first discussing this<\/a>, I split my time between several writing projects (you can see the third project got introduced later in the month once I had a chance to meet with two of my collaborators while in Boston).<\/p>\nSo what do I have to show for my month of writing? I\u2019ve got a lot of fragments<\/i>. All three of these projects are likely books in the making and all are in varying degrees of progress (I\u2019m working toward 2015 publication dates for the first two of these, so you shouldn\u2019t exactly hold your breath in anticipation). I\u2019m excited to have covered a lot of the initial ground on these academic projects and know that my RPG work needs to incubate over the next few months as several writing deadlines will pull me more toward the other two projects, manuscripts being revised, and final papers to grade. In that sense, #AcWriMo was a useful reminder of how writing is only one piece of the process of publishing and distributing knowledge with others.<\/p>\n
And so, I\u2019m less interested in breaking down what these days of writing yielded in terms of tenure-able writing stuff<\/i> and more interested in discussing how these changed my writing habits and thoughts on pedagogy.<\/p>\n
Kicking the Non-Writing Habit<\/b><\/p>\n
I would like to first highlight that this was a habit-forming month. Though the past week has not been one filled with me writing as much as in November, I have felt comfortable jotting down words that may not be perfect and that will add up to something larger over time. Because I entered #AcWriMo with the acnknowledgment that my writing wouldn\u2019t be pristine, it helped free me from the tension of that evil blinking cursor: instead of needing to get gems of knowledge captured on the digital page, this process reminded me of the habit of writing down lots<\/i> of words and knowing that some will stick and that the rest are getting me to the genesis of the ideas and words that are yet to come.<\/p>\n
I should add something here about how inconvenient #AcWriMo felt at times: once I\u2019d gone a week of writing everyday, I felt compelled not to break the chain. On days were I may have been tired or have been busy with meetings at NCTE or teaching all day, it was not exactly fun<\/i> to then sit down and generate words. The weary tapping of keys on a sofa as I only half-watched a movie with my in-laws, for instance, reminded me of how I felt anchored and chained to the work I\u2019d set for myself.\u00a0 I guess the month highlighted for me the work<\/i> involved in writing and generating text (and the next phase of work of editing, expanding, and clarifying this bulk of text).<\/p>\n
And just as November was a race to get to an arbitrary writing deadline, the commitment to writing allowed me to see how I use my time. Sneaking in a couple hundred words in between lunch and teaching sometimes made all the difference in terms of getting the number of words I wanted.<\/p>\n
As expected, the second half of the month was a challenge: with travel for NCTE and NWPAM and visiting friends and family back in California, there were days were even eeking out 500 words was a challenge. In fact, at the beginning of the month I\u2019d pinpointed these as days where writing was unlikely and had set my own writing goals to adjust for these likely dates of less productive writing.<\/p>\n
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Public Accountability<\/b><\/p>\n
Perhaps as important as the habit of writing everyday was that this habit was backed by public accountability. Though there were days where I lapsed, I generally posted everyday on Twitter my word count. These tweets were usually met with silence, but it was helpful for me to know<\/i> that I was a part of a larger community of #NaNoWriMo and #AcWriMo. In this sense, I am reminded of my work with my Teaching Reading class at CSU. From the first week, I made efforts for (at least part of ) the students\u2019 reflections to be public. I wanted my students to know that their comments on Digital Is and their comments on this blog (including the comments to this post) were a part of a public conversation. How do students\u2019 reflections change when they are public? A part of their irreversible digital footprint?<\/p>\n
And so, as I wrap up this post, I am encouraging my students\u00a0 to look back on their semester of reading inquiry. What thoughts and ideas have you seeded in the digital world? In what ways can you continue your own online dialogue beyond the required<\/i> weekly musings here and in other spaces?<\/p>\n
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