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Are you ready for the Fall Semester? 5 Tips to Start "Write"

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Dear Real Academics Are you ready for the Fall semester? If yes, great! If not, I get it. Regardless, here are some tips to make sure you are off to the “write” start — and yes, “write” is intentional… (1) MINDSET - Prioritize your writing. As important as all the meetings, classes you need to prep, and emails you need to answer are, NOTHING is as important as your writing. Writing is what helps you graduate, get promoted, and…most importantly…get your academic research/thinking out into the world. So, get in the mindset — first and foremost — that writing is a priority in your academic work. (2) TOOLS - Use a calendar to map out your first month Whether you use an electronic calendar or a paper based calendar or planner, write out your events for the first month (or, if you can, for the entire semester). My suggestion of how to do this? Write in all the non-negotiable meetings times your administration sets. Write in all your class time and office hours. Write in your scheduled writin
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3 Unconventional Summer Writing Tips

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Dear Real Academic, Anyone frying or melting, yet? We hope not! Tiberio and I are certainly getting used to humid, boiling heat here in Miami, Florida (we were in dry, furnace summer heat in Las Vegas, Nevada for 8 years previously which, isn’t any better , in our opinion). But, we are so very thankful for air-conditioning, ice, shade, and water. Of course, if you are in a place where summers are anywhere between 70 and 80 degrees F, then…just stop reading...yup…just stop…just kidding! You can keep reading. :-) I wanted to share 3 tips to keep you writing through the hot summer months: Tip #1: Sleep in Yup. Contrary to any and all productivity recommendations, I am going to recommend you sleep in. Why? Because: (a) You are probably in a time of the year where you don’t have to make a morning meeting or teach a morning class. (b) Sleep is critical for creativity. Disclaimer: Do NOT do this if (a) You have a killer routing going for you and (b) You are NOT even slightly tired, exhaust
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Why is It So Hard to Keep Writing?

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Dear Real Academics, I've often hear and have written about how difficult it is to START writing and ways to overcome that difficulty. Here, I want to explore why it may be difficult to KEEP writing and solutions to overcoming that specific difficulty. (1) You know what to do, but you don't want to do it.   Years ago, my mother's good friend (Dr. Barbara Warren) self-published a book titled, Do What You Don't Want To Do: Achieving Excellence as a Procrastinator. Mind you, this book was written by a MULTIPLE time IronMan winner, ultra-marathon runner, and woman who had overcome an incredible amount of obstacles in life through her discipline and commitment to her calling. In fact, she and her twin sister, Angelika, were featured on the documentary, Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 ,  a documentary about a yearly 135 mile race across Death Valley, California in JULY (Angelica is on the cover). You can watch it for free on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl3
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What Unpacking and Writing Have in Common and Update on Our Move

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Dear Real Academics, We have been unpacking our house for the last month. Let me preface this by stating that prior to this move, all my other moves had been "college-student" moves, meaning, the most amount of boxes I have ever moved was 14. Yup 14 small boxes. Yup. No furniture and no car either. In my last big move, the car salesman met me at the airport. Let's just say this move was different.  Two large PODS later and 10 months of waiting on a house we are FINALLY in a house and FINALLY unpacking! (Hey, if you didn't try to buy a house in 2022, then definitely check out this hilarious  link   to get a sense of what it was truly like...I literally cried tears of laughter when I watched it...but come back and finish this blog after you watch). Here is my favorite picture of our move. Rocky, our rescue pup, is sitting outside the front of the house watching the first POD arrive. I thought I'd be excited to unpack. In fact, everyone told me it would be like Chris
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Writing in a New Environment To Spark Creativity

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Dear Real Academics, Dr. Garza and I recently had a major change of environment.  I dug up some pictures I've taken to illustrate -- I love taking photos! Here is our previous environment, the desert region of Southern Nevada: and  Here is our current environment, the tropical region of South Florida: Both environments are strikingly beautiful in their own way. But, they are radically different. To read more about my views of Las Vegas, Nevada after living there for 8 years, read this post . This drastic change, however, made me think of a strategy that might help you if you are seeking some dose of creativity in your writing. That is, change your environment. Don't get me wrong... Writing in the same place, at the same time, can be very productive. However, if you want to spark some creativity (given this is your goal), then try changing your writing environment. The change doesn't have to be a huge, dramatic change like in my example and pictures.   In fact, too huge of
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Let's Get Technical: 3 Resources To Help START Writing an Academic Paper

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Dear Real Academics, Academic writing is technical by nature.  This technicality makes it both easy and hard. It's easy because it has a very clear structure: Introduction Theoretical Framework Literature Review Method Results/Finding Conclusion But it's hard because all the pieces have to fit together like a puzzle, and they have to fit TIGHTLY.   Not only that, but the combination of the entire research process having to fit into the structure and all the nitty gritty editing make the whole thing quite difficult to write. I've written a blog post on some  common mistakes  academic writers make, and I encourage everyone to take a look. I recommend three resources that can help you get STARTED with writing these technical pieces. Here they go: Becoming an Academic Writer, by Patricia Goodson Whatever style guideline you must adhere to. I happen to use APA. Whatever referencing software your university provides (e.g., Endnotes, Mendeley, Refworks) Other than that, I recommen
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A Thing of Beauty

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Dear Real Academics,  I rarely mention this, but I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature.  My main focus of study spanned the Medieval - Renaissance - Romantic Eras. These time periods had a lasting impression on my views of writing, history, and the human search for beauty and truth. I share this, because February approaching as the month of "love", I was reminded of the poetry from the Romantic era of English Literature -- Wordsworth, Keats, Shelly, Blake, to name some notable authors. That this time period is called "Romantic" is accurate in that the writing is characterized by idealism, feeling, impression, and intense emotion.  I've written before that I have realistic tendencies  in my view of the world, so it may strike you odd that I enjoy this literature immensely -- yes, I have a heart!  Notably, much of the Romantic Era writing is poetry, which is my favorite genre of literature.  With that shared, I wanted to share with YOU a
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