August 2024: CLARIFY
Writing prompts and reflections to support you all month long
Welcome back to #AcWriMoments, a yearlong experiment in purposeful scholarship creation. On the first day of each month in 2024, we offer you a guidepost with a unique theme and simple prompts for living out the theme as a scholar and a human. Return to the guidepost all month long, anytime you need support for cultivating SACRED (strategic, artisanal, creative, reflective, embodied, delicious) moments of communion with yourself and your work. May these offerings encourage you in your pursuit of whatever goals and visions you deem worthy of your attention—the most precious resource you have.
Theme for August 2024: CLARIFY
The perfect word choice flashes through your mind like lightening. An apt structural design emerges through a careful process of reverse-outlining your manuscript. However and whenever clarity comes into your scholarly process, it defines what it is that you create. Through sudden flashes or through long hours of toil, chaos gives way to order; data coalesces into meaning; study and contemplation give rise to effective action.
The sword in the collage above, slicing decisively through dreamy clouds, evokes the role of mental clarity in the creative process. Your “swords” are the strategies, practices, and mental tricks that help you access clarity as you work to create scholarship.
This month, we invite you to CLARIFY your ideas by giving them shape and form. It’s a fitting theme for a month named after an agentive emperor and assigned to the fiery, expressive zodiac sign of Leo. As you focus on your creative process this month, notice the ways that clarity emerges and shapes what you create — and the strategies that help you cultivate clarity when you need it.
Here are some reflection questions and experiments to get you started!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
What are your favorite strategies for sorting out your thoughts when your brain feels muddled? What is a new strategy you might try this month?
Reflect on a recent moment of clarity, large or small, in your creative process. The clarity may have come spontaneously, or you may have sought it. How did that moment of clarity help define the project you were working on, or your larger body of work? What does this moment tell you about how you might cultivate more clarity in your creative process in the future?
PRACTICES & EXPERIMENTS
Create a wall map of your work-in-progress. In the center of the map, put the guiding question for the project as a whole: what one question are you most hoping to answer through this project? Arrayed around that central question are pieces of paper for all the sections of your project, whether book chapters, essay sections, or another type of subdivision. On these pieces of paper, write the (sub-)guiding questions, or topics, for each of the project parts. Once you have this basic structure in place, feel free to add other elements and information such as key terms, data sources, and claims. As you create the wall map, notice how this process, in itself, invites clarity into your project. You can refer back to the map again anytime you feel confused (and update it as needed). When you do, notice how the map facilitates clarity by re-centering you in your purpose.
Talk your way through. When you hit a wall in your writing project, imagine being asked this powerful question by an insightful coach, mentor, or friend: “If you could wave a magic wand right now and fix anything about your project, what would you change?” This question can help you uncover what you already know and believe, deep beneath those feelings of confusion and stuck-ness. Pull out your phone, hit “record” to create a new voice memo, and start talking. As you talk, pretend you’re replying to your coach/mentor/friend, and speak in your own natural voice — no need for performative professional language here. Using your own voice will help you be really honest with yourself. Talk as long as you need until you run out of things to say. If your talking gives rise to new questions, respond to those too, if you want. Once your voice memo is complete, listen back and take notes. What new insights do you glean about your project? You may try listening to the recording again in a few days or weeks too, to see what else you notice. The mere passage of time can be the most powerful clarifier of all!
As you live the theme of CLARIFY this month, what becomes clear about your project and yourself? What decisions can you make to bring structure to your process?
Thank you for joining us for #AcWriMoments! We’d love to hear from you. Please drop us a comment to let us know what you’re learning, trying, and discovering this month.
&CREATIVITY CATALYST: Aug 24 - Oct 3, 2024. Get your creative juices flowing with this 6-week online course for academic and professional writers who aspire to write with more clarity and panache. Join writing expert Helen Sword and other writers from around the world as we explore arts-based techniques for infusing your “serious” writing with creativity, color, and delight. Learn more and register here.
CUSTOM WRITING SUPPORT: Clarify your scholarly purpose through Story-Argument support from Margy Thomas, creator of ScholarShape and the Story-Argument model. Try the Story-Argument Foundations Service Package for customizable one-on-one support, and for a communal experience, consider booking an interactive, on-site Story-Argument Workshop tailored to the needs and goals of your group. On the info page for each service option, you’ll find an inquiry form where you can request a free, no-obligation discovery call!