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Week 7: Writing routine workshop

Responses from the 2020 Writing Routine Workshop

First, I just wanted to say thank you for attending the writing routine workshop. I hope you got something out of it, but more importantly I hope you commit to a writing routine and accomplish your writing goals! Seriously, write down your writing goal and post it where you will see it every day.

Below are all the submitted answers from the workshop (including solutions to all your writing myths). A very interesting read, enjoy!

Why is scientific writing difficult?
why is it harder to write about your research?

  • The thought process for scientific writing needs to be more structured.

  • I always try to get it perfect from the get go. I feel the need to be more of a perfectionist when writing about research. I need to start out with a “perfect” paragraph or sentence.

  • For scientific writing, you need to be very specific and clear.  It is difficult to describe concepts in a short and concise way that a general audience can understand.

  • For scientific writing, you must be concise and accurate — logical and clear.

  • Scientific writing is more difficult because there are higher stakes, higher anxiety. There is more stress and higher expectations that come with scientific writing.

  • Scientific writing is hard because I may not have enough information to know which points to make while writing.

  • Scientific writing is more difficult because you need to avoid field specific jargon and put it in layman terms. Alternatively, it is difficult to articulate thoughts into scientific language — finding refined vocabulary.

  • For Scientific writing, you need to make sure you are including appropriate references and citations. I need time to go through the literature before I begin writing.

  • For Scientific writing it is difficult to start, I need a deadline to get started.

  • Everything I write either sounds boring or done before.

  • It is hard to get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.

  • It is difficult to start writing when there is a blank screen in front of you.

  • Scientific writing is difficult because of the coherent generation of ideas — also winnowing down the specific aims. Also, a complex thought process is not easy to layout.

  • It is difficult to get direction among all the ideas.

What is the writing task you want to work on?

Papers, grants, proposals, start writing a manuscript, finish writing a manuscript, finish writing an article, review article/paper, original article, K-award, research award (due June 14th!), systematic review and meta-analysis, K23, F32, and research statements for academic job apps.

How does your writing task make you feel?

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Writing myths and solutions

  • Once I'm no longer "on a roll" I decide that I'm not productive and it will take superhuman energy to get back on track.

    • What helps me the most with writing are artificial deadlines, these create a sense of need that ultimately push me to keep going. One technique that others use is to always add a few additional notes when you stop writing, to help facilitate “getting back into it” when you start writing again. Another technique you can try is to gradually get back into your writing task by choosing a portion of it that you either enjoy doing or find the easiest to do (for example, I enjoy making figures or find the materials and methods the easiest section to write, so these could be avenues back into the work). Lastly, convince yourself to get back into writing by rewarding yourself with a treat for when you finish a section.

  • Lack of motivation, and lack up support and interest from others. Getting non-constructive feedback, which makes me procrastinate.

    • Seek better reviewers and supporters. Find others that are interested in writing and form a writing group — where you all hold each other accountable for writing each week and review each others work. Alternatively, if you don’t feel like you are getting the support from a mentor, then seek additional mentors. This could be in the form of collaborators, members of your committee (for graduate students), members of your scientific advisory group (if you are writing a grant), or even senior postdocs. Facilitate more constructive feed back by asking more specific questions like “what did you have trouble understanding” or “what is one area that you think I could improve on?”

  • Easily distracted by "easier" tasks.

    • Distract yourself with an easy task related to your writing task — this could include pulling up your publications for writing a biosketch (literally just gathering all your publications), write the materials and methods for a paper, pick your color scheme for a diagram… set the bar low so that you can just get started.

  • Not enough data, also a procrastinator.

    • With regards to data, plan out your paper or grant to help you better identify where you need to do more. Start putting your figures together to help you identify holes. Write up figure legends for the data you do have, these will serve you well when it is time to actually start putting your paper or grant together.

    • With regards to being a procrastinator, create artificial deadlines or writing groups… basically, hold yourself accountable by submitting incremental pieces of your work to another individual. Try to accomplish a task without procrastinating, just one time, and feel how nice it is to accomplish a deadline without stress and sleepless nights.

  • Not confident with main conclusions/direction.

    • Write the other 90% of the paper, perhaps this will help guide you to a better conclusion. Alternatively, write or sketch the paper out and identify where this lack of confidence comes from and address it by planning additional experiments, providing additional insights in your discussion, or providing alternative approaches in a grant.

