Vitae have posted this (2min) video about social media usage. The statistics are nuts — 50% of UK web traffic is for Facebook, for example. 93% of people trust peer recommendations while only 14% trust adverts, and this is key — social media is about people and connections, and the quality of connections is undeniably important for any researcher.

I like social media and the web, but am I really using them as well as I can to further my research?

Vitae’s Digital Researcher conference deals with just this. It’s at the British Library (Monday 20th Feb), and they’re opening it up online as well:

‘Digital Researcher Online will explore how new technologies and tools (microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and social citation sharing) can be used to enhance your research and raise your professional profile.’

You don’t have to be a geek and you don’t have to spend loads of time on Facebook, Twitter or any other service, but with a bit of tweaking you can have relevant and timely information at your fingertips, and you can connect with others who are passionate about your field, and boy, can you market yourself.

I think it’s kind of like exercise — if you’re a gym hater, there’s no point making it a resolution to go three times a week. If you prefer running, do that instead. So if you love LinkedIn but aren’t keen on Twitter (assuming you have actually tried them and aren’t doing a Daily Mail hate-hate-hate-based-on-not-much) then fine, just use the tools that suit you.

I’m posting this because I’ve heard a few people say, almost proudly, that they ‘don’t really get this social media stuff,’ ‘don’t use the internet that much’ or ‘hate Facebook’. I’m think that’s a shame (although yeah, Facebook can be awful), and a bit short-sighted, because they may be failing to present themselves as well-developed professionals in touch with what’s going on outside of their specialism. So, have you checked recently what people see when they Google you?

For me, the web is exciting because I’m a writer, and there are so many new markets and chances for me with everything going on online, from micro-blogging fun to serious revenue-earning opportunities. I really believe that applies to everyone, and that social media doesn’t have to be complicated or time-wasting, just well-managed and thoughtfully applied. If anyone can help with that, it’s Vitae. (If you’re not signed up for their Researcher Bulletin, do it, great resources.)

Here’s the programme for the day (I think it’ll all be available afterwards too):

10:00 – Introduction
A short interview with Dr Tristram Hooley on Digital Researcher 2012 and the current digital landscape.

10:30 – 11:15 – Morning plenary
Join us online and tune-in to the opening plenary of Digital Researcher. During this session we’ll be covering academic practice, the role of social media and intellectual property.

15:45 – 16:30 – Keynote speaker Martin Weller (Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University and author of the ‘Digital Scholar’ book talking about ‘Digital Scholarship’.

John Igoe, Vitae’s Web Development Manager will be an online facilitator throughout the day. Join discussions on Twitter using the #dr12vitae hashtag.

So I was pleased to find Creative Writing in the Academy, a blog about creative writing research from Deanna Carlyle and Remittance Girl, who are both starting on the PhD journey.

There are two resources on here which are invaluable — the Creative Writing Conferences for Postgrad Writers list and the Resources for the Creative Writing Postgraduate Applicant page — where was this when I was agonising over my application!

It’s written in an easy-going accessible style and is specifically related to my discipline, which is rare, so I have no hesitation in recommending them to creative writers in academia. It’s also inspiring me to blog more about my personal journey through the PhD in the hope that my experiences with resonate with other students and help those who are puzzling over the mysteries of what exactly a practice-based PhD entails. More on that one soon!

The survey aims to look at students’ experiences of financial support including: accessing support, timing of payments, discretionary vs statutory support systems, the impacts of hidden costs, transport, accommodation, private loans and credit.  The NUS wants to hear from you about what you think works well – and what might need changing – about how you are supported.

The survey closes on the 12 February and respondents will be entered into a prize draw to win £500 or one of ten £50 prizes.For more information, go to the Pound in Your Pocket resource on NUS Connect. The survey should take around 20 minutes to complete and can be completed confidentially. If you have any questions about this survey or indeed the wider research activity, please contact Alan Roberts, NUS Policy Officer on alan.roberts@nus.org.uk

Take part in the survey today!

