“As I transitioned from a postdoc to a faculty member, the biggest challenge in writing was finding the time to do it as my schedule became very fragmented. Early on, I participated in a 12-week Faculty Success Program with National Center For Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD), and they challenged us to write 30 minutes every day. This practice is not only a way to make consistent progress with our writing, but it is also a way to make sure we are engaging with our science daily. When we put our writing aside for weeks, we forget all the connections. But if we are writing every day, even for only 30 minutes, we keep those ideas in our mind for the rest of the day as we are doing everything else a scientist does. We see connections, get new ideas, and the practice allows us to stay in conversation with our writing.
We have to show up for our writing, the same way we show up for our teaching. It is critical for our success, and we have to hold ourselves accountable. Even if we are tired, even if we are not inspired, even if we are sad – we have to show up. Some days we’re going to feel more inspired and we will do more, other days we may not feel that inspired, but we still will have accomplished something.”
“I used to think I was crazy because I like to listen to really passionate soundtracks and heavy metal when I write. But it was very affirming to read On Writing by Steven King, who reminds us that writing is often painful and, when you get stuck, listening to music can inspire you. When I am in the early stages of writing and I just want to creatively flow – when it doesn’t matter how it connects together and I just want to get it out – I listen to very passionate stuff like Disturbed and the soundtrack to Inception. I think music like this allows you to get out of your head, to get unstuck, and to think differently. Other times I need background, ethereal music like the soundtrack to the Thin Red Line. And, of course, sometimes I write in silence when the writing requires me to get into a calm place with deep thoughts and to structure those thoughts in an organized manner.
I often tell people that good writing is like a good piece of music where there is a theme that you will hear at the beginning, the middle, and the end. I tell everyone in my lab to listen to Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade and to listen for the theme that threads through the entire piece of music, over and over. Everything has to be connected! For good writing, everything has to have a purpose.”
“The writing I primarily do right now is in the service of teaching, particularly writing assessment questions at high levels of cognitive thinking. I’m always looking for inspiration so I’ll often start by reading something in the research literature. I teach Molecular Biology (Bio201L) and there are a lot of fun molecular mechanisms to get students to think about and there is a lot of logic that goes into thinking about those mechanisms. The questions I write tend to be based on that logic and being able to put multiple things together to answer a question.
For example, I’ll read about a human disease that is understood at the molecular level – a disease that students haven’t seen before – and make a question out of that. I’ll give students the background information about the molecular mechanism and then ask: If this component of this mechanism were to be deleted, then what would be the outcome? That’s how people do experiments in genetics, and our students get really good at thinking this way!”
“As a non-native English speaker, when I went to graduate school I intentionally made it my goal to write scientific manuscripts in English. At first, I was translating what I was reading in English into Japanese, then writing in Japanese, then translating that into English. Eventually, I found out it was actually a lot easier to write in English because the language structures are completely different. At some point, I made a conscious choice not to use Japanese at all when I am reading, thinking, or writing about science. I still love reading all other things in Japanese, like a good novel, but I found it very helpful to limit science to one language.
My advice to other non-native English speakers is to start with small things like listening to science podcasts in English and only reading popular science books written in English. These are easier to understand so, when you are listening or reading, you can practice not translating them.”
As I transitioned from a postdoc to a faculty member, the biggest challenge in writing was finding the time to do it as my schedule became very fragmented. Early on, I participated in a 12-week Faculty Success Program with National Center For Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD), and they challenged us to write 30 minutes every day. This practice is not only a way to make consistent progress with our writing, but it is also a way to make sure we are engaging with our science daily. When we put our writing aside for weeks, we forget all the connections. But if we are writing every day, even for only 30 minutes, we keep those ideas in our mind for the rest of the day as we are doing everything else a scientist does. We see connections, get new ideas, and the practice allows us to stay in conversation with our writing.
“I used to think I was crazy because I like to listen to really passionate soundtracks and heavy metal when I write. But it was very affirming to read 
“The writing I primarily do right now is in the service of teaching, particularly writing assessment questions at high levels of cognitive thinking. I’m always looking for inspiration so I’ll often start by reading something in the research literature. I teach Molecular Biology (Bio201L) and there are a lot of fun molecular mechanisms to get students to think about and there is a lot of logic that goes into thinking about those mechanisms. The questions I write tend to be based on that logic and being able to put multiple things together to answer a question.
“As a non-native English speaker, when I went to graduate school I intentionally made it my goal to write scientific manuscripts in English. At first, I was translating what I was reading in English into Japanese, then writing in Japanese, then translating that into English. Eventually, I found out it was actually a lot easier to write in English because the language structures are completely different. At some point, I made a conscious choice not to use Japanese at all when I am reading, thinking, or writing about science. I still love reading all other things in Japanese, like a good novel, but I found it very helpful to limit science to one language.