Work Habits of Productive Scholarly Writers: Insights from Research in Psychology

Work Habits of Productive Scholarly Writers: Insights from Research in Psychology: "Durable motivation is a matter of habit. What distinguished geniuses like Einstein, T.S. Eliot, and Freud is that they worked at their craft daily. What helps writers feel like writers and feel like writing is the discipline of regular work. In fact, successful writers often brag about their habits"


Here is another snippet that I liked, basically stating that in order to hone your skills you have to practice your craft. It even goes on to mention a newspaper columnist and how they have to write daily and that helps them stay ahead of their game. This rings true to me, as I've seen it in my personal life. My father in law is a columnist for the Desert Morning News, and has been a journalist for about 30 years or more. When we go camping as a family I see how hard it is for him to get back in to the swing of things as opposed to how well and quick he can hammer out a column when we are at home and he's been working for the past coulple weeks every day.

And Although I'm no writer, I can see the importance of this skill through him, as well as just in my homework from school. If I don't use my skills, they start to dwindle, and I feel like a top slowly coming to a stop to rest on my side, no longer spinning. It takes some lame paper to get me back at the computer to write again. In a sense I'm glad for the blog that is required for this class, it gets me writing a couple times a week at least, and that is certainly better than nothing.