What is WriteFest?
November is Academic Writing Month (#AcWriMo), an academic write-a-thon that happens every year, inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but catering to the specific needs of academic writers. It’s hosted by PhD2Published, as an online space where the global academic community can pledge their writing projects, record progress, and share thousands of writing tips via the #AcWriMo hashtag on Twitter.
WriteFest (#AcWriFest18) is our local University of Bristol contribution, and will bring together academics and researchers from across the university to recognise and celebrate writing. Drawing on the format of the very popular academic writing retreats, WriteFest 2018 has some added workshops, a guide to crafting your own ideal writing soundtrack, a creative writing element, and lots of curated articles about academic writing. We encourage all academics, research staff, and research students to join us and write.
WriteFest started at Sheffield University. This year, there are 11 partner universities contributing to the festival! Exeter, Bristol, Manchester, Kings College London, Keele, Sheffield Hallam, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Derby, and Adelaide!
What is the University of Bristol doing for WriteFest 2018?
The Bristol Doctoral College Blog will be posting information and articles throughout the month to support you in all matters related to writing – and help you to take a break from writing!
Alongside Bristol Clear, who support Research Staff at the University, we have organised the following workshops and writing retreats. All BDC-run activities are free for postgraduate researchers to attend, and all Bristol Clear-run activities are free for academic and research staff to attend*.
Look out for our upcoming blog posts and shared articles on social media throughout the month of November.
All of our planned activities will take place in the PGR Hub, 1st Floor of Senate House, unless otherwise specified.
*Please note that all Bristol Clear offers are in italics. If you are an academic or research staff member, find out more about taking part on the Bristol Clear blog.
Week 1
- Writers Retreat (in conjunction with a Bristol Clear Writing Day)– 1st November
Week 2
- Bristol Clear: Writers’ Retreat – 5th November
- Thesis Bootcamp – 5th, 6th, 7th November
- Drop-in Writing Day, PGR Hub – 9th November
Week 3
- Quality Papers – 12th November
- Drop-in Writing Day, PGR Hub – 15th November
- Planning and Writing your thesis – 16th November
Week 4
- Bristol Clear: Regular Productive Academic Writing – 19th November
- Bristol Clear: How to Peer review research manuscripts for journals – 20th November
- Drop-in Writing Day, PGR Hub – 23rd November
Week 5
- Drop-in Writing Day, PGR Hub – 27th November
- Take a break: relaxation afternoon – 28th November
- Writers Retreat – 30th November
How else can I get involved?
The University of Bristol is aiming to write a collective total of 500,000 words* throughout the month, and you can help us to reach this ambitious target (and see our little chart change) by letting us know your word count!
You can share your tally every day, every week or at the end of the month — whatever works for you. To take part, just tell us your word count by using #AcWriFest18 and #BristolPGRs in your Twitter or Instagram post. You can also send us an email, contact us using Facebook Messenger or post a comment on this very blog.
*Our original target of 100,000 words was jettisoned after some outstanding word counts in week one. So the Bristol bar has been raised…