MAY the Writing Force Be With You: How to Use Freewriting to Get Past Writers' Block
Kacy Walz is a writing instructor from St. Louis, MO. She is not a Jedi (sadly), but she is a doctor of philosophy. Along with her work on the blog, Kacy also cohosts the Walden Writing Center podcast. Her favorite Star Wars film is Rogue One. .png)
Making it Through the Messy Middle
My family and I recently moved into a new house, and with new views and rooms has come the challenge of turning this empty house into a home. One aspect I was especially excited about was the way the empty house served as a blank canvas for me to create a home for my family.
Fast forward a few months, and I’m in the middle of my living room with my collection of decor strewn around me as I stare at my empty bookcases. My goal is to create beautiful vignettes in my bookcases. That one small word—vignette, a fancy way of saying 'beautifully put-together decorations on a surface'--belies the incredible amount of trial and error, frustration, and confusion I was dealing with as I worked to arrange my books, keepsakes, and pieces of art.
My first instinct was to walk away: Walk out of the room, away from the problem, and come back to it another day—or maybe never.
But, as I sat there with my anxiety growing, a realization dawned on me: What I was doing, the moment I was in in this design process wasn’t wrong: I wasn’t failing, it was just the messy middle of my process. The middle part of the journey where you know where you want to go (sort of?) and possibly how to get there (almost?), but the path isn’t quite clear yet; the fuzzy middle stage where your vision is just a little bit clouded, but (you can almost feel it) clarity is just around the corner.
I know the messy middle well. I enter into the messy middle on every writing journey I’ve ever had. Each time I sit down to complete a writing project, whether it’s content for our website, a blog post, a presentation, or an article, I have found myself in the messy middle. And, because I have so much experience with the messy middle, I can recognize it when it arrives, and I know how it feels—it feels like crafting a vignette on my bookcase. I often want to get up, walk away, and give up on my project. However, since I write for a living, I also know how to work through and around the messy middle so I get to a place of clarity in my writing.
· Take a step back: Just as with writing, I took a step back from my design problem. I did walk away—but only for a short break—and came back with fresh eyes. Taking a break from something you’re in the messy middle of can provide you perspective. Instead of focusing on everything that’s not quite right, after stepping away you can better see what you like and build from there.
· Ask for help: In the messy middle of creating my bookcase vignette, I pulled my husband into the room to provide me his perspective. Then, I took a picture and posted it to my Facebook community for their insight. Both groups gave me helpful feedback that allowed me to see what was and wasn’t working. This works well with writing too! Alternative perspectives can help all writers understand what is and isn’t working in your writing; writing is usually for an audience beyond yourself, after all, as Kacy explained in her post last month.
· Use input judiciously: When I asked for feedback on my bookcase vignette from my husband and Facebook community, I got a lot of opinions. Opinions are good, and much of the feedback was really helpful. However, if I had used all of the suggestions, my bookcase would have looked a hot mess. Instead, I had to use the input I received wisely, picking and choosing the input that helped me achieve my design goal. Similarly, when you receive input on your writing, especially a long writing project like a doctoral capstone study, be mindful to use feedback judiciously, in a way that helps you get closer to your writing goals. Otherwise, you may get lost in a maze of feedback that sends you in different directions.
Don’t get attached: Sometimes getting out of the messy middle means letting go of something you’ve been trying to make work from the very beginning—and thus, something you might be attached to. For my bookcase, I had been trying to fit so many keepsakes that I love—and had been brought with me from my old house—but that didn’t all fit. So, I had to emotionally let go of the idea that all of my beautiful things would work in the space, and this allowed me to see new possibilities. The same thing happens in writing: We can sometimes get so attached to a certain sentence or idea, that it’s hard to let go of it even though it’s not working.
· Create a “reserved” space: When working on my bookcase and editing the number of things I had in it, I would often take off items and put them in a box behind me. I told myself that anything in this box was on hold or reserve, and I could always add it back in down the line. Doing so made me more less afraid to remove something, because I wasn’t making a permanent decision. The same technique works with writing; rather than deleting sentences, paragraphs, or sections when you’re in the messy middle of a writing project, cut and paste that writing into a “reserved” Word document. You can then pull it back into your project at any point, if needed.
Beth Nastachowski has been with the Writing Center since 2010, and she currently manages the center’s webinars, modules, and videos. She spends her time running after her son, husband, two cats, and dog in St. Paul, MN.
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Bargain-Priced Candy Hearts and the Importance of Audience
We've reached my favorite part of February: when all of the Valentine's Day candy goes on sale.
Digging through a
little box of colorful hearts, I can't help reading each little message as it comes up: "love", "laugh", "be mine",
"smile", "you & me", "cute", "rock
star", "hug me", and others are fairly obvious. But then there
are hearts with messages like: "TTYL", "DM me",
"lol" and "LYMY". I actually do understand the first three
(talk to you later, direct-message me, and laugh out loud) but the fourth is a
complete mystery to me. (EDIT: I've looked it up and apparently it stands for
"love you, miss you".)
This variety of mini-comments makes me think of what we mean when we advise writers to consider their audience. Maybe some of you already knew what LYMY meant. Maybe others would be confused by hearts reading "XOXO" or "BFF". Fortunately, the candy will taste the same whether you know that x's and o's are sometimes used to represent kisses and hugs in correspondence, or that BFF stands for "best friends forever," but scholarly writing does not benefit from the same sugary advantage.
Anything we write
has an intended audience--even if that intended audience is ourselves or an
intended audience of no one. When you write for coursework there is the obvious
audience of the faculty who will grade the work, but there is also often an
implied audience. Perhaps you've been instructed to write a lesson plan to
share with another educator; a business memo to be shared with a large
corporation; an interpretation of and diagnosis for a certain case study.
You'll of course want to make sure you respond to each component of the
assignment prompