ehp volum e 17 issue 5 ehps.net/ehp The European Health Psychologist This year at EH PS, I registered for the pre- conference workshop titled “ To Provide Inno- vative Strategies for Writing Scientific Papers, Including Creative Use of New Internet Resources, and Responding to Reviews, Including Rejection ”. The day long workshop took place on Tuesday 1st September between 9am - 5pm at the Grand Resort (the conference venue) and was facilitated by Prof. James Coyne of the University Medical Center, Groningen in the Netherlands. With 350 publications, it is clear that Prof. Coyne is a talented academic. He has also been designated by ISI Web of Science as one of the most impactful psychologists and psychiatrists in the world. In the workshop, the entire publication process was addressed from submitting a manuscript, to responding to reviews and deciding whether to appeal rejections. Prof. Coyne began the day by telling us that scientific writing has changed. Reporting good science is now not sufficient to ensure publication. We were told that our mentors didn’t always know best, as social media and fast- paced communications replace traditional methods. We are now forced to make personal choices about adopting new practices in a rapidly changing environment. The group were told that writing is about crafting stories: a good paper is a good story. Writers are challenged to market their manuscripts. We must convince a journal that they should want to publish our paper. Starting with the cover letter, title, and abstract, we must strive to inspire interest and create a persuasive narrative. With the challenge set and status quo placed to one side, we began to discuss the writing process. The advice was pretty simple in many ways: write. Just write. Every day. Academics should practice writing at least 200 words a day. Make it an automatic routine practice. Remove the shackles and inhibitions. Embed this into your day and refine your art. Binge writing is less productive than slowly crafting a piece over time. Think about the piece before you write. Get to know the literature. Sign up for Google alerts and follow researchers on Twitter. Find blogs that discuss work you are interested in. Structure procrastination so that when you ’ re not doing what you should be doing, you ’ re still doing something useful. This creative background process allows you to get your ideas together. Then write a “ shitty first draft ” - get the ideas on the page. Come back and polish the piece over time. How do we get people to want to read our paper? Maximise immediate attention by being innovative. Produce an eye- catching title or abstract- not misleading or inaccurate, just eye- catching. Promote your paper and tell people why what you ’ re doing is important. Identify the likely problems with the paper and address them. Turn these problems into selling points, by acknowledging limitations. Have an abstract that draws people in. Don ’ t write your abstract last; use it as a tool to get ideas in order. Don ’ t spend Crafting Stories: Workshop on innovative strategiesfor writing scientific papers report crafting stories Teresa Corbett National University of Ireland, Galway Corbett