Drafting (the part of writing when you're putting words on paper, whether it's the first time, or seventeenth) is really hard work. You're making SO many choices every minute - which word, which thought, who to cite, if you cite, if it's clear, what you mean - and it can be really overwhelming. If you add in a brain that has a few different trains of thought running at the same time, or perfectionism, or any other brain pattern/behavior/emotion that's the least bit distracting, and drafting can be even more overwhelming, if not nearly impossible feeling.
And although academics talk a lot about how to make time for the writing, how to make space for it, how to schedule it - there is so much less discussion about how to actually write. So today, here's a tactic I use with a lot of clients: bracketing.
Now, this isn't something I invented but it is something that I used (and still do use!) extensively when writing up new ideas (or revising old ones.) Basically, it's a way to capture thoughts that you have about the writing while you're writing so that you can keep going.
For example, here is a paragraph in an early (draft 0 or 1) version of one of my dissertation chapters. Everything in ALL CAPS was something I needed to cite, expand on, or clarify, but I kept going so that I could see what I needed to change.
While the stakes of human turned meme are clear (STAR WARS KID, NUMANUMA), the animal also faces risk here. The replicated image changes perception of breeds (in the case of the Persian) and separates the body of the animal from the representation of it. I DONT KNOW WHATEVER - what does it mean to be voiced by a human.
I used ALL CAPS to signal these changes, but I later switched to brackets ( {[ }] ) because they were easier to search for and replace. The important thing was what I was doing - signalling a place I wanted to come back to, capturing the important thought, and then going on so that I could stay in the world of the draft. If I stopped to look up the memes I wanted to cite, or figure out exactly what I wanted to stay, I would usually get distracted, start reading when I was supposed to be done with reading, feel absolutely frustrated and angry when I couldn't figure out what exactly my argument was. In short, I'd stop writing and do something else, instead of noting and then carrying on.
Here are just some of the uses I've found for bracketing text while drafting:
Making note of where to add citations
Capturing thoughts like "is this clear enough" or "do I need more here"
Leaving myself instructions like "come back and write a better transition once you finalize case studies" or "link this back to chapter 2 once you write it"
Noting details I wanted to confirm, like publication year or author name
And the benefits weren't just limited to keeping in the flow of writing while drafting! Brackets also helped me:
Turn some of these tasks (like "find citation" or "add quote from archive here") into the small steps I could put on a list and check off
Ask better questions when readers gave me feedback, because I already knew which areas I worried might be unclear
Note places where I would add other literature or sources - I have a tendency to overcite and bury my voice, so brackets helped me see where I wanted to add citations, and then if people said "This needs more support" I would have some good guesses about where to add. And if they DIDN'T say that, then I didn't spend a lot of time adding in citations and quotes that I just needed to take out.
Not all the thoughts we have while drafting are bad - but some of them can definitely take us out of the task of writing and into places where it's harder to get back in the flow. Hopefully using some brackets can help you stay with your thoughts AND stay in the writing! And if you have other uses for brackets - or other techniques that work in the same way, please share!