Overcoming the dreaded writers block!


Specific Strategies

These specific strategies in overcoming writer's block will prove more helpful when you're drafting the paper.

Begin in the Middle
Start writing at whatever point you like. If you want to begin in the middle, fine. Leave the introduction or first section until later. The reader will never know that you wrote the paper "backwards." Besides, some writers routinely save the introduction until later when they have a clearer idea of what the main idea and purpose will be.

Talk the Paper
"Talk" the paper to someone--your teacher, a friend, a roommate, a tutor in the Writing Lab. Just pick someone who's willing to give you fifteen to thirty minutes to talk about the topic and whose main aim is to help you start writing. Have the person take notes while you talk or tape your conversation. Talking will be helpful because you'll probably be more natural and spontaneous in speech than in writing. Your listener can ask questions and guide you as you speak, and you'll feel more as though you're telling someone about something than completing an assignment.

Tape the Paper
Talk into a tape recorder, imagining your audience sitting in chairs or standing in a group. Then, transcribe the tape-recorded material. You'll at least have some ideas down on paper to work with and move around.

Change the Audience
Pretend that you're writing to a child, to a close friend, to a parent, to a person who sharply disagrees with you, to someone who's new to the subject and needs to have you explain your paper's topic slowly and clearly. Changing the audience can clarify your purpose. (Who am I writing to when I explain how to change the oil in a car? That guy down the hall who's always asking everyone for help.) Changing the audience can also make you feel more comfortable and help you write more easily.

Play a Role
Pretend you are someone else writing the paper. For instance, assume you are the president of a strong feminist movement such as NOW and are asked to write about sexist advertising. Or, pretend you are the president of a major oil company asked to defend the high price of oil. Consider being someone in another time period, perhaps Abraham Lincoln, or someone with a different perspective from your own on things--someone living in Hiroshima at the time the bomb was dropped. Pulling yourself out of your usual perspective can help you think more about the subject than writing about the subject.