Book review: ‘How to Write a Lot’ by Paul J. Silvia

This book provides sound, albeit mostly obvious advice about producing lots of words. It is aimed primarily at academics, especially those studying psychology, but, aside from the section on preparing grant proposals, much of the advice applies to factual writing in general. The book contains plenty of humour in among the advice.

The key messages are to stop making excuses, schedule time for your writing, treat it like real work, set goals, and measure your progress towards them. A point I repeatedly make to my partner when she asks what I’ve been writing today is that there’s a lot more to ‘writing’ than actual writing. I was glad to see Paul J. Silvia endorse this point several times, as the claim often sounds flimsy even to me.