Trevor Thrall

As the founder of Get Your Writing Done and author of The 12 Week Year for Writers, my mission is to help people reach their goals by helping them to become the most productive writers they can be.

I have spent more than 20 years using the 12 Week Year to manage my own writing. I have used the system to publish seven books and edited volumes, a host of academic articles and book chapters, and scores of op-eds and commentaries.

My work has been published in outlets such as the Atlantic, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Detroit News, among others. I received my Ph.D. in political science from M.I.T. and left my post as Associate Professor at George Mason University in 2022 to live the entrepreneurial life. I live near the beach in North Carolina with my wife and two naughty dogs.

My philosophy on writing and productivity

I believe that writing is one of the most important ways people have to express themselves. I also believe that writing is one of the most important responsibilities for a growing number of professionals. Despite, this, writing is a difficult skill to master – whatever genre you’re talking about. As a result, learning to be a great writer is a lifelong journey.

But I also believe that being a productive writer is very different from being a good writer. Good writers – even great writers – often have trouble getting their writing done, or writing as much as they would like to. As a result, learning to be a productive writer is also a lifelong journey.

Though there are probably as many challenges to writing productively as there are writers, my experience suggests that a large percentage of them boil down to a single fact: planning and managing the execution of one’s writing amidst a crazy, busy life is really hard. As a result, for most people becoming a productive writer means mastering a system that enables them to do this on a consistent basis.

Finally, having learned from both personal experience and from working with thousands of student writers, I believe that very few of us are born with an innate productivity gene. Nor do we learn much about how to manage our writing as students, despite so many years of school. As a result, most of us need to find a system and learn how to do this as adults.

I have seen how much writing can mean for people’s happiness and their careers. My goal is to help as many other people become productive writers as possible by helping them master the 12 Week Year.