How Do I Handle Insecurity about My Writing Ability?

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00:00:03.360 | So we'll start, as always, with some questions about deep work.

00:00:10.160 | We did a pretty long opening segment,

00:00:11.700 | so I am going to be pithy.

00:00:14.160 | Of course, I've said that before.

00:00:15.560 | We'll see if that actually works out.

00:00:17.760 | All right, our first question comes from Clarissa.

00:00:20.840 | Clarissa says, I'm writing my dissertation,

00:00:23.920 | and I am struggling.

00:00:26.720 | As a clinician by trait, I struggle

00:00:28.320 | with this phase in my PhD program.

00:00:29.840 | I'm somewhat traumatized by my advisor, who

00:00:32.120 | criticized my ability to write two years ago.

00:00:34.400 | I always received excellent grades during coursework,

00:00:36.560 | but now in dissertation phase, she

00:00:37.880 | is beginning to compliment me, but I'm still insecure.

00:00:40.640 | I've hired an editor and a communication coach.

00:00:43.720 | I buy all the books on how to write a dissertation,

00:00:45.840 | but I still struggle with the writing process.

00:00:50.040 | Well, Clarissa, what I'm going to do first

00:00:52.320 | is de-emphasize the writing aspect of you putting together

00:00:57.840 | your dissertation.

00:00:59.960 | This is a-- it's a complaint I've often

00:01:03.400 | had about the rhetoric around dissertations

00:01:06.080 | that I used to voice a lot when I was early in my professor

00:01:08.920 | career, because I had a background in productivity

00:01:12.600 | advice.

00:01:13.080 | I was asked to come to a lot of what are known as dissertation

00:01:16.400 | boot camps, where you get together

00:01:18.800 | a bunch of grad students at a school who are working

00:01:21.040 | on their dissertations.

00:01:22.000 | They all work together to try to get progress,

00:01:24.240 | and they bring in speakers.

00:01:25.040 | And I spoke at a lot of these.

00:01:26.000 | And this was the point I often made.

00:01:27.800 | Stop making writing the only verb

00:01:31.320 | you use to describe working on a dissertation.

00:01:34.440 | Stop making the whole focus on, did I get my pages in?

00:01:37.280 | How often am I writing?

00:01:38.320 | How many hours of writing am I doing?

00:01:40.360 | Because when it comes to academic work of this type,

00:01:43.680 | 80% of the effort is thinking, figuring out

00:01:48.440 | what you want to say and making it something worth saying.

00:01:51.720 | Now, what this actually means depends on the field.

00:01:54.200 | I mean, if you're in a more humanities-based field,

00:01:58.520 | you're doing philosophy or something,

00:02:00.080 | this really might be the framework

00:02:01.560 | you're trying to put together.

00:02:02.760 | If this is more of a clinical research-based dissertation,

00:02:05.760 | which sounds like might be your case,

00:02:07.320 | figuring out what to say is actually doing experiments,

00:02:10.360 | looking at what you discovered, coming up

00:02:12.020 | with better experiments, understanding the literature,

00:02:14.240 | figuring out the thing you want to say is 80% of the work

00:02:17.280 | and where almost all of the value comes from.

00:02:20.160 | 20% is just getting that down in a way

00:02:21.740 | that people can understand.

00:02:24.000 | The writing is a small part.

00:02:26.200 | I'm saying that, Clarissa, because I

00:02:27.320 | want you to feel better.

00:02:28.960 | You are not trying to get a Pulitzer for a book of fiction

00:02:36.600 | you're writing.

00:02:38.080 | You are not trying to pitch The New Yorker

00:02:40.640 | to do some long-form piece where what's really

00:02:43.760 | going to matter is the craft and the poetry of your writing.

00:02:47.000 | No, what you're trying to do is take lots of deep thinking

00:02:50.040 | on something that's new and important

00:02:51.620 | and just express it in a way that people can understand.

00:02:53.780 | You need to be clear and you need

00:02:55.000 | to be grammatically correct.

00:02:56.360 | You need your writing to not get in the way of what you're

00:02:58.920 | really trying to do, which is deliver the idea.

00:03:00.840 | So clear writing, well-constructed,

00:03:04.160 | simple sentences, good grammar, great.

00:03:08.600 | Everything else goes into actually figuring out

00:03:10.520 | what you want to say.

00:03:11.120 | So look, you hired an editor.

00:03:12.440 | That's fine.

00:03:12.960 | They can help you with the clarity.

00:03:14.560 | And that's all you need to worry about.

00:03:16.520 | Have them look at a couple of chapters, and they can, hey,

00:03:19.320 | you're using word repetition, and be

00:03:21.160 | careful with your commas, great.

00:03:22.480 | They'll help you with that.

00:03:24.180 | Your writing will be clear.

00:03:25.620 | That problem is solved, and I don't want you

00:03:27.500 | to worry about that anymore.

00:03:29.500 | Again, you're not Joan Didion.

00:03:31.620 | You're not thinking, can I create poetry

00:03:34.060 | with my sentence rhythm?

00:03:35.020 | So don't worry so much about the writing.

00:03:38.860 | On the other hand, be very systematic

00:03:40.900 | when you think about, what do I want to write about?

00:03:45.500 | Experiments, reading the literature,

00:03:47.620 | working over what you want to say, checking that with people.

00:03:50.140 | Does this make sense?

00:03:51.060 | Do you buy this argument?

00:03:52.140 | Let me just give you this argument in words.

00:03:53.940 | Do you buy this argument?

00:03:54.980 | Workshopping your ideas.

00:03:56.780 | Be much more relentless on thinking

00:03:58.420 | about what you're going to say.

00:03:59.700 | And once that's right, again, the writing,

00:04:01.800 | when it comes to dissertation, is just,

00:04:04.100 | can I get this information from my head

00:04:06.620 | to your head without roadblocks wronged away?

00:04:08.780 | And Clarissa, I think you already can do that.

00:04:11.560 | And the editor will give you a little bit of extra confidence,

00:04:14.140 | but you're there with that.

00:04:15.500 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:18.860 | (upbeat music)

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How Do I Handle Insecurity about My Writing Ability?

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