Pro Tips for Busy Writers: Ben Blackwell

Headshot of Ben Blackwell

To this continuing series on “Pro Tips for Busy Writers,” I’m glad to welcome Ben Blackwell, Director of Houston Theological Seminary at Houston Baptist University.1

Ben has published several books and scholarly essays. His monograph Christosis is now in its second edition (Eerdmans, 2016), and he has a further volume currently forthcoming, Participating in the Righteousness of God: Justification in Pauline Theology (Eerdmans, 2020).

Ben blogs at Dunelm Road with John Goodrich, Ed Kaneen, and Jason Maston.

By this point in your career, you’ve likely worked on several writing projects concurrently (e.g., articles, books). What’s a memorable example of a cluster of projects you worked on concurrently?

It seems that almost all my projects are overlapping others in some ways. I’ve had the pleasure of working on joint edited volumes with a couple of friends. These include Reading Romans in ContextReading Mark in ContextReading Revelation in Context, and Paul and the Apocalyptic Imagination.

One of those projects always seems to be going, so my individual articles, essays, and books are concurrent projects. Over the past couple of years I co-authored a theology textbook, Engaging Theology, while also trying to make progress on a monograph, Participating in the Righteousness of God. As time progresses, the opportunities to write increase, and my selectivity has had to substantively increase.

I should also note that I had a brain condition arise about 2 years ago. It wasn’t life-threatening, but it set me back about a year. Its greatest damage was to my productivity, and so I’ve borne a bit of additional stress (not unlike my PhD days) since I’ve had overlapping deadlines.

Larger projects (e.g., a dissertation, a second monograph) can be more important but less urgent than others (e.g., conference papers, book reviews). How do you avoid letting good-but-less-important projects push out or cause you to procrastinate on those that are more important but less urgent?

The tyranny of the urgent is a real factor. I find that administrative work is more distracting than smaller projects. I tend to find that the smaller projects give me the space and deadlines to keep advancing when administrative work and teaching maintain their relentless demands.

Of course, saying yes to essay requests, or even book projects, can eat into your time and dilute your productivity if you are not selective. But, I have found benefit in them because they offer external deadlines that motivate completion in a way that my internal motivation doesn’t always produce. So, you need a balance. I find the committed projects get the most attention since they have external deadlines, so I’ve not been as fruitful in the journal article area since these don’t have deadlines.

When you’ve worked on multiple projects concurrently, what processes, principles, or practices have you used to be sure you’re making good progress on all fronts?

I’ve found the most helpful thing is to have regular dedicated time, particularly chunks of time. Since it seems to take at least 2–3 hours to make substantive progress for me, I block out sections of time and either shut my door or work out of my office. (I get almost nothing done at home beyond email, so I find coffee shops most helpful.)

For example, when I was doing my PhD, I knew I needed to have a journal article published before I graduated to demonstrate my research competencies, so I devoted every Thursday night just to that task. It took about a year at that pace, but it produced a product on glory in Romans that’s been well received: “Immortal Glory and the Problem of Death in Romans 3:23.” Now that I have day hours, I block out chunks during the day.

Do you divide your process between research and writing? If so, how?

I don’t guess the distinction between research and writing is one that I use since I’m always writing as I research. Of course, I read monographs and articles just to advance my knowledge, but if something is relevant to a project, I try to sit down when I’m working through it to incorporate the key ideas or quotes into whatever writing project it relates to. I’m a mostly in-the-moment kind of person, so I tend to read and focus on each project serially, though I’ve got a word document going for each project, so as I come across ideas I’ll add references and quotes so I can come back to them later.

Some of my best ideas come out of teaching, and that can be an underestimated source of writing. When I have the luxury of teaching a more focused class, it can be very helpful for me to test ideas and to sharpen the presentation of those ideas. However, it can be difficult since even graduate students can’t always catch the places where you are pushing academic boundaries into new areas since they are still trying to grasp where things are currently at.

What do you do to help you avoid overcommitting yourself either on timelines that are too short for their projects or on how many projects you take on?

I am the king of overcommitting because I overestimate my ability to produce in a timely manner. Most often this is related to administrative roles.

I have a former life as a CPA (now inactive) with an MBA and worked for seven years as a benefits consultant on retirement and medical plans for corporations. Beyond the general business acumen I accumulated, I also became very proficient at Excel and budgeting. These are key skills that the university finds helpful since most around me are not as adept at these things that keep institutions going.

I also have a knack for recruiting graduate students. So, I’ve rotated through being department chair, graduate director, interim dean, and now director of our seminary. I’ve had to learn to book in time just for the unseen issues that always arise with roles like these.

When a project arises, I now consciously think about what it should take and then plan for it to take almost twice as long because I know that the workable bits of my schedule will get eaten up by some administrative or teaching duty. Another reason for doubling the time is an attempt to pay better attention to my health. While I don’t have any lingering side effects from my brain issue, I do think I’ve lost some stamina that helped me push through in the past. So, being realistic about what I can mentally and emotionally process is just a reality that I didn’t have to consider before.

Booking in sabbath is necessary for longevity and production. I got to below empty this spring, and it took me almost the whole summer to recharge my batteries. I intentionally never teach in the summer because I know I always go full-tilt in the regular semesters and need that recuperation time.

As you consider the amount of time to commit, another issue to consider is the afterlife of the project. No project is done even when you send off the “final” manuscript. There are potentially multiple rounds of responding to editor responses and the requisite time and effort spent developing indexes. Plus, with books, there are all the necessary marketing aspects, particularly if the you’re not just with a strictly academic press. This includes managing endorsements, blog work, etc. If you don’t mentally book in that space, it can really throw off your subsequent projects.

When working on multiple projects concurrently, what tools do you use (e.g., filing systems, project management tools, apps)?

The primary tool is having a Word document for each project. As I mentioned, I work on projects serially, so there’s always a chapter or essay that I’m currently working on which will be organized into sections, etc.

For the other projects, I keep both a Word document with general list for ideas that are in the germination phase and another document for each project that has spawned into something specific. The general list has paper ideas that I think I would like to come back to some day but that I haven’t thought through enough to have an outline or anything. The specific projects are ones that I have usually committed to or just have in progress.

How has your approach to concurrent writing projects changed over time?

I try more and more to use my concurrent projects to overlap in some way. That way, I can maximize my productivity and use the multiple projects to sharpen my thinking about my larger monograph projects.

That said, some opportunities just don’t fit. I’ve not written nor will I come back to anything on Revelation and the Damascus Document anytime soon. So when I was working on Reading Revelation in Context, I just had to add that to my Paul and reception history work. While I was not as efficient on the Revelation project, it is helpful and even necessary to branch out of your comfort areas to expand your competencies.

What are two or more projects you’re particularly excited about that you’re now working on concurrently?

I’m most excited about my in-progress monograph—Participating in the Righteousness of God. It’s been delayed by at least two years beyond when I first expected to finish it, but those delays have been providential because some new work has come out in the meantime that has given me clarity on the project. The next monograph that I’m just at the initial phases on is the Theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians for an update to the Cambridge series.

What closing advice would you offer to (post-)graduate students and new faculty as they try to become comfortable and competent for themselves in making progress concurrently on multiple writing projects?

While writing is important and gives an opportunity to have a dispersed impact, I believe investing in institutions and people is necessary for the longevity of our work as well. Finding that balance is necessary. Institutions are generally poor at valuing anything other than that which contributes to the current need, so they will often not value writing even though it is necessary for the reputation of the institution (and your career progression).

Everyone will have different gifts, but acknowledging to yourself the value of institutional progress and personal writing progress is necessary. By understanding and evaluating the relative value, you can then allocate your time appropriately to those relative areas.


  1. Header image provided by Freddie Marriage via Unsplash

Pro Tips for Busy Writers: Craig Keener

Headshot of Craig Keener

I’m grateful to Craig Keener for his willingness to contribute to the continuing series “Pro Tips for Busy Writers.”1

Craig has authored 25 books and numerous journal articles. A consistent hallmark of Craig’s work are his copious specific references to and interactions with a wide variety of primary literature.

Craig is finishing up his term as the general editor of the Bulletin for Biblical Research. He blogs at Bible Background.

On a personal note, I met Craig in 2011 when he happened to sit down and strike up a brief conversation in a hotel lobby at the annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting. At the time, I was in the throes of full-time adjunct work and hunting for a full-time faculty post in a proverbially thin market, an all too common experience then as now.

I don’t recall any of the substance of the conversation, but I distinctly remember Craig’s compassion and kindness as he inquired what I was doing and listened to the challenges I was facing. I’m grateful he took the opportunity in the interview below to share some of his own similar challenges in between finishing his PhD at Duke and his landing at Asbury.

By this point in your career, you’ve likely worked on several writing projects concurrently (e.g., articles, books). What’s a memorable example of a cluster of projects you worked on concurrently?

Quite often I am rushing to complete writing one book by a deadline, and another book comes back for responding to editorial queries, while yet another, closer to publication, comes back for indexing. My larger books, with lots of references, require 60 hours a week of indexing for a couple months (the four volumes of Acts took maybe 14 months altogether to index).

I can’t hire students to do the work because nobody else can put in 60 hours a week. So sometimes I have “crunch time” and occasionally have to ask for an extension.

Under more normal circumstances, indexing can be relaxing; I can listen to something low-intensity (say some friends’ podcasts or radio broadcasts) while doing it. But it’s hard to predict exactly when the publisher will ask for something, and sometimes I will work very hard to finish by the deadline they request, and the book will still take eight months to come out. It’s quite hard to publish something that is completely “current”!

Larger projects (e.g., a dissertation, a second monograph) can be more important but less urgent than others (e.g., conference papers, book reviews). How do you avoid letting good-but-less-important projects push out or cause you to procrastinate on those that are more important but less urgent?

Different people may respond to this differently. Here I will share my own experience of completing my dissertation, with the pluses and minuses of my approach.

I saw some of my undergraduate professors struggling to finish their dissertations while teaching full loads, so I resolved to complete mine as efficiently as possible. I decided not to do conference papers or book reviews until I had finished my dissertation; I figured that if I published enough—and I already knew that I was sitting on vast mounds of publishable research!—I would be invited to do papers or book reviews later, so I wouldn’t have to worry in the meantime about the time-consuming process of submitting proposals and then potentially having them rejected. (And naturally over the years this has happened. I cannot accept most invitations that I receive now for lack of available time but do the ones that I can.)

Having said all that, I underestimated the difficulty of finding a job after I got out. I’m not sure that the conference papers would have made much of a difference in that job market, since I felt that published articles were stronger on the c.v., and I had only a limited number of even those at that point. I did get some job interviews, but sometimes there were confessional sticking points (some faculty considered me too conservative or too liberal or wrong on this or that theological point or counted against me life circumstances beyond my control).

Usually it was simply that there were many applicants and others fit the program’s particular needs better than I did. Most places had no openings anyway, and professors with teaching experience elsewhere had the first advantage.

I was just praying that the Lord would open the right door; I was convinced that God had led me to do the degree and that I should teach; I needed just one job, not many. Finally a seminary hired me, where I fit the program’s needs better than some others. So it can even out in the end. 🙂

When you’ve worked on multiple projects concurrently, what processes, principles, or practices have you used to be sure you’re making good progress on all fronts?

I find it much easier personally to finish one project before starting another. I’m ADHD, so part of my discipline is making myself finish, since otherwise I would jump from one thing to another and never finish anything. But unless one works only with a single publisher, the work flow is somewhat unpredictable. Meeting publishers’ deadlines takes one kind of self-discipline; working when none of the publishers has any urgent deadlines—when we have to be self-motivated—is another.

Normally I just try to put in solid days of writing (or, back in the days where as a young professor I would have five classes in a semester, solid hours of writing wherever I could). That’s a regular work flow, and it becomes hectic only when I have two deadlines at once (say completing a book for one publisher, while needing to get an earlier book indexed for a different one). When I have two competing projects, I usually try to knock the shorter one out of the way first and then get back on a regular schedule with the longer one.

For me, researching/writing is my default mode. After my devotions and breakfast, barring something urgent, I just go to work on research/writing. Starting a new project initially feels held back by inertia, so I just jump into it by forcing myself but then choose the pieces of it with which I feel most comfortable (sometimes collecting and organizing thoughts here and there; often I am aware of what I believe to be the Lord’s guidance or help in that). Once I start getting into it, it builds momentum and becomes the most natural thing for me to jump into every time I get the chance. If you do something regularly for 30 days, it becomes a habit.

I do take sabbaths—that is also part of my routine, ever since doctoral work. So the rhythm doesn’t have to be exactly the same every day. And some days are entirely solid teaching and in meetings at the seminary, with no writing at all. I mentally compartmentalize them as a separate sphere, so I don’t feel like I need to be writing during those times, any more than I need to interrupt my writing time for seminary administrative issues that can be handled together at a different time. Time-consuming stuff like T.V. I just don’t do (except, when my brain is too tired to think much before bed, I might catch some news on the BBC); that too is a habit we can break or establish based on our goals.

Do you divide your process between research and writing? If so, how?

For me, the research is more fun. I love just working through ancient texts making discoveries that may be relevant to how I can understand the NT. But it’s not going to benefit others unless I organize it and communicate it. So much as I enjoy the study/research stage, I then need to arrange the material topically or textually (around biblical texts, for commentaries).

Happily, while writing I come up with new questions that invite some more research, so I can keep learning along the way. Nevertheless, I treat them as mostly discrete stages, so I may be collecting data for months, and then writing for months.

What do you do to help you avoid overcommitting yourself either on timelines that are too short for their projects or on how many projects you take on? How do you avoid undercommitting?

It’s not always easy, at least for me, to estimate how long a project is going to take or what size it will be. I do always pray that it will take a shorter time than I guess, and that often happens. But I expected my Acts commentary to take two years. Instead, at the end of two years, I expected two more years to finish. And two more years at the end of those. Ultimately, it took about ten years to finish, though I was focused on getting married and establishing a home life during part of that period. Had I properly anticipating how long the Acts project was going to take, I never would have undertaken it. (In this case, I’m therefore glad that I didn’t know!)

When working on multiple projects concurrently, what tools do you use (e.g., filing systems, project management tools, apps)?

I already have my data filed, though much of that was done manually before computers were widely available. I don’t have specific tools to keep projects separate except sometimes notes to myself on my calendar to remind me to come back to something. Big projects stay in my head anyway because I pray about them and mentally prepare for them even before I can start writing; those tend to take months (or sometimes years).

How has your approach to concurrent writing projects changed over time?

I used to panic about them. Now I am more relaxed when I juggle projects. And my publishers run late often enough that I figure they need to give me some flex room if I can’t make their earliest suggested deadline. That can delay things, but one can do only what one can do, and I do my very best to complete everything well and on time. When a hard deadline hits that can’t take any longer, such as my revisions on my background commentary, then I have to turn it in as is.

What are two or more projects you’re particularly excited about that you’re now working on concurrently?

Developing Richard Burridge’s (and others’—David Aune, Charles Talbert, etc.) recognition of the gospels as biographies, Christobiography explores the historiographic implications of this genre assignment. That one, due out around late August 2019, is probably my most important academic work since my four-volume Acts commentary.

For 2020, Cambridge is publishing a one-volume, condensed version of my Acts commentary. Cascade will also publish many of my studies on Acts. Right now I am finishing a 1 Peter commentary for Baker and preparing a larger commentary on Mark, though it will be a while before the latter project sees print (not nearly as long as I spent on Acts, though 🙂 ).

