My Masters and PhD advisor, Jim Buhler, did a lot of great things for me when I was working with him. Despite the fact that he oversaw my entire dissertation and gave me excellent guidance through that process, I think that the best thing that he ever did for me was tell me to start this blog. The first couple of things that I presented about and published on after I finished my doctorate were taken directly from the dissertation, of course, but after I had mined that material for all it could give me, everything else that I've ever done has started with something that I posted here.
Dr. Buhler told me to start an academic blog, contribute to it regularly, and expect that no one would read it. The reason for this was to have a place to do consistent, low-stakes writing that I didn't tear myself apart about. I don't like writing. I avoid doing it; and especially when the stakes are high and the expectation is for something long, it gives me some anxiety. Having this space, and having small goals to create blog posts at certain intervals has done a lot to alleviate the pressure that I used to feel around writing, especially long-form writing.
As illustrated here, earlier this month I gave an invited talk at the University of Minnesota as part of their Music Colloquium Series. Talks like these are usually 30-45 minutes long (longer than a conference paper), which means anywhere from 15-25 pages of written words. But I didn't start from scratch; I started with the post I wrote on October 30. And that was enough, at least to get started. I have found that when I start a larger project with copy/pasting from the blog, it eliminates a preliminary hurdle that I find difficult - a blank page. The blank page is mentally difficult for two reasons: (1) How can I fill that much space? (2) How do I start?? It may seem small, but having the page count at 1 or 2, and having something, ANYTHING on the page is enough to make it easier for me to begin. Sometimes I leave an entire paragraph from the blog in my finished work; sometimes hardly anything remains of the original post when I'm done. I find editing much easier than generating content, so having a repository where I have already generated a great deal of content at a very low-stakes level feels good to me. I'm not afraid to start because I've already started.
When I graduated, I asked Dr. Buhler if I could still send him things to look at, because I felt like I wasn't ready to be a real academic on my own yet. He said yes, but he also said that he predicted that I actually wouldn't need him to do this once I got started. It was true, and starting the blog was a big part of why. I would recommend this process to anyone that struggles with writing, and I'd love to hear what works for others, too!