Writing Club Testimonials

“[Fellow Writing Club member], you inspire me. I look forward each day to seeing your check mark up there. I know if you can do it, so can I. Not being in this alone has been the most helpful aspect of the program for me. Isolation was not working. I, too, need to strike better balance. Learning to reward and take care of myself is the first step. I can’t believe that before I started this program, the thought of rewarding myself regularly never occured to me. I hope you are doing the same!”

(In response to a post about the next Writing Club.) “Oh good, I was just going to post inquiring about this! I will be signing up—this has been one of my best investments to date. As one who gives support to others as part of my job, I should have recognized the importance of finding it for myself. The little management tools, the encouragement, and the companionship were what I was lacking. Thank you so much for all of your support over these past weeks!”

“I’m signing up again also. (previous commenter), your comments (as has often been the case!) echo my own thoughts and feelings. This is the best investment that I’ve made in a long time!”

“I’ve also signed up. The first month has been tremendously helpful, especially in getting me to be motivated and work in discrete chunks of time.”

“Thanks to everyone! This writing group has really helped me…in the past I would have just allowed one day to slide into the next with no progress. Now I have a group of peers with similar challenges who need me to commit to making progress just as they are! Thank you!”

“Recently I’ve come to realize how much I now enjoy writing and thinking. Sometimes I feel that I can’t wait to come back to my desk for more writing, and I just want to put everything else aside. I hope this feeling will not fade away.”

“I signed up to renew today. It’s been great to share both successes and struggles with people who REALLY understand.”

“Thanks for all the positive feedback that you gave me, it really helps to read that at the start of the day and feel some support.”

“…it feels good to be in the groove and have someone to tell about it. Thank you for this program! I really had doubts that 30 minutes would be enough time to accomplish anything, but I found that it helped prevent me from feeling completely overwhelmed.”

“I feel good about doing the anxiety exercises and reading the positive self statements and ways of thinking to end procrastination. It really helped me to ease my anxiety before starting again today.”

“thanks everyone for your words of support. they mean the world to me! one of the things I recently started writing was the acknowledgements section of my diss and you are all there. it’s unreal how much these groups have helped me move forward.”

“If it weren’t for this writing club, I would never have gotten back to this paper.”

“I feel good that I am in the habit of writing, and also that I have let go of a lot of debilitating perfectionistic tendencies and negative self-talk.”

“thanks for all the supportive comments, you guys. it has been really helpful!!! I feel like i have a whole bunch of academic coaches on my side!!!!”

“Thank you so much, 1000 times over, for helping me through this rough spot. This has been a great experience.”

A quick shout out for a good self-monitoring tool.

The person who came up with Academic Ladder (http://academicwritingclub.com) is a genius. And, obviously, a behavior analyst.

You see, I am that professor. The one who teaches and neglects anything without a deadline. I needed someone to coach me.

And here it is. You check in each day with your team and talk about how your writing has gone. The team is there to provide reinforcement, and someone comments on your progress each day. There’s even a graph of your progress, and the progress of the team. How’s that for contingency management?

It’s also introduced me to the concept of using a timer to break up my day. I’m more on-task, and find myself writing much more. So, thank you, Academic Ladder! You’re worth the investment.

“Coming up for tenure next year, in good shape with publications but have been in a writing slump for the past year. This program has really changed that!”
“The wonderful supportive comments from the coaches and the other writers are really motivating! Thanks to all! It has been very encouraging to see what others in the class have done to silence the inner critic…. A few months ago I was only taking notes from readings, and not writing anything myself. Fortunately, this program has got me writing…. Today, yet again I thought, NOW I’m really getting this, understanding why it is important to write 15 minutes (at least) each day. This keeps my topic more in the front of my brain, so that ideas can come to me all day. Also, the 15 minutes just circumvents the critic and the procrastinator who feel it is not good enough or not ready for prime time. So what, too bad, got to write anyway, so sit down and like tonight, something pretty good comes out of nowhere, and pretty quickly! And the beauty of it is, I don’t have to “get it,” or understand why/how it works, it (15 min sessions) just works, all I have to do is DO IT!”

“This program rocks! The discipline PLUS the support is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time (career-wise).”

“I am already doing MUCH better than I have in 2 years.” I am feeling really good and positive!“

“I wrote on a teaching day! I really didn’t think that was possible and yet, I did it! Go me! Go writing club!”

“I can see my work habits changing daily. For the first time EVER in my academic career I feel confident that I can not only live up to expectations but possibly even exceed them. (Immediate anxiety aside) work is fun.”

“I’m loving this writing group. Since I work mostly at home [during the summer] it’s nice to have contact with and support from other people. Thanks!”

“Thank you, thank you, to Writing club members who wrote me. I was feeling so lonely in the early a.m. of Monday. I was so glad to get encouragement.”

“I FINISHED THE ARTICLE! I thought this day would never come! I am practically dancing with glee…This is maybe my fastest article ever — less than three months from start to finish, with a lot of other projects dealt with at the same time. Getting them done fast feels GOOD.”

“I wanted to do everything but write – the old way. But, I kept thinking – just start somewhere and write whatever for a few minutes, and then I got going and last for 20. Yay! I’m really glad I have the group, too, because there’s no way I would get any writing done at all, given the rest of the stuff going on in my life. So thanks to all of you!”

“It was supposed to be my day off but by evening I felt antsy and did some research. It’s been a long time since this happened to me!”

“I submitted [my paper.] This is the second paper I have submitted during this writing group… This writing group is helping me. THANKS to all of you!”

“It helped me a lot to ‘write to know what I don’t know.’ Thanks for the great tip! By trying to figure out what I don’t yet know but still want to know, it really helps to frame a topic question.”

“I’m appreciating starting my day by reading new posts in this writing club, and I’m appreciating ending my day by reflecting on what I’ve done, done well, could have done better, and will do tomorrow. Thanks to all for advice and encouragement.”

“I should have been working this well last year.”

“It felt nice to take a moment and applaud my fellow group members whose updates preceded mine today. I was so glad to see them moving along through the thick and thin we all suffer. Going through a rough day in my local surroundings, it is especially nice to have a community here to hear from and to unload on. It even displays how the virtual is as real as the actual…”

“Definitely felt good about the time I put in. Having this group say that 60 minutes or even 15 minutes is a good goal, somehow allows me to get more done than if I thought I had to work for three hours writing.”