Writing is easy, it's quality that's hard. Any idiot who knows 5 words can write a sentence (e.g. "Dufus big much Scott is"). It might be grammarless, broken, or inaccurate but it is writing. This means that when people can't start they're imagining the precision of the end, all polished and brilliant, a vision that makes the ugly clumsy junkyard that all beginnings are, impossible to accept. Good voice, tone, rhythm, ideas and grammar are essential to good writing, but they're never introduced all at once. I promise you, the first draft of Strunk and White didn't follow Strunk and White. The secret, if you can't start, is to begin without constraints. Deliberately write badly, but write.
For this reason writer's block is a sham. Anyone who wrote yesterday can write today, it's just a question of if they can do it to their own satisfaction. It's not the fear of writing that blocks people, it's its fear of not writing well; something quite different. Certainly every writer has moments of paralysis, but the way out is to properly frame what's going on, and writer's block, as commonly misunderstood, is a red herring.
Consider this: Have you ever been blocked while playing Frisbee? Eating doughnuts? Dancing naked in your living room? Those are joyful things and there's nothing at stake: if you fail, who cares? Nobody. If there are no rules, and no judgment, psychological blocks are impossible. And remember writers like making names and overthinking things: there is no term for architect-block, painter-block, juggler-block or composer-block. Every creative pursuit faces similar pressures, but they don't obsess about it the way writers seem to do.
So play. Loosen up. Smile. Break the framework that's making it impossible to start. Forget the deadline and the assignment and just be an open mind with a pen. Remember that until you say you're finished, you can break all the rules. If you can't get started, your psychology is making the challenge bigger than you can handle. Thinking of the book, the chapter, the page, the paragraph, is all too big if while you're thinking, the page remains blank. Like a weightlifter out of his class, a writer with a blank page needs to lighten the load.
Writing hacks for starting
In the grand tradition of lists and books of hacks, writing hacks are clever little actions that give you leverage and put the dynamics in your favor.
In an excerpt from “The Process of Writing: Cooking” (Writing without Teachers, 1976), Peter Elbow shares his two-step freewriting method he learned to help him move past the fog of doubt caused by writer’s block. He sympathized with the reader and offered the advice to write indiscriminately, recognize the symptoms of encroaching panic, and redirect when necessary. Lastly, he explained how he could then assemble a mess of words into one idea while avoiding unnecessary frustrations. Then, typically, he would have reserved enough strength to edit constructively.
This is how you train your unconscienced to kick in creatively.” (Lamott 96) This is overall good advice for most. Some or all of us get distracted by many things chores, life, kids, work, cat that won’t stop meowing even a simple list that Lammot states is “Nurse Ratchet like listing of things that must be done right this moment” (96). The author says that we need to ignore all distractions no matter how much our brain may scream at us to get the other work done or something bad will happen we must persevere to finish or at least start the paper. Or else it will never get done and you will be putting together a Frankenstein like paper at two in the morning.
Writing is a process in which many people struggle. Just getting started with the process can be overwhelming. The Purdue Online Owl Writing Lab website authors Stacy Weida and Karl Stolley give helpful insight into the beginning steps of the writing process. Together they address the issues faced by many people in their article entitled, Invention: Starting the Writing Process (February 9, 2011). Good writing takes time and planning. It is a good idea to set aside many different time slots to work on what you are writing. Writing evolves planning, prewriting, writing and many revisions. By leaving your writing for a few minutes and then returning you are able to get a fresh look at your work. “Find out when is the assignment due and devise
Once the writing is done, this is where the fear comes alive. It’s the fear of failure, disappointment, disapproval, and maybe even success. Collin Brooke and Allison Carr say, “The ability to write well comes neither naturally nor easily.” (Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development 63) This statement is something I wish I could let myself believe. I have a preconceived notion that writers are born, not made. That my brother, a fellow writer, will see more success than myself. Why would anyone ever care what I have to say about anything? These are the fears and insecurities that limit me from growing with my process. Brooke and Carr also say about writers, “...they are the ones who are able to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep writing until they get it right.” (63) If I could challenge my process, I would challenge myself to do exactly what this quote says. My first draft always has to be the perfect draft, but this is unrealistic. I limit myself before I even start with this ideology. My hope for my process is to challenge myself to take more risks, write more drafts, and fail so I can at least say I tried. I may even challenge myself to get a head start on some of those due dates...
