Ventilation file

I’m an avid reader of books about academic work and writing. That is why I will from time to time publish blog posts recommending books in this genre that I have found particularly interesting. For me, this is a reason as good as any to return to classics such as Robert Boice’s Professors as Writers (1990) and Howard S. Becker’s Writing for Social Scientists (1986). However, I want to start by recommending a much more recent book: Joli Jensen’s Write No Matter What (2017). 

Just like most people writing in this genre, Jensen recommends turning academic writing into a daily habit. It’s a myth, she says, that academics need empty desks and vast amounts of time to make progress on their writing projects. Whether it concerns writing applications, articles or books, the key is having short, daily and stress-free writing sessions. But how do you actually achieve this? 

Jensen highlights three techniques. The first is that each project should have a dedicated project box. This is where plans, goals, drafts and finished text are collected. This box may be digital, but hers is physical. The second is to promise yourself to write fifteen minutes each day related to the project. Even a very busy scholar can free up this amount of time. The third is that each project box should include a “ventilation file.” This document is used on days when you neither want to nor are able to get yourself to write on the project. Instead, you spend your fifteen minutes on writing down why you can’t or don’t want to write today. After ventilating for fifteen minutes, you are free. The writing requirement is completed. 

A ventilation file serves different functions. First, it may play down your daily contact with the project. Because regardless of how miserable you feel – and perhaps in particular on these occasions – it’s perfectly doable to spend fifteen minutes of your day complaining in writing about why you don’t want to write. Second, such a document enables introspection and analysis. This is especially true for projects extending over long periods of time and where writing difficulties tend to reoccur every now and then. By reading through your ventilation file, you may discover patterns in terms of which feelings, thoughts and ideas make you reluctant to write. Does the project fail to live up to your expectations of yourself, language-wise and intellectually? Are you afraid of losing the respect of your colleagues? Does it feel like your project doesn’t contain a single new idea, but simply confirms what everyone already knows? 

My own experience is that almost all writing and research projects are surrounded by fears. This also applies to short texts such as blog posts and book reviews. What I have today – which I didn’t have a few years ago – are techniques for managing this feeling of unease. I’m unable to get rid of that uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, but I can nevertheless choose to write and carry out research. But when it comes to large projects – such as writing a second book – I’m less certain. To be honest, I don’t know whether, and in such a case how, I will deal with the negative feelings bound to manifest themselves sooner or later. 

What I’m going to try this year, however, is to use a ventilation file.

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