalziel/ via Flickr Creative Commons
July 4th has come and gone and summer still stretches out before us. For many, summer is a time to relax and take things a bit slower. Working moms and dads don’t have to deal with school projects; faculty have no or at least fewer classes to teach. It’s the perfect time to write—or at least start—that article you’ve had on your “To Do” list for the last year (or two or three).
Many budding authors tell me that the hardest part about writing is getting started, so here are suggestions from a pair of editors and writers who teach writing workshops (included, along with several other writing tips, in my 2014 editorial on the topic):
- Set a consistent time to write, even if it’s only 15 minutes a day. Make an appointment with yourself and honor it as you would an appointment with someone else. Make yourself sit down and write—and write anything to begin; you don’t need to start at the beginning or do an outline. Once you get rolling, you can always write for a longer time.
- “Start anywhere, but start. And keep your hand moving, whether you’re using a pen or a keyboard. Whether it’s because of muscle memory or the mind–body connection, this works. Random thoughts will morph into coherent sentences, which you’ll later organize into paragraphs; before you know it, you’ll have 500 words and a good start to a short essay or an article.”
And if you’d like to publish in AJN, this post is a helpful guide to the various types of articles we publish. (And yes, we are a peer-reviewed journal; our impact factor currently ranks us 23/116 among nursing journals.)
In a 1977 editorial, then editor Thelma M. Schorr wrote in AJN: “Perhaps the most basic precept is that to learn to write, you must write. And write. And write.”
So, what are you waiting for?
Writing regularly is generative. Writing a little bit leads eventually to writing a little bit more. It does pay off. Thank you for this encouragement to get started–seriously–with whatever time I have today.