Have you fallen into a writing rut? Lost your way in the wordsmith woods?

On December 12, I presented my final WriteSPACE Special Event of 2022, Writing Wizardry. Participants accompanied me on a tour of some tricky syntactical terrain, and I taught them a couple of magic spells for getting their wordcraft back on track.

This event was offered in two live one-hour Zoom sessions.

Part I: Zombie Nouns and Somnambulant Verbs

We explored how zombie nouns (aka nominalizations) and sleepwalking verbs (aka statives) can suck the lifeblood from your sentences and paralyze your prose. Writers can rescue their readers from the Zombie Apocalypse by replacing or supplementing abstract language with concrete nouns, active verbs, and straight-shooting syntax.

Part II: From Scary to Stylish

Attendees tried out my special wizard-themed Writer's Diet test and learned how they can fine-tune this playful diagnostic tool to suit their own disciplinary conventions and personal style. I offered them an exclusive taste of four different versions of my witchy Writer's Diet brew: the paper-and-pencil version in the book; the free online test; the premium Writer's Diet Plus; and the downloadable MS Word app.

Below is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ first-person account of the live event.

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Amy: I thoroughly enjoyed these two wordcraft workshops. Helen set the scene with the story of a magical realm—aka the brain. As the benevolent ruler of your realm, you act as its custodian and must organise emissaries (words) to travel beyond it and communicate your ideas. Your emissaries should be well-prepared and fit for the task. Zombie-like or sleep-walking ambassadors cannot perform at their best and may make your ideas sluggish and confusing.

Through storytelling, Helen clearly explained why nominalisations and somnambulant verbs cause so much damage in academic writing. I greatly appreciated the call to double-check my usage of them.

Helen explained her inspiration for her amazing TedEd video about Zombie nouns (watch it here!), which made me ponder the power of personification. I love the idea of animating abstract concepts by giving them voice, actions, or personality. For example, rather than talking about evolution abstractly as a cornerstone concept of biology, I tried to personify it into a character: Evolution is rather slovenly, fond of recycling used parts and procrastinating until the last minute. A terrible planner, Evolution will only patch together a new species once an ice age has already hit.

After watching the TedEd video on Zombie nouns and reading Chapter Two of Helen’s book The Writer’s Diet, why not try this creative exercise yourself: Identify a recurring nominalisation in your writing and turn it into a character. Which active verbs can you pair with this zombie noun to make it more concrete and active?

Helen reminded us that, at their best, abstractions can communicate complex ideas. It’s not necessary to cut them all out. Be selective! You can use zombie nouns as keywords, but make sure you surround them with concrete nouns and active verbs to cushion them in clarity.

Another key insight from these workshops was Helen’s commentary on be-verbs. Iterations of the verb to be are stative verbs (and therefore static verbs!); they express a state but don’t take the reader anywhere new, nor do they propel your sentences forward. You can use The Writer’s Diet online test to highlight be-verbs in your writing. If you use be-verbs often, seek active or interesting verbs instead (e.g. She was looking at becomes She scrutinised). In our Q&A discussions, we realised that active verbs are nearly always a good idea, no matter the topic or discipline.

Helen’s final piece of advice for using the online tool was to exercise your own judgement. If the test warns you away from some beloved or necessary terms, you don’t need to jettison them all. Simply be aware of how you frame these words—The Writer’s Diet is an algorithm and doesn’t have a brain, but you do!

A big thank you to Helen for her wordcraft wizardry and tips and tricks. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again at the next WriteSPACE Special Event!

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A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register here to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

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WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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On Thursday 1 December, my colleagues from the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation (CAST)  and I launched The Artist*Academic website, a colorful new website that showcases some of the many ways in which arts-inspired ways of making, knowing, and being can infuse academic research, teaching, and leadership.

Whether you identify as an artist, an academic, or both, you'll find resources here to help you move between and beyond.  You'll also learn why I opted to join these two powerful words with a multidirectional wildcard asterisk rather than a linear hyphen.

This free WriteSPACE Special Event consisted of two live one-hour Zoom sessions scheduled twelve hours apart.

I opened both sessions by introducing Amy Lewis – already known to many of you as our wonderful WriteSPACE Events Manager – with whom I’ve worked closely over the past nine months to design and populate the Artist*Academic website. We took everyone on a short tour of the site's five main sections:

• WHAT is an Artist*Academic?

