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news quick thought

The Last Three Weeks

They’ve been quite intense actually! In the last three weeks I have:

  • delivered seven workshops, including facilitating a Grad School;
  • three of the workshops were Viva Survivor, and I also spent half a day working with PhD supervisors and telling them about my research so far into the viva experience of PhD graduates;
  • travelled to Wales and Scotland – including my first workshop in Edinburgh;
  • finished the first draft of my second book;
  • been ill for a day, which really knocked the wind out of my sails;
  • read several books – including a few from my reading list for 2015;
  • signed up with Payhip, and from next month I’ll be selling Fail Your Viva through that service as well as through Amazon.

I’ll write again on Friday with details of the books that I’ve read so far, and why I think they might be interesting to you, dear reader. I’m also working to arrange new interviews for the Viva Survivors Podcast – and if you’d like to join me on the podcast to talk about your viva then do get in touch.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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news

Quick New Book Update

I’ve not written as many posts in the last week, as I was powering ahead with writing and also out delivering workshops as well. Which lead to me missing a couple of posting slots. But then yesterday:

A first draft is just the first step – next, after a break to let me forget it a little, comes editing, then sharing with a few people, then the other side of self-publishing (covers, files and so on)… But it’s on the way, and on track for a release before Easter!

Watch this space for more details, and thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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quick thought

Two Questions

They’ve been rattling around in my head these last few days.

I used the first one at a workshop last week, after reading it an article of questions that coaches use to get the best from people. I used it because I like the language of it, but in musing on it, I think there is a second question that has to come after it.

The first question is “what excites you?” For me, it’s playing games, of all kinds – board games, card games, dice games, role-playing games, computer games. I should probably qualify that: playing games with people for all but computer and video games (I like playing video games by myself).

I used this question just as a springboard to get people talking, and only afterwards did I think that there is a question which has to come after this one, at some point, maybe not immediately, but it is there and it is necessary. The second question is “what do you need to do to get more of what excites you?

And that’s hard… But it’s what I’m thinking about at the moment.

Thanks for reading – if these questions resonate with you, please comment!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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news

Catch Up, 26th January 2015

Previously in this sort-of link round-up slot I’ve had some kind of format where I talk about things in certain orders and so on. But after having spent a lot of time writing out to a clear structure lately (he says, conversationally referencing his next book) I thought I would write as things occur in this post.

Work

I spent some time away last week at my first KESS Grad School of the year; it was great to work with a group of MRes scholars, hear about their research and look at some interesting case studies. Very happy that I have some more of these in the coming six months. This week I’m away in Bangor for a couple of days, talking to staff and PhD candidates about vivas, and on Friday morning I’m at LJMU to talk about viva prep there too. Busy times!

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quick thought

What’s your secret ingredient?

(from my slush pile of half-baked thoughts; a short post while I work on my next book!)

I was watching a food show and they talked about the secret ingredient in Big Macs. I didn’t have a Big Mac until I was in my thirties, and I have maybe two a year. They’re not the greatest burger ever but they have something about them. But the secret ingredient aspect is odd when you think about it. The secret ingredient in Big Macs (or in any recipe) can’t really be secret – if it was, it couldn’t be sold. It has to be something that other people could use – it is only kept quiet to keep a monopoly on something. If you or I knew all of the ingredients in a Big Mac (which must be listed somewhere) then we could recreate it.

This got me thinking about the secret ingredients of people. What is the thing that you do that lets you do what you do well? Is it really a secret – or is it something that it might be really good to tell other people about? Can it be replicated, and if it could, would you be obligated to tell people?

Like I said in the bracket at the top – it’s a half-baked thought, but there is a thought there! What do you think? What’s your secret ingredient?

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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quick thought

Book 2 Progress

Another short post today (on Monday I was at a KESS Grad School, today I’m not home most of the day with some belated birthday celebrations!), and I just wanted to give a quick update on my next book, which is coming along quite nicely.

While I have procrastinated for a very long time on writing a second book, it seems like all of that thinking time has paid off big dividends in terms of being able to write the damn thing. When I sit down with my goals in front of me, it seems almost easy to get the words out. About a third of the chapters are being reworked from existing material that I have, and the rest I am working from outlines that I created before Christmas. I’m getting between 1500 and 3000 words written per day, so at this rate I’m looking at a first draft being finished around the first week of February.

I’ll print it and leave it alone for a week then – which will no doubt drive me crazy – before beginning the task of editing. I’m using Pressbooks to typeset it in, so the text should look good if nothing else! I’ll have to start thinking seriously about a cover soon – I have a few options in front of me – and all in all, it feels like I am on track to publish by Easter.

Oh, and the working title is still “Frequently Asked Questions About The PhD Viva“!

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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quick thought

Meanwhile, over on the Viva Survivors Podcast

Hello! I’m away at the moment working on a local Grad School as part of the KESS programme, so I’m not here to write anything.

(how is this being written…? Isn’t technology wonderful!)

So what really happened is I was preparing to go away and thought “Oh noes! I didn’t prepare a post for while I was away!”

So today I’m just crosslinking to the Viva Survivors Podcast, where there is a brand new episode up now, featuring Dr Helen Kara. It was really good fun talking to Helen, and she has some great advice to share with PhD candidates – and for postgraduate researchers in general. There’s also a recent post from me talking about the goals of the podcast for the next year, and on 26th January there’ll be another new episode, so look out for that.

That’s all for today, another short post on Wednesday, but hopefully something more substantial on Friday.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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series

Common Questions about the Viva Round-up

Last post for the week, and another little summary of things that I was doing towards the end of last year. The posts that I wrote based on the common questions I get in Viva Survivor workshops seemed to be really interesting to people (and when I remember to look at what people are viewing from time to time these posts keep on coming up). As I said towards the end of the year, these posts have lead to my next book, which I’m in the process of writing now – hence these recap posts!

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series

Acronym Post Round-Up

When I started blogging regularly back in the autumn I started with a series of posts about my favourite acronyms. Acronyms sometimes get a raw deal, mistaken for being trite or silly – but actually I think they can be really useful in summarising valuable ideas. In working with researchers for the last six years I’ve shared many (hopefully!) helpful techniques using acronyms. The posts I’m collecting here are eight of my favourites.

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creative thinking

Creativity Post Round-Up

While I get to work putting my next book together, I thought it might be a good time to create a few posts summarising some of the regular series that I shared towards the end of 2014. I created a total of seven posts in my little series on creative thinking; I think that after my new book on the viva is finished I’ll return to sharing some more on creativity, it’s a topic I enjoy a lot!