Episode 66: More Than Writing
Introduction:
Hey friend, the time has come to finish your dissertation, graduate and become doctor. Welcome to office hours with Dr. Lacy where we talk about how to finally master this time management thing so you can stay on top of it without losing your mind. Every Wednesday you can find a new episode wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure you hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode. I'm Dr. Marvette Lacy your dissertation writing strategist here to be with you along every step of the way. I would like to thank you for coming to today's office hours. Let's get started on today's episode. Hey, how's writing going? I know you don't like the question, but let me tell you, when you join the finish your dissertation program, you will love that question. Clients often report feeling excited and joyful to go into their process even before they even get to the dissertation process, and that's what I'm inviting you to do. I'm inviting you to come inside the group and join us so that you can get the structure you need and the tools that will help you to show up consistent and disciplined in your process. All you need to do is come on over to Marvette lacy.com/apply and sign up for the wait list and you will be the first notified when doors are open. See you soon.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's podcast episode. I am recording this on, um, early Sunday morning. I just took sir out for a walk. Sir is my dog, by the way. And it's just one of those like perfect Sunday mornings. I'm just enjoying the morning. Okay. So how many times can you say morning anyway? Today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you the recording that I did for the grad school summit with, um, which was hosted by Black in grad school, Allante Whitmore. And it was such wonderful conversations. I love the energy on the call and I dropped a lot of gems. If I do say so myself, while you can very well still go and catch the recording. I also wanted to include it here because I just, it was such a dope conversation. So without further ado, let's get on to this week's episode.
Writing 101:
Thank you so much, Allante for that wonderful introduction for having me this evening. I'm so excited for this, and I'm excited to be talking about one of my favorite topics, which is writing. So if you don't know who I am at all, um, I currently, yes, I work at Maryland, um, as a post doc and I also have a business where I work with doctoral to finish their dissertations. And so people usually come to me because they're like, listen, this writing. I can't do this. And there's a lot of feelings and emotions around that because you feel like if you made it through all of this schooling and you get to the dissertation, why is a dissertation taking you out? And people often think it's because, well, I just need help in my writing, or I need help making a plan or an outline. And a lot of what I do. And a lot of what I'm working with with clients goes way beyond the writing process. And that is what I'm going to get into a little bit today. Now I'm interactive. I'm need all the love in the chat. I'm going to say some things. I'm going to ask you some questions. I'm going to ask that you respond in the chat box too. Also, if at any point I say something that hits you right here, just put a yes in the chat box. Just letting me know I'm not over here by myself. Okay? Because I understand that a lot of you are preparing to go into a graduate program. And I know some of you are in programs. So I'm going to say some things. We're going to get deep, but just know it's out of love. It is because I really do mean that you can do this graduate process with your joy and peace in tact. You can have joy in graduate school, despite everybody like, you know, a lot of the people in the Academy will tell you that you cannot, you have to choose between the two. I don't believe you have to. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
What is Your WHY?:
Hey, let's hope technology is on my side. Okay. So today here are the three main things we're gonna talk about the number one pitfall that causes 90% of writing challenges. And I'm sure it's not what you think it is. The one thought that will track you every single time. So be on the lookout for that. And then the three must haves you need, or you want to maintain writing motivation, right? So the first question I have for you all is why will you finish your grad program? Cause I know that y'all are in different types of programs. You at different stages. So why will you finish your grad program? Like, what's the why that's in your core. Like, I want to know that deeply. I don't want, I don't want that cute why that you give on interviews. I want the real why. Right? So if it's, because I want to have the letters at the end of my name, say that. So you can be that person on the emails, like, um, excuse me, did you not see that I have this, these credentials, right? If it's because you want to speak and be consulting, doing that. Cool. You want to be academic famous. That's those who I really do want to know your why. No shame here. You don't have to be deep. So, I want to tell you a little bit of story about me, right? I want to demystify. So a lot of my intention when I'm working with folks and when I'm doing these types of workshops is that I want to demystify the process as much as possible. And I want to tell you the real stuff that people don't tell you. I don't want to sell you a dream that like grad school going to be like, Oh, rainbows and butterflies all the time, because then you get bamboozled, you get in. And you're like, nobody told me. So I want, I want to share my story of my first year and my doctoral program.
First Year PhD Experiences:
So I started in the college student affairs administration PhD program at the University of Georgia in 2013. And as a first gen student, I was like, I'm so excited. This is going to be amazing. Like, I didn't even think I'd be like for real, make it through the first degree, undergrad degree, but to get all the way, like through a master's and now I'm going to do a PhD. Like I was like, I made it, I was in Georgia. I'm originally from Chicago. And so I was a long way from home, but I was like, you know what, it's going to be three cute years. We going to be fine. We'll be fine. Right. And I was excited about finally being able to go to a large research institution because most of my experience up to this was, um, I did my undergrad at Elmhurst college. If, you know, as a small liberal arts private institution, right outside of Chicago, I did my master's work at Illinois State university. So those are two different institutions from the university of Georgia. It's the South. It's the SEC. I was like football season. This is going to be amazing.
And the first day of class, I was like, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know.I don't know how to get on this bus. I acted like I'd never lived in the big city. I couldn't, I was lost. It was just a lot. I felt like a, like a first year student all over again, but whatever I was like, it's cool. It's going to be cool. I'm cool. And so many of you, probably the first day of school has always been like my holiday, like my favorite holiday of the year, every, since I started preschool. And so before even going into my first day of classes at UGA, I had all the things. I was like, I picked out my outfit, my planner ready with me, I just, I love it. Take me to a staples any day, right. So I have all the things I was ready. I would say I'm going to be a serious student because it's a PhD. Like we can't play around. Like we did an undergrad and masters. Like we gotta take this seriously. Right. I had all the pep talks. And this was like a, like a general, like a typical day in the life of what my schedule looked like that first year, because I know that's one of the questions that folks have, but people are like, there's no typical day. I kind of had a typical day.
Right. So I woke up right. Because I was taking it seriously. I was like, I'm going to do all the things that people tell you to do. I'm gonna do it. So I'm gonna wake up at six o'clock. I'm gonna wake up. I'm gonna do my morning routine. Do some journaling, do some yoga. I even like I took some loan money. I did and hired a trainer because I was taking a step. Was investing in myself and I would go work out in the morning, do all of that and then go to my assistantship from like nine to one. Cause it's a 13 hour assistantship. So that's, this is where my schedule. Well, I was a coordinator. I was help coordinating the EDD program during its first year. And so a lot of my tasks, if anyone is interested in it, I was proofreading emails or making PowerPoints from a faculty notes or making copies like the work isn't glamorous, but it gives you a paycheck. Um, I think a lot of times people think you got to go into a graduate assistantship and it's gonna be life changing. No, they're going to have you make an copies, send me emails and like transcribing notes or something like that. So I would do that in the morning, come back for lunch.
And then yes, you see that? It says three to 10. I would go to coffee, true story. If you are familiar with Athens, for legit seven hours or more, and sit there and I would read word for word, from word to word, all of the readings. I would make all the notes, all the highlights. I had all the apps, right? Because I was taking this seriously. Alright. Cause I wanted to be prepared for my assignments. And what happened was that there were a series of like four to six page paper, like assignments for classes. And I would get to the writing part and be like, wait a minute. I don't. I mean, I read all this stuff, but I still feel like, I don't know enough to write, let me go look at my notes. Cause maybe I miss something. And I just had, for real writer's block, it was as if like I didn't do any reading or anything. And I just got really in my head. So then my strategy became, you know what? I'm gonna take quotes from my notes. I'm gonna put it in this paper. I'm gonna reword them. Listen, y'all, don't do this. Okay. I'm gonna reword them. I'm gonna put an introduction, like a sentence in the conclusion and I'm gonna give it to the writing center. And somebody will tell me if I'm off, I'll give it to the writing center. They would give it back with some few corrections, but not much.
And then I would turn it in. When I say I got failing grade after failing grade, it was, it was a real thing. And they will tell you, people tell you all the time, especially like in grad school, like nobody cares about grades. They do, especially when you're not getting passing ones. And I was so frustrated because I was like, what? I'm doing everything that people told me to do all the best practices I'm doing them. Why is it not working? So I, one of the more senior faculty members in the program calls me to his office. Um, he was the coordinator at the time of the program and he sat me down and was like your writing isn't that good? And he's like, honestly, like you're, you're not a good student. And if I'm really, really being honest, I don't understand how you got in the program. I wanted to say, cause you let me in.
Cause you're the coordinator. But you know, I was, I was not that bold as a first year, by this point I was crying and he just kept saying like, you just don't look interested in class. You just don't ever say anything. Like you just always on your laptop. You only even seem like you, even you even care. And clearly you're not trying because you turned in this paper that looks like this. So essentially it was like, just get it together. So that meeting ended with me in the bathroom, on the 4th floor. But um, that Mary Francis early just crying the next day, I go to talk to my advisor who was the other most senior faculty person before I can even sit down in her chair to say, Hey, how are you? She's like, you need to go to the writing center.There was no hello. There was nothing. She's like, you just need to go to the writing center. And when I try to, um, when I try to explain to her, like I've been submitting everything paper to the writing center, she cut me off and she was like, no, you're just an awful writer. You need to just go figure it, figure this out and take it seriously. So of course that did not motivate me to like try to figure something else out.
I just got even more in my head and I just, I just shut down. I mean, I still showed up, but like, I didn't know what else to do because all of what I'm known in my smart girl bag, I was using already right. It wasn't working. And then at the end of the semester, when I didn't, I have passing grades for two of the three classes. I got a nice letter from the graduate school that said you have one semester to meet the standards, um, of your program and of the graduate school, or you'll be dismissed. I was on academic probation my first semester and I just went home. Um feeling really sad. Like this ain't going to work. My dad called me cause it was winter break. And he said, come home, come to Chicago. Just I'll he ended up buying me like a $500 ticket because it was so close to Christmas because he heard how sad I was over the phone. And he was like, just come home. And my family, like, they tried to understand, but they didn't. They were like, we don't get you have been in school for this long. Why are you struggling? Do you just need a better schedule? Do you need to just sit down and do your work?
Like, everyone's making an assumption that I wasn't working all the hours. Like I didn't take a break like that schedule that I showed you earlier. It was something I was doing on a daily basis. Even on the weekends, the weekends were longer because there was no assistantship to go to. So I would sit there and reading. It just wasn't, it wasn't connecting. And then I had a really good friend who was like, I don't know what's happening. He was like, but I do know you can do this. I still remember who you were. Um, in high school, when you told me that you're going to do this school thing all the way to the end. Um, and you said no one and no, and nothing was going to get in your way. And so we were talking through that and he reconnected me to that passion I had into my why. And that was what I knew. I was hyped. Y'all like, I went back to Athens. I was like, um, this is what we're going to do. I don't care what I have to do, but I'm gonna do it. I still did the same actions, but my mindset was different. And then next semester I had all A's all A's. I got so much, um, like kudos for my writing. Now this is a whole other workshop. Yup. We can talk about more why that happened. Like the difference between the type of who I had faculty in the beginning and who I had as faculty in the second semester. Again, different topic. But just know that that has a big role in why I was able. It wasn't like magic and then that happened. But yes, that, that turned things around for me, um, that second semester and gave me a lot of motivation to keep going.
What Are Your Biggest Writing Challenges?:
I also switched my advisors. So that helped as well. And now I have the greatest of all times dissertation chairs. That's what I call her Chris Linder. Okay. So tell me, what are your biggest writing challenges? I'm curious to know literature review, Pretty sure most of y'all don't think about, well, one of the biggest things is when I'm talking with clients or when I'm listening to them speak, is the peopling and the politics that take you out. Right. And people don't talk about it as much. When you come into a program, no matter like what level it is after the undergrad level, I feel like this is when this becomes very key is that you can do the coursework. So when I look back over that first semester, there wasn't necessarily anything we were reading that I didn't understand, or I didn't see in my master's program because I also have the same degree in my masters. I mean, yeah. The same program or masters, right. It was, I was introduced to this new world. I was in a new region of the country. It was my first time being introduced to middle class folks. That might sound strange. There's a whole different way. Like from my working class background, I was like, I'm from the West side of Chicago. I don't, what are y'all doing? Like, what are you talking? Why are you talking like that? Why are you using that tone?
Like, it was just a lot of things that I did not understand that we're having like a nuanced things that was taking me out. And when you get into our program, right? The number one thing that people like to do is like, Oh, where's your assistantship? Oh, what's your research about, Oh, who is your advisor? Oh, are you going to that conference? And it happens over and over. And pretty soon, even if the people are in your cohort and they feed you the story about you're supposed to be a family, what happens then is you start comparing and you don't do it consciously. You're not really aware that it's happening, but it's happening in the background. And you say, I gotta be competitive, especially, especially if you've been told that you need to work two times harder just to be like even, right. So you hear all these people saying all these things, that sound really good, that they're doing. Side note, I do want to say that some of these people lying. Okay. Some of these people making themselves sound good. They're not doing it. Or they just happened to be on a team, but they, all they do is like, I dunno, sit there and look pretty because I just wanted to put that out there. But yet you started doing that.
You start engaging in conversation. And any time you're really talking to someone from your program, you're always talking about the things that you're doing or you're achieving or what you're working on. Like people are not really having conversations about their regular lives. So it makes sense then that this conversation is also constantly working in the background of your own mind. And when you go to sit down and write, that's what you think about when I write this sentence, is it going to be as good as so and so? When I write and I talk about this topic, I know that this faculty, this is their, this is their area. They're the, they're the person, right? Who writes about this? Am I going to be like that? Like, who am I to write about this topic? All of that starts to play.
People & The Politics:
And I get that people talk about it as imposter syndrome. And I know there's a session on that coming up. Right. But it's real. It's real. And it all comes from the people and the politics of the program. The number one thing though that you're saying to yourself, that's taking you out every single time is I don't know enough to write, especially here. There's people. When they first come to me, they're usually working in our literature reviews and they'll say, but I don't know enough. I need to read some more, but you've been reading just like I was reading, but you sit there and you go to open up that new document. You're like, okay, this paper, right. That's what I was repeating to myself over and over. When I went to go write those papers of like, I mean, I know I'm supposed to be talking about this topic, but like, I don't know enough. And that sounds ridiculous because I have a whole master's degree in college student development, how could I could have made up something. Right. But that's how I know it's not about not knowing enough, but you will feel like you need to keep reading. You'll feel like you need an outline.
Like I just need an outline. If I had an outline, I'll be able to write. If I had somebody who would give me a schedule, I could do it. I could follow it. It's like we tell ourselves all these things, but this takes us out every time. So what do you do? Here's what I will tell you, protect your peace at all costs. I know this probably sounds a little Woohoo, foo, foo, whatever. At first, listen to me, protect your peace at all costs, people will constantly try to come for your peace out of their own insecurities or whatever imposter syndrome is real for everyone. Even the person, when you go into your class, that first class and you have your first class discussion and they're like, well, I read. And so, and so said, and like they're there in that tone. They have imposter syndrome too. Other people are just better at hiding it. Watch what you consume the most and that means in real life. And that means virtual. The more that you spend time with these people, whether they're virtual or not, the more you start to inhabit their mindset, the way they do things, the way they think. And pretty soon, if you don't watch it, you'll be them. Now, if you want to be them, that's a whole different thing. But if it's someone that you're like, Oh, that's just funny. I want to, I want to know who they're coming after next, watch that energy.
Leave The Hustle Behind:
And then I want to really encourage you to move away from this hustle, mentality, mentality. And to a high performer mentality. I'm gonna talk about that, right? So the three things that you need and that's high-performer means, let me pause. So a lot of times we just say like, it's the grind? It's the hustle. I got to stay up all night. I'm a do that. Like when I'm doing dissertation breakthrough sessions with folks which are calls, that happened before me and the person decide if it will be a good fit to work with one another. One of the biggest things that I hear is that, Oh, no problem. I'll stay up. As long as you want me to. I'll do exactly what you say. Even if it takes all night, even if I had to push my family to the side, that's hustle. That energy you will burn out. There's no way to out hustle yourself all the way to the top.
When you get into grad school, it's a different game because at this point, you know, information sure. You'll be introduced to some amazing, um, information and literature, but like you have done the hustling to get to this point. Now this is about what type of performer do you want to be? Like? I kind of think about a lot of times that, you know, up to this point, I was playing in high school and did some college. Let's just say basketball, college basketball. But now these are the pros I got to show up differently. Like what got me here is not going to get me to the end of the program. So you have to ask yourself, like, how do you want to show up? How do you want to perform over the next two, three, four, five, six, seven, however long your program is, how, how do you want to perform? How do you want to feel in your body? What are you going to do so that you can show up and feel your best every day? And so three things that I want you to focus on mindset, routines, and community.
So mindset, remind yourself regularly of why you are doing this and pay attention to how it evolves. So that's why I asked that question at the beginning about what is your, why? What is the one in the core? Because you think about it when you first start the program, but as you go along the program, you've start to forget it, or it starts to change or you, you just, you don't think about it. And then you start to lose motivation. Your motivation is clear. It's like so strongly connected to your why that if you lose sight of your, why you can just pretty much just forget about like pushing your way through, unless you just gonna hustle yourself to burn out. And so that was happening to me in that first year. Even that soon I have forgot why I was even doing it. I just got so caught up and doing all the right steps that people told me to do that I forgot my why. I was going to put the second one in the community, but I think it's important for your mindset. Find you, listen, do not wait, find you a therapist, a counselor, a coach, all three. If you need to and meet with them weekly, I don't care if you're having the best time in your life.
I don't care if your program is the most like supportive program, find you something, even if it's like, um, like Talkspace or what's the other one better health, like even, yep. Just, just texting someone. You need to have someone to check in with every week because there's just things happening. You are changing as a person, life will still happen, even though you decided to go to graduate school and knowing that you have someone who isn't a part of your daily life, who their only job is to sit there and listen. And I came up with this because people would say, Oh, just take care of it, care of yourself, because people assume that we would just know how to do that. And you're like, well, I should know, how. Should you at this stage, you may think its too simple. You may think like I got that.
So what I asked my clients to do every day is to take one hour a day for yourself, like one full hour for yourself, not to do the laundry. We're not, we're not calling nobody that's going to drain our energy. We only doing things or spending time with people who fill us back up who give us life. The second thing to drink, at least 64 ounces of water. I have my water. Its a nice time to go get you a glass of water. Water. You need it hydrates you. It makes you feel so much like that. Like, don't be like me drinking like three, four months. There's a day. I was like, what is water? And wonder why I was feeling like crap. Don't do that. The third thing is to journal for at least 10 minutes a day. We have so much untapped knowledge and resources in our minds. And we've been socialized to think that that's not legitimate. It's not neutral. It's not objective. And so you've learned over time to quiet that voice, but you are making so many connections that you have no idea that you're making and journaling has been shown to be a great tool for you uncovering that. So if I would have just like I was journaling about like other stuff, but I wasn't journaling.
And I'm going to talk about this a little bit more, but I wasn't journaling about when it came to writing. Four um, move at least 10 minutes a day. I know that might sound a little bit ridiculous, but listen for the folks who get caught up in thesis and dissertating, when you start writing you, like, I can't move, I can't drink nothing. I can't go to the bathroom. Don't call me. My phone is on do not disturb for 12 hours. I'm trying to write. And so just, just thinking like, okay, you just have to move for 10 minutes. Makes it. Make body go like, Oh, I could do 10 minutes. I'll just walk around the house. Right? And usually when you do the 10 minutes, you ended up doing more. But if you don't do more, at least, you know that you did something for that day.And the number five is to complete your top three. Top three are the three items that you're going to prioritize for the day. Each item should take you 20 minutes or less to do the goal of this is to get you started. Because the hardest part, a lot of times when it comes to coursework, writing, whatever is to get started. But if you could tell your brain like, Oh, it's just a little 20 minute task, or we just going to pick up this book. Or another example could be like, Oh, I'm just gonna write this one paragraph, I'm going to read this one section or this one article, like having little tasks like that, that you can put at the top of your day and then start off your work time with gives you momentum.
For me, motivation equals momentum. Motivation is a lot, its not something you go find. It's not something that's just hits you out of nowhere. It comes from when you can build up little habits and tell your brain trust me that I'm going to do what I said I was going to do. Right. I'm going to read this article here. I'm going to write this paragraph there. And your brain goes like, Oh, okay. That wasn't so bad. What else can we do? That's how you build on that.
Have A Weekly Planning Routine:
Routines. This is the second one routines. Have you a weekly planning routine. And if you haven't started, I wanted to say this. If you haven't started your program yet, you're going to get a copy of these slides. Please save this. This is like maybe around November, October, November. You're going to remember this session. You can pull it back up. Okay. Have you a weekly planning routine? I know a lot of you already do the planning. Here's the part I want you to add. Do a reflection, do a reflection at the end of the week, because you have to know what works for you. Just because this complicated system over here works for. So and so over there don't mean it's gonna work for you. And a lot of times we're doing a lot of planning. If you like me, you was just decorating your plan there, but it wasn't really functional, but that's the point, right? We have these plans and we do have all these to do lists all these sticky notes and pieces of paper. And we're writing out 50 million things that we're going to do for the week. And then we get to the Friday and we realize we did 10 and there's still another 40 on the list. Then you feel like I'm a failure. I didn't, I didn't do enough.
I wasn't productive enough. No, you set yourself up from the beginning, you don't need to do 50 things because if we being honest, most of that stuff ain't even for you, most of that stuff you should have just said no to, but you wouldn't know that if you don't have a regular reflection process that says like, what did I do? Well, what's working for me. What do I need to do differently next week? Get your working or writing schedule for 10 to 20 hours a week. Yes. 10 to 20 hours a week. Let me repeat that for the people in the back. We, we're not doing 10 hours a day. Cause if you're doing that, something's off most likely if you like some people you're doing you looking at work emails, right? When you say you're going to be working on like coursework or writing, you probably scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or something, you're out doing everything else.
Read, Write & Edit:
But the actual thing you said you were going to do during that time. And then you turn around at the end of the week. And like girl I just been working so hard. I've been been putting all these hours, 10 to 20 dedicated focus hours. If you are going over 20 hours, you need to go back and reassess what's happening. What are you doing? Or you may be legitimately reading for 20 hours, but then didn't have something off. And so I would encourage you to get with a mentor or someone who can help. Okay. Get your writing routine. That includes us your own personal step by step system for reading, writing, and editing that you write out, you actually write out. So I have like a whole post it. I write out and follow each time. It sounds silly, but remember if the hardest part is getting started, you need a checklist. And I do mean step by step, sit down, open laptop, open document, but fingers on the keyboard. Write out your thoughts. That's what I tell my clients to do. Just write out the literal thoughts that are coming to your mind. Write those out because what will happen is that eventually your brain will click, like click on and you'll start writing about the thing that you need to write about. And you won't get in your head as much about, let me go look this up. Let me go look at that paper that I wrote like 20 years ago. And that one class, I remember this one line that was in that paper that I can put in and it'll be perfect. And then you spend like three hours going down a rabbit hole. Like you see the sentence and it's not even that good in the way that you remember it. Um, so we're not looking for stuff. We're just going to write out our thoughts. The second point I want to make about this is that reading, writing, and editing are separate processes to be completed as separate times. And I may say this on another slide, but do it separately.
And then I encourage people like, yes, you take an hour a day for yourself, but take a whole day where you do nothing, no forms of work. If at all possible, if you can take a day or half a day, but the more time that you can give yourself to be free to give you some breathing room, the better student you will be. My one of my biggest downfalls from that story earlier was that I was just hustling and working, working my days were scheduled. I didn't have any fun. I was like, there's no time for fun. Who needs that and it showed up.
Community:
This third piece is community. Here's the number one thing I would tell you. I know some of you are in writing groups, get the group that's structured. Don't say Oh, we'll figure it out. You know, we're just gonna come and write. That's not mm mm get you some expectations. Make sure everybody is going to meet the expectations. So are you going to meet at the same day and time every week? What are the rules? Are y'all talking? Do you do small talk? Do you catch up or is it strictly you meet here? And you write? Like, getting very clear on things like that help you because I know a lot of people are a part of writing groups that are really, you know, some other group y'all not doing no writing. Y'all doing a lot of talking about stuff that ain't even related to what you were supposed to be writing. Get some structure.
Keep in contact with a friend who knows your why deeply and who can hype you up. This might be a person who not even in, they don't even, they're like, what's the degree. I don't even, I'm not interested. Or maybe they, they do, but they like whatever they're outside of your program. They're outside of your world, but this person not only hypes you up, but they give you perspective when you get too caught up in the, um, the bubble. Have a person, another person whose job it is to make you do something fun or to fill you up on their day off. Right? So this could be the same person, I guess.
But having someone that you say, Hey, you were supposed to call me on Saturday and tell me to go outside and run or something. Whatever your thing is, you think that you'll you'll do it. You won't. You will get to the, say Saturday is your day off. Cause that's the day we do we do inside my group. So Saturday is your day off. You'll get it. And you're like, Oh, but I could just do this one thing real quick. And the next thing you know, you lost your whole Saturday. Having someone that you can be accountable to makes all the difference. Have a mentor who can help guide you through the political decisions because they will happen. They will come up in the program, like remember graduate school is all about your relationships and how you're connecting and moving and making decisions. So if you have someone who has been there before, who understands your world and who can help guide you makes, makes all the world of difference. And then find you one to two people who you tell everything to. Like from the article that you found that you so excited about, that your other friends won't get why you were excited about that person who understand what it's like to go to lab.
Get you friends who understand your world, that you can, you can have each other because this process can be lonely, but you need people. You notice in here, I'm not saying anything about, you need to be best friends with your cohort. People that might not be true. Maybe you will, but maybe you won't. I think people put a lot of pressure on cohorts thinking that it's going to be one big happy family. And I'm not saying it can't be possible. Cause I've definitely seen cohorts come together. But most of the time, what I've seen is that it doesn't work out in a way that people think it will. And so then they give up on trying to find community. And I think community is what saves us all. So based on all the things I've shared, what are three things that will be the most useful to you? You think?
Feeling Good= Good Writing:
Okay. When it all comes down to it, because it's supposed to be about writing, but it's more than writing. Right? My major thesis is that when you feel good, you can produce good writing. When you feel good in your body and your mind writing you, you're more able to deal with the, I don't know if I can swear on here, the, the shit sandwich that comes with writing. Cause I'm not trying to say it's not painful. I'm just saying that to be better able or more equipped to deal with it, you have to take care of yourself, right? You have to have more courage and confidence to go through that. I call it the pool of misery or the shit sandwich. They will come up and writing. If you go talk to any writer, they will tell you, even if they've been doing this for years, even the people who are famous in your field, if you could have a conversation with them and ask them about their writing process. They will tell you like, no, it doesn't necessarily get easier. You just get used to the feeling of it. You get used to that process of having to go through like question back and forth and do that. But again, if all fails, just write out your thoughts, free write. Just write out your thoughts. I promise you. Do editing separately. I tell people for every hour that you write, there's three hours of editing, waiting for you. So I see you people cause I do this too. That's like you write a sentence, you read it. No, first you read a whole three articles, then you write just to write one sentence, you look at the sentence and you're like, Oh, that sounds stupid. You erase it. You go through that process again, right? You keep going back and forth. And at the end of a four hour period, you got one sentence that you're not even happy with. Treat them separately as much as possible. Tell your brain to shut up for like an hour and say, I'm going. I read all the things already. You're not reading nothing else. I'm just going to sit here and write out my thoughts or just free write about this topic.
I’m going to take a break. I'm gonna come back after that break. And then I'm an edit it. The more you get used to writing, editing, and sending it for feedback, the better writer you will be. The faster writer you will be. Most people think that if they rewrite and edit at the same time that it's going to save them time. Treat them separately, do them separately. Okay. Then my closing words are this, you know enough, you have enough and you are enough. I'll say that again. You know enough, you have enough. You are enough. I tell people when they come to work with me that you can finish this dissertation because we're working on a dissertation. You can finish this right now. You don't need me. You don't need anyone else. You could just sit down and write it. You could tell your brain to stop. But I know that's easier said than done, but I really want people to know that you know enough and don't let the people tell you, you don't cause you do. Thanks for allowing you to spend his time with you, for sharing with me in the chat box and you can come and join the Facebook group. Um qualitative dissertations made simple. But that is all. I have Allante.
Q & A:
Allante: Dr. Marvette. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. When you check your Twitter, I blew your Twitter up. Amazing gems and you see the chat, lots of thank yous and rounds of applause and y'all I, um, I want to tell you all again. All of the sessions will be available for replay after the summit is over. Okay? Just so you all know. Now we are getting ready for our last session, but Dr. Marvette there were some amazing questions that came through. So you ready to switch over to that?
Dr. Lacy: Yes.
Question #1:
Allante: Like I tried to capture all of y'all message. All of your questions. The first was more of a comment, but I think you could still speak to, it was from Sarah. She said I'm scared because I teach college composition composition, but I'm not confident in my ability to write PhD level papers. Do you have any advice for her?
Dr. Lacy: Oh, you are the perfect person to write PhD papers. I'm gonna tell you why. Um, so people will say like, Oh, I don't know how to sound scholarly. I don't know how to do this academic writing, because they're usually thinking about that they need to use these fancy words. But what I tell people is you have to think about who is it that you want to read your writing. Like, who are you writing for? Right. Cause a lot of you are writing for people, for communities or organizations that who are not academics. Right? And so if you go in there using all this jargon and flowerly language and they don't understand what you're saying, are you being effective? So that's one thing to think about. The second thing is academic writing comes down to being a highly structured in your writing. And a lot of us are very creative, right? And we just want to flow and use our words and just go with how we feeling. So that's why I tell people to just write out, write it how you feel it. And come in and editing, you put the structure in.
