There’s a common refrain that I hear when talking to students, even doctoral
candidates, that I wish we could somehow communicate better about. It starts
with mentioning something about getting a new draft finished or what have you,
and then somebody says something like:
“Oh, sure, this writing is easier for you because you’re good at it.”
Sure, for some people this may be right. We all know stories of people who
publish six or eight books a year, or can sit down at their laptop and crank out
an article in a half an afternoon. But not for me. (Me, I’ve only once written
an article in a single day, and it was only because it fell sideways out of my
book project, so I’d already finished all the research for it.) And, I suspect,
not for many of us.