I suppose there are people who find writing easy, but for most of us, writing is difficult, uncertain, lonely and it makes us feel stupid when we can't do it. Over many years of counselling and running workshops devoted to writing, I have met countless students who have found themselves in an essay crisis. These students describe how these crises make them feel guilty when they go out, but miserable or afraid when you stay in to study. They hate the sight of other people working in the library, avoiding going near their department and find themselves "just checking" their emails several times a day? For some, things get much worse, they find it difficult to sleep, feel inadequate, constantly anxious, depressed, or even have panic attacks.
So what's to be done if you find yourself feeling like this? First of all, it's normal to feel the way you do; lots of students say to me 'other people just get on with their work, why can't I?' but actually I bet they feel or have felt just like you do. If you can accept that, you might be able to stop blaming for yourself for finding writing difficult; otherwise, it's like writing with someone standing over your shoulder, telling you to give up, and reminding you how inadequate you are. When you've stopped beating yourself up about it, you can start trying following some of my suggestions to help. They're all taken from my booklet "Getting Down to Writing" which you can find at the University Library and the Counselling Service.
Discover your writing habits.
Take a good look at exactly how you go about writing – where and when you choose to do it and what "props" you use (e.g. must have coffee, music or a view from the window). The point of this exercise is simply to start being more objective about yourself as a writer. You will probably discover that you have all kinds of rituals and ways of putting off the evil moment of committing words to paper because that's the scary part. Plan a schedule of what needs to be done bit by bit, and have definite times to write, don't wait for inspiration to strike. This is my secret weapon in overcoming writer's block; I make myself start at exactly 9am, and having done this now for many years, the habit of writing at that time has formed and something always gets written. A work-schedule is also a good way of controlling obsessive working habits caused by anxiety. Tying yourself to a desk and stressing about every moment you have to write actually sustains anxiety, and doesn't help you to write well or confidently. Take breaks and restrict the amount of time you write for.
Collect information gradually, actively and systematically.
The fantasy is that a good student should go to the library and read what's on the reading list, then make a plan for the structure of the essay, and write it from beginning to end, then polish a few phrases before handing it in nicely before the deadline. I think this way of doing essays is wrong because it doesn't really take into account how human beings actually function by gradual discovery of ideas in no specific order, exploration through writing about them and the revisions which go on throughout the whole process. Try these approaches to reading and note-taking:
1. Don't rush off to get all the books until you've spent at least a few minutes writing (yes, writing!) about the topic – what does it suggest to you, what do you think you might need to learn about in order to do it?
2. Imagine reading and collecting material for the essay is like going shopping for a meal. Don't buy everything vaguely connected with supper in sight – you'll come home with a trolley full of stuff, and no idea what to make it into.
3. Don't just copy large chunks of text that you think might be vaguely relevant to your topic. Use bibliographies, reading lists, and look at the contents or index to select relevant material from a book and then make active notes. These may involve writing your ideas and responses as well as the quotations you need. You could also try to jot down the main idea of each paragraph you read in one word, anything that gets you participating in your reading.
Practical Techniques for Over-coming Writer's Blocks
Students often put off writing by finding other things to read, they get afraid of seeing their ideas on paper, or tear them up as soon as they've started writing because they don't look write. It's easy to train yourself to reject everything you write and get trapped in an anxious place where nothing will do. Often people forget that writing is not a simple matter of transcribing thought, it's a process of thinking and organising which isn't perfect first time. Get used to making marks which aren't about making an instant finished product, something like brainstorming helps. If this is too formal, make yourself write without stopping for five minutes, taking any starting point and not worrying about spelling, grammar, sense, anything – just get the words flowing. This is a very useful exercise whenever you get stuck, or want to think about an idea. If that doesn't work, try writing for a few minutes on "why I don't want to write today" (Thanks to Dr Trev Broughton in the English department for this tip). This will help you address the difficulties and get your pen or fingers moving.
Think About Why You're Afraid of Writing
These techniques might not work on their own, so might try thinking and talking to someone about why you might be afraid to write: "fear of failure" is often at the root of it, but is it a reasonable fear? Are you being objective about your own work? Are you being a perfectionist? Have you had a bad experience with writing in the past which is getting in the way now? You could avoid some of these worries by asking someone to read your work for you, finding an assessment criteria to fulfil bit by bit rather then aiming to make the finished perfect essay in one go.
If possible, try and recover some sense of enjoyment of your work, if you had that once. Play is very important for us as humans in learning, and life is a lot more fun if you can find playful ways of working. If you treat writing more as a job, that's OK, but undertake the writing in the same spirit – it's a job to be done, which earns you leisure time after.
This is by no means a complete list of things that might help, and in any case, they will not work for everybody. Sometimes the "blocks" to writing are quite profound, and may need more extensive attention, such as taking part in a group that I run weekly for students to learn more about themselves and their writing (starting again in January 2007). Above all, try to understand yourself so that you can experiment with different approaches that might work for you. Good luck and happy writing!