I found this on Vitae — I’m studying in Wales so I can’t take it, but I think you should if you are eligible. Let’s have our voices heard and give those coming up behind us a better chance of making it without being in debt forever…

Apologies for being a bit off topic.

Advice to writers always stresses that you will receive many, many rejections  and that you must learn to deal with them. Rejection is never nice, and it has knocked me about a bit, but I want to have a look at the positives, and how I’m going to deal with the negatives.

My letter was positive in many ways; the editor had taken the time to read and consider my initial chapters carefully and offer some suggestions. She made some lovely comments which in the main mirror what my supervisor has been saying, that my descriptive writing is good and language is evocative. Landscape, seascape and the natural world are all really important to the novel so I am cheered no end by this!

However, I need to look again at the plot and really decide what the central themes are. I am trying to fit a lot in and it’s not quite working. I think that, once I’ve finished my initial draft, I will go back and cut out one aspect of the novel which is detracting from the main coming-of-age and finding-her-place themes. This will resolve the feeling that the editor (and my supervisor) have that the reader is not sure what’s going to be important, what the tensions are and the direction of development.

She also said that the language could be a little more adventurous — with all the work I’ve done recently on trying to nail the voice, I hope this is now better.

What I sent in really, really wasn’t ready, but I was flattered to be given the chance to send something in, so I did. However, I won’t send any other work out until I’m happy with it. (Not to say it needs to be perfect, as editors are ace at spotting unpolished gems.) I’ve lost my chance with a publisher I really admire and who are perfect for my kind of lit fic, which is a shame.

I’ve always kept my writing close to my chest, to avoid being downcast when people don’t like or understand it, and so that I can just write without thinking about the audience reaction, the “What would your mother say?” issue. I find having a mentor amazing for my motivation, but I don’t want more than one right now.

So, onwards and upwards. I’m super keen to keep my momentum going; I’ve upped my work-rate dramatically in the last month so despite the problems with plot I want to keep going and complete a first draft without endlessly circling back on the start. I am not sure I can fix the problems with the beginning when I’m not even sure how the ending is going to play out! (I have a chapter plan but I don’t know what’ll change and where emphasis is going to fall as I write; things always develop as my character develops.)

I’m having my monthly meeting with my supervisor on Friday. When I said I wanted to discuss the points raised in the letter he laughed and said, we can moan about our letters together then (from the same editor)! So at least I am in good company!

Karen Kelsky runs an ‘academic-career consulting business’ to help students, basically, get jobs (writing grants, letters, CVs, publish etc.). She lambasts ‘absent’ professors for not providing this career advice. Maybe it’s different in the US, but I’ve never expected to get career advice from teachers at any level. It’s something I need, of course, but I don’t think of my supervisor as the perfect person to provide it. When I meet with him, we’re far too busy knocking my creative work and my thesis into shape — and that’s how I like it.

If and when I want more, like some help with getting the travel bursary I have my eye on, I will ask and I know I’ll get what I need. But the hour or so that we spend working on my project every month is precious, and I want to use it to focus on my writing, which is what he’s really good at.

Also, I want him to carry on being enthusiastic about my work, but also about his own. Not just so he publishes more and is therefore good to be associated with, but so that he is creatively fulfilled and satisfied, and therefore in a good place to be advising me, inspiring me, and making me feel that publication is possible. (As a creative writing student I’m talking about general publication as well as academic publishing.)

At my institution there is a Postgraduate Skills Training Programme as well as Continuing Professional Development courses, training and careers advisors. There’s a whole army of them. The system isn’t perfect, as there are so many students needing different things at different times, but it’s developing and has an essential role to play.

I feel that it’s up to me to look at my strengths and weaknesses and decide what to do about them and where to get advice. It’s also up to me to get off my backside and publish, network, write a great CV, blog, apply for grants and so on, all while I’m getting on with the main body of work. Postgrad skills training and my supervisor are both pretty clear that these are good things to do. Surely it’s obvious to any ambitious PhD student that you have to work hard and develop in all areas in order to succeed, whether you are aiming for an academic post or a corporate one.

