Setting out to write a book about health equity has given Piri Ackerman-Barger a chance to fold together all of her favorite writing advice. Ackerman-Barger is a 2022-23 Public Scholarship Faculty Fellow and the Associate Dean for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and director of faculty development for education and teaching at the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Over her career, she has combined her expertise in nursing and education to advance inclusive learning environments, education equity and workforce diversity. Here are some of her most valuable lessons learned in writing.

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Writing is an expectation of my role as an academic, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. However, I am also a nurse, an educator, a national consultant and a mom of three. Juggling these roles means that sometimes my writing takes a backseat to other duties that vie for my attention. When I do write, I often feel pressured and constrained by time. This is not really the recipe for brilliant scholarship. So, what makes someone a creative and productive writer? And how do we find fulfillment and even joy in writing? This question drove me to take an inventory to enhance my own writing. Here are some things I have discovered.

1. Write During your Soaring Time

Cathy Mazak, a writer, academic and podcaster, suggests finding the peak time of day that allows you to soar. I know that I am a morning writer. As I write now, I see the sun rising over rolling hills just east of the San Francisco Bay area. But not everyone is a morning writer. I remember being on a writing retreat (more on that later) with my dear friend and colleague, we will call her Jae. At the time I thought I knew her well, only to find we were vastly different in the way we approached writing. Even though it was a weekend, I was up at 6 a.m., house quiet, coffee in hand, digging into my writing project. Four hours later, Jae walked into the living room, looked around, then tucked herself into a ball on the couch. Baffled, I continued writing until about noon, when it was time for me to respond to my physical needs such as food and exercise. On writing retreats, I like to go on long walks where somehow my thoughts and ideas can take shape and be ready for my next morning session. When I returned from my walk, Jae had finally picked up her computer and started writing. I asked her what she was doing curled in a ball on the couch. She smiled and said, “I was thinking and now I am ready to write.” She continued to write late into the night. Because Jae is such a wonderful writer, I had a moment of wondering if I were going about writing all wrong. But the truth is everyone has a different peak time for writing and their process for thinking can be very different. The trick is to invest the time and thought into discovering when and how you soar.

2. Write it Down (even if it is on scratch paper)

I think the biggest mistake for newer writers is that they get ahead of themselves and have a misconception that writing comes out fully formed and pretty. Writing can actually be pretty messy in the beginning. That is okay and normal. Jot your thoughts down, even if it is just pen to scratch paper. I find it kind of funny and humbling to go back to the origins of a journal article or book chapter that began as words or phrases written in chicken scratch on a random piece of paper. However, jotting is a very convenient place for a “brain dump” of ideas. If you can’t think of what to write you can also start by writing what you wish you could write. The point is to just get going, knowing the first draft is just that. There may be thirty more drafts to go, but you just got started. Allowing yourself a “discovery draft” or “discovery drafts,” a term shared by the poet Andy Jones, allows you to play with ideas without a sense of commitment.

3. Marie Kondo Your Drafts

One of the most difficult parts of writing is deleting a brilliantly stated idea that just doesn’t fit into the piece you are working on. I have found that if I compliment myself on my creativity, understanding that it is an idea for another paper on another day, I can remove it with less pain and regret. In fact, one of my most cited papers, The Microaggression Triangle Model, was born from something that I had edited out of another paper.

4. Park on a Hill

Several years ago, I heard a talk by author Hugh Kearns where he said whenever you finish writing you should leave yourself notes about what to do when you resume writing. This acknowledges the fact that when you sit down to write the hardest part is getting started. Especially if there has been a time gap between now and your last writing session. The notes can look like a to-do list or writing goals for the next session. Leaving notes for myself is particularly helpful for me when I have come to the end of a blocked writing period but am still in the writing zone. I know that if I leave myself with an easy start, I will be able to return to my flow quickly when I am able to write again.

5. Block Writing Time

Let’s face it, writing time is not going to magically appear in your schedule. You will have to be assertive by literally blocking protected times on your calendar and treating them like you would a class or a job. This was how I managed to work full-time with two small children and a baby during my Ph.D. program. Just as I arranged childcare to go to work, I arranged times for writing. I reminded myself that just as I would never not show for a class I was teaching, or a shift I was working as a nurse, I would not miss a writing session. If you are writing from home there is no doing laundry or washing the dishes, no dentist appointments or catching up on email during writing your time! If you want to be a writer, then writing time has to have a secure place in your schedule.  Writing times do not have to be huge blocks of time either. I have surprised myself by how much I can get done in 30 minutes. I also caution you against overly long writing sessions. Your brilliant brain is sustained by a body with biological needs — don’t overdo it.

6. Writing Retreats

Several times a year I plan out a dedicated day or two of writing. One of the ways that I have begun to celebrate Martin Luther King Day is to allow myself to write for social justice to honor him. Now, for those of you who need holidays for restorative time, don’t fret. I am just saying this day is a day that works for me. And with this time, I can write however I want. For example, I will often write for two hours, go for a walk, and write some more. Another form of writing retreat I enjoy is participating in writing groups with fellow writers where we leave all else behind and gather for a weekend to write (this is how I was able to observe Jae’s writing). One year during a group writing retreat I wrote an entire article that only needed editing when the retreat was over. Retreats, of course, are not feasible for most people to do often. But should you have the opportunity, this format can be productive.

7. Read More to Write More

One of my favorite books is Stephen King’s On Writing, a memoir of his life as a writer. Something that stood out to me was his commentary that next to writing the thing he does most is read. I have chided myself internally for reading instead of writing, as if these two weren’t closely linked. There are three reasons that reading is key to writing: 1) increasing one’s knowledge base; 2) taking in how others write or express ideas to improve one’s own writing; and 3) for the lubrication of cognitive activity. With the latter, I often find that when I am stuck in my writing, by reading something intellectually stimulating (related to my writing topic or not) I become unstuck. This can also happen for me when listening to a presentation. In fact, I often attend conferences as a writing retreat. As I listen to other people’s research and scholarship, I find myself inspired, mentally energized, and ready to write.

8. Writing as Self Care

Recently my teenage daughter asked me why I was writing on the weekend. I instantly felt guilty, put my computer away, and jumped into the weekend grind of laundry, driving offspring from event to event, and all of the other weekend work that competes for my attention. At the end of the day, I felt depleted. Again, I had put off any kind of self-care in order to care for others. When I reflected on what would have filled me up, it was writing. A day of writing and taking walks has the potential to be restorative. Writing allows us to reflect, think, process and to share a bit of ourselves with the world. Given time to write with some degree of flexibility, writing can be a form of mental exercise that leaves you feeling like you do after a walk or a trip to the gym, tired but satisfied and grateful.

A Final Thought

Remember that your writing needs are individual to you. You may deeply resonate with some of these habits and reject others. That is okay. The point is not to conform to the writing habits of others, rather to find your own flow such that you are productive, creative and find writing a fulfilling and restorative process.

About the Author 

Piri Ackerman-Barger

Clinical Professor and Director of Faculty Development for Education and Teaching
Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing