Emotional energy and the academic writer

I regularly organise writing groups where we meet and write together with other people.

Recently, the dean of research at my university asked me, “Why do you need to be with other people to write?” The idea of people coming together to do something as solitary as academic writing seemed to confuse him. After all, the image of the academic writing in isolation and thinking big is widespread.

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I find that writing in a group gives me a kind of energy that I rarely get from writing alone. But to understand where that energy comes from, you have to understand the concept of emotional energy.

What is emotional energy?

Emotional energy is the feeling of excitement, confidence, and enthusiasm that you may have experienced at a football stadium, concert, or religious gathering. Visitors to megachurches, for example, speak of a “rush” — an emotional and spiritual energy that emanates from Sunday worship. Football fans also experience pleasant bursts of positive and shared emotion at their gatherings.

In sociology, it has been shown that emotional energy occurs when some important conditions are present: the shared presence of participants in the same space, barriers that exclude outsiders, a mutual focus of attention, and a shared mood. For example, consider how football games manage to generate great levels of energy through the co-presence of people cheering, singing, and dancing together. Context characteristics are key in creating emotional energy.

What does all this have to do with scientific writing?

Events like a “shut up and write” session or a writing retreat have the necessary ingredients to generate high levels of emotional energy. When you work together in one space on a writing project, you create a barrier for outsiders who may be doing something else. Even though all the participants may be working on different projects, you all have a similar focus of attention. And if that focus is not interrupted (for example, by a phone call during the writing session), such an event can create a positive shared mood that will keep you energised for the rest of the day.

You do not necessarily need a group to create emotional energy. Emotional energy can also come from physical activity, from taking breaks, or from learning something new. But a group ritual has a powerful effect in generating high levels of emotional energy.

Emotional energy and the academic writer

In this day and age, when academics face so many challenges, it seems important to talk about emotional energy. There is the challenge of loneliness and working in isolation. There are also the challenges of the review process, which sometimes takes years. Time pressures, long hours, and the temporary nature of academic contracts: the list of challenges for academics is long and growing. In a climate of increasing pressure, it has become more difficult for academics to find peace and well-being. There is even evidence that 15 to 20% of academics suffer from burnout.

Group writing sessions will never solve all of these problems. But they are one of the many ways academics can mobilise the power of the collective to generate more emotional energy.

As part of our efforts to form writing groups, Tanvi Mehta and I are organising a 12-week workshop (starting 10 february every Friday) in which we will write together and share tips on academic writing.

And in Singapore, I continue to organise regular writing meet-ups. So I hope that we will meet at one of these meetings and that we can generate more emotional energy together.