NAVIGATE

Your Writing Roadmap®

All career stages

12-week online program

Navigate helps tenure track womxn and nonbinary professors double their publishing output in a year by implementing 10 essential time and project management/productivity systems with weekly support/ accountability of coaching and peers.

Retreats

Scholar’s Voice Retreats

All career stages

Virtual (full-day/6 hours) or In Person (2 Days)

Scholar’s Voice Faculty Retreats is a professional development experience designed to inspire womxn and nonbinary faculty with the mindset and strategy to take control of their time by centering their writing and publishing.

How to Move Past Fear in Academic Writing

by | Jan 10, 2019 | academic writing, mindset

Academic writing is an act of creation. It is bringing new ideas into the world while dexterously connecting to ideas that came before yours. It is representing years of deep work succinctly and compellingly on a page. It is inspiring further creation and knowledge making in others.

Because academic writing is creative, it is also scary. It is exposing yourself on the page. It is opening up not only your ideas but also your way of expressing them to criticism and critique.

This is the root of writing fear for many. Maybe you have a voice inside your head that says:

“I have nothing interesting to say.”

“I’m afraid of getting a desk reject.”

“I cringe to think of what the reviewers will say.”

“This isn’t new.”

All of those voices come from a place of fear.

And I just want to tell you: all acts of creation feel scary.

How can you move through (or with, or in spite of) that fear?

Here are three mindset shifts that will help.

#1: Realize that everyone is afraid

Though I think that many of us indeed felt fear from time to time in graduate school, I doubt anyone ever talked about it as such. Academia is deeply masculine in this way: we are not supposed to show fear or vulnerability.

But the sooner we realize that everyone feels afraid and vulnerable when they put their work out into the world, the easier it is to face our fears and do it anyway. Not that it is easy–just easier.

#2: Use fear as fuel for creation

The way that knowledge-making works is that someone throws out an idea and other people take it up, refine it, reject it, revise it. This process brings us closer to understanding complex phenomena. If you think of your ideas as first drafts–not the last word–putting them out into the world to see what happens can serve as fuel for creation of more ideas.

It’s scary to think about our ideas being critiqued, but this very critique leads us to better ideas. The fear is the fuel in the idea engine. Instead of trying to avoid it, seek it out. Let those scary ideas, the ones that make you feel nervous and vulnerable to put out in the world, fuel your academic creation.

#3: Create in community

To ease the fear surrounding creation, surround yourself with others who are fearfully creating, too. Find a writing community, or create one on your campus. Join us in The Academic Women’s Writing Collective where we support each other to write and publish more despite stress, overwhelm, and fear.

You must move through the fear and write anyway. The world needs your unique perspective on your field.

RELATED ARTICLES

Episode 29: Hit the Reset Button

Episode 29: Hit the Reset Button

Is it time to hit the reset button? When we are in unusual circumstances we are forced out of the ‘norm’. And while that can definitely have its downsides, it can also give us an opportunity to reevaluate how we’re doing things.      This moment in time...

How to Handle Stress, Anxiety, and Overwhelm in Academia

How to Handle Stress, Anxiety, and Overwhelm in Academia

How do you feel when you get to work in the morning? When you look at your to-do list, do you feel completely overwhelmed? Have you ever felt the beginnings of a panic attack when you think about the amount of stuff you have to do? For most of us, the answer is “yes.”...

Are you Making These Three Writing Mistakes?

Are you Making These Three Writing Mistakes?

Are you making these three writing mistakes? Academic women are a diverse and electrifying group. I truly get so much energy from interacting with you all, both in and out of my own field of study. But the more academic women I get to know, the more I realize that...

Stay current in Academic Publishing

Subscribe to our newsletter:

In the Pipeline

writing tips, publishing trends, reading recomendations, free workshops

In The Pipeline Newsletter

Send me Writer's Retreat updates by email!

Send me Writer's Retreat updates by email!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Get Your Cheat Sheet!

Get the PDF Cheat Sheet right to your inbox!

Check your email to find your cheat sheet!

Skip to content
We use cookies in order to give you the best possible experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
Accept