What closing advice (if any) would you offer to (post-)graduate students and new faculty as they try to become comfortable and competent for themselves in making progress concurrently on multiple writing projects?

Ideally, you do want to pursue one project at a time, especially if it’s a big project. Whatever you do, however, it is important to discipline your time and organize your information. Projects seem more manageable if you pursue them in stages—say, collecting and organizing much of your data before you begin writing; writing a rough draft before trying to perfect it; etc.


  1. Header image provided by Freddie Marriage via Unsplash. 

Pro Tips for Busy Writers: Nijay Gupta

Headshot of Nijay GuptaIn our series on “Pro Tips for Busy Writers,” we’re hearing first from Nijay Gupta.

Nijay has authored or edited several volumes and articles. He has also published a guide for incoming students and new PhDs in biblical studies. This has proven helpful enough so that it is now being released in a second edition with “several updates and new sections.”

Nijay is the incoming general editor of the Bulletin for Biblical Research and has quite a robust slate of “forthcoming” and “under contract” publications on his docket. In addition to all this, Nijay blogs regularly with Chris Skinner at Crux Sola.

By this point in your career, you’ve likely worked on several writing projects concurrently (e.g., articles, books). What’s a memorable example of a cluster of projects you worked on concurrently?

A few years ago, I was invited to write a non-technical commentary on 1–2 Thessalonians as well as an advanced guide to academic scholarship on 1–2 Thessalonians. It was helpful ahead of time to set myself up to work on both and let one inform the other. I was also writing a monograph on Paul and a textbook.

Larger projects (e.g., a dissertation, a second monograph) can be more important but less urgent than others (e.g., conference papers, book reviews). How do you avoid letting good-but-less-important projects push out or cause you to procrastinate on those that are more important but less urgent?

I have a detailed weekly and daily schedule where I have firm blocks of research build in. As much as I can control it, I plan out which projects get which blocks of time—if I stick to that (fingers crossed), nothing gets neglected. That method has worked well for me over the past several years.

Also, as much as possible, I try to overlap the content of smaller projects with larger ones, so I “double-dip” on the research. So, if I am writing a commentary, I try to do speaking engagements or papers related to that biblical book.

When you’ve worked on multiple projects concurrently, what processes, principles, or practices have you used to be sure you’re making good progress on all fronts?

The most helpful thing for me is to map out my weekly time (over a period of several months or a year), so that I can plan ample time for each item. And then I have to stick to it! But I intentionally give a project “extra time” in my schedule to allow wiggle room in case I get sick, extra busy with other things, or hit a research snag.

I also try to write on subjects I naturally teach, and I try to teach courses that align with my research interests. So, for example, if your area is Hebrews, give yourself the freedom to spend 5 weeks on Hebrews in your Introduction to the New Testament course. Sometimes, faculty feel this is wrong, but my experience is that students love when faculty bring their passions and their fresh research to the classroom. So, don’t exhaust yourself, but find ways to bring the different areas of your vocation together for research synergy!

When working on multiple projects concurrently, what tools do you use (e.g., filing systems, project management tools, apps)?

I’ve settled into a good routine with apps. I have a master Google Doc with a bird’s eye schedule of my future writing projects. This helps me to see deadlines clearly. I also have separate documents that show a year’s planning of research, another for a semester, and another for a month.

I use Google Drive folders to store data, especially PDFs of important articles, scans of essays, etc. I have a master research Google Doc for each project I am working on. This is where I put my notes for the project. Then I have another document for the writing itself. This document will become to final essay or book.

I use Google Keep as a kind of “short term memory” where I will jot down quick thoughts on various issues when I am out and about and have an idea or two.

Currently I use BibleWorks for intensive research involving the biblical languages. I use Logos primarily for commentaries and dictionaries.

How has your approach to concurrent writing projects changed over time?

