Overcoming Writer's Block        Writing Center Home
 

 

Often  writer's block is an excellent clue that the material you're writing about hasn't quite jelled in your mind. Here are some tips on how to break out of a stuck feeling:

  • Have a friend ask you questions, then talk into a tape recorder. Transcribe your voice onto paper.
  • Writing a stream of consciousness style may reveal the thoughts, topics, and ideas that your brain is withholding from you.
  • Write some drivel. Just pick a topic, such as "why I can't write right now" or "why I hate the essay/article I'm working on right now" or "why I hate TV" or anything. If you're completely uninspired, look around the room and force yourself to pick a really boring topic (like writing a review of the drapes).
  • Try writing several pages on why you shouldn't have to write a paper. With frustration vented and juices flowing, you may be able to write the actual paper.
  • Allow yourself to write B+ or C+ stuff. You don't always have to be brilliant, and you don't always have to turn in peak performance assignments. Often "good work" will satisfy your ends. Plus, you'll often have a chance to revise and polish your C+ work later, so give yourself a break and just get some material down.
  • Babble! You may have already learned this technique in high and middle school. When you can't think of what to write about,  just tell how your day went or what the sky looks like or how your cat made a big mess out of your mom's favorite plant! Then all of the sudden (hopefully) POOF! You have an idea, and you can continue your work!
  • Start writing to yourself anything you see or think. After a few minutes you will be back into your essay or article again.
  • Try talking to someone about the topic and record your conversation. Playing it back when you experience a block may help.
  • Write. Pretend this isn't the real essay you're working on. Pretend you're only rehearsing your essay, and it doesn't matter what you write. Pretend no one will ever see what you have written, unless you want them to. You don't even have to see what you've written, unless you want to. Sometimes the rehearsal goes poorly and you know you need to practice more. But, sometimes, the rehearsal will be grand. Remember that feeling and try to use it for the real essay.
  • Read. Ask yourself questions. Imagine a reader asking you questions. Engage someone in dialogue. When you have something to say, then return to the writing.
  • Peter Elbow's method, "free writing," consists of setting aside a period of only ten minutes a day for this exercise. He compares it to aerobics. The rules are that you must write continuously, never lifting the pen from the paper or your fingers from the keys for the entire 10 minute period. It doesn't matter what you're writing. You can be writing, "I hate this. My hands hurt. This is stupid. Why am I doing this?" etc. That's fine, Just think of it as garbage. You're getting rid of it. Eventually, and usually sooner than you think, you'll begin to tap into the subconscious. You'll loosen up, and creative juices will flow. Try it. Accept it as a regime. It really works.
  • Go for clarity. Get right to the point. Write exactly what your readers need to know and worry about polishing up later. Often a creative idea will hit AFTER you've written the first few paragraphs.
  • Observation--the ability to look and be interested and curious in everything is most important.
  • Be prepared to write rubbish before you write the good stuff.
  • Make a wheel with spokes coming off. At the center of the wheel write the name of your subject. On the spokes, list all the possible things you can mention about this subject. Look at the list. Do you want to discuss one aspect and any topic listed or combine several to create an essay? If only one, place that topic at the center of the wheel and create spokes using the topic alone.
  • Only write what you actually know. When you don't know, find out.
  • Write something that doesn't bore you.