RESEARCH LEAVE WRITING ACCOUNTABILITY THREAD: Thanks to the Reynolds Leave program at @WakeForest, I am excused from teaching/service this semester in order to make some serious progress on my book on American gun culture. 1/n

https://college.wfu.edu/research-scholarship-creativity/research-leaves/

#accountabilitythread

To focus my energy, I will be on social media less. But I will be holding myself publicly accountable by posting a record of my writing as close to daily as possible. I am perfectly able to disappoint myself, but not disappointing others is very motivating. (Thanks, Dad!) 2/n

Tuesday, Jan 12: Wrapping up outstanding writing projects.

-500 words written and 1,000 words edited for an essay on Gun Culture 2.0 and The Great Gun Buying Spree of 2020
-2 blog posts written

3/n

#accountabilitythread #writing

Wednesday, Jan 13: Addressing immediate needs.

-300 words added to Gun Buying Spree essay, plus fine tuning other 1,000 words.
-600 words of response to inquiry about guns and insurrection, some appearing on blog.

4/n

#accountabilitythread #writing

Thursday, Jan 14: More immediate needs trump writing.

-Draft decision letter for journal and review R&R
-Convo with reporter about capitol insurrection
-Blogs about the year ahead

Actual words written for publication: 0

5/n

#writingaccountability #writing #writerprobs

Friday, Jan. 15 - Wrapping up and getting going:

-Final additions and edits to 1,500 word essay, emailed to editor
-Turned attention to paper on gender in gun advertising

Saturday, Jan. 16 - service writing:

-1,500 word evaluation of book proposal

#writingaccountability #proflife

Sunday, Jan 17 - DAY OFF

Monday, Jan 17:

-1,135 words of introduction to chapter on gender in gun advertising
- +/- 700 words written/edited for lit review of chapter

#writingaccountability #writer #gender #guns #Advertising

Tuesday, Jan 19:

-650 words of literature review for chapter on gender in gun advertising
-Edited 10 pages of data/methods and results for same

#writingaccountability #editingiswriting

Wednesday, Jan 20 - Inauguration Day

-Despite watching a lot of TV and too much social media today, I still managed to write 700 words for the results section of the book chapter I am working on.

Going to make up for today's distractions tomorrow.

#writingaccountability

Thursday, Jan 21 - Ass in chair, 9 hours

-1K words new introduction and conclusion to book chapter on gender in gun advertising
-Editing of 1K words of results
-Creation of 4 figures

Ignored email and social media to accomplish this. Lesson learned?

#writingaccountability

Friday, January 22 - DONE

-Added 300 new words to book chapter on gender in gun advertising
-Revised and final editing of 6,000 other words
-Cross checked and formatted 51 references
-Finalized 4 figures
-Sent to book editor
-Uploaded to @socarxiv

#writingaccountability

Mon., Jan. 25 - Updating book chapter on "Understanding and Misunderstanding America's Gun Culture."

-Reviewed and reorganized existing 4,000 words
-600 new words added
-1,200 words borrowed from other writing integrated

It's crap rn

#writingaccountability #shittyfirstdraft

Tues., Jan. 26 - Book chapter revisions going better today:

-Grown from 4,800 words to 6,500 less shitty words
-Several hundred words of material on January 6th and Gun Buying Spree of 2020 added
-Examples and sources updated

#writingaccountability #Writer

Wed., Jan. 27 - Varied work day

-Finalized last 2sections of book ch., adding 200 new words.
-Drafted 4 page letter evaluating candidate for promotion
-Read and selected reviewers for 2 papers for journal special issue I am co-editing

#writingaccountability #editingiswriting

Thurs., Jan. 28 -

-Added 700 words, cross-checked citations/references, proofread, and submitted book chapter
-Revised, proofread, and submitted promotion evaluation letter
-Started reading book for review due tomorrow

#writingaccountability #ProfLife

Fri., Jan. 29 -

-Finished @MarkRJoslyn1 "The Gun Gap" & wrote 200 word review for @Choice_Reviews, drafted another 500 for forthcoming full review on http://www.guncurious.com 
-Began drafting 2 letters of rec for undergrad students
-Recorded podcast on guns

#writingaccountability

Sat., Jan 30 -

-Reviewed editing of and added 300 words to an essay on Gun Culture 2.0 and the Great Gun Buying Spree of 2020 due out next week
-Read and corrected page proofs for my self-published mini-book on CCW laws (out in Feb '21)

#writingaccountability #editingiswriting

Mon., Feb 1 - Day #1 of legit working on my book ms.

