How to Write a Lot

All academics need to write, but many struggle to finish their dissertations, articles, books, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. How can we write it all while still having a life?

In this second edition of his popular guidebook, Paul Silvia offers fresh advice to help you overcome barriers to writing and use your time more productively. After addressing some common excuses and bad habits, he provides practical strategies to motivate students, professors, researchers, and other academics to become better and more prolific writers. Silvia draws from his own experience in psychology to explain how to write, submit, and revise academic work, from journal articles to books, all without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and vacations. The tips and strategies in this second edition have been updated to apply to academic writing in most disciplines. Also new to this edition is a chapter on writing grant and fellowship proposals.

Paul J. Silvia, PhD, is the Lucy Spinks Keker Excellence Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Kansas in 2001. Among many other things, he studies the psychology of creativity and the arts, particularly how people come up with good ideas and why they find art interesting, appealing, and awe-inspiring. He received the Berlyne Award, an earlycareer award given by the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, for his research on aesthetic emotions, and he later served as president of the Society. His other books include Exploring the Psychology of Interest (2006); Public Speaking for Psychologists: A Lighthearted Guide to Research Presentations, Job Talks, and Other Opportunities to Embarrass Yourself (2010, with David B. Feldman); and Write It Up: Practical Strategies for Writing and Publishing Journal Articles (2015). In his free time, Dr. Silvia restores vintage pocket watches, plays board and card games, and enjoys not writing.

Contents
preface ix
1. Introduction 3
2. Specious Barriers to Writing a Lot 11
3. The Care and Feeding of Writing Schedules 29
4. Starting a Writing Group 47
5. A Brief Foray Into Style 59
6. Writing Journal Articles 75
7. Writing Books 99
8. Writing Proposals for Grants and Fellowships 115
9. “The Good Things Still to Be Written” 129
references 135
index 139
about the author 145

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials