Becoming the Writer You Already Are

Becoming the Writer You Already Are helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. Author Michelle R. Boyd introduces the Writing Metaphor as a reflective tool that can help you understand and overcome your writing fears: going from "stuck" to "unstuck" by drawing on skills you already have at your fingertips. She also offers an experimental approach to trying out any new writing strategy, so you can easily fill out the parts of your writing process that need developing. The book includes a number of helpful features: Real Scholars’ Stories provide insights into overcoming writing barriers; Wise Words from other scholars capture the trials of writing as well as avenues through those trials; and finally Focus Points highlight important ideas, questions, or techniques to consider. The book is ideal for dissertation writing seminars, graduate students struggling with the transition from coursework to dissertation work, scholars who are supporting or participating in writing groups, and marginalized scholars whose write struggles have prompted them to internalize the bias that others have about their ability to do exemplary research.

Michelle Boyd, PhD is the founder of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats, a transformative, retreat-based training program that teaches scholars to overcome their writing fears. She is also a self-described “struggling writer” whose success as an award-winning, former tenured faculty member belied the challenges she faced throughout her career as an academic. Scholars who work with Michelle call her coaching “magical,” but it’s not magic―it’s science. Her coaching programs are rooted in research showing that each scholar has their own natural writing process, and that many of their struggles come from external barriers that prevent them from recognizing, accessing, or trusting that process when they need it. Michelle has been leading retreats since 2012, when she cofounded and coached her first retreat as a faculty member. The only thing she loves more than writing is helping scholars who dread writing develop a calm, confident, productive writing practice.