Table 4. Benefits resulting from participation in the writing program as discussed during semi-structured interviews.
| Theme | Definition | Number (%) of participants reporting (n = 14) | Number (%) of mentions (n = 259 coded segments) |
Example quotation (participant number) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belonging to a community of writers | Participants experienced relatedness with others through a sense of like-mindedness toward writing, shared research interests, and/or psychological safety during group discussions | 14 (100) | 93 (36) | “It goes a little beyond just the social interaction, I think [facilitator] did an amazing job at engaging certain senior level faculty who made it feel safe, who weren’t like big and scary, because we’re used to dealing with big, scary, intimidating, full professor, tenured faculty every single day who don’t, who may not be as supportive, encouraging, who may not understand and identify with the failures that we’re experiencing during our writing processes…I kind of got the sense that it was intentional, that she engaged them into being a part of Writer’s Block for the purpose of helping set the tone, that very supportive tone, that safe tone…and we never had a fear of anything leaking out of Writer’s Block.” (Participant 14) “I participated in the Write and Recharge, loved, loved, loved it, and found out I really enjoy parallel writing, I like being in a group with people who are like-minded, so the energy is real positive and they’re really in the zone. Nobody bothers you, you’re doing what you need to do, and it was great.” (Participant 5) |
| Managing emotions related to writing | Participants experienced enhanced positive emotions (e.g., enjoyment, satisfaction) and alleviated negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, disappointment) toward writing | 14 (100) | 43 (17) | “I was never taught how to write for manuscript purposes…I never had a mentor to really show me how to write or how to dedicate that time or, or any of that. It’s been a struggle, and honestly, it’s been terrifying. So this has been really a wonderful way to like demystify the process a little bit.” (Participant 5) “Dealing with criticism of papers… was very difficult, to the point to where it was immobilizing…So Writer’s Block helped me deal with issues like that, literally, hey, team, this week I’m going to open up the email I got back and I’m going to review it, and then there was, it was such a supportive community, faculty at all levels participated in Writer’s Block and they would say, ‘Well, let me review it for you, let me break it down into different categories of importance and value and pass it along to you’…So I’m not as fearful of comments anymore.” (Participant 14) |
| Improved productivity in scholarly writing | Participants met goals, completed or made progress toward writing projects, and/or jumpstarted new writing projects | 12 (86) | 50 (19) | “There were two papers I wanted to get out, one I did; [the other] was not as far along as I thought it was but I’m still making progress on it. And then there’s actually a different one that I made more progress on because the results were further along than the other paper…I got [it] done that had been sitting there for like a few years. So getting some of those old papers revived and in for submission is huge.” (Participant 2) “It’s helpful in that, it’s that moment of reflection that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, and there is something very reinforcing about, you know, realizing you’re making progress and kind of stopping and acknowledging it, you know.” (Participant 8) |
| Establishing helpful writing habits | Participants adopted practices that made writing more productive and/or enjoyable | 11 (79) | 49 (19) | “I mentioned that I would like a social writing partner, someone that would meet me somewhere and write because…I was really surprised at how much I wrote just sitting in a room full of people writing. And so I asked…if anyone was interested and [participant name] reached out and we’d meet every Tuesday morning…and so now I know Tuesday mornings from 9–11 is writing time and that’s been the most beneficial.” (Participant 3) “…the biggest win I have from this besides blocking time [for writing] and setting boundaries is managing what I can do in the time…I block this time and I protect it so if [colleagues] want to schedule this like silly [meeting name] in my writer’s block time that I set for myself, I know that it’s not going to make or break my career or change anything that I can’t read in the minutes.” (Participant 7) |
| Improved motivation for scholarly writing | Participants experienced increased desire or willingness to write | 9 (64) | 19 (7) | “I’m very much benefiting from [the writing program] because I think I need timelines. When I have timelines, when I know that I am expected to deliver an outcome at a certain date then I, I get more motivated, I try to carve out more time from my non-clinical duties basically, sometimes after hours, early in the mornings, on the weekends, because I was able to set my goals for a month, realistic expectations that I set for myself, that I was able to deliver that goal to the best of my ability.” (Participant 1) “So [participant name] was actually in my group, so hearing about some of his challenges, and he’s such a, a great researcher and so dedicated and writes like amazing things, so I was like if he’s having challenges and he can still like rock it and [laughter] do all these amazing things, I’m like, okay, I have no excuse, he’s busier than I am so I better get cracking and figure out how to do what he’s doing.” (Participant 2) |