Or how to apply lessons from book writers to your paper writing

I did not gain all lessons from writing while being a scientist or journalist. I also read a lot about writing. Including magazines about writing and publishing books. Which is still a dream I haven’t given up on yet.

Those magazines are chock full of writing advice. And with a little imagination a lot of it also counts for academic writing. Like this one: 7 lessons you need to learn if you want to debut. You can almost apply them one-to-one to paper publishing or thesis writing.

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The first one is probably the most important one of the lot: Plan in your writing time. It is easy to keep going in the lab, to do just one more experiment, optimize just a little more. But in the end, you need to write up an publish your work or you might just as well not have done it.

So how do you approach this. How do you get your first draft. There is no one way to do it. For some setting a few hours aside each week so you can write up your results and material and methods might work. This is then followed up by a few days putting it all together and writing the remaining discussion, introduction and possible abstract. For others blocking out a week or two after you got all the result is the way to go. Do what works best for you but don’t completely forget to do it.

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This is followed up directly by the second lesson: Your first draft is not your best version. Especially early on in your career it can be discouraging that after showing your paper to your supervisor you get it back covered in red ink with countless suggestions for adjustments. This is normal. And while handing over a readable version of your paper to your supervisors is good practice, at this stage your paper doesn’t have to be print ready. So, while writing your first draft, keep your perfectionist at bay. For now, having something on paper to discuss is what’s counts.

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This brings us to lesson number three: Don’t take the feedback personally. I know this can be a hard one. Especially when it comes to parts of your writing you feel unsecure about. But honest feedback and discussion about your paper will make it better. It helps identifying parts that are unclear to others. It solidifies ideas. And in the end will make it a better paper.

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This next one might be a less obvious, but it still applies: “Kill your darlings’ is not just a phrase. When we write, and the same counts for results, we all have our favourite bits. However, they don’t necessarily fit with the story you are trying to tell. Showing the results of an extra experiment doesn’t automatically strengthen your paper. While it is good practice to cover your bases and test your hypothesis from different angles, too many will bore your reader. Keep to what is required and do not go overboard.

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The fifth bit of advice might seem a bit odd, but there is something to it: Learn to think as a salesperson. The first part of this is networking. If that sounds too daunting, think it as talking to other scientist about your work. They might give you new insights over your results. Helping to sharpen your discussion.

When that is all done the next part is of finding a journal to publish in. It can help to use a pragmatic approach here. Make a top 5 list of journals your work might fit. Rank them according to prestige/citation index. Then give them a score of how likely it is you will be accepted. Also list what you might need to do to increase the chances of acceptance. Start with the highest ranked journal you might get accepted with possible reasonable extra work. The main message here is don’t aim too high as it might result in that it takes longer to get your work accepted, but don’t aim to low either.

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As you aim high for where you hope to get your work published, you risk the chance of being rejected. Remember, this is part of the game: don’t give up. It doesn’t even have to be the quality of your work that is the cause of the rejection. Your work might not be a good fit for the journal you choose. Therefore, choose wisely, and check what kind of papers the journal publishes before you submit.

But even if the rejection is because your research is currently not good enough for acceptance by the journal, read through the reviewers and editor’s comments. They tell you where you can improve. Where your writing lacks clarity. Or what kind of extra experiments might help. Those comments will help you decide your next steps. Submit as it is to your next journal on the list, rework some before you do that, or maybe even do those extra experiments and try the same journal again.

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This all combines to one last tip: Be patient. The writing, rewriting, and endless discussions with your co-authors will pay off. Maybe not as quickly as you first planned, but eventually they will. Then, when you get that acceptance email, it is time to celebrate.

Prompt

Today’s writing prompt will help you to get into the habit of writing your first version freely, without the need to edit yourself every other sentence.

Set your timer at 10 minutes and write down your latest results or findings. Start with writing down what you observed. Follow this with your interpretation and discussion points. Afterwards, before you post it below or use it in your manuscript, you can edit your typo’s, spelling and grammar mistakes.

If you have any questions ask them in the commends

Happy writing