  • I am a perfectionist, so I worry if I’m “doing it right.”

    • There is no one right answer. Often you need to do it just “okay” in order to realize how to fix it and make it better — this is something you can try to do on your own or if you are really stumped, ask a friend to read it and ask them (1) what they don’t understand or (2) what they think could be made clearer. Sometimes feedback is required to help us figure it out.

  • I would much rather analyze the data than write.

    • I completely agree! But, data is best conveyed with words. Share your beautiful data with the world in the form of a paper or get funding for more research by putting that data into a grant.

    • Start with planning and then making figures. Then, start writing your figure legends (a nice transition from your research to a paper or grant). Then you can either write the headers of your results or transition to the materials and methods. Commit to writing and analyzing.

  • Waiting for a chunk of time that never comes. Too busy with other stuff. Too many other things to attend to. Every day there is stuff coming up with a high priority and I don’t have time to write much.

    • You can write in small chunks, you don't need a large chunk of time. Any ten minutes of progress will help you along and help you get into writing.

    • Spend your small pieces of time sketching out ideas onto a piece of paper — as your ideas gradually grow and a full outline is developed, then having this in hand will encourage you to write.

    • I downloaded GoogleDocs onto my phone. Before bed, instead of “playing” on your phone, go to your GoogleDoc and jot down some notes about anything, a section of a paper or grant. Surprisingly, texting yourself ideas feels very informal and less stressful than writing on a computer. Downside… yes, not the best practice for insomniacs or people that have trouble falling asleep. You can also change the lighting on your phone to night mode (aka. less blue light) if this is a concern.

    • Prioritize your writing. Wake up earlier or sleep later to create 30 min of quiet writing time.

    • Also, with regards to the shelter in place, it’s okay to not be super productive during this crazy and hectic time. As always, be kind and honest with yourself. If you are too busy now with other commitments, then that’s fine, attend to your other commitments. If it’s possible to put off your writing, then commit to writing later or continue to make incremental progress with what little time you do have (again, bits of time can be spent sketching out a paper or grant).

  • Distracted by other stuff. Too many things to navigate and I loose focus.

    • Create a solid system first. Make a list of the things you need to do. Alternatively, create a folder on your laptop of all the materials you need to write. Then, make a plan to keep you on task.

    • Pick the easy pieces first, finish them quickly to get them out of the way and provide you with a feeling of accomplishment

  • Very difficult to get started. Hard to figure out how to start. Don’t know where to start.

    • You just get started! This is it! Sometimes I start by writing out all the reasons I can't start or why it's not good enough and then I have sentences! (Wow, hard love, but I like the truth here).

    • Be self-compassionate - if you never start you will fail, but if you attempt to try then you never know what you might achieve.

    • Put headings of what you think you need to cover and then add in bullet points with ideas of what needs to be included under those headings.

    • Begin with a smaller section, or descriptive facts like methodologies etc.

  • I need to read more literature to get new ideas. I need to get a better understanding of the literature to put my research into context. I need to read a lot to get to know the field to write a solid piece. I need to read more prior to writing. I don’t have enough knowledge about the subject.

    • The secret is that the people that "know the field" have been in the field for decades. You're on the right track.

    • Commit a day to reading and then a day to writing — just to keep it balanced, to ensure that you don’t end up spiraling down a literature hole.

    • As you read, write. Write a brief one or two sentence summary of the major findings of the paper you just read. Gradually, you can piece these sentences together into a coherent introduction. The act of writing, even these tiny summaries, will also help you “break the ice” that is a blank screen and encourage more writing.

  • Writing is harder for me. Only some people are good at it.

    • I assure you, writing is difficult for everyone. I have spoken with many postdocs and PIs (all of whom I think are highly successful writers) and they all suffer from a lack of motivation to start writing and struggle to find the logic in a series of experiments. Good writing is often not the quick product of a genius writer, but rather a product of a thoughtful writer that has worked through many drafts. Also, like everything else, the exercise of writing gets “easier” with more practice — so keep at it!

  • I need a writing degree.

    • None of your PIs have writing degrees.

