Confront Your Fears

& Overcome Writer’s Block

With Heidi Marshall, MFA

New Website! http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/

The Writing Center: Quick View

The Writing Center: Quick View

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What are your fears?• Why did you chose to come here today?

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

To Write or Not to Write?

What are your avoidance techniques?

Take a quick inventory on the strategies you use to avoid sitting down to write.

For example:

• Laundry

• Clean Kitchen

• Weed Garden

• Set up the perfect office

How Do I Start, Then?

First and foremost:

Writing is a process,

not an event

And, as with most events, you need to plan and you need to prepare

The PreparationFor most papers you write, your preparation

is the research you do before you write the paper

Follow these five easy steps to make sure you are well prepared to start writing:

The Preparation1. While reading, make sure that you're taking notes on what interests you.

2. Provide a citation (author, year, page number) for every note that you take. This way, returning to the text won't entirely interrupt the writing process.

3. Synthesize all the literature you've read. If you grouped your notes together, this should be easy. What does each individual grouping suggest? Write down a sentence for each. You'll then want to synthesize again. What is the collective suggestion once you've combined all the grouped sentences?

4. Once you have a good idea of what the literature says (you should have discovered this during the synthesis process), you should be able to construct a thesis, which is essentially an argument that's grounded in literature.

5. Create an outline for your paper

Getting to the Outline Strategy 1: Listing

Listing is just that: making a list of all your thoughts and ideas to get them out on to the page.

The important thing to keep in mind when listing is that no thought or idea is a bad thought or idea. In other words, write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind. You will narrow and refine your list as you begin to organize it into an outline.

LISTING10 Year High School Reunion

Old friendsEmbarrassment levelCareerSuccess levelAppearanceRelationship statusPeople I did not likeLocationBad memoryEx-boyfriendAlcohol?GossipMakeupOutfit

Hint: Use your notes to guide you!

LISTING

Try It!

Getting to the Outline Strategy 2: Webbing

Webbing is another strategy for getting ALL of your thoughts and ideas out on the page.

The important thing to keep in mind when webbing is to experiment with the connections among the ideas on the page. Don’t be surprised if you find connections you never realized were there before.

WEBBING

Appearance

Outfit

Gossip

Career

Location:Chicago

Old friends

10Year

Reunion

WEBBING

Try It!

Getting to the Outline Strategy 3: Verbalizing a Thesis

• If you can verbalize your argument, you can write your argument.

• If you can give a 30 second elevator speech that explains your argument, then you know your argument.

• The important thing to remember when verbalizing is that your listener needs to understand what you are saying. Ask him or her to summarize or paraphrase your ideas so you can determine if your point is coming across well.

VERBALIZINGTry It!

Talking it through:Spend 2-5 minutes talking about your topic

with a partner

In 30 seconds or less:Summarize everything you just talked about

into three to four sentences, or 30 seconds worth of dialogue

OutlineIntroduction

Thesis Statement: Going to my 10 year High School Reunion will be fun.

Old Friends JeanneDanBrad and Amy

Location: ChicagoCan see my dadLots of great restaurantsCheap flight

OutfitCute new dressBlack paten leather shoesSilver necklace

The logical second step to listing and webbing is to make an outline!

OUTLINE

Try It!

OK, So Now What?

You have an outline, but that is not exactly what your instructor is looking for when he or she asks for an 8-10 page paper that cites a minimum of 10 articles, is it?

After you have synthesized the literature, formed a thesis, and organized your ideas, start your

prewriting

WHAT IS PREWRITNG?Prewriting is literally the writing you do before you start writing your

paper.

Prewriting helps you to organize and formulate your thoughts before you start writing your paper. Prewriting exercises can also help you get unstuck during the writing process.

Prewriting activities are designed to help your ideas flow out on the page in an organized manner. They can also help reveal how it is you really feel about your subject matter and why it is important to you.

Prewriting is great for those scholars who are new to writing longer papers, have been out of academia for several years, are terrified of writing, or who frequently experience “writer’s block.”

Techniques for Prewriting

Free writing is a technique that requires you to write off the top of your head for a specified period of time without stopping.

Use free writing to help you remember why it is you are interested in this topic in the first place. This strategy is like creating back story for a novel. Write about what interests you about this topic, why it is of importance to you on a personal level. Get this all out on the page, and you will most likely be able to narrow down your ideas.

The important thing to remember about free writing is not to stop, even if it means you have to write about how you have nothing to write about. Kick that internal editor to the curb!

Write Without Abandon

STRATEGY 4: FREE WRITING

Now that you have done all the work of creating an outline you might find that you are just staring at the outline not knowing what to do next.

OR

You might find that you are trying to write your paper in order from introduction to conclusion and just aren’t making any sense

Free Writing Exercise

Now, put your outline away

Pick the one idea from your outline that most stands out to

you

Write that one idea at the top of a blank piece of paper

Start writing

Discuss with your group:• Where you started vs. where you ended

• Barriers you faced

• Avoidance strategies you used

Now…

• Go back to your writing and pick a passage that surprised you or that you found particularly good/interesting and share that with your group.

• Remember, the more you do this, the more you will keep.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

• Know your audience

• Be prepared

• Have a plan

• Don’t edit yourself

• Embrace the “shitty first draft.”

• If you get stuck: walk, stretch, change locations, stand on your head, talk to your cat, anything to give your brain a break!

• Use the writing specialists at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/

• Have fun. You are here at Walden because you want to be!

Know Your Audience

For Whom Does Your Bell Toll?

• Pick someone for whom you write:

– Visualize talking to that person about your research and really wanting to impress him or her

– Visualize that person reading your paper– Write to impress

Don’t Edit Yourself

Don't get caught up in the way your paper sounds. If you find yourself reading and rereading what you do have, listening for the ways that the words dance on the page, stop, take a breath, and move on. If you don't, you're going to lose sight of the bigger picture (the essay as a whole). You can always address issues of precision during the revision process. 

Embrace the Shitty First DraftRemember that you're not working with stone

tablets. You can commit anything to paper and delete it later. Go ahead and write something, anything, even if you know it's a placeholder. You can always go back and change, delete, or revise what you've written. At the very least, this'll keep the process moving. It might even help in just getting a few ideas on the page.

REFERENCES• Miller, B. & Paola, S. (2004). Tell it slant: Writing and shaping creative

nonfiction. Boston: McGraw Hill.

• The OWL at Purdue. (2007). Prewriting (Invention). Retrieved September 19, 2007, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan1.html

• Tomlin, S. (1998). Pre-Writing. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/process/prewrite.htm