supporting academic writers

For the last seven or eight years I've become very intimate with myself as an academic writer and my academic writing. The details, frequently gory, have filled out the many webpages of this blog. Its been a very insular experience with lots and lots of navel gazing. Many times I've relied on a sage advice of different gurus of academic writing support and development to help me make sense of the multiple processual and identity aspects deeply implicated in the textual production process of the academy. But I've only ever used that advice in the service of my own development and at times sanity.

For the past six months or so, maybe slightly longer, I've been working on an edited collection that involves almost 20 authors. I sort of stumbled onto the task and didnt really think much of it until the 'real' writing started. I had this fantasy idea about the ideal writing project I would have loved to be part of - all warmly wrapped up in collaborative, collective and communal writing spaces. A place, whether virtual or physical, where there would always be someone to talk to about your writing. In my own academic writing journeys the thing I valued the most, and the thing I felt would help me the most was to have plenty of opportunities to talk about and share my writing. So naturally I imagined other writers would need and want the same kinds of things. I also imagined that I could support other writers through the writing journey for this project in kind, helpful ways. I imagined many things.

I've been surprised at how challenging its been to take on the multifaceted, multi-focused, overlapping and conflicting role(s) of editor, writing developer, guide and supporter. I was especially challenged when writers didnt respond to issues in the way I would respond to the same issue. For example, this communal, collective, collaborative writing space as a panacea for all ones writing woes, appears to simply be a panacea for all MY writing woes. And what people say they understand and how they then act on that understanding sometimes manifest as complete contradictions. Again that adage about not using only your own experiences of teaching to inform and direct your own teaching practice rings very true. I have a lot to learn and a long road to travel to understanding what are the ideal ways of supporting other academic writers in modes that aren't harmful or destructive. I also realise that my own academic writer identity is a fundamental component of what I bring along to my academic writing developer role(s). Sometimes I have to keep it in check and allow more space for other identities, norms and styles to operate - but isn't that also part of that communal, collective and collaborative 'nirvana' I so revere?