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Lecture 1. Getting past writer’s block
Ever go
to a restaurant to write? The server fills your cup as you scrawl words
onto a sheet of paper, somehow deep in thought with all that activity surrounding
you. You stare off into space and see none of it.
Or you close
the door and click on your keyboard, making words almost magically
appear on the screen in front of you . . . Everything else vanishes – deep in thought
– until the kids push through the door and say, “I need . . .”
And then
your mind goes blank. The pen doesn’t move; the keys don’t click.
Have you
ever experienced writer’s block?
Here are
some hints for getting past it.
Interruptions. Clarify the rules with your family for the times when you’re
writing. When I used to write on schedule every day, I told my family not to
interrupt me when I was staring into space but if they had to, they could do so
when I was typing. I find it easy to pick up on my thought again when I’m typing
it. It doesn’t disappear into space then the way a dream does in the morning.
Mind-calls. It’s hard to write sometimes when there’s some persistent issue in
mind that is demanding attention.
Freewriting is one solution. Begin to try capturing every thought or word
that passes through your mind. You can’t keep up with it, but it will take
you to the persistent issue so that you can tell that part of your brain that you
will come back to it when you’ve finished your present goal with writing.
The Blank Mind
Mind-Mapping
a/k/a Clustering is another possible solution. Yes, you can use this
technique to begin a paper, but it’s also a nifty technique when you’re stuck in the
middle of the paper. It can help lead you to where your paper wants to go.
Walking
around the block with a tablet and pen – or even a digital recorder – while
you’re seriously thinking through where the essay is heading can be intense and
positive.
The journalist’s
style involves questioning: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
How? Answering those questions will help to end writer’s block.
Share your
own hints in the Forum this week.
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