Motivation

I have been using stumbleupon lately and it has given me a lot of interesting articles I wouldn’t normally read.  I’m not really into “self-help” usually preferring to do my own trial and error, but I find the older I get the more interested I get in reading about how to be a better version of myself.

This article is all about staying motivated as a writer and I found some things I already do, but like always also saw some new and interesting things.

This is my favorite, and one I wish I could get my students to understand:

5. There is no writing, only re-writing, Steve Mintz, director of the Columbia GSAS Teaching Center, told our Dissertation Boot Camp participants last week. Lamott (1994) says, “Get it down, so you can clean it up.” Shaw (1993) says, “There is no such thing as good writing. There is only good rewriting.” If it helps to motivate you, you do not need to write a final draft, or even a good draft. You write today what you must so that you can produce good writing when you edit.

Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is my favorite book on writing of all time and her advice to “get it down, so you can clean it up” was one of many pieces from her book that really opened my eyes to becoming a better writer.  I think it’s so important!