The article is interesting, but I don’t like its hectoring tone, and it’s obviously an advert for her services. The comments section is even more telling; I am sad for the students who really do feel poorly advised. There are also quite a lot of profs pointing out just how much they have to do already without being academic career advisors as well (something which they aren’t trained for and may not know much about, not having been on the job market for a while)…and that the quality of their own research is very important to the success of the institution and their students.

Of course I want my PhD to result in a better job, I just don’t think the job-seeking part is up to my supervisors. In the main, it’s up to me.

However, citation software is far from perfect, and I’ve ended up with information all over the place because there’s no one tool that can pull everything together for me.

Here’s what I want to be able to do:
— input data via my smartphone, the web and offline on my laptop
— use sources ranging from Amazon and Primo (my institution’s library catalogue) to scanning the barcode of a book/inputting the ISBN
— organise references in the usual folder structure (again on web, app and desktop)
— search, tag, flag and annotate
— export, email, share
— at the click of a button, output an comprehensive and perfectly formatted bibliography which adheres to my department’s specified style (which may need tweaking from the standard)
— be free, or really worth the money!

Actually…that is quite a lot to ask, isn’t it! This kind of software purports to make it easy, but I’ve found it far from.

The main academic tools with both web and desktop facilities are EndNote and Mendeley. There are loads of other options, including LaTex which is for scientific researchers. After some testing — and frustration — I’m using Mendeley as my main tool.

Below, I describe my workflow. I hope it helps someone else who is looking at the jumble of offerings and wondering where to start.

From the library catalogue I save things into my eShelf and export to EndNote Web. I don’t have EndNote desktop, because I object to having to pay for software that they give on-campus students for nothing (I can’t afford to live on campus!), there is no ‘App for that’ and I just don’t like the user experience.

The Amazon iPhone app will scan barcodes and bring up the item; I then put that into a WishList and use Primo to quickly find the bibliographic data that I need, export it to EndNote web, export from there and import to Mendeley. Yeah, a massive pain!

I can also scan barcodes on MyBib (a $2.99 app) then send via email for import to Mendeley — but I can’t get that to work at present.

From the web, there is a bookmarklet I use to send things straight to Mendeley, and the list of possibilities there is impressive, including just clipping web pages. EndNote has a Firefox toolbar, a whole toolbar stuck onto Firefox for just three buttons — online help, an EndNote Web bookmark and a Capture bookmarklet. Clumsy, ugly and disabled.

Within Mendeley I can do everything I want — reading, annotating, grouping etc. The EndNote experience just wasn’t as seamless, although I think it does do all or most of the above.

The only thing I can’t do easily is the barcode scanning, so I will have to use Primo ISBN searches instead, via Safari on the iPhone (ugh, maybe it’s time for Dolphin).

Another thing I like is the sharing and collaboration possibilities of Mendeley’s social media link-in, although currently there’s not much in my field. With things like academia.edu and LinkedIn’s great groups out there as well, I have to see how things go there, but Mendeley seems pretty innovative.

This is a very personal ramble about bibliographic and citation software. I am rather disappointed that there isn’t a tool that will combine what I see as all the essential and fairly basic requirements for academics.

For something less personal, have a look at this extremely comprehensive comparison of free bibliographic managers.

For now, I will continue with my rather convoluted scheme of record-keeping! How does everyone else cope with the endless referencing and record-keeping nightmare?

It’s always said that you cannot be a writer unless you read, and I find that reading teaches better than any textbook. In this case, several novels were extremely instructive, with the added bonus of being unputdownable.

The Butcher Boy, which I mentioned in my last post, was a great lesson in how to deal with first person narrative, with possibly the most unreliable narrator I have ever come across.

