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It is one of the scariest things a writer has to face – writer’s block. You stare at the white sheet of paper, tapping your pen, and spacing out as you try to think of what to write. Looking at the blank page only reminds you that your mind is blank with ideas, too. The problem with writer’s block is that once a person feels stumped, they have a hard time forcing themselves to write anything at all. Quite often, some people even say they have writer’s block just to have an excuse not to write. Writing takes work, concentration, and creativity. Whatever your reason is for feeling that you have come down with writer’s block, here are some simple steps to help overcome your own block.

Step #1 Prewrite

Yes, you hear your instructors tell you all the time to prewrite, but do you ever listen to them? Prewriting (which is listed in another blog) is not just a way to organize your thoughts and get down ideas, it is another way to look at your writing project and force yourself to write. Getting past your writer’s block is often just a matter of looking at your task from a different perspective (or looking around your writer’s block, if you will). If you can brainstorm or outline some ideas for your writing, then you have a better chance at feeling confident and putting your pen to the paper to start writing. With all of the different methods of prewriting, there really isn’t any reason not to use at least one of them when you’re stumped.

Step #2 Write Backwards

Even after the prewriting is finished, you may still feel uncertain how you want to word your thoughts exactly. If that’s the case, jot down your ideas out of order – write the end first and the beginning last if you must. Sometimes your ideas may be scattered, which is why you are having trouble focusing on just one idea. Maybe your mind is blank with your introduction, but you know what you want to write for your body paragraphs. If that is the case, then just skip ahead. Write down whatever good ideas you think you have and reorganize them later.

Step #3 Take Your Opposing Side

If you are really uncomfortable with your topic and feel you have absolutely nothing to write about, then you may want to take yourself out of your own head and put it into someone else’s. This has nothing to do with cheating. You are supposed to write the opposite of what you really feel. Or, think of what other people would say about your subject. It may be easier putting down what you think other people feel or believe than what you actually believe. Your confidence in your own ideas may be what stops your writing. Do not use this technique all of the time though. There are some assignments where you need to give your honest opinion, and this method of breaking writer’s block may not always be suitable.

Step #4 Just Write!

It may sound harsh, but sometimes you just have to force your pen to move on the paper or to have your fingers move across the keyboard. Often people refuse to write anything because they don’t think their ideas or words are good enough. Well, when you’re struggling, writing something is better than writing nothing. Put down whatever comes to mind whether or not you think it sounds good. You can always fix it later, which is how we come to Step 5 in breaking the writer’s block.

Step #5 Walk Away… and Come Back

Sometimes students are just not in the right state-of-mind to write. If there are a bunch of things running through your head, you may need to just set up your writing assignment as best as you can and walk away from it for a while. When you come back to whatever writing you have put down, you may feel more inclined to fix your ideas and even add more ideas down on paper. Depending on how much time you have for your writing, walking away from your assignment for an hour or a full day may be just what you need to come back to your writing and look at your project with a clear head. When you come back to your writing, look it over with a critical eye, as if it were someone else’s paper, and see what you do and do not like about it. And then, take your writing from there. Unless you are taking an in-class essay, this method can be a great way to clear your mind. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on a different method of break down that writer’s wall.

Although many students don’t like the idea of doing extra work before they actually start their homework, writing an impressive essay actually requires putting in a little extra effort prior to putting  together a final draft. Prewriting techniques involve warming up your – the student’s – brain, organizing ideas, and setting up a plan before diving straight into writing a composition. It may take just a little extra time, but you will find that if you practice some prewriting  before every essay you write, your papers will be better written overall, which will in effect give a better overall grade. Ten or fifteen minutes of extra work may be the difference between a B and an A grade for your paper. And, with all of the different techniques you can use to prewrite, there really is no excuse not to use at least one of them.

