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r/writing - Posted by u/Jdawg 1 day ago

Anyone know how I can get rid of my writer’s block? I

have a ten page paper due next week and am having alot
of trouble simply starting it.

BigHuston98 - 10 hours ago

Hey Jdawg! I am P. Huston. I studied linguistics and education so I know what I am

talking about when it comes to writer’s block; I wrote a paper on how to identify,
diagnose, treat, and prevent writer’s block a while back and one of the key things I
found was that it is a stress reaction. You probably have set your expectations a
little too high for this paper resulting in you stressing out when thinking about
meeting those expectations. The first step you should do is take a break and accept
that you have writer’s block, which it seems you have already done. Next, reset
your expectations. Don’t expect to finish your whole paper in a day or two,
especially since it is ten pages. Instead space your workload out. Try doing a page
or two a day. It is great that you are already taking a stab at your paper a week in
advance instead of cramming it into the last few days so use this early start to your
advantage. Also it can help to find a group of people to work with. You can either
bounce ideas off of each other or just have them around to help you stay focused.

Nuno Amado - 9 hours ago

The expectation point is the same exact cause that I found for writer’s block.
I am a psychologist so writer’s block can also relate to my field since it really
is an inner battle. I found that the main reason it happens is because these
writer’s either cannot meet their high expectations or think
they cannot. These expectations can be relating to grades, timelines, or the
paper's content itself. Lower your expectations to be more productive!

Muhammet Bastug - 8 hours ago

I agree with the fact that writer’s block is stress related, but you can’t just do
a few things and expect it to go away. In an experiment myself and a few
colleagues conducted we found from a group of classroom teachers that
writer’s block is actually caused by anxiety of being assessed by grades, fear
of being criticized, negative classroom settings, lack of information about
writing, and not being able to read. This shows that it is outside factors that
are affecting the writers. It is not actually the writers themselves.

Robert Boice - 7 hours ago

Muhammet, you really cannot put full blame on outside factors. In a

study I conducted I found that a combination of four different
approaches to writer’s block led to the most productivity. These
approaches are freewriting, pacing yourself out (1-3 hours a day of
writing), self-control (staying focused on the writing), and social skills
learning (socializing and learning from others when not writing). It
really is up to the individual, while outside factors may have some
affect, a high work ethic beats all!

Sarah J Ahmed - 4 hours ago

 After interviewing 146 writers, I have to agree with Robert. It seems
that the main causes for writer's block had to do with motivation. Also,
I love the tips he gave too. I found that the best ones were free writing
since it forces you to pump ideas out without thinking of making it
perfect, taking breaks or working on different projects, and discussing
ideas with others. All of these are pretty similar to the four different
approaches Robert talked about of and can be useful to any writer.

Eva Bojner - 2 hours ago

Contrary to all these other users, I have found that the best remedy to writer’s
block is to get some movement in. If you find yourself stuck, take a break and get
your blood flowing. Maybe go to the gym, go on a walk, or just do some jumping
jacks by your computer to get your body going. This can help your brain to get back
in check and get ready to get back to work. Take a little movement break and don’t
stress too much about your paper Jdawg!

Jdawg - 1 hour ago

I tried going to the gym the other day and even after my workout, I was still
having trouble writing my paper. I feel like just moving didn't really help my
problem.

Eva Bojner - 1 hour ago

Yeah you probably are still overstressing your paper a little too much.
The movement is mainly to get your mind off of it and come back
fresh.

Robert Boice - 1 hour ago

 Yeah movement is an ok thing to do, but moving is not going to solve
all of your problems. Like I said earlier, you need to combine it with
other key approaches in order to truly combat writer’s block.

Jdawg - right now

After using some of these techniques, it seems like Robert had the best ideas when
it comes to eliminating writer’s block. It really helped when I implemented his four
factors. Freewriting is super helpful to get my ideas going and by giving myself
smaller goals to meet, I can produce quality writing over a high quantity of writing.
Thank you all for your responses!
 Bibliography:

- Amado: Psychoanalytic views of “writer’s block”: Artistic creation and its

discontents

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0803706X.2021.1887518

- Ahmed: An Analysis of Writer’s Block: Causes and Solutions

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436

- Bojner: Writer's Block Revisited: A Micro-Phenomenological Case Study on the

Blocking Influence of an Internalized Voice

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/imp/jcs

- Boice: Combining writing block treatments:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0005796792901332

- Bastug: A phenomenological research study on writer’s block:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ET-11-2016-0169/full/html

- Huston: Resolving writer’s block:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2277565/