

I am an academic for whom writing books and articles is very important. I have a good amount of time for writing, plenty of ideas, and a good sense of what I want to write. But most of the time, I get very little writing done. I can easily go a year or more without writing anything of substance. Instead, I spend most of my time doing email, doing administrative tasks, browsing the web, and so on.



This has been a persistent pattern throughout my career. Every now and then the floodgates have come down (a big period every six or seven years, a smaller period every year or two) and I've had a relatively brief and intense writing period during which I've managed to get a lot done. As a result I've been reasonably successful. However, I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I'd like. And recently, the problem seems to be getting worse, and I'm falling behind drastically. The problem also has all sorts of negative effects on the rest of my life, as I set aside a lot of time for writing and then squander it.



I've read many books on writing and writers block (including Professors as Writers and the like), but these haven't really made a difference. I know the standard advice: find a place that's a writing place and only a writing place, set aside a time, make yourself write so many words a day regardless of quality, and so on. But knowing this hasn't helped. I find myself spending very little time in my writing room, and when I do spend time there, typically nothing happens.



I think of this as some sort of fairly serious disease of the will. I know just what I want to do, have no obvious obstacles to doing it, but it just doesn't get done. There is some sort of enormous resistance to getting started on the writing process, and a sense of aversion and unpleasantness in the initial stages when I do start, both of which prevent me from doing it. Every now and then I get past this resistance and aversion and get into a state of flow (which is then one of the best feelings one can have), but it's proven very difficult to force myself to do this.



I've been to a hypnotherapist and a regular therapist about this, but they haven't made much difference. I probably could and should have done more of this, as I think that the right therapist, with a real understanding of this issue, could probably help a lot. But it's hard to know just who the right therapist might be, and it's difficult to ask local friends and colleagues for recommendations, as I'm reluctant to tell them about this.



I think that what I need is some sort of mechanism that in effect forces me to write. I used to have no problem writing reams in an exam context, for example, and every now and then when a similar sort of immediate context arises, there is no blockage. (I also don't have much blockage in writing long emails on academic topics.) Deadlines help to some extent, but they've become less effective then they used to be as one comes to realize that deadlines are typically very plastic. I can imagine various artificial mechanisms (set up an automatic donation to an awful cause unless one reaches a certain goal, block the Internet for a certain period each day, and so on), but it's hard to make myself implement these and easy to circumvent them.



It seems to me that what might have the potential to work is something involving another person somehow forcing me into a writing schedule: be in the writing place for a certain period each day, write so many words and show them to me at the end, and so on. It wouldn't be easy to get a friend, relative, or colleague to play this role. But perhaps some sort of active therapist or writing coach might be able to do it.



So my first question is: any recommendations for some sort of active therapist or writing coach who could play this role? Assuming that things could be done over phone and email, they could be located almost anywhere (a good thing, since I don't want to disclose my location here, and local resources are limited). It might well take some sort of daily contact, so phone and email would likely be the main locus wherever the person is. I'm interested in recommendations both of specific individuals, and of kinds of individuals who I might seek out, as I'm genuinely unsure of what sort of person to approach.



Any other ideas as to approaches and strategies that might help are welcome, too. Others may have been in a situation like this before and have had experience of what helps. My own insight into the situation is limited. The whole thing is a bit pathetic, and it's taken me a long time to even get to the stage of sending out a cry for help like this. But now that I've done it, any ideas will be welcome.

How can I force myself to write?