I carried on from there, and read and learned from a couple of Welsh writing in English books. One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard is The Butcher Boy in a Welsh setting. There’s a young Welsh boy, a mother who goes mad and a chilling and sad finale, but the main thing it shares is an amazingly convincing voice. The gaps are intriguing, the boy’s trajectory utterly believable until the final few chapters, where you are thrown off balance by the developments.

Similarly, The Schoolboy by Holly Howitt charts the obsessions and mental instability of a boy growing up. It was shocking, but convincing all the way to the end, which again threw a curve ball. The dialogue was particularly interesting, with the monosyllabic exchanges of teenage boys used subtly and effectively. This is what I am trying to do myself, and shows that staying true to what I hear used, really used in daily conversation, will produce genuine character interactions. I actually have a notebook (in Evernote) which holds all the little sayings and original turns of phrase that I’ve heard and thought notable, and I intend to expand it.

All of these texts, as well as Rachel Tresize’s In And Out Of the Goldfish Bowl (with a narrator I didn’t like one bit) and Robert Lewis’s The Last Llanelli Train (with a total anti-hero saved for me only by his humour), have inspired me to carry on and just try to write true, keep myself out of it and let my character have her way.

Having said all this, let’s see what my supervisor says before I can say I’ve nailed first person narrative!

I’ve been pondering what to write for this post, as I haven’t been that successful with my work recently. At my last meeting my supervisor again expressed doubts about my main character’s voice — it’s not very believable.

Although I’m dismayed, I have to agree. Part of the problem is that I have shifted from third person to first person, so the original omniscient narrator’s voice is now too sophisticated for my surfer, tomboy, farm-raised, school-hating young girl.

I will admit to not having rewritten substantially — instead I went through and changed ‘she’ to ‘I’ and so forth, changing other bits that didn’t fit her voice as I went. Clearly, that didn’t work, didn’t go deep enough. Some of it does, but I’m not getting the strong characterisation and compelling identity for her that I want.

My rather lazy rewriting into the first person was picked up straight away by my supervisor months ago, but we have been concentrating on other problems — there are plenty of them (mostly structural) to keep me busy!

Having been a bit demoralised by all this, I haven’t written very much for the last two weeks, instead concentrating on some great books with strong voices. I’m currently on The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe, which I find headache-inducing due to the lack of commas, but it certainly works as a first person narrative.

Then I found the fiction masterclass on first person voices in the latest issue of Mslexia. Jane Rogers, Professor of Writing at Sheffield Hallam Uni, talks about the pros and cons, how language used is key (for me, using Welsh and surfing terminology), the possibility of introducing other material to counterpoint the narrator, and uses Jane Eyre, Adrian Mole and Peter Carey’s Ned Kelly to illustrate her points. A happy coincidence, and just what I needed!

The fact that my own first person narrative doesn’t ring true is strange in a way, as I’ve written a diary every day almost since I could write. I still have my first diary, one of those chinese-embroidered books, with back to front letters and awful spelling, in a box with 20 or 30 others. For the last ten years or so it’s all been on the computer — I dread to think how much drivel is stored on my hard drive (and Dropbox)!

In the process of ‘journalling’ as the Americans like to call it, I’ve lost my self-consciousness and learned to just write, write, write whatever I want however I want, as it’s not for anyone else’s eyes. Some of it is some of my best writing, because I’m not worried about anything external like other people’s opinions. I’d recommend the process to anyone.

So I am sure I can write like this, and to get me going I’m starting a whole new chapter, forgetting the first three which I am, by now, rather tired of seeing! I’m going to have fun with it and really discover my character, who is very different from me (a good thing, says Jane). Wish me luck!

I had a look at one or two commentaries in the library and was reassured to see that they aren’t too scary, more a chance to talk about wonderful stories and inspirational writers who have influenced a writer’s own work. But where to start?