Since you will be the one who teaches it and who will be able to do that um, more seamlessly than other people can. And you can be the go to person. And not that I'm trying to put a label on you, I'm just trying to help like hype you up a little bit of like, people will be asking you, how do you do that? Because the fact of writing is clear writing. And if you can be someone who's very structured and like this and this section, I'm trying to talk about X, Y, and Z. X is this. Y is this. Z is this. In section I talked about like, when you can write like that people think is very boring, but that is academic writing. When you pay attention to your textbooks, that is how it's written, because it's meant one is meant because people are not, it's not intended for people to read word every word. So for the skimmers, they need to be able to read the intro to conclusion. You've already got that on lock, please trust in like who you are and what, you know, you know enough. Remember? Um, and I would say this, this is more of a, um, like more of a good thing than it is like something that's going to be harmful to you.
Question #2:
Allante: I love that. So we have like nine questions. I really want us to get through them. So we're going to try and do like some, some, some speed answers, if you can. GS Says journaling kind of makes me uncomfortable because I know that I'm going to write about sad thoughts. Maybe journaling about writing, about writing itself. So do you have any thing to say for that question? Comment?
Dr. Lacy: A fast answer would be the more you're willing to feel your feelings, the better academic you will be. That's why it's important again, to go to find you a helping professional, to talk to every week so that when those sad things come up, you can process it with them.
Question #3:
Could not agree more. Um, Brittany asks any suggestions for those who are full time employed and needing to keep a writing schedule.
Dr. Lacy:
Here's the thing. Everything is just not going to get, read everything that you turn in that you write ain't going to be the best thing that you write. What I tell for my clients who work full time. I say you have an hour before you go to work and an hour after. Yeah, so that's 10 hours right there, but what's gonna be the key to your success is a clear planning routine. And I can share with Allante, I'll tell you some resources that have podcast episodes, where I go through how to plan. Um, I actually did a workshop last week, so I'll send that to you when I send you the slides.
Question #4:
Perfect. Thank you so much. Next. Um, is, could that, can the writing routine, it's from GS as well, Can it be updated? Sometimes the writing process changes depending on what they're writing.
Dr. Lacy:
Yes. You would need to probably change it, update it regularly. I update my regularly, but I have like key steps that I know without a doubt when I don't feel like doing anything and procrastination is hitting me. I just say set your literally set my alarm for 20 minutes. And I say, your fingers cannot stop moving. And usually at the end 20 minutes, I have a good chunk of what I needed. Some writing groups going on in the comments.
Question #5:
Yes. Um, okay. Oh gosh. Too many screens. Okay. There it is. Um, uh, I forget where, um, I forget where I find a quote after I forgot a topic. Then I go searching, how do I make this better?
Dr. Lacy:
A lot of, one of the common mistakes is that people already use quotes at most one to two direct quotes in your writing is what you need. So I'll just say that, one. Two, Um, if you like, yes, I really want that. I encourage people that before you start reading whatever you're reading, write out the full citation or write out the in text citation so that when you didn't pull the quote in your notes, it's right there. Um, and just, um, I don't know, I'm a fan of stickies. If you can see it behind my screen, I would probably have a sticky that says, don't forget the page number. Nice. Yeah. I'll just be right there off the, on the side. And that sounds simple, but it helps me.
Question #6:
Nina says, um, any suggestions for writing routines? I think you might have went over that in this, in the slides. Um, so if you don't mind, we're going to skip over that one. Crystal, um, asks about online writing group recommendations. If you're in the chat right now its going off, I will be sending you all more information about working together in your emails over the next couple of days. Next, minico wants to know what are your recommendations for finding a mentor?
Um, , I would say happy birthday meaning to your friend. Cause I just happened to catch that comment, finding a mentor. So I'm a person. So I mean know all the academics, not all of them, but there's a lot of academics on Twitter. Right? And so finding, like getting to know them, I don't know if y'all are familiar with Myleik Teele. She is the founder of Curl box. She's not an academic but she has a podcast episode about networking. And one of the things that I found helpful was that she's like, once you identify a person who you like, you want them to be your mentor. You find three ways to interact with them as a normal person first in order to establish a relationship. Right? And sometimes that may mean that you don't have to like find a way to maneuver into some spaces, but maybe it's like, Hey, you send an email and just say, Hey I just want to say thank you, I read your article. I found it amazing. Maybe the second thing is you see them out. I don't know you're in quarantine. So this is really strange. But you see them at a program event. You go to them, you go up to them and introduce yourself and say, Hey, I sent that email. I just wanted to say right again, how much I appreciate your work. And being able to see you as an example. A third thing, would be like, Oh, I saw that you were over here. I would love to sit down and talk to you. Like you don't try to close, like on a date on the first try you wait until you've had a couple of interactions with them.
Question #7:
Um, next is from Stephanie. She says Dr. Varmette. Lord y'all I'm tired. Dr. Marvette, what do you, what do you mean by doing research and writing separately? Like on separate days?