-Proofread and updated 4K word Ch. 1/Intro
-Outlined, brainstormed, and wrote 500 words for Ch. 2

Overcame paralysis at task ahead of me to start the day and ended up making good progress.

#winning #writingaccountability

Tue., Feb 2 - Day #2 of book work

-Compiled from previous writing/notes and added to a sh^*&y first draft (h/t @ANNELAMOTT) of Ch. 2

Sent to writing accountability partner and will set aside for a couple of days before assessing damage.

#writingaccountability #writer

Wed., Feb 3 - Day #3 of book work

-Brainstormed and outlined Ch. 3
-Wrote a few hundred words
-Did some reading of evolutionary anthropology and background research re-watching "Top Shot" on @HISTORY

#writingaccountability #gunbook #guncurious

Thurs, Feb 4 - Day #4 book work

-Cat woke me at 4:30a, couldn't fall back to sleep bc thinking abt book so got up and started writing.
-Drafted 2K word section 1 of Ch. 3
-Meeting writing accountability partner tonight to discuss Ch. 2 sh$%*y first draft

#writingaccountability

Fri, Feb 5 - Book Day #5

-500 words for Sec 2 of Ch 3
-Today was a grind. Mind going in too many directions, from reality TV to paleo-anthropology
-TBH there were some technical things I needed to write about that I just quit on
-Good week overall tho

#writingaccountability

Mon, Feb 8 - Book Day #6

-Got in the weeds writing about firearm types, actions, calibers/gauges, and uses
-Wrote +/- 2,000 words. Not sure how many of them will ultimately make the cut.
-Also did background research on Survivor S2: Australian Outback

#writingaccountability

Tue, Feb 9 - Book Day #7

-Today I wrote another 1K words, mostly gibberish & now boring myself
-Perhaps my writing is only boring in comp to Survivor: The Australian Outback which I need to finish before my 7 day trial of CBS streaming service expires

#writingaccountability

Wed, Feb 10 - Book Day #8

-Churned out another 1K works and edited sections 2 & 3 of Ch 3 into roughly coherent text.
-I feel like the Henry Ford of cliches, though. Churning them out one after another.

#writingaccountability #rollercoaster #writerslife

Thu, Feb 11 - Book Day #9

-Ch 3 swelled to 8K+ words, so I took sec 4 & made it a stand-alone to which I added 1,300 words. Not great or even good words, just words.
-Why does Trump have all the best words? Why can't I have some?
-Meeting IRL #writingaccountability partner today

Fri, Feb 12 - Book Day #10

-New chapter (3B? 4?) has swelled to nearly 3K words now.
-Connecting Survivor: Australian Outback to Survivor: Pleistocene via Top Shot and projectile weapons (atlatl)
-Heading up to finish the day with some reading

#writingaccountability #deepdive

Mon Feb 15 - Day #11

-Read Didion and Steinbeck over the weekend for writing inspiration. It backfired.
-0 words today, tho I read and took notes and did interview prep.

#writingaccountability #writerprobs

Tue, Feb 16 - Book Day #12

-Overcame Didion induced paralysis and wrote several hundred words on the 500,000 year history of human beings and advancing projectile weapons.
-Hoping to finish chapter 3B this week.

#writingaccountability

Wed, Feb 17 - Book Day #13

-Good writing day disrupted by tennis biz & prep for coming ice storm
-More progress on sec 4 of ch 3b. Hoping to finish full draft this week & turn my attention to the last ch of pt 1 next week.

#writingaccountability #Writer #guncurious #gunculture

Thurs, Feb 18 - Book Day #14

-Finished complete draft of overflow Ch 3B (really Ch 4). Just shy of 6K words.
-Will read over and fine tune tomorrow and get ready to start Ch 4 (really Ch 5) next week.

#writingaccountability #book #author #guncurious

Fri, Feb 19 - Book Day #15

-Edited Ch 4 & it is ready to go to beta readers.
-Will have 1-2 beta readers per chapter + 3 confidants who will read the first 5 chapters.
-Have a lot of Ch 5 done already so hopefully will come together next week.

#writingaccountability #guncurious

Mon, Feb 22 - Book Day #16

-Excited to find a 6,500 word draft of Ch. 5, "Living with AR-15s"
-I lined-edited it then added 800 words for 7,300 total.
-Only took 10 hours. More tomorrow.

#writingaccountability #guncurious #WritingLife

Tue, Feb 23 - Book Day #17

-6 hrs to get 600 words & vomit draft of Ch. 5 is done, just under 8K words total
-Sent to my writing accountability partner for Thurs
-Going to work on other projects tmrow then revisit 1st 5 chs to prep them for beta readers

#writingaccountability

Wed, Feb 24 - Book Day #18

-Day off from book to revise chapter on "Understanding & Misunderstanding America's Gun Culture." Tightened it up & added 700 words.
-New cats are starting to get the hang of being writing accountability partners.

#writingaccountability #CatsOfTwitter

Thur, Feb 25 - Book Day #18

-No words written
-Spent the day going through 10 years worth of research notes, culling, organizing, and filing
-Meeting w/writing accountability partner to strategize next steps, whine and wine

#writingaccountability #writersoftwitter

Fri, Feb 26 - Book Day #19

-Began polishing (i.e., ensuring coherence of) 5 complete book chapters to send to beta readers next week.
-Sent feelers out to 5 potential beta readers and received uniformly positive responses.

#writingaccountability #betareaders #guncurious

Mon, Mar 1 - 1st Day of 2nd Month

-Wrote/submitted proposal for Wake Forest "book development grant." Will pay developmental editor to work w/me
-Signed up for @cnfonline writing course on "foundations of creative nonfiction"

#writingaccountability #cnf

https://www.creativenonfiction.org/products/foundations-creative-nonfiction-0

Tue, Mar 2 - Book Day #21

-Finalized book chapters 1 and 2 for beta readers
-Questions include: Did the chapter hold your interest? What made you want to keep reading? Were there places where you were bored, confused, frustrated, or annoyed?

#writingaccountability #firstdrafts

Beta reader questions continued: Was there too much information, or not enough? How was the balance between description and exposition? Anything missing? Did the chapter have a clear point and audience? Anything else I should think about?

#writingaccountability #betareaders

Wed, Mar 3 - Book Day #22

-Finalized Chapter 3 & 4 for beta readers

#writingaccountability #guncurious #book #writing #Writer

Thu, Mar 4 - Book Day #23

-Finalized Ch 5 for beta readers
-Received Book Dev Grant from @WakeForest College Dean's office to work with @BrendanOMeara on my ms
-Celebrated with accountability partner and a nice Chilean espumante from @Vin205WineBar

#writingaccountability

Fri, Mar 5 - Book Day #24

-Rewrote introductions to 3 of 5 chapters
-Sent 5 completed chapters to 7 beat readers
-Will begin working in Part 2, Chapter 6 on Monday

#writingaccountability #guncurious #writing #betareaders

Mon, Mar 8 - Book Day #25

-Began working on Ch. 6, "Swept Up in the Concealed Carry Revolution," 1st ch of Pt II
-I have so much on this topic my "verbiage dump" file for Ch 6 is 2x as long as Ch 6
-Cutting to 7K words, improving dialogue & description

#writingaccountability

Tue, Mar 9 - Book Day #26

-Progress restructuring and reorienting book Ch. 6, improved description & dialogue

#writingaccountability #guncurious #books #writing #writers

Wed, Mar 10 - Book Day #27

-Edited book Ch. 6
-Trying to convince myself that less is more. I don't need to hammer with facts. Let the description carry the argument

#writingaccountability #guncurious #balancingact

Thurs, Mar 11 - Book Day #28

-Put finishing touches on book Ch. 6
-Got main text down below 6K words, in line with other chapters.

#writingaccountability #guncurious #books #editingiswriting

Fri, Mar 12 - Book Day #29

-Day off from book writing
-Will begin Ch. 7 on Monday

#writingaccountability

Mon, Mar 15 - Book Day #30

-Began work on Ch. 7, going thru folder of drafts, notes, resources.
-Found extensive drafts & outlines, w/ feedback from my accountability partner, dating back to 2013!
-Trying to think that material into this version

#writingaccountability

Tue, Mar 16 - Book Day #31

-Overwhelmed by all of the material I have for this chapter and struggled to see the organization and flow
-Weeded out and moved a bunch of the material and starting to see my way through the thicket

#writingaccountability #guncurious #writing #writer

Wed, Mar 17 - Book Day #32

-Finally finding my bearings in Ch. 7
-Pascal's Wager and firearms
-Risk, risk assessment, risk mitigation

#writingaccountability #guns #risk #riskmanagement

Thur, Mar 18 - Book Day #33

-Ch 7 been a struggle all week. Wrote 1K words, deleted 750.
-Structure and flow vexing me so back to the drawing board.
-Hoping this bourbon-inspired evening going back to the story board pays off tomorrow.