I came to the PhD with a useful amount of background reading already done — loads of texts that I love and which definitely influence my writing, from non-fiction like The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron to surf fiction like Breath by Tim Winton and Welsh writing in English novels such as my favourites by Niall Griffiths (Grits, Sheepshagger and Runt).

It’s all really varied stuff, in terms of perceived literary merit, age, subject matter, audience, themes and so on. So how on earth am I going to synthesise all this material? I have some idea of how I want to analyse each text in terms of my research questions, but I also want to look at how I write, and for that I need to look at storytelling in general.

My supervisor recommended that I read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, almost a textbook for film students and Hollywood employees. It’s ‘a practical guide for designing and troubleshooting stories’ (xi) — in all forms, not just film. The author is at pains to point out that this is not a formula, but an exploration, via Joseph Campbell, of the simple idea that: ‘All stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies.’ (1).

He might well have added ‘novels’ to that list. Straight away I was excited, because my story is all of the above (except, at this embryonic stage, a record-breaking Hollywood blockbuster…).

Vogler’s book is an attempt to map the stages that stories present, and the way that mirrors human life and experience. I was skeptical about putting all stories into a mould or formula, but Vogler stresses that ‘It should be used as a form, not a formula, a reference point and a source of inspiration, not a dictatorial mandate’ (xix).

The simple structure that he explains is amazing, an explanation in clear terms of something that readers — and in fact anyone who comes across stories in any medium and thinks about their creation — will instantly latch on to. It clarifies and helps with writing, and it’s fun to point out the different stages as seen in films or books — “Hey! That guy is definitely going to be a Mentor, and that pub is a Threshold for sure.”

It also, very helpfully, gives me and my supervisor a common vocabulary with which to discuss storytelling in general, and specifically my characters and the structure of my work.

For a theory, it is immensely accessible and well written, using clear and almost universally known film examples. If you write, you will begin to think in more detail about your own structure, and it may well help you to see where you are going wrong — where you should be challenging the heroine instead having another love scene or argument with a Guardian.

A recommendation worth its weight in gold for me, I hope it intrigues you enough to check it out of the library. I did, and instantly jumped on Amazon to get my own copy so I could cover it in sticky notes.

Vogler, C., 2007. Writerʼs Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Michael Wiese Production. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure/dp/193290736X

I found I needed a way to keep track of characters and locations, and linear text files were getting too messy. I’m writing a novel set in the world of surfing, and the mixture of real, semi-real and totally made up beaches is a nightmare to keep track of, let alone all the different characters. So, although I’m firmly a lists sort of person, I’m trying out some mind-mapping software. I’m using iThoughts, an app for the iPhone (and iPad), which has pretty good reviews on the App Store.

As my novel grows and changes, it’s great to have a map of characters, because I can group and link them in accordance with their relationships to others and see it all at a glance. If I need to remind myself what a particular minor character looks like, where someone’s nickname has come from or who only ever wears black, it’s there in the notes.

I also have a node for non-characters — names I would like to use, little characteristics or personality traits that I would like to incorporate somewhere. Then if I have a new character come into the story, I can draw on this well of half-formed ideas. (That way those little scraps of ideas don’t get lost or wasted!)

iThoughts can export to loads of formats; I just grabbed the first free desktop software that it was compatible with, FreeMind. MyMind and MindNode are also recommended (by my brother, who uses it on his education course). A desktop version means I can see my maps on a bigger screen with all the nodes expanded and notes in a more readable size. I can also print it out and take it to supervisor meetings, which helps both of us.

Some other uses I can think of for this software are:
- plot structuring
- brainstorming scenes
- what if? testing of scenarios

It’s also really handy for doing a quick bit of work when you don’t have time or opportunity to do any ‘real’ writing. I can play around with the colours and associations, add a few notes, do a quick character or location sketch, or just enjoy looking at the world of my novel, laid out on my phone in pretty colours with bubbles and icons.

If you know of any good mind-mapping techniques or software, please post them in the comments. I’m new to this and would love more ideas on how to take advantage of it!