Even more useful than my handy compendium of advice and bitching about the job market are my many posts about research and publishing, because I had no clue how to go about publishing (and now I still only have three-quarters of a clue, so there is much still for me to learn), so therefore I did less snarking and more actual asking of advice. That means there are fewer punchlines, however. Enjoy!-- Academic deadlines are all about multitasking. or juggling. Or crisis management. When you’ve been set on fire.
-- Sometimes you just have to bitch and whine about writing. Or more precisely, I do.
-- How do you cut up an article that is too long? More important, how do you stitch it back together?
-- The problem with revision is that you have to write the same thing all over again, but with different words.
-- The secret to successful research is getting funded. Or maybe getting someone else's funding.
-- Procrastination is the root of all evil. Unless not procrastinating is the root of all evil. How do you prevent it? Utter a magic charm.
-- The slow grind of journals toward publication is not just a worry for those on the job market, so I'll link to it again here.
-- Ahh, revision. Someone once described it as "first you make a mess, then you clean it up." That doesn't nearly get at the feelings of carnage and entanglement that revision involves.
-- In honor of the fall contest, National Novel Writing Month, I initiated a spring writing challenge: the Magical Month of Academic Publishing. I forget what I did during it but I'm sure it was magical.
-- While working in the MMAP, I polled the audience: what is a research agenda?
-- Also as part of MMAP, I reviewed Wendy Belcher's Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks.
-- And participated in a very edifying conversation about the extent to which starting scholars should cover their asses when making claims. (hint: it's less than you think!)
I think I wrote some stuff over the MMAP and sent it out, but I don't remember what. And thanks to the slow, glacier-like pace of humanities publishing, I still haven't gotten any of my things accepted. You know, that means you should probably take any publishing advice on the blog with a huge grain of salt. Preferably, I would suggest, on the rim of a margarita.