As stated by Anaïs Nin, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Writing is a beautiful way to express how we feel, to make experiences memorable and to also be whoever we want to be. Writing is not easy for me. I always feel anxious before I begin to write, and this is because I’m always telling myself that “I don’t like to write.” In order to get rid of the nervousness, I start reading about whatever I have to write about so I can enrich my mind about that particular topic. Most of the times this does not work out, therefore I go to sleep and recharge my brain. As soon as I get back up I’m ready to write. My room is an ideal environment for me to write. Nobody’s there to distract me, so I put my headphones on because
The fear of failing is nothing new and Stage fright is not just for actors. Fear is always haunting it’s victim with every move they make. It is common among individuals in writing and life in general, to be nervous anytime they commence in an activity that is judged by society. No writer purposely states they want to fail, but they do express the fear of failing that circle through their brain constantly. Anne Lamott and Junot Diaz proclaim their fears of failing in their articles. Lamott wrote critiques on restaurants around the world. Whenever she began composing a new article for her column she faced the fear of failing. She would think, “I’m not going to be able to get the magic to work this time. I’m ruined. I’m through. I’m toast” (24). So many ideas floated around her head, but those ideas were in a giant tangle. Once she realized she just had to unravel the tangle and start writing she would push this fear away. There is a point in a writer’s journey where they think they cannot go any longer before they fail. T...
When trying to think of a positive writing experience I have had in my lifetime, particularly as a small child, I could not think of any. So I began to ask myself why is it that I do not like writing, what happened in my life for me to have such animosity towards the act. I was finally able to think of an event and realized that it had all begun in the 3rd grade. One day, as a punishment for talking during class, I was kept inside during recess and was forced to write Wise Old Owls until my hands began to cramp. For 45 minutes, I was only allowed to write the same old phrase over and over again; “The wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke, the less he spoke the more he heard, why can’t I be like that wise old bird”. To this day I can still remember that little rhyme and to this day I can remember that same feeling I felt as a elementary school student. From that point on I have always had an aversion for writing, it always seemed like a punishment. I still do not understand how people can journal. I don’t see how someone can sit down and write an entry or a novel just for the hell of it. It seems unnatural to me, but I guess that all of these feelings are just because I see writing as a punishment, an
There are a number of factors that have influenced my writing today. I consider writing as one of the most tedious tasks. When given writing work, I tend to find it difficult to gather all my thoughts. The anxiety of what the outcome might be has always hindered my thinking and has thus led to my procrastination. I often feel that the rules that accompany writing is frustrating, like keeping up with the word limit, grammar and time management. However, I feel that the environment where I did most of my writing is mainly responsible for my writing toda...
When I was a child I liked to write letters to my friends. I had a lot of pen-pals.
Writing can be a very difficult process for those who do not know how to go about constructing
In the postmortem stages of the 12th grade paper writing process, one regales the hardships that they had overcome. These adversities include committing to a topic, the outlining of the essay, the collection of research resources, the writing itself, the revision process, etc. With these in mind, the writing process might seem daunting to a student less seasoned in the field. However, no frustration seems quite as impassable as beginning the paper writing process. This is the hardest step, as it doesn’t take research or physical attention. Starting the writing of a paper takes the willpower and focus of the writer to be accomplished. Simply put, getting the metaphorical ball of writing rolling takes mental acuity, not
Do you have a goal of becoming a published author? Then you'll have to be persistent in your writing and be able to persist even after you get 10 or 100 rejection letters for your article or book proposal. I've read about plenty of professional athletes, artists, business owners, etc. that were faced with plenty of setbacks but were determined to be persistence and little by little they edged their way to
There are a lot of things that people do to relieve pain, stress and emotions, one of them being writing. Simply writing down their thoughts can be relieving to them and a healthy way to let out anything that they might not want to tell others. Things that influence a person’s writing varies from emotions and their personal experiences. However, these experiences can be hard for some people, which can result in a huge conflict in their writing. Although, sometimes it has a negative connotation, many times it does not necessarily mean that it changes a person 's perspective. Often people learn good things from bad experiences, to prevent others from happening to them as said by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her story “The Yellow Wallpaper” or
The main reason why I have so much trouble when writing, is because I don't concentrate
Procrastination in writing is very common and can result in a substantial loss of pretentiously valuable time. There are many reasons that explain why people procrastinate but these reasons are not always the same from one individual to another. A wide variety of psychological aspects result in procrastination, one of which is anxiety. Everyone exercises procrastination at one point or another in their life, however, most people do not know the cause of this action, or lackthereof.