93. 🎯 eighty percent 🎯
thinking about energy
Hello, and happy Monday.
Last week continued to be a lot. The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces and the aftermath has been a lot to process, not to mention the deluge of news coverge in its wake. I hope that you all are taking care of yourselves in the midst of all the emotions.
For me, I’ve been taking the care by noticing the flowers on my walks. Now that it feels like summer here in Massachusetts, I’m taking a lot more walks outside and noticing all the beautiful homes in my neighborhood. Many of them have trees and flowers that are starting to bloom, and I’ve been taking some pictures to remind myself of what beauty comes when I’m freezing my buns off in the winter.
✏️ Still processing.
Aside from my manuscript, I’ve been working on an article to send off this summer. As I’ve been writing it, I’ve also been soliciting advice from others on how they write journal articles. There’s a whole book on it that I’ve used in the past and that is quite helpful, but I’ve been looking for other resources that address it in a more concise manner. Enter the NCFDD.
NCFDD is short for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and it’s essentially a virtual handbook for grad students and faculty members on surviving and thriving in the academy. There are webinars on time management & writing through obstacles, and there are directories for external support tools like developmental editors. I first learned about the website when I was in grad school because Brown had an institutional subscription. One of my mentors recommended it, and the rest was history. Luckily, Harvard just got their own institutional subscription, so I’ve been scouring the website for resources like a madwoman.
It is through this website that I came across a ten minute webinar called “How to Write an Article in No Time,” given by Dr. Anthony Ocampo. In the talk, he outlines five steps to writing an article that feel straightforward and make the work manageable. While there are many gems that he dropped in those 10 minutes, one thing he said in particular stood out to me. It’s something that currently serves as my mantra as I’m writing:
Get the paper to about 80%. Don’t burn out—don’t give 110% of your efforts to the first draft because your reviewers are definitely going to make you incorporate some new stuff...If you give 110% what that means is that you’re going to have no energy left to work on the revisions. So get it to about 80%, and send it out.
This was mind blowing to me. It actually felt very similar to the way that I felt after reading Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts.” I feel like many of us who are writers—any kind of writers—always put 100% or 110% into every draft we write. That’s definitely the mindset that I’ve tried to embody when writing. I’ve found, though, that when I do get feedback, it’s hard to begin those revisions because (1) I am very tired from writing that first draft, and (2) I have attachment to it precisely because I gave my all in writing, rather than because I think it particularly good. In other words, I think it’s the emotional toll of constantly writing at 110% in those first draft stages that actually lead me to resist and/or have difficulty revising when the time comes.
I also think that this sentiment is particularly helpful for those in the academy who have to go through the process of peer review. While I have heard that it is rare but possible for someone’s article to get accepted into a journal on the first go (rather than getting the more common “revise and resubmit”), I personally don’t know anyone that this has happened to. I also expect to get “revise and resubmits” because I am still learning and I understand that feedback is critical to the growth of my thinking and writing. By getting the paper to about 80%, I am consciously making the choice to allow others—my colleagues and those I potentially admire—to help me shape the piece. It’s this collaborative possibility of the eighty percent that appeals to me the most.
🌀 Still consuming.
I recently learned from a friend about political scientist Mirya Holman’s newsletter on thriving in academia. Just subscribed, as I think this is going to be a great resource!
More writing spaces!
Over the weekend, I watched Titane for the first time, and wow, was it a wild ride. Immediately, I started reading about it just because I wanted to process what I had seen. I particularly loved reading this interview with Julia Ducournau, the writer & director.
Jami Attenberg is doing #1000wordsofsummer again this year! Here’s her piece on how to prep for it, which I think are also helpful to anyone’s writing practice. 😊
📖 Book club corner.
Friends! The people have spoken! For May’s book club, we will be reading How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell! I’m so excited!! Feel free to purchase the book here, and the details are below!
Here’s the event info:
Date & Time: Tuesday, May 31 @ 5PM PST/8PM EST
Registration Link!
Suggested Donation (for those able to donate): $3-10 through Paypal or Venmo (@idyalz)
You can learn more about the tiny driver book club here!
🐶 A pup-date.
LOOK! AT! THIS! CUTE! FACE! The tongue! The closed eyes! The little feets! I love her.
As always, thanks so much for reading through, and I'll see you in the next one!
Warmly,
Ida