Here are some discussion questions inspired by Chapter 5 of Boice, on timely stopping. I will have you address these questions in pairs. (I will choose the pairs.)
In your research group, what is the prevailing practice or mythology about when you start writing and stop writing, and about when and how often you write?
Boice mentions patience and tolerance. What do they have to do with writing practice? Have their opposites, impatience and intolerance, affected your writing practice? How?
Your research group is a small society. In what ways is it patient and tolerant? In what ways is it impatient and intolerant?
In order to start a writing session, you have to stop whatever comes just before the writing session. Hard? Or easy?
In your own experience, how true is it that stopping is even more difficult than starting? Under what circumstances?
Please review the seven exercises in Boice on pages 146 to 148.
Which ones seem like things you are already doing or could easily incorporate into your practice right now?
Which ones seem like things you are ready to start working on?
Which ones seem like they are not so relevant to you right now?
Boice has a lot of views about how a writing session should go and what things should happen. What is the structure of a writing session “according to Boice?” In particular, how would you narrate the sequence of events that occurs before, during, and after a writing session?
To improve your own personal practice—especially if a matter of writing practice is one of your current challenges—what is your next step?