It is very rare that someone can go about their life without having writer’s block. Writer’s block is what it is called when an idea will not come to mind. When a topic is needed for a project, but none come to mind, that is writer’s block. It can take multiple forms, however, and it appears at the most inconvenient times. Writer’s block is utterly frustrating, and difficult to get rid of. It is the epitome of all writers and creative thinkers everywhere. Writer’s block is a fairly common concept, and it happens to many people. It cannot be seen or felt, but it is still there. Everyday, around the world, people get writer’s block and cannot come up with ideas. People try to talk about it to get around it. They may brainstorm ideas with others, …show more content…
Writer’s block gives people time to expand on ideas, even if they can’t decide on one. After coming up with an idea through writer’s block, coming up with regular ideas seems easy. It is like a haze that people have to go through to get to their best ideas, but after they get out of that haze, everything seems extra clear. Writer’s block also tends to stem procrastination through the way that if there is no idea now, maybe there will be one later. This procrastination can have positive effects, too. Who needs to come up with ideas when the house needs to be cleaned? These acts of procrastination may seem pointless, but work still gets done. This procrastination can also be the cure to writer’s block. When the brain is working hard to think on a subject, it tends to get so focused on a few ideas that it cannot come up with anything else. When there is a break from thinking, like doing a simple task, it frees up the brain and gives it room to think. That is why, often times, people come up with their best ideas in the shower. The brain is not focused on any specific task, so it can come up with great
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.
In the essay “Getting Started” by Anne Lamott. The author reaches out to her students and other fellow writers who struggle to overcome the infamous writer’s block. Thought out her paper she gives us hints and tips to train and prep us for our future papers. Her tips range from training you mind to prepare for a long and often strenuous essay, learning to take information in slowly to not overwork your brain and the last one always tell the truth in your essay. She threads through her essay that writing may be hard and seems like there is no silver lining but it’s not impossible to do. When done reading this essay I widely agree with Lamott’s writing ideas and tips they can be helpful for many struggling students. As one myself I found
Once upon a time there was a young maiden named Cinderella who lived with her wicked stepmother and two ugly stepsisters. There was a ball where the Prince danced with a beautiful maiden. However, at the stroke of midnight, the young woman fled the ball, dropping one of her glass slippers along the way. The next day, the King proclaimed that the Grand Duke visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl who fit into the glass slipper, so that she can be married to the Prince. When the Grand Duke arrives at Cinderella’s house, her stepsisters try on the slipper, but it does not fit them. Then, Cinderella appears, tries on the slipper, and it fits. Soon after, Cinderella is happily married to the Prince (Cinderella). This is Disney’s 1950’s account of the classic fairy tale Cinderella, which greatly differs from the Brothers Grimm retelling. The Brothers Grimm story is filled with violence and misfortune, not with fairy godmothers and singing mice, as in Disney’s version. In the Brother’s Grimm account of Cinderella, when the first stepsister’s toe is too big for the slipper she cuts it off. Similarly, when the second stepsister tries on the slipper she cuts off her heel to make her foot fit. However, the Prince realizes each of the stepsisters has deceived him and does not take them to be his wife. Then, Cinderella tries on the slipper, it fits, and the Prince takes her as his bride. At the wedding, pigeons peck out one eye of each of the stepsisters for their wickedness and falsehood (“Cinderella”).
After reading Originals by Adam Grant I was left feeling challenged. Grant brings about many different subjects, from parenting methods to organization, that have an impact on an individual’s creativity. I have never considered myself the most original thinker and I had always dreaded “outside of the box” projects, but Grant’s guidance throughout the book showed that that being a logical thinker and being original are not mutually exclusive concepts, as I had once thought. Instead, when it comes to being creative Grant focuses on how to break away from what he calls “default thinking”. Grant challenges the norms by considering that procrastination is not always the worst option, which I found to be interesting and a little stressful, as I am
As a young writer, even when I have to write a short story, I have so many writers block and other situations where I just run out of ideas. Many times in my story I loose the reader attention and the story gets boring. When I read you novel, you always kept my attention, which made me, read the book more and more. As a professional writer, I would like for you to give me any advice or suggestion for writing.
In the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, part three focuses writers block. “Writers Block” is the term for when an author can not get he/shes thoughts together and is unable to present them on paper. She explains the feelings of writers block as “anxious”. She explains that writers block is inevitable to everyone. She explains that “you will read what little you’ve written lately and see with absolute clarity that it is total dog shit”, this was an amazing writing technique because for such a scary topic, she added humor.