#writingaccountability #storyboard #books

Fri, Mar 19, Book Day #34

-Last night's planning paid off with 1,000 decent words today and a path forward for the rest of Ch. 7.
-Cut my work day short to hang with grandbaby Zoey

#writingaccountability #guncurious #book #grandparenting

Mon, Mar 22, Book Day #35

-Took day off to catch up on projects I couldn't get done while grandbaby sitting these past 5 days
-Made some solid progress on securing a tonneau cover, plywood and PVC pipe from Home Depot, sleeping bags, and a camp chair

#writingaccountability

Tue, Mar 23, Book Day #36

-Apparently "grandbaby brain" is a thing because after 5 days of sitting I have lost the ability to write.
-Today was a huge and unsatisfying grind.
-Hopefully tomorrow goes better

#writingaccountability #writerprobs

Wed, Mar 24, Book Day #37

-I know I am making progress on Ch. 7 because I am adding a few hundred or more words a day, but it feels like I am spinning my wheels because the words are so bad.
-Trying to have faith in the power of sh*tty first drafts.

#writingaccountability

Thur, Mar 25, Book Day #38

-Received an invite to do something big for major media outlet (details withheld pending finalization)
-Brainstormed for potential project so set aside book writing for the day (though there are overlaps)
-Zoomed w/ #WritingAccountability Partner Actual

Fri, Mar 26, Book Day #39

-Yesterday's invite made me feel less stupid which propelled me to a productive day of book writing
-Added nearly 2K words to Ch 7, which is now hovering around 6K total with one more major section to go.
-Progress

#writingaccountability #notstupidnow

Mon, Mar 29, Book Day #40

-Still grinding away at Ch 7. I keep saying "grinding" but it's just a grind
-Wrote 2K words yesterday but there's an inverse relationship betw quantity & quality
-Time to step back from the parts to look at the whole & assess

#writingaccountability

Tue, Mar 30, Book Day #41

-Finished complete draft of Ch 7 and sent to beta reader today. Good feeling.
-Writing is easy. Writing well is damn hard.
-On to Ch 8 tomorrow

#writingaccountability #guncurious #book #Writer

Wed, Mar 31, Book Day #42

-Last day of month 2 working (nearly) exclusively on book writing
-Detoured today but still have complete 1st drafts of 8 chs done
-Grateful for my health & well-being, my social support network, and to @WakeForest for my leave

#writingaccountability

Thur, Apr 1, Book Day #43

-Spent the day making lemonade from large bowl of lemons given to me by major media outlet
-800 words written, "Guns Don't Kill People, Systemic Inequality Does," hopefully appearing in a newspaper near you one day

#writingaccountability #oped #writing

Fri, Apr 2, Book Day #44

-Book hiatus to fine tune op-ed on guns, violence, and systemic inequality
-Visited @BookmarksNC and picked up books on writing by @ElizabethKracht and @biblioracle
-Will have to write some this weekend to make up for lost time

#writingaccountability

Sat, Apr 3, Book Day #45

-Was too cold to work in the yard, so I spent a few hours thinking and writing about what the Great Gun Buying Spree of the past 13 months tells us about the complexity of gun ownership in the US.
-Happy with 800 coherent words

#writingaccountability

Mon, Apr 5, Book Day #46

-fine tuned and submitted a short essay but otherwise squandered today.
-talked on phone w friends a couple of hours then worked on truck glamping project and made yet another trip to Lowe's for lumber
-will do better tomorrow

#writingaccountability

Tue, Apr 6, Book Day #47

-went back to the outlining board for book ch 8 on negative outcomes
-read @JonathanMetzl Dying of Whiteness on suicide
-scaled back book outline from 14 to 10 chapters

#writingaccountability #book #writing

Wed Apr 7, Book day #48

-Struggling to focus w this chapt on neg outcomes. Picked a bad wk to stop sniffing glue. Picture is worth a 1K words
-Read @plmanseau fascinating Melancholy Accidents on historical news reports of accidental shootings

#writingaccountability #airplane

Thur Apr 8, Book day #49

-Wrote a few hundred words on negative outcomes, worked on an interview transcription
-Pfizer COVID vax shot #2 received
-Met with #writingaccountability partner actual to discuss new book outline, developmental editing, and agent search

#books #writers

Fri Apr 9, Book day #50

-Not sure if I should count this as a book day bc I was completely wiped out by COVID shot #2. Slept all day, slightly achy, couple bouts of chills, but all-in-all not bad
-Was comforted by my sweet baby cat Binx

#writingaccountability #vaccinated

Mon Apr 10, Book day #51

Again, not really a book day since no research/writing.
Instead,
-Reviewed 2 articles
-Checked on reviewers who ghosted me for journal special issue I am editing
-Spent time w/family, esp my daughter visiting from out of town

