Hot Take: Stop Rewriting Your Grants And Write Papers

Grants are, of course, essential for research. They fund our projects, sustain our labs, and provide the indirect costs universities depend on. But in today’s climate—especially with the instability of many federal grant programs—pouring endless hours into resubmitting proposals may not be the most strategic move. At the same time, your publications are what amplify your scholarly voice, shape your reputation in the field, and ultimately strengthen your future grant applications.

That tension between funding and publishing is one every scholar deals with. But what if, for this season, the smarter choice is to lean into writing papers rather than rewriting rejected grants? 

Tune in to learn why that pivot matters, how to balance the relationship between grants and publications, and why prioritizing papers right now may be the best investment in your academic career.

The Hot Take: Stop Rewriting Grants and Start Writing Papers

Here’s my hot take: stop endlessly resubmitting grant proposals and redirect that energy into publishing. With so much uncertainty around funding, your hard work may never even make it to review. Meanwhile, publications not only boost your promotion prospects but also demonstrate productivity to funders, making future grants more competitive. By turning up the “volume” on papers and temporarily dialing down on grants, you create tangible scholarly outputs that advance both your career and your credibility.

Programs and Supports to Help You Execute

If you’re ready to shift into a season focused on writing and publishing, here are some ways to get support:

• Listen to my podcast series, Publication Pipeline, where I discuss co-authoring, building a sustainable writing practice, and more. All episodes are free in the back catalog.
• Sign up for the Submit: You’re Almost Done in 3 Days Workshop—a focused, low-cost writing workshop to help you get an article to publication.
• Read my book, Making Time to Write —a practical guide packed with strategies to improve your relationship with writing, get articles to publication, and sustain your momentum.
• Apply for the Navigate Program, a 12-week academic writing coaching container designed to help you create a sustainable writing practice, gain time and project management skills, and tackle your backlog of papers with accountability, structure, and encouragement.
• Join my email newsletter, In the Pipeline, to get weekly writing insights, practical tips, and updates on upcoming programs delivered straight to your inbox.

“We need grants because we need money to do our research and also our universities need the indirect costs to pay their bills. So, we need to write grants as part of our process of promotion. It’s part of our work as scholars and we also need to put out peer reviewed journal articles as part of our work as scholars.”

“You, as a scholar, are always figuring or are always trying to manage this relationship between writing grants and writing papers. It is very difficult to be going 110% on grant writing and 110% on paper writing. The metaphor that I use is a mixing board. If you’re mixing up a pop hit, you’re not going to have all the tracks, the vocals, the drums, and the synthesizer at volume 100. You are going to have some in the background, something more upfront and that is what you have to do with your career as well. You can’t have grants at 100 volume and papers at 100 volume and teaching at 100 volume at 100 volume. That’s how you burn out. 

We’re receiving applications for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and start your application process here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Apply here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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