In Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write, Helen Sword found similar attitudes among college faculty. Sword discusses the importance of the writer’s BASE—(B)ehavioral habits, (A)rtisanal habits, (S)ocial habits, and (E)motional habits—for successfully producing writing.2 Under social habits, Sword articulates the importance of writing for and with others, writing as collaborative communication. Emotional habits include cultivating pleasure as well as learning to navigate risk and resistance, traits that extend well beyond writing.
