Adam Gordon is studying for a DFA in Creative Writing. His doctoral work explores queer histories of Glasgow, and the effect of contemporary theories of ecology on the form and structure of the novel. He is the current Researcher Development PGR Communications Intern.

When I say I’m doing a doctorate, everyone understandably assumes I’m doing a PhD. What I’m actually doing is a Doctorate of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Some of you may not have known that such a thing exists. Now that you do, you might be picturing us in our corner, reading Proust and smoking (which is only occasionally the case). And you might wonder what on earth ‘Practice as Research’ (or PaR) means. This blog will explain a little bit about PaR, and also suggest some things from my practice that PGRs from any discipline might find helpful for their own writing. 

First things first: What is Practice as Research?

As with a PhD, we each have a big research question. The difference is that the critical enquiry is undertaken partly through creative practice. In practice led research, the outcome would be textual (i.e. a thesis). In practice based research, the outcome of the enquiry will also be expressed in that practice. 

To use myself as an example, I’m researching how queer ecologies affect the form of the novel. I can unpack this ludicrous statement over coffee sometime - the point is that at the end of three years I will have written a novel that enacts and demonstrates the outcomes of my research, as well as a critical exegesis that sits alongside it and explains my process.   

I’m not being disingenuous when I say that PaR is not that different to other disciplines. We research, we set questions, we experiment, we record. But it’s as if a chemist’s beautifully designed experiment was itself a part of the PhD outcome, even if the results were inconclusive or partial. 

The freedom and the hazard of PaR is that there is no roadmap for the process. It will be fundamentally different for each art form and each projects, and because the end results are creative works, copyright means it’s hard to access other people’s projects for guidance or inspiration. It’s easy to feel like you’re drifting when there are no signposts to help you along the way. This feeling of being lost is something that all PGRs will confront at some point in their journey, particularly when it comes to writing. 

And we all, in every single discipline, have to write. We all know the terror of a blank page. I’d guess that because of my work I spend a bit more time thinking about the ‘how’ of writing than most. I have a few, simple exercises that I use to get going when I need to write, and I’ll share these below in the hope that you might find them helpful. 

But first we need to get something out of the way:

ALL WRITING IS CREATIVE

When I tell other PGRs what I do, people often say ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that, I’m not creative.’ I am here with a megaphone to say YES YOU ARE. Not that ‘everyone has a novel in them’ or any patronising nonsense like that, but simply that all writing is creative, and thinking this way has big benefits. 

An example: You are writing an instruction manual for a new appliance. You have to get it exactly right so that anyone at all can read it and understand. This affects the tone, the vocabulary, the syntax, the page layout… It’s a performance: you’re adopting a persona (calm, patient, knowledgeable person) and have an audience in mind (me, trying to figure out which end to plug in).

The same applies to literally everything you write. Writing is purely artificial: there is no default mode. Everything is a choice. Just like a novel, the form of a scientific paper is conventional, meaning it’s made up of a series of conventions developed over time for certain reasons. That doesn’t mean it can’t ever evolve again. In the humanities, there has been a shift in certain disciplines away from a universalising and impersonal style of writing towards using ‘I’ and making the author present in the text. This has benefits and drawbacks, and that argument is beyond the scope of this post. The point is: it’s all a performance, it’s all a choice. All writing is creative because you’re making something that wasn’t there before.

For this reason, the kinds of exercises I use in my own writing practice might be helpful to you.

Some Silly Writing Exercises

These will feel silly - they are a bit silly - but most things do until we get the hang of them. Treat writing as a game or an experiment (whichever appeals more to your mindset). Give yourself a rule, or a starting point, and five or ten minutes and just keep writing. Even if you’re typing I don’t know what to say over and over, it doesn’t really matter because at some point you will type something else just to stop yourself from losing it.  

- Today I Am (5 mins)

Also known as a ‘brain dump’, but that’s an unattractive phrase, isn’t it? Set a timer for five minutes, no longer. As soon as you start the clock, start writing. I find it helpful to start with ‘Today I am…’ and go from there. It might be literal: Today I am sitting at my desk with hangover… It might be emotional: Today I’m feeling great / really struggling… It doesn’t matter. No one will see this. You can delete it when you’re done. But it helps to get things off your chest. Feeling angry because someone was rude to you on your way to work? Write about it. Get it out of your head and onto the page, and I PROMISE it will help. Afterwards you can go back to your own work, refreshed, and with the writing cogs greased. 

- Sense Writing (5 mins)

It’s essentially the same exercise as ‘Today I Am’, but sometimes it’s easier to write about the concrete rather than the abstract or how we’re feeling. It consists, very simply, of picking one of your senses and writing down everything you perceive. Sight and sound are probably the most generative, but play around! The key is trying to be as precise as possible. Is the sound loud or soft or muffled? Close or far? How far? Can you describe the exact shade of grey the wall is painted? At what angle is the light falling?

This is also a great mindfulness exercise. It’s about being present in your body and in the space  you’re inhabiting. It helps switch up your headspace if you’ve been working for a while. Give it a try, just once, and see how it goes. 

These exercises are also a good way to discover things about your writing style. Do you habitually use metaphors or similes? Do you draw your imagery from nature? Are your images concrete (the wall is they grey of elephant hide) or more abstract (the wall is grey as my mood today)? You can pick up on your ‘tics’ and habits, and embrace or counterbalance them as you see fit. 

- Everything I know about … (10-15 mins) 

As I said, all writing has a voice, or persona, and all writing has a presumed reader. Being conscious of this will make you a better writer. For this exercise, pick a topic you’re familiar with, or that you’re researching just now. It could be a person, a chemical, a bird, a particular method you’re using in an experiment… Pick one thing and write down everything you know about it. Sentences, notes, bullet points, it doesn’t matter - but decide who you’re talking to. Your supervisor? A relative? A five year old? A date? 

This exercise will take more time than the others, but it’s a really useful thing to do. Research is only half of the job: the other half is communication. You will explain it better to your family if you can explain it to a five year old. You will understand it better yourself if you can explain it to your date. And you will be more able to tackle the ‘official’ writing you need to do. 

Like I said, this might feel silly when you first do it but it’s worth a try. Sitting down to ‘write your thesis’ is overwhelming. Sitting down for five minutes to describe the room you’re in is straightforward, helps you focus, and gets you typing. Then you can take it step by step from there. 

I really hope that these things are helpful, and also that you know a bit more about PaR if it wasn’t familiar to you already. I really encourage you to try these exercises - and let us know in the comments or on Twitter if they’re useful! You’ll find us @UofGPGRs.