How I Approached Two Surprise Writing Projects
behind the scenes of my process
Writing a dissertation was enjoyable for me. I’m not saying that it was necessarily easy, but it felt doable because I developed a system that worked for me. I came up with some of my favorite productivity tools while I was writing my dissertation, like the Goldilocks Approach to Productivity and keeping a virtual dissertation journal.
After I finished my PhD in early 2020, I kept writing, including my book Tend to It: A Holistic Guide to Intentional Productivity as well as publishing here on Tending and as a guest writer.
This year I expanded my writing into two new places: a chapter in an edited collection about transformative coaching practices and a presentation at the feminist conference in my doctoral field of Rhetoric & Composition. (Also, while I was writing this newsletter I was invited to give my first keynote speech in 2026! That will be another new writing experience and I’m thrilled at the opportunity.)
I want to share a bit today about how I prepared for the conference presentation and the book chapter, because I saw some interesting similarities and departures from other writing projects I had done in graduate school.
Conference Preparation
I hadn’t initially planned on submitting to this conference, but I was invited to participate on a panel by someone I attended graduate school with. This meant I had to develop an abstract from scratch that aligned with the panel theme my colleague had created. In grad school, I tried to follow the best practice of proposing to conferences to share work I had already been working on and drafting—but this time I had to draft something new. My initial thought was to align my presentation with my ongoing Lisa Ben scholarship, but I ended up applying to focus more on themes from disability scholarship. In retrospect, I do wish I had taken a “two birds” approach and used the conference as a motivation to advance my Ben scholarship, but I’m still happy with the paper I wrote.
Going to a conference as an independent scholar feels both expansive and a little lonely.
The expansiveness I feel comes from attending the conference without an expectation that it will further my career in academia. When I was in graduate school, conferences felt so serious, like I was really earning that new line on my CV and connecting to a cohort of scholars who were striving after similar professional and academic goals. Now, I feel playful about my presentation, and gave myself permission to write it with more narrative elements and fewer quotations or citations. Plus, each of us on the panel are planning to only talk for around 10 minutes per person, which feels much chiller than the 20-minute papers I used to read at conferences.
But I also feel a little lonely attending the conference. I’m an alt-ac success story, running a business doing work that I like that actually helps people—but this is a conference for folks who are still in the field, both professors and grad students. I’m not up to date on all of the scholarly conversations, and I haven’t kept in touch with most folks from grad school. I’m open to connect with folks while I’m there and maybe even do some networking, but I’m also giving myself permission to get takeout and play my Nintendo Switch in my hotel room if I feel “peopled out.”
Productivity tools that helped me write my conference paper
Parkinson’s Law: I waited to write my paper until a couple of weeks before the conference, which helped me not to overdo it and spend way more time than was necessary to prepare for a 10-minute talk.
Aiming for Good Enough: I know the purpose of a conference is to share ideas and get feedback, so I gave myself permission to write something interesting and fun, eschewing going overboard with research.
Writing a Book Chapter
I’m very fortunate to have a dedicated audience who has been reading my writing online for years, and it’s not unusual for folks to reach out to me and solicit me to share my knowledge with their audiences. I was elated when one of the editors for Transformative Coaching for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Powerful Tools to Address Institutional Challenges invited me to write a chapter in the forthcoming edited collection.
I was honored that they wanted me to focus my chapter on coaching academic writers, especially when other authors in the collection had prestigious titles and worked at such cool places! I decided to title my chapter “Reimagining Academic Writing through the Lens of Sustainable Productivity Coaching.”
I approached writing this piece like I had approached previous writing projects in grad school. I started with a mind map to figure out what ideas I wanted to explore, then brainstormed an outline to identify a good order to discuss each idea. I ordered some books and skimmed them, selecting a few chapters to read and annotate, as a way to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and complement the personal experience I have with coaching academic writers. I then wrote a first draft in Scrivener so I could easily jump between sections as I wrote and track my word count as a motivator. Once I had a draft and exported it to Microsoft Word, I printed it, edited it by hand, and revised it a few times. I spent multiple months working on my chapter draft, and I got feedback twice from my editor, first on content and to do a final check on style and grammar.
Productivity tools that helped me write my chapter
Reverse Outlining: I always turn to this during longer writing projects. Writing a reverse outline helps me link together my ideas and organize my writing in a way that develops a stronger argument, not to mention cutting out repetitions (I’m a very repetitive first drafter!).
Pulse and Pause Method: Writing this chapter took me a long time and many writing sessions. Using timed productivity sessions helped me stay focused and track my progress as time spent, not just words written.
I would love to do more guest writing and speaking in addition to my writing here on Tending, so I’m inviting anyone who is looking for a guest post, podcast guest, or invited speaker to reach out to me at kate@katehenry.com.
Curiosities
The weather is hot and I’m really into salads! I’ve been making one with romaine lettuce, parsley, chickpeas, fresh cooked corn cut off the cob, avocado, Italian dressing, and flakes of salt. It’s refreshing and filling.
I broke back out my Mint Matcha Cookie recipe. The last time I made it I forgot the mint extract and it was still pretty good, but the mint does give it a special something.
I feel like I mention Cody Cook-Parrott in every Curiosities section, but they really are coming out with some cool stuff right now! If you’re curious about pilates (as I am), they recently created a project called Public Access Pilates where they’re sharing videos, including a free beginner’s intro lesson that felt accessible and encouraging to me.
I just finished Self Help by Gabby Bernstein and liked it. I started listening to Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything by Dr. James Doty, a neurosurgeon. I’m not super into the narration style, so I’m listening to it on 1.2 speed, but so far it’s intriguing. I’m waiting on a copy to come in on interlibrary loan and then I’ll shift to reading the physical book. If you have a good psychology meets spirituality meets self development book recommendation, I’m all ears!
Take care and talk soon,
Dr. Kate
Email: kate@katehenry.com
Website: katehenry.com
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