  • Bad writing = Bad ideas

    • There are no bad ideas. Okay… maybe there are some bad ideas, but often you need to get these bad ideas out on paper to realize they are bad, then work on improving them. With regards to a grant, this is also what the pitfalls and other approaches are for :). Maybe the experiment you are proposing has a flaw, address that flaw and provide an alternative approach.

  • I kept changing my outline for the review paper and I was worried if there are important reference I might be missing.

    • After working on one piece for a long time, it’s hard to step back and see what you missed. Have others read the review. Send out paragraphs to other experts in the field and gather feedback about missing references. When I wrote a review, the editor of the journal also helped us to identify areas that were lacking.

  • Fear of failure is holding me back.

    • We're all afraid of failure. It only means that we care about what we do. <— I love this.

    • Okay, at least with regards to grant writing… failure is sadly just a part of the process, so you are going to have to get over this. NIH success rates for F and K-awards are at best around 20-30% — which is much higher than many private funding sources. So, with regards to grants, a majority are not funded. Yet, we still have to try… PIs constantly write grants, just to get a few funded. In addition, the benefits of being in the 20-30% that are successful outweigh the negatives of never trying. In addition, believe in your science. Scientists are resilient. A majority of our experiments are “failures” (i.e. experiments that result in data that will not be used in a grant or publication), yet we move on because we want to eventually know the truth.

  • This is my first experience writing a grant for myself rather than a specific project — there are different skills required to sell yourself and your science.

    • If you are not clear with the scope, just write everything that you have done. Ask your friends to read it and give you some positive comments.

    • If you are a graduate student or postdoc at Stanford, then you must be accomplished. Believe in yourself and your science. I know it feels unnatural, but when you “sell yourself” you are not lying, you are simply displaying to others all the great work that you have done. If you have trouble doing this, then ask close friends and colleagues to read your biosketch and help you identify areas where you can emphasize your accomplishments.

  • Waiting for co-authors to complete there work.

    • Write around them, deal with the sections where you have control. define some specific time for writing schedule it like a meeting.

    • Send a draft of what you have to your collaborators. This really helps them realize that you are waiting for their data and will encourage them to work faster.

  • Experiencing difficulty in settling on which ideas to pursue.

    • Choose what you are most interested in.

    • Start by writing down all your ideas and then you can better process them and compare their pros and cons. Also, maybe a while later you will miss another idea and may not remember what exactly that is. (Write stuff down or your will forget — wise words).

  • Gathering data/information and structuring them

    • Refer to papers in your field to see how others both gathered data and structured the data to communicate the results. Discuss with lab mates that have done a similar analysis.

  • Not able to decide what the “most important thing to do next”

    • Talk to other people about your research and findings. These people can include science friends, your mentor, your previous mentors, other faculty/grad students/postdocs on campus that are familiar with your field (people are surprisingly friendly), or members of your PhD thesis committee (committee members can be great for graduate students that want more mentoring). When we start having scientific meetings again, attend one… I have gathered some of my best ideas from conversations at meetings.

  • Also, for example K-awards have so many components and it is overwhelming for someone writing the NIH grant for the first time

    • Helpful places to start include: (1) making a check list of all the items you need to write and gather for the application, (2) talk with someone who has gone through the process to get an idea of both their experience and if they have any tips for you, (3) get a copy of someone’s K-award — when you see the application in full you will hopefully get the sense that it is long, but doable.

  • I am never quite satisfied with the topic sentence or the main idea, and I change my mind all of the time.

    • Just follow those ideas and let the document materialize before I become overly critical about the initial idea. <— Yes!

    • Totally fine. I wrote a whole paper, twice. It took writing it one way for me to realize that it would actually be much better if I organized it a different way — it’s a pain, but editing is just part of the writing process. Pick one topic, then write about it. If you are not satisfied, identify why you are not satisfied with it (or ask others what they think is wrong). Then, instead of discarding the sentence or paragraph, try to fix it.

  • I don't know what to write.

    • You do, just write!

Developing a writing routine:
What helps you write?

Here are the many responses received in class. In developing your own writing routine, try something new and pick something from the list. If it works, great! Keep at it! If it doesn’t work, then that’s fine, pick something new. Gradual, but sustained progress is the goal.

  • Start with brainstorming, no fully phrased sentences, and then step by step move over to real sentences, with lots of iterations.

