One Sunday afternoon, I was scrolling through Substack (as one does) and came across the title “How to Read Scientific Papers (Or Give Good Dating Advice)”. I was instantly hooked. As I read the article I had a few laughs, but I was also fascinated by how well the author had drawn out this comparison. I was immediately inspired to write something and looked for topics I can write about with confidence. As I scrolled through several papers, the excitement steadily wore off. Thirty minutes later, I went back to what I was doing before.

Sounds familiar? Most of us entering the science communication space face this at some point. We want to make science interesting and accessible to everyone, but when it comes time to jump in the deep end, it gets daunting. Responsibilities pile up, motivation dwindles and soon we haven’t touched our blog for months. I struggle with this too. I am on a quest to revive my writing habit amid my other responsibilities and I have been searching for sustainable practices to help me with this. In this article, I share a few perspectives I’ve found useful.

This piece is as much for myself as it is for you. Let’s fall (back) in love with science writing together.

Balancing science communication with other commitments

When you’re in the thick of life, it might be hard to schedule dedicated hours to write. All you might get is 15 - 20 minutes at the end of a long workday. How do you use them effectively?

1. Schedule those short bursts of time into your schedule rather than letting it take over your free time. At the end of a long day, the last thing you’ll want to do is analyse research and write about it. Scheduling it into your day helps you remain ‘on’ when you sit to write and helps you retain your personal time.

2. Talk about your area of expertise. If you’re a cancer biologist, talk about the latest developments in oncology. If you’re a computational biologist, tell us how AI is used in drug development. Expanding on what you know eases pressure when you’re short on time. After I wrote my first article, I spent the next few months searching for flashy science news to talk about and ended up not writing anything. Turning to things I already know is making it much easier for me to put pen to paper.

3. Be alert for bolts of inspiration. You can get ideas anywhere. If you get ideas and analogies in the middle of your day, capitalise on those moments, because writing breathes within them. Writing begins hours before you sit down in front of your laptop: when you hear an interesting perspective from your professor, a cool concept you discussed with a friend, or an interesting lab result.

Building and maintaining an audience without external pressure or metrics

Now that you’ve found a few ways to manage your time better, the next thing is maintaining motivation when you build an audience. How do you build your following without succumbing to external (or internal!) pressure?

1. Create your niche audience and write specifically to them. Mine is my parents. They have always been interested in understanding what I study, but don’t have the right background to understand the nitty gritty. So when I write, I write specifically to them. That way, I end up writing to all the people who have the same interest and understanding level as my parents do. Specificity creates universality, and that attracts an audience.

2. While universality builds an audience, visibility and consistency maintains them. This part is difficult (and one I struggle with the most) for various reasons: self-doubt, perfectionism, overthinking, etc. If you struggle with consistency, find your specific roadblock and work on that to close the gap.

3. How do you do this without crumbling to pressure? Having mentors who understand the work you do is a great way to keep your sanity. They can help you edit your work, find your style, and lift you up when you’re doing things right. A mentor can be someone you speak to personally, or someone whose words you come across virtually. Build your circle by reaching out to people you look up to on LinkedIn, join online courses, follow social media content creators, and read articles from those you admire to absorb their thoughts (I have linked some people I really admire). Having a community is an important and underrated way of building your audience without succumbing to external pressure.

Strategies for consistent writing when there's no immediate payoff or validation

Now that we’ve scheduled our writing sessions and learned how to write for an audience, we need to regulate the way we view and show up for our writing when there’s no immediate response to it. How do we remain motivated and consistent when our work is met with silence?

1. Write for the sake of learning. Sometimes, writing to publish can feel daunting. I begin to edit my words before I even get them onto a page and end up with one and a half lines after an hour. This is where the concept of mini-essays blew my mind. The creator in this video talks about how writing for the sake of learning helps us build the writing muscle and understand what we’re writing about better. Have writing sessions without the intention to publish. Each day, write 200-500 words about a topic you know well. Having a small target will help you stay consistent and teach you to distill your thoughts.

2. Another side-effect of mini-essays is that over time, you’ll be able to see throughlines which you can string together into a longer piece. It’s easier and more gratifying to pull from your own work. The more mini-essays you write, the more you’ll notice those patterns.

3. Don’t compare your routine to other people. An ‘ideal’ consistency metric means different things to different people and you will figure your rhythm with time. When you start, simply writing matters more than publishing once a week or twice a month. Focus more on the act of writing, and you will find confidence in what you have to say and how you want to say it.

Managing time and energy as a passion project while pursuing other goals

Despite scheduling our writing around other commitments and managing the emotions around it, time and energy may not align in our favour. How can we make our passion a priority without burning out?

1. Make it as small as possible. Scheduling a 1 hour writing session everyday can be noble but impractical. Start with 10-15 minutes or 100 words a day and work your way up. Keep the time you spend on it as embarrassingly bite-sized as you can. It may seem insignificant, but it’s what helps maintain consistency while managing time and energy.

2. Manage your distractions. This is something people rarely talk about with respect to science communication. Paying attention to nuances and perspectives requires focus. Putting together your ideas into well-constructed paragraphs requires discipline. Modern distractions are a sure-shot way of never doing those. If you spend all your down time scrolling on your phone, you lose writing time, and your brain will struggle to tune in and focus even when you do find the time.

3. Remind yourself why you do this. Revisit who you are writing for and what made you start. The inspiration behind the project can often help you find sparks of motivation, which will help you notice the pockets of time when you do have energy to write.

As science communicators, we operate from a desire to help and enlighten people on the topics we love. But like every independent venture, it comes with its own set of challenges. Learning how to manage our time, energy, and emotions is a big part of what we do. I hope you were able to resonate with my words and take something away to make your science writing experience more gratifying!