Some might think that the thinking process comes before the writing process and others might think the reverse. Same goes for William Zinsser, a lifelong journalist and nonfiction writer, and William Stafford, an American poet, and pacifist. In his article—A Way of Writing—Stafford believes that the writing process comes first. He relates the idea with the daily conversations we have with our friends, not needing to plan what we are going to say but still confidently say what we want to say. Same thing can be applied to writing. From his whole article, the sentence “We can’t keep from thinking.” Stood out to me the most. Knowing that something always occurs in our mind is the key to get the ideas flowing. The other idea he had was the willingness to fail. We should trust and forgive ourselves as for everyone has the “luck” and it’s about knowing how to sustainably use the language skill we have. On the other hand, Zinsser believes that the thought process proceeds the writing process. He believes that clear thinking becomes clear writing. One can not exist without the other. The common thing these two writers have is that they both think that the more minimalistic the better. Zinsser believes that clutter is a disease that is spreading through every writer's mind. Eliminating it will cure the society of the word chaos it is in. I appreciated his
There are various ways writers can evaluate their techniques applied in writing. The genre of writing about writing can be approached in various ways – from a process paper to sharing personal experience. The elements that go into this specific genre include answers to the five most important questions who, what, where, and why they write. Anne Lamott, Junot Diaz, Kent Haruf, and Susan Sontag discuss these ideas in their individual investigations. These authors create different experiences for the reader, but these same themes emerge: fears of failing, personal feelings toward writing, and most importantly personal insight on the importance of writing and what works and does not work in their writing procedures.
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
Writing is a way in which a person can express their thoughts and ideas through the use of words. Everybody has their own writing styles. Some may consider theirs as inspirational while others think of it to be bad. Writing requires a lot of patience and time. In my case, writing has never been my favorite thing to do. I am no Shakespeare and I never will be, writing has always made me feel uncomfortable. In the past, I had always considered writing to be one of the most difficult tasks. I often wrote about topics that were not of my interest. I rarely did any writing out of school or for leisure as most people do. I only wrote because the teacher asked us to. Writing has always been forced onto me. Even though my writing isn't that great, I've felt that I've never been given the freedom to express my voice. Academic writing has always made me anxious. And, anxiety had resulted in my procrastination. Even though I consider writing to be one of the toughest tasks, I've felt that giving myself enough time to think allows me to do better. Silence helps me think beyond horizons. However, the fear of impressing someone, the anxiety and frustration is what makes me a developing writer.
After finishing the outline, I go on to start writing down ideas that are at the top of my
I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination
Writers from professional to elementary students suffer from writers block. Writers block is when you cannot think of anything to write. Writers block is usually caused by stress. The brain then has a reaction which disables its ability to put what it is thinking on to paper. As Patricia Huston describes it, “The right, or creative, side of the brain, seeks to create (in this case, write). This induces the left, or analytic, side of the brain to anticipate all the problems that this action could entail, causing it to go into "overdrive" and inhibit the ability to write.” (Paticia Huston)One knows if they have writers block if they are staring at a computer screen or piece of paper for a long period of time. You also know you have it if the writer just feels unwilling to write or is simply just disinterested in the topic. Avoiding writers block is almost impossible since almost everybody experiences it, but there are still many ways to help prevent or cure it.
When I sit down to write, I must do so in a clean, well-organized, and well-lit area. The space must be free from distractions, such as the television or radio, so that I am able to focus and gather my thoughts. I like to begin my writings similar to the way William Stafford says he starts, "To get started I will accept anything that occurs to me." Writing down any thought that will help support and provoke more thoughts and ideas. When my thoughts become cloudy, I like to rise from my seat and walk around speaking out ideas to myself. I find this practice helps to jumpstart my brain activity and clear my foggy mind.
People all procrastinate at one time or another. Procrastination is the practice of delaying work on important tasks in favor of less challenging ones. Chronic procrastinating hinders productivity and affects our state of mind by creating anxiety and stress (Reichelt). As deadlines approach, one often feels frustration and guilt for not starting on a task earlier. We often assume that projects won't take as long to finish as they really will, which often results in a mad scramble to finish the project in the twenty-four hours before the projects deadline. One of the biggest factors contributing to procrastination is the misconception that we need to be inspired or in the mood to work on the task at hand (Reichelt). However, the reality is that if you wait for the “right time” you will most likely wait for an indefinite amount of time and the task will never get completed.