Robert Boice

the section on writing is good - hence the stars.

I thought I would get more from the mentoring discussion and study of minorities. Instead, I got a really surface overview of data. My experience, as a minority, is that when I try to get feedback it can be misleading (telling me not to apply for an award that they told others who do the same work applied for and received - saying 'that's great keep going with that', and not going any further in thought) and or I get punted to go get feedback elsewhere, i.e. from another woman. So, after a point, it's like, why keep doing something if the result is always the same? It's quite exhausting to search for a person who actually gives real thought. What I would like is a qualitative study of conversation between colleagues to identify if the senior faculty are treating minority faculty differently - giving more thought to some than others. Other research shows minorities receive less [useful] mentoring, they aren't sponsored, but this book doesn't really help manage that.… (mais)

This book is hard to find and too expensive when you do find it--BUT it presents a curious, psychology-based, doggedly practical perspective on creating a healthy writing life. Wading through the myriad examples Boice gives gets wearisome. I do appreciate that he has approached the struggles of writers as psychological issues and that he gives such practical suggestions. Here are a few glimpses:

Regular involvement in conversations and in information collecting precedes imagination. Neither motivation nor imagination has any good reason to appear out of the blue. … Collecting ideas cultivates the imagination; summarizing and rearranging them loosens the imagination and brings surprises.

Research shows that the most creative, imaginative individuals display unique talents for avoiding premature closure; they put off final decisions about organizing ideas while maintaining high standards for (1) the quality of the materials they collect and for (2) the purpose of collecting them. In other words, they wait.

Good stuff!… (mais)

I think this book is better titled "How to Write When You Just Don't Feel Like Writing." There's a lot of information about "writers block" and the author provides a basic four-step plan (which actually has five steps) to get back on track. I didn't feel there was anything professor-specific in the book, and the recommendations are pretty basic (just start writing!) even with some clinical-sounding language. The two best parts of the book were the impressive bibliography (even though the author's own works take up 10 of the 100 citations) and using the four/five-step plan under different conditions (starting a new project, resuming a disrupted project, and dealing with rejected projects). Overall, not bad, but there are many better works in the crowded how-to-write field (my favorites are by Peter Elbow).

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LT Haiku:
Methodology
And the structure of writing's
Hard reality.… (mais)