#writingaccountability

Tue Apr 13, Book day #52

-Losing track of days. Monday was not the 10th ^^^^
-Started 10 week @cnfonline course on "foundations of creative nonfiction" with @ppirapokin

#writingaccountability #creativenonfiction

https://www.creativenonfiction.org/products/foundations-creative-nonfiction-0

Wed Apr 14, Book day #53

-Reviewed 30 pgs of feedback on chs 1-5
-7 beta readers: 4 gun nuts, 2 gun curious, and 1 gun grabber
-Really great feedback on voice/audience esp
-Encouraged
-Next steps: revise these chs & send them to developmental editor

#writingaccountability

Thur Apr 15, Book day #54

-Incorporated beta reader feedback into revision of book chapter 1
-Provisional chapter title: "How a Liberal Professor Became an Armed American"
-Met with #writingaccountability partner actual

#books #writing #gunstudies

Fri Apr 16, Book day #55

-Reading and writing for Module 1 of my creative nonfiction course, half-day.
-Went camping

#writingaccountability #book #writing #Camping

Mon Apr 19, Book day #56

-Finished revision to book chapter 1 and started on chapter 2
-Hope to revise one chapter per day this week and send all 5 to dev editor by Friday.
-Brace yourself @BrendanOMeara

#writingaccountability #revisingiswriting

Tue Apr 20, Book day #57

-Revised chapter 2, "Guns Are Normal, Normal People Use Guns," based on beta reader feedback
-Will start on chapter 3 tomorrow
-On track to finish revisions on first 5 chapters this week

#writingaccountability #writing #guns #book

Wed Apr 21, Book day #58

-Incorporated beta reader feedback into ch 3, "Building an Arsenal"
-Will read penultimate draft to Sandy tonite to help her sleep
-Will enter final changes & start on ch 4 tomorrow
-Still on track to finish revisions this week

#writingaccountability

Thur Apr 22, Book day #59

-Started to work on ch. 4 -- "Top Shot and the Human-Weapon Relationship" -- and realized it might should be ch. 5
-New ch. 4 that I started revising is "Living with AR-15s"
-Confirmed this in F2F meeting with my #writingaccountability partner actual

Fri Apr 23, Book day #60

-Finished incorporating beta reader advice and made final revisions to new ch 4, "Living with AR-15s"
-Going to send chs 1-4 to dev editor and hold on ch 5 pending his feedback
-4 solid chapters in 60 days of mostly unencumbered writing is not bad*

*N.b.: The 4 (or 5) chapters in 60 days of book writing is based on 10 years of research and other writing. It's not a chapter every 12-15 days. It's a chapter every other year.

#books #writers #writing #research

Mon Apr 26, Book day #61

-Having sent completed book chapters to my developmental editor on Saturday, I am spending this week working on some back-burnered blog posts and my "Foundations of Creative Nonfiction" online course.

#writingaccountability https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2021/04/27/the-history-of-concealed-weapons-laws-in-the-united-states-part-5-the-permitless-carry-era/

I also ran my first ever 5K yesterday, the virtual Coast Guard Run Guardians of the Atlantic 5K. Because my @USCG veteran wife Sandy is #SemperParatus. The best I can say of it is that I finished, which felt like an accomplishment.

Tue Apr 27, Book Day #62

-Continuing to post catch-up blogs on Gun Culture 2.0 and Gun Curious
-Working on module 3, "Particulars of Scene," in Foundations of Creative Nonfiction course. Up to 3,500 word essay due for class on Sunday.

#writingaccountability

Wed Apr 28, Book Day #63

-Writing up field notes from observations I made last year ( #badethnographer)
-Blogging
-Learning how to give feedback on other students' creative nonfiction writing, which is aiding my own

#writingaccountability #creativenonfiction #cnf

I began this thread on 1/12 to hold myself publicly accountable during my @WakeForest sponsored leave. I am extremely fortunate to have the job I do, my family, health, and resources. I hoped to fulfill my side of the bargain by working hard and producing. I think I did.

I have drafts of 6 chs of my gun culture book done, wrote 2 chs for another book, wrote several essays (some published, some not), co-edited a special ed of Soc Perspectives, produced a mini-book, started a writing course, and tried to do as many peer reviews as I could.

Before summer school starts on 7/1, I am going to conclude my research leave with a sabbatical in the archaic sense starting next week: leaving the computer behind and hitting the road w the love of my life for a few weeks. I'm leaving Twitter to y'all. Be good to each other.