Writing and reading, this is what academic life is so much about. For the writing part, I have a favorite guide, not exactly the one commonly recommended by the research institutions: “On Writing, a memoir of the craft” by Stephen King.
This book is actually not really about how to write, it is about the writing experience, about crafting. Most of the book about science writing are giving their lots of “do and don’t”, tips to get the manuscript published, how to structure an introduction and so on. This book by Stephen King is about his experience, about living the writing process. He does not explain “how to”, he shows and tells about his writing.
I can see many common points between writing novels and writing science. The grant writer I am can only identify to the writer receiving multiple rejections for the first manuscript he submitted. Stephen King nailed to the wall all the rejection letters he received. By the age of 14, the nail could not support anymore the weight of the letters. Sounds familiar? One of my first review paper got back from 4 or 5 journals, they all liked it, but not enough to take it. It’s still not published to date… Neither is King’s first story, “happy stamps”.
I guess the adrenaline shot is comparable when the work get finally accepted, particularly when it is the first ones. “The future lies ahead” wrote the editor Bill Thomson to King when he book “Carrie” got accepted for publication.
From this book, I take four pieces of advice. First, a writer needs to invest in a toolbox. It consists of grammar, vocabulary and all sorts of habits that turns nebulous thoughts into digestible text. Dropping adverbs and passive verbs is part of it. “The soils have been sampled using a shovel” or “we sampled the soil with a shovel”? This toolbox can be small (maybe a limited but specific vocabulary) or huge, but it should be adapted to your need.
Second, King expresses very well the link between creative process and writing. In this book, Stephen King is not explaining you the psychological triggers leading to a great idea, then turned into text, he is writing it. For example, he writes how the idea of his bestseller “Carrie” came to him. He associated together a memory of a summer job afternoon working as a janitor in a college, and an article about telekinetic phenomena read in a magazine some years before. “Pow! Two unrelated ideas, adolescence cruelty and telekinesis, came together, and I have an idea”. It sounds to me very close this idea of incubation I developed in this other blog.
Third, the reading is a part of the writing. “If you want to be writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot”. Reading is not only about collecting knowledge, it is also about experiencing what is good and what is mediocre. It gives a measure of the distance you are from the best writers of our field. “Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life”.
Fourth, writing is a question of discipline and regularity. King writes 2000 words (about 10 pages) per day, everyday. Without exception. He goes on writing until he reaches this limit, would it take him 3 or 8 hours. This discipline and regularity lead to a complete immersion into the piece of text and set it as the priority of the day. Except in rare occasion, like the start of a PhD thesis, I think that every scientist has always something to write. From my side I try to have the discipline to write at least 500 words per working days. I hope I will succeed to keep up with this rhythm sooner or later…
Summer is coming and you may be searching for a book to take with you on holidays. From King, I would recommend you some novels, like “11/22/63” or “Finders Keepers”, but if you plan to use this time to work on your skills, take with you “On writing – A memoir of the Craft”, I bet you will learn something useful.