Brainstorming

Writing down every idea that is related to your topic in a list form is one of the simplest forms of prewriting, which is called brainstorming. The great thing about brainstorming is that you can put anything in the list that pops into your head. If your topic is on birds and you have random thoughts like,

-They fly

-They’re pretty

-They squawk

-They poop on people’s heads

All of those things would be fine because your brainstorming ideas are related to your topic on birds.

Mapping, Clustering, Bubbling, Webbing

It has several different names, but whatever you want to call it, it is one of the quickest ways to organize ideas in a fun manner. Circling ideas and linking the related ones that surround your main idea is a messy way to be organized… which ends up feeling a lot more enjoyable than most homework does. And, since your related ideas are clustered together, your separate body paragraphs are already prepared for you. What’s better than a prewriting technique that’s fun and easy?

Free Writing

There is nothing more freeing than knowing you can write whatever you want without worrying about grammar, spelling, structure, or coherence. That is the joy of free writing – you are free to make mistakes and write whatever you want. The trick is to force yourself to continually keep your pen on the paper and write whatever thought comes to mind, while trying to think of your essay’s subject. You may go off topic at times, but that is okay. You do not want to stop or correct your free writing because you may lose a train of thought that could be useful to you later. Just force yourself to keep writing, and you will eventually have enough material to use in your composition. By reading over your free writing afterwards, you should highlight or underline any ideas you find useful to your essay.

Outlining

Although outlining is more structured than other forms of prewriting, it is a very useful format to use in order to have your essay organized prior to writing your essay, which was explained in a previous “how-to” (see “Writing Outlines”). Outlines also help your essay stay on topic. By outlining your body paragraphs with their specific points, it is easy to just refer to your ideas written in your outline before you begin writing your composition.

Asking Questions

Sometimes the only way students will work is if they feel they are being forced to. Asking yourself questions is a way to make yourself feel forced into coming up with ideas for your essay. The standard reporter’s questions – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? – are great ways to begin asking yourself questions about your topic. If you are still writing a composition about birds, ask yourself, “Who likes birds?” or “What kinds of birds are there?” or “Where do birds live?” Obviously, you can bend these questions to your own needs; these are just ways to force yourself into coming up with answers that will inevitably lead to ideas for your essay.

Julia H. Jackson

The fall semester is drawing to a close, and you are having that dream again. The one where you show up on the last day of class, assuming all your work is done, just to find out that your entire grade is riding on a semester-long research paper. The one you have seemingly forgotten. Your palms begin to sweat as your classmates share war stories about staying up all night revising their work, and then the professor turns to you, asking: “Where’s your paper?”

And then, hopefully, you wake up. Right?

Not to worry, fearless readers; there is still time left in the semester to polish up (or, err, start) your research paper. We’ve got five tips that will help you ace that term paper, or, at the very least, remind you to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

by Julia H. Jackson

Sometimes the simplest questions provoke the most complicated answers. When applying for college, you will be asked to write an essay that distills your personality into a few short paragraphs. Just how do you define yourself to an admissions advisor without appearing like just another one of the thousands of other applicants out there? In this, our last installment of Write Like You Mean It, we’ll pick apart a few application prompts and show you how to craft a unique personal statement essay.

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For new college students, the summer before school starts can be a stressful, hectic few months. You’re preparing for your first year of post-secondary school, you’re worried about your dorm, living in a new place, and on top of that, you need to line up financial aid and scholarship money.  But we’re hearing from more and more students who are having a harder time receiving financial aid in these tough times than ever before — and we’re even hearing that state budgets are even going so far as to cut financial aid programs for students, even the ones who need it the most. Everyone knows that going to college is a valuable experience which helps people get further in life — and that the pursuit of knowledge has a worth that far exceeds anything money can buy — so we want to do what we can, financially, to make sure you can go to college. We provide educational services, after all, so of course we care about education.

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Note: You can use it for anything (a new computer, textbooks, your plane ticket home for the holidays). The only catch is that you must be enrolling as a freshman in a 4-year college or university in the United States.

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