How to Write and Article in Six Days (Day 2)

On day 1 you will have written a thousand words. On day zero, you will have formulated an intention to write the article. Before that, you will have developed some scholarly expertise and learned how to do research and to follow the conventions of scholarly prose.

One day 2, you will get a good start, buoyed the success of day 1.  The goal will be to have a document of about 2,000 words.  You'll want to work mostly on the introduction. Come up with a good opening line, and a good thesis statement. Make sure the introduction checks the relevant boxes. Literature review, theoretical framing.  Do some signposting (I will first do this, then that.). I don't recommend leaving this in the final version, but you'll want to give yourself a sense of direction. If you are happy with the introduction, then finish some other paragraphs in the body of the paper, or work on the bibliography. 

Remind yourself again of your intention. For example, I remembered this morning that I also promised an article on this topic to a Polish journal of Hispanic studies. I will have to translate this paper into Spanish for that purpose.   

Now you have 1200 words. That wasn't too difficult. Write a blog post about your progress. Then start again, eking out a few more lines each time you sit down.