My bloated writing-for-audiences process

When I drafted an article to submit to an academic journal in early summer, I ran out of time. So I decided to take the 6 hours I had before the deadline and do as much as possible and then force myself to submit it, even if that meant what I submitted wasn’t going to be as thorough, polished, or generally good as I wanted it to be. My thinking was that if I made myself submit something before I was ready, I would cut out some of my over-writing and over-thinking and just get it out there.

My plan on that May 31 night (before the June 1 deadline) was semi-successful. I submitted something that I wasn’t completely embarrassed of—in fact I felt good about the ideas, the structure, and even some of the writing itself. But it was about 47% longer than it should have been and I didn’t do a thorough “glue” or “condense & edit” draft, because I just didn’t have time.

But I made myself submit it, and I’m glad. Because I want to be able to get outside my head and write for audiences more regularly, and even though I still haven’t heard back from them and I fully expect it to get rejected, I feel like I learned a lot in the process.

Below is a list of my stages and sub-stages of writing scholarly stuff, especially when I’m writing for an actual audience like an academic journal. I wrote this mostly to help myself make more sense of my process so that I could be more attentive to getting to my final draft stages…and it’s a good reminder for me as I try to work hard on drafting some pieces this week. I really want to publish some things, and this is my last full week to write. So I’m going to commit and try to spend less time on Phase 1 and more time on Phase 2 this week.

PHASE 1: WRITER-BASED PROSE

Babble draft: in which I vomit out all my ideas and try to stake out sections in which to organize my mental vomit.

Kitchen sink/Bookself draft: in which I return to reading and pile in quotes from secondary sources and/or my previous writings that might be relevant. I also continue to babble and revise sections. This is a danger zone: I tend to put TOO MUCH from my bookself in here. Suddenly, everything seems related and I pile in quotations from too many things…and the bloating begins.

Quick draft: In which I try to narrow down the quotes and excerpts and start forming actual paragraphs in the sections I’ve created. I delete quotes or paste the leftovers into Paperpile notes (for use in future projects!). I cite sporadically or partially (e.g. CITE or CITE CLARKE or CITE IDENTITY STUFF) as placeholders, but I’m mainly drafting from my ideas + research/reading memory. This one is still about 50-100% longer than the final draft should be bc it’s very babble/bookshelf informed. And it might be full of jargon or unexplained threads/transitions. The shape of what I’m going for is there, but it probably leaves lots of gaps for readers who are not me.

PHASE 2: READER-BASED PROSE

Kneading draft: Now I actually go back and try to tighten up the quick draft. As if I were kneading dough, I’m combining all the elements to make it stronger and make it hold together so that it can “rise.” That means I put in actual citations and/or quotations and make sure my claims are aligned with the sources I’m citing. I’m also trying to make sure my sentences make sense to people who don’t live in my head: I’m working to find the right place on the insider/outsider spectrum, to tame my tendency to labyrinthine sentence, and to get it to be CLOSER to the actual word count (so more like 20-50% longer than it should be?).

Glue draft: The focus here is cohesion: do all the pieces work together? Does the lit. review and theory match the analysis? Do I pull all the big idea threads through and signal to readers in transitions, beginnings, and endings of paragraphs and sections?

Edit & Condense draft: Now we have to get serious and get down to the word count. This is where the writing really gets better bc I have to be direct and active (and I have to avoid always making lists of three out of habit, like I narrowly avoided in this sentence!). Unfortunately, I usually skipped this draft in grad school because my previous drafts were so long and I wrote so much up until the last minute that I didn’t have time for anything but a quick check for squiggly red lines! That’s why everything I wrote was about 50-100% longer than it should have been…

First submission draft: This is what I’m finally ready to submit to the audience for publication. Honestly, I’ve very rarely gotten to this place with a thorough glue or edict & condense drafts. #goals!

And then it begins again when I get revision suggestions!  Babble, bookshelf, quick, massage, glue, edit & condense.  Second draft.

What I’m learning from blogging

I hope I’m learning to condense my writing stages, and to condense as I go. I’m getting more of a feel for the ways that I babble my thoughts out in order to warm up, and I’m trying to cut more of that as I go. I hope that as I blog, my posts get shorter and more concise, and that I spend less time writing them.

The good news is I enjoy this challenge, and I look forawrd to making progress! And this post is less than 1000 words, so I’m on my way.