I'm terrified of showing people anything I do (writing or photography) before it's been approved by some external body, and this kind of gets in the way of things — I'm afraid of sending enquiries or pitching articles to editors I don't know well, and even posting on Twitter makes me nervous. As such, I've decided to use The Great Discontent's 100 Day project as an incentive to change this, to gain a bit more confidence in the value of my work, by putting something I've done into the world on a daily basis.
This is largely because I'm a bit worried about what I'll do after my PhD, and I think a major thing holding me back in life is my fear of self-promotion, which often just manifests itself as a reluctance to engage with the wider world, to email strangers or post on Twitter. I'm hoping this helps me gain confidence in sharing my work.
I would aim to send a pitch to a different publication every day, but if I tried to do that I'd never finish my PhD, so I've decided I'll be a little less grand with my ambitions. Each day I'll either post a photograph on this blog or submit something to a publication, and I'll also count presenting (on academic work) at conferences. I'll put something I've created out into the world each day, and hopefully this daily deadline, combined with the fact that I do have to finish my PhD soon, will mean that I'm not too precious/obsessive about proofreading and meticulously editing my own work.
This is largely because I'm a bit worried about what I'll do after my PhD, and I think a major thing holding me back in life is my fear of self-promotion, which often just manifests itself as a reluctance to engage with the wider world, to email strangers or post on Twitter. I'm hoping this helps me gain confidence in sharing my work.
I would aim to send a pitch to a different publication every day, but if I tried to do that I'd never finish my PhD, so I've decided I'll be a little less grand with my ambitions. Each day I'll either post a photograph on this blog or submit something to a publication, and I'll also count presenting (on academic work) at conferences. I'll put something I've created out into the world each day, and hopefully this daily deadline, combined with the fact that I do have to finish my PhD soon, will mean that I'm not too precious/obsessive about proofreading and meticulously editing my own work.
I'm very nervous about this, so if anyone has any advice (on this or on anything, really), I'd like to hear it!