Is Summer the Best or Worst Time to Write?

That’s a trick question, obviously. It depends!

For many writers—especially academics—summer is the time to set and, with a little luck, achieve big writing goals. With no teaching responsibilities, fewer committee meetings, maybe time to go on a research fellowship, many of the writers I’ve interviewed in the past four years dream of summers and wait all year for a few months to focus on writing.

But the opposite can also be true. Not all educators are free of teaching duties in the summer. Not all writers are educators whose schedule shifts in the summer. For caregivers, especially of young children, summers can mean less free time and more chaos. Prepping for (and recovering from) family vacations distracts. The pool calls, hikes beckon, long evenings lead to slow mornings.

I’m trying to get some serious writing done this summer, but my kid’s daycare also has shortened hours and bookends the summer with two-week breaks. I love summer, but the struggle to write through it is real for me. How about you?

Programming Note

The Drafting the Past podcast will be on vacation in July to give me a little rest and let me make headway (maybe a finished draft?) on the dissertation I’ve been writing for far too long. Plus, Megan Kate Nelson and I are busy working on the next phase of DTP! A new episode comes out Tuesday (with Dolly Jørgensen—if you don’t already love Dolly, you will after this episode!), and then we’ll be off until August. I already have a bunch of incredible interviews recorded for the return! You’re going to love them.

I’ll send weekly newsletters in July with some fun bonus content, so stay tuned! In the meantime, use the break to catch up on episodes you might have missed, like…

Recent Episodes

…these excellent recent conversations. Have you heard them all?

• Episode 103: Charlotte Brooks Is Always Thinking About Research. I loved this inspiring chat with the author of The Moys of New York and Shanghai, a book I am on a mission to get everyone to read.

• Episode 104: Anna O. Law Reads Her Way Into History. I’ve been following Anna’s journey from political scientist to interdisciplinary scholar on social media for a long time, so it was fun to hear how she pivoted to history—and the massive amount of reading it took.

• Episode 105: Charles O’Malley and Scott Stern Collaborate On a Book and A Life. Could you write a book with your spouse? It was a blast to talk with Charlie and Scott about bringing their different backgrounds together to write a biography of the life and times of Shakespeare’s Margaret.