• WHY do we need Artist*Academics?

• WHO can be an Artist*Academic?

• HOW do I become an Artist*Academic?

• WHERE can I learn more?

Each session then featured a different special guest:

• In Session 1, I was joined by Professor Selina Tusitala Marsh – a former New Zealand Poet Laureate, prizewinning graphic memoirist, and artist*academic extraordinaire – whose playful illustrations enliven not only the Artist*Academic website but also my forthcoming book, Writing with Pleasure.
   

• In Session 2, I engaged in a lively conversation with Professor Peter O’Connor, the visionary Director of CAST. We discussed the artist*academic identity and the importance of bringing more arts-inspired research, teaching, and leadership into higher education.

Here is Amy ‘s first-person account of the live event:

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A few quotes from the sessions to inspire you: 

• “My creative thinking has become led by line – the drawn line, the written line, the spoken line, the bloodline…”

• “As an artist*academic, you’ll always be liminal, on the edge, and not quite fit the standard model of the university. But maybe you should embrace that. Be a ‘moonlighter’, and find people who are happy to take risks and stand outside with you.”

• “Going through our arts-based research has been a collaborative and conversational process, and totally outside of our comfort zones!”

How insightful it was to hear Helen expose the roots of this project. She explained how to recognise an Artist*Academic (in others and in yourself). But it may seem daunting to say ‘yes I fit that definition!’ Imposter syndrome is quite common in the battleground of academia. Even some of our collaborators on this project struggled to see themselves as academics, artists, or artist*academics, despite working in a research centre with the word ‘Arts’ in its name. In both sessions, we talked about ways to unpack this triple imposter syndrome and explored the idea of ‘letting go’ of self-doubt to embrace a new stage of becoming. 

‘Letting go’ has become something of a visual theme throughout the website. Bespoke and spontaneous drawings, poems, reflections, and stories abound, dissolving our fears that only perfectly polished work can be published. These fresh and fun artistic moments throughout the website were considered, deliberate, and collaborative. Helen’s fabulous guest speaker Selina Tusitala Marsh explained her hand-drawn, ‘koru-esque’ icons on the ‘How’ page of the website: The square spiral shape honours a motif in women’s traditional weaving from the island of Ambai in the Vanuatu archipelago. Their knowledge is woven into and safeguarded through art. The spiral shape softens in the Leadership and Service icon to reflect the fluidity and responsiveness of this area, it then becomes labyrinthine and nuanced in the Arts and Humanities icon, before transforming into freed birds in the Teaching icon.  

Another standout discussion point of the first session was the asterisk! We knew from the beginning of this project that a hyphen was not going to work. A hyphen was like a minus sign, subordinating ‘artist’ to ‘academic’. But an asterisk is something else entirely—a multi-spoked wild card that could connect the artist and the academic on equal terms. Selina explained that this symbol is not a star but a jellyfish, a Samoan ‘alu ‘alu, or perhaps an octopus with eight tentacles. This motif becomes a portal into Pasifika mythology and epistemology, but it also resonates globally due to the empty space at the centre. What I love most about this symbol is the centre void, which embodies the power of relational spaces. Arts open up space for us as academics to challenge the conventions of the academy and give us space to speak freely. 

In the second session, our wonderful special guest Peter O’Connor reflected on the way storytelling has played such a pivotal role in his life and academic career. Arts-based inquiry can often be like process writing: it reveals deeper ideas and brings things together without you even releasing it. Then you step back and ponder your ‘aha!’ moment. 

A key takeaway for me was the strength of finding an artist*academic community. Peter explained that if academia is like the ocean, most of the sea creatures swimming in universities are sharks, who have a particular way of working and thinking. But to be an artist*academic means being a dolphin, playful and intelligent. Dolphins draw strength by swimming in pods and they communicate in ways that others cannot understand, so it’s good to find a sense of community in other like-minded scholars. 

If you think you might also be a dolphin in an academic sea of sharks, head to the artist*academic website (https://artist-academic.com/). Dive into the wild and wonderful resources that Helen and the team at CAST have lovingly laboured to create and join the conversation!

A heartfelt thank you to Helen, Peter, Selina, and the team at CAST for this great discussion. It has been a true privilege working with you all on this inspiring, one-of-a-kind project!

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A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not yet a member? Register here to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

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Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).

WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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