Dr. Lacy:
No, I'm saying do them at separate times. So if you're reading and researching only read and research. If you're writing, you're only writing. You're not editing. You're not like moving things like a, a rule I give myself as if it's going to take me 60 seconds or more to do it. It has to wait. Right? So a lot of like someone who's talked about, like I can't find the quotes. What you do is put in parentheses, find page number and keep it moving. Don't stop to go do that in the moment. Let writing be for writing, editing, be for editing. And reading be for reading
Question # 8:
Then Shar asks. Is it normal to feel nervous about sharing your writing with others? If you think they'll take your ideas or writing verbatim
Dr. Lacy: Oh, we don't share with those people then. We gonna find somebody. What I tell clients is to find someone you trust and you know, has your best interest at heart and you give them your writing because you know that whatever feedback they're giving you is from a good place because they want you to win. But if you can't do that, I mean, I know that had used the writing center as an example, but like, there are lots of grad students who do this work on the side, or just because they love it. And you may have to ask for some networks, but finding someone who's going to give you some, some good feedback is going to be helpful.
Question #9:
I think that's perfect. You are doing great. We only have two questions. Good job. Um, so I don't know if it's Kiana or Kiana. I just want to say both ways just in case it, I don't know. Uh, Oh, she's a current undergrad preparing to apply to graduate school this upcoming year. And she's beyond worried about abilities and writing sample. She doesn't know where to start or what university to look for in particular, the writing portion of the application.
Dr. Lacy:
Um, so I would say first find, um, if you know anyone at all in your networks, or maybe you have to ask friends of friends, but finding students that you can talk to and ask them about their experience and what they did. Yes. It's a puppy because he was biting at me. And I just need to pick him up if y'all want to see, because I know people, um, you probably can't hear anything I'm saying now, but yes. Um, finding people that you can actually talk to and have a conversation. Start the um, personal statement early and giving it to as many people as possible. It's going to be painful. You may feel like you want to throw up, just remember to keep breathing. I guess this goes back to the last question to keep breathing and knowing that this part is easier. I still get nervous when I give people my stuff to read it's nerve wracking. Um, and then the third piece is I want you to go back to, what's going to help you protect your peace. So is there a part of the country or countries that you want to live in what's important to you? Do you like certain climates? Is it important for you to be in community is important for you to have access to different things that may be available in the city versus where the institution is located? Really spending time thinking about that and spending some time to research the faculty, um, and seeing if these could be people that you would want to work with for the next, however many years.
Question #10:
I love that. Um, okay. The two, two more and we're gonna, we're gonna have to switch over y'all cause we got our wine down. I need like two minutes to go make my drinks. So we can do that. Um, recommendations for writing classes. I don't know if you'd be able to speak to that.
Dr. Lacy: No, I wouldn't be able to speak to that like classes per se.
Question #11:
Okay. Yeah, no worries. Um, so Ashi you might have to talk to somebody in your department who might have recommendations. Um, then any advice on how to navigate the dynamic of writing and receiving feedback from white advisors who aren't knowledgeable or understanding of the importance of addressing inequity through writing this person attends a PWI and is having issues or struggles with finding a mentor of color.
Dr. Lacy:
Yeah. So, um, okay. Really fast. And the one thing that I tell people is that if you are doing something about inequity or social justice, the number one question is going to be in the mind, in their mind, whether they say it or not, as what is this, what is race? What is gender, what is, what do these identities have to do with this topic that's neutral. And so answering that very clearly in the beginning helps to cut that out. The second part too is being okay with that resistance is real and you can write the best paper. You can put it perfectly. You can be extremely clear and they will still give you feedback. Like, I don't understand. I'm confused. And that's because they're working through their own privilege and you can't help the people to do that. And I know that, unfortunately, that means that sometimes that's going to cause some friction in your process, but I want you to know that it has nothing to do with you. It's all of them. They will try to say it's you, but it's them. Um, and if you can connect with people and professional organizations or associations who can help you tease out those ideas, who do that work, that would be helpful too, or just reading more of their writing that will help.
Final Thoughts:
Yes. I thank you so much. Well, y'all we were down to the wire. Let's give Dr. Marvette and other thank you in the chat. This was amazing. Thank you for being so transparent and giving us some really great resources and some steps to get our writing together. Like you got me together to. So I appreciate y'all. I'm going to thank our sponsors again. We're actually about to just jump on IG live. So go over to the black and in grad school, I'm about to turn on my live right now. You're going to walk with me while I go grab my drink. And we're going to talk about saying no specifically that piece. We've been talking about time management, taking care of yourself, go over to black and in grad school. I'm about to go live and I will see y'all in a minute. Thank you again, Dr. Marvette.
Hey, you ready to take this work further? Then it's time for you to join the finish your dissertation program. Finally get the tools, resources, and structure. You need to show up consistent and disciplined in your process. All you need to do is come on over to MarvetteLacy.com/Apply and join the finish your dissertation wait list. I'll see you there. Bye for now. Thank you for joining in for today's office hours. Make sure you come on Instagram and tag me at Marvette Lacy. Let me know what your thoughts were on today's episode until next time. Do something to show yourself some love. I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.