I am now at the point where I am re-using some bibliographic items for new projects that I used for older ones. So it is now more important that I have a good organization system for article and essay PDFs I have stored. I also take meticulous notes from ILL resources and books so I don’t have to re-read books. I wish I had thought about these things a decade ago!

What are two or more projects you’re particularly excited about that you’re now working on concurrently?

Right now, I am working on a monograph on Paul’s theology focusing on his language of love (Eerdmans). That will occupy my time for 2–3 more years. Also, I am writing a commentary on Galatians (Zondervan). I have completed the research, so now I am just writing. I am writing a few articles for the second edition of the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (InterVarsity Press), and I am writing a short New Testament theology for Zondervan.

What closing advice (if any) would you offer to (post-)graduate students and new faculty as they try to become comfortable and competent for themselves in making progress concurrently on multiple writing projects?

I’d mention a few other pieces of advice. First, don’t overcommit. It stresses you out as a writer, and it reflects negatively on you to the publisher if you delay too long. Don’t stress yourself out over publishing so much that you neglect your health, your family, and your ministry time (or charity work, if you are not interested in ministry).

Second, quality is far more important than quantity. Always have a few academics you trust read your work and give you feedback before you send it to the publisher.

Then, only publish with trusted presses and periodicals. Why waste all your time and energy for a piece of scholarship that is going to collect dust on a shelf or is buried somewhere on the internet?

Similarly, don’t self-publish. In all instances I can think of, if you can’t find a legitimate press wanting to publish your great idea, it might not be a great idea. Keep sharpening, grow as a professional, and keep trying to get it published with a good press.

Third, don’t write things that you are not passionate about. If it is just “CV” filler, skip it. Research and writing is your time, and time is the most precious commodity we have to spend. Use it wisely.

Lastly—this one is just something I’ve done, but it motivates me—make an academic bucket list. I have set 6–10 things I want to accomplish in my career. It helps me focus, and I get excited at the opportunity to push myself. I get offers to write a book or commentary sometimes, and now I check with the bucket list to help me stay focused.

What’s your single biggest takeaway from this interview?

Header image provided by Freddie Marriage via Unsplash

Pro Tips for Busy Writers: New Series

If you’re an emerging scholar, you probably know you should be writing like crazy. Whether you’re wanting to do so for publication or for class, you know the hard work of moving ideas into written words is one of the most important things you need to do.

But then … when and how do you do it?

Writing = Important, not Urgent

Scholarly writing is rarely urgent, and it can easily get de-prioritized or bumped indefinitely to “later.” Or, maybe you have a good writing routine, but you struggle to juggle progress on the different projects you’ve committed to.

Whatever your situation, you’re not alone. Others have gone before you. And you can learn the craft of more productive writing without infinitely increasing the leisure time you have to accomplish it.

To help you do just this, I’m beginning a new series, “Pro Tips for Busy Writers.”

Pro Tips Details

In this series, we’ll hear from mid- and later-career scholars who have crossed some of the same hurdles your facing. We’ll hear what advice they have for facing these obstacles. And we’ll think about the lessons emerge and that might help you become better at putting your scholarship into writing.

When I’ve done series in the past, I’ve generally done them sequentially one post after the other. With this series, there might be some of that too.

But more typically, you should probably expect that this will be an intermittent series. It’s based around the thought of scholars who often have quite stringent schedules of their own. So as I get responses, I’ll prepare and post them as additions to this series. Otherwise, we’ll continue working through other topics, whether those are in stand-alone posts or in other series.

Conclusion

With this in mind, tune in next week, and we’ll give this new series a proper kick off. For now, I’ll leave you in suspense over who we’ll be hearing from. 🙂

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done so yet, use the form below to subscribe to my email list so you’ll be sure to get this first interview when it becomes available. It’ll certainly be well worth the read.

Is there a particular “pro tip” you’d like to see addressed? Or, is there a mid- or later-career scholar you’d particularly like to hear from in this series?

Header image provided by Freddie Marriage via Unsplash