Writing is a battle. That’s what many new academics feel about the writing process, according to Helen Sword. One of the people who agrees with this idea is Annette Skovsted Hansen, an associate professor of Japanese history and global history.

“Writing my PhD was difficult. It took me a long time to get finished, and I didn’t think the quality of my writing was good enough.”

Despite the frustrations, she managed to submit her PhD dissertation on time. And she has published material on a regular basis ever since. But she has felt for many years that the academic writing process is both exhausting and frustrating.

“That’s how it’s been until very recently, even though it’s 13 years since I finished my PhD,” she says.

A question of respect

The experience she has gained over the years has helped the writing process to become smoother. During the past year Annette Skovsted Hansen has worked hard on her writing habits, and now she actually enjoys writing.

“I’ve developed some writing routines and I now set time aside for the writing process. To gain inspiration I read articles that I think are well written. When I’m doing a lot of teaching I earmark a certain amount of time in my diary to sit in my office and write. This works for me. I think it’s all about respect. Respect for my writing time, and making other people respect it as well,” she explains. And she adds with a smile:

“Just within the past year I’ve completed and issued four articles, one of which has already been accepted by a highly respected international journal.”