Workshop: Overcoming Writer's Block in Science: How to Experience Flow and Pleasure in Writing

Are you getting cold sweats when you think about writing your article or your thesis? Do you experience self-doubts and frustrations when you start writing or have to revise your writing project? Do you struggle to reach your writing goals?

Being a scientist makes you a writer. Writing is how you communicate to the world your work and the initiatives you undertake. It is also your writing that people will judge to assess the quality of your research. Writing is one of the most important skills for a scientist, yet one of the most difficult to master. For many scientists, writing a thesis or an article can turn into a month or even yearlong fight with oneself in search of the right ideas or words. It can be exhausting and frustrating. But it doesn't have to be.

The goal of the present workshop is to help you to overcome these difficulties and to experience flow and pleasure in writing.

Target group

Young to experienced faculty members who want to learn strategies to write more productively, cope with self-doubts and frustrations and experience flow in writing.

Goals

• Learn what makes a good article in your research field
• Improve your writing process
• Learn to set achievable writing goals and work focused
• Learn to cope with the psychological challenges that impair the writing flow, such as procrastination, self-doubts, fears, and discouragement

Content

Flow experiences describe the mental state of being absorbed in an activity and deriving a high enjoyment from it. Two ingredients are essential to experience flow.

The first one is to have clear goals, i.e., to know what to do and how to do it. Thus, the first part of this workshop is dedicated to understanding what characterizes excellent scientific papers and reflecting on the steps one needs to go through when writing an academic paper.

The second ingredient to flow is to work concentrated on the task without being distracted by outer or inner disturbances, such as self-doubts or fears. Thus, in the second part of the workshop, you will learn concrete methods to deal with the psychological challenges encountered while writing.

This knowledge cannot only help you become a more prolific and fulfilled writer, it is also useful to accompany and support the students you supervise in their writing projects.

Methods

This workshop is interactive and takes place in a relaxed atmosphere. It consists of discussions, individual and group exercises, and short lectures. The inputs and methods taught in this workshop are easy to use, effective, and directly applicable to the participants' current situation.

• Learn what makes a good article in your research field
• Improve your writing process
• Learn to set achievable writing goals and work focused
• Learn to cope with the psychological challenges that impair the writing flow, such as procrastination, self-doubts, fears, and discouragement