  • Writing an outline first.

  • Write in the morning.

  • Write with an achievable goal and then you get to stop for the day upon completing it.

  • Ask for feedback from peers.  

  • Writing non-scientific pieces, for example writing a personal blog, which makes me very happy!

  • Minimize distractions and use a tomato timer (pomodero technique).
    Minimize distractions, write for 15 minutes without distractions, then walk away from writing for 15 minutes.  I used sunflower seeds in grad school when writing thesis. Pomodoro has been really helpful, but it takes a while for me to get the motivation to start :).

  • Try timetracking apps like Clockify and to track the number of words you write. This helps to get down ideas without trying to make it perfect. 

  • Use OneNote to keep a scientific diary. I can write small sections there.    

  • Writing before lunch.

  • A lot of coffee and music. 

  • Write down on a paper about mini-goals, figures, etc. 

  • Keep my stomach not too full =).       

  • Morning coffee and quiet time.

  • Not actually writing, but using a Dragon to dictate into a word document my chapter/grant.  Oddly speaking my ideas into text is easier than typing - much faster for me to get ideas out.

    • Question: Do you run into issues with scientific jargon?
      Answer: No I have trained the Dragon using my PhD thesis and other documents/publications and now it works beautifully. But, I've used it in the hospital for dictating reports so it has been learning my voice and jargon for many years.   

  • Both a procrastination tool & useful: brainstorming ideas/ literally drawing out connections on a whiteboard & turning it into an outline.  

  • Zone out one day and just write instead of putting other things into the schedule.

  • Make mini goals combined with rewards following completion.

  • Writing anything, even if it is not perfect to avoid the blank page scare.

  • Grant writing groups and the weekly deadline to send for peer review.

  • Hand writing and/or charting out ideas on a whiteboard rather than going straight into a word processor. Something about it feels less locked in and let's me be more creative and accepting of ideas, which allows me to get them all out and then evaluate.   

  • Writing with crayons! Because it's fun.  

  • Being in a new place, like a coffee shop (or at least being on the Caltrain).

  • Listening to music.

  • Write first thing in the morning.

  • Have my own desk and great headphones with noise canceling.

  • Break down into smaller tasks or smaller sections.

Writing routine resources

Here are two papers that beautifully discuss the benefits of a writing routine and how to create your own:

  1. “Ten simple rules for scientists: Improving your writing productivity” (Peterson et al., PLOS Computational Biology, 2018). A paper co-authored by our very own Grant Coach Academy Director Crystal Botham.

  2. “Turbocharge your writing today” (Gardiner and Kearns, Nature Jobs, 2011)

Online writing Resources (for paper writing)

  • “How to prepare a manuscript” is a series of three articles written by Angel Borga (PhD) and published by Elsevier connect. While the original papers were written in 2014, they were updated in 2019. All the information is relevant and really helped me to organize my writing process and clean up early paper drafts. Definitely check these out!

  • Ten simple rules for structuring papers. A PLOS computational biology article written by Brett Mensh and Konrad Kording.
    This article really provides solid advice on how to create a narrative and logical flow in your papers. Instead of telling you how to write a paper, this resource provides insight into how to better craft each section of the paper. One concept I really liked was their CCC scheme, based on the idea that each paragraph should include a context, content, and conclusion. Also a must read!

  • Unit 2 - Writing scientific papers. Scitable by Nature Education.
    A resource provided by the journal Nature that was actually prepared for ESL (English as a second language) scientists. However, I think it is informative for all scientists. This resource breaks down the paper writing process and describes what should be included in each of the four major sections (abstract, introduction, body, and conclusion). In addition, this resource teaches you how to construct effective sentences, how to write in an active voice, and even provides a list of verbs that express research actions — the article is short, but worth it verb resources.

  • How to write a first-class paper. A Nature career feature written by Virginia Gewin.
    An entertaining read. Six pieces of advice from experts in the field on how to create a compelling and publishable manuscript.

  • How to write like a scientist. Written by Adam Rubin.
    Strictly an entertaining read by the author of “Surviving your stupid, stupid decision to go to grad school.” Light reading if you need a break.

A book recommended for non-native speakers

  • Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English. Written by Hilary Glasman-Deal. I have not personally read this book, but it came recommended during the workshop (and has good ratings on Amazon).