12th October 2022

WRITESPACE STUDIO 12TH OCTOBER 2022

Please introduce yourself by telling us where you live (country, city/state/region) and what kind of writing you do.

Lynne Murphy: I'm Lynne, a linguist in Brighton, England, who writes about language for both academic and non-academic audiences.

James Corazzo: James, Stockport, UK, write about design education research.

Anita Campbell: Anita, Cape Town, academic writing on student success and wellbeing, with a lean to engineering maths students.

Regula Zimmermann: Regula, Switzerland, I currently write about parental burnout

Catalina Ortiz: Catalina, I do academic writing, I live in the UK.

Vicky Holmes: Hello! Vicky in Essex, UK. I am a historian writing about Victorian lodgers

Aimee Brown: Aimee, Wangal country, Academic writing mostly but recently trying to do some simpler blog posts!

Stephanie: Hi I'm Stephanie, on unceded Gadigal country (Sydney, Australia). Writing my PhD on Italian art history.

Eva Bulgrin: Eva, Germany, academic writing

Hussain Shah Rezaie: Hussain, I joined from Indonesia. Currently I write personal essays

Bring our voices into the room: Tips for writing breaks.

 Helen Sword: How to take a short break from writing: cuppa tea, bowl of nuts, breathing exercises, looking out the window, dance to a favourite song, step outdoors before 3 pm, stretching, standing desk, outside to breathe fresh air, stretches and 5-minute Pilates videos, choreography exercises, speed tidy of room and desk, cup of cocoa, five minutes of reading a novel

Lynne Murphy: the Ting Tings are good for dancing breaks, especially “The Wrong Club"

James Corazzo:👌🔥👌

Stephanie: I love to fold laundry on my breaks too! So satisfying

Warm up: Choose an abstract concept that has to do with your writing (eg nominalizations; frustration; parental burnout) and imagine it as a person, place or thing.  Feel free to write a story or poem or dialog or to draw a picture -- or whatever!
8 minutes to write

Helen Sword: Shakespeare: The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven; and as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name

Regula Zimmermann: break down: made a drawing with elements linked to it (stress with big boss, chaos at home, lack of money…)

Vicky Holmes: time to write, finding time to write - a clock (on a dinner plate labelled: teaching)

Stephanie: I wrote a description of Master Slowness, a very tall elderly man dressed only in grey who accompanies my writing.

Catalina Ortiz: Abstraction = urban healing / Portray= early morning fog
fugitive to the eye

Lynne Murphy: curiosity as an out-of-control wagon, going down a root-filled, rut-filled trail. The end destination is a cliff fall, but hopefully my wheel tracks will make some difference to others

Aimee Brown: Focus - portrayed as binoculars. Stay still and get lost in your own little world within a lens.

Eva Bulgrin: I personified flow as a dancer.

Hussain Shah Rezaie: I found star ⭐ the best metaphor to describe my frustration. So, I drew one.

Anita Campbell: Thriving is a seed the colour of an orange sunrise, a rare plant

Lynne Murphy: curiosity, like everything, ends in DEATH. That's my cheery contribution! 🙂

Anita Campbell: Lynn - sounds like a lead in for the Halloween event!

James Corazzo: Was a drawing – The abstraction was frustration, and I portrayed it as being in a boat at sea, with one oar, going around in circles but also drifting further out because of the tide. Then I started thinking about crafting a new oar. A new oar that might take unusual and playful shapes. A PLAYFUL OAR

Pre-pomodoro: What do you plan to work on?

Lynne Murphy: I'm in a reading–note-taking stage, so I'll try to organise some of my thoughts. I might not be able to stay for the second half--someone might be showing up. Will play by ear

Aimee Brown: Writing up a paragraph of analysis

Regula Zimmermann: reviewers’ comments

Stephanie: I'm inserting sources into a section I have already written to back up my own analysis.

Hussain Shah Rezaie: I'll be working on a personal essay.

Vicky Holmes: Editing section on my chapter on the need for lodgings in Victorian England

Eva Bulgrin: Revisiting a journal article and making some notes on how to draw the findings and the literature together.

Anita Campbell: Structuring a journal article that's in the early stages.

James Corazzo: I plan to turn bullet points into a paragraph.

Catalina Ortiz: I need to write a conclusion of a collective piece, but I want to write an introduction to a new piece!

Post-pomodoro: What did you achieve?

Lynne Murphy: haven't quite finished writing up notes on one article…so my accomplishment is 5 bullet points

Regula Zimmermann: went through 1 page of comments

James Corazzo: Improved two paragraphs : )

Vicky Holmes: worked on an introductory paragraph to a section, which led to me figuring out a problem I had been having with my structure :)

Catalina Ortiz: rounded a paragraph of the conclusion

Hussain Shah Rezaie: I managed to write a good paragraph.

Stephanie: Added in some sources to my section. Also found out a library book I've had out for ages but haven't looked at is packed with useful information!!!

Anita Campbell: A diagram, a page of questions and thoughts

Lynne Murphy: I think I should go now, as my accountability partner will be coming to work with me at some point. At least I'm leaving accountability for accountability!

Eva Bulgrin: Attempted to re-think and re-align the aim/ research question/ material/ contribution of a journal article to the same analytical unit.

Stephanie: This page is where I get my "about 5 minute" Pilates videos from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxHxnupz6Ia0KcEpHoxbi9M0LT-H0DXoa

WINDOW session:  One thing that you discussed, noticed, or learned.

Vicky Holmes: giving the character agency, and strike a conversation

James Corazzo: (this)(that)

Catalina Ortiz: diluting the fog in the paragraphs

Hussain Shah Rezaie: the feeling after the flow

Regula Zimmermann: structure paragraph with bullet points, then remove the points

Stephanie: There's a tension in me between daily productivity and honouring the non-mechanistic animal body that I am

Anita Campbell: Productivity is a loaded term. It feels better when thought about with concepts like flow, fun, satisfaction

Eva Bulgrin: More questions than answers: can we create flow intentionally? How to visualize flow when undoing the linearity of time?

1 word poem

Fog: crispy corridor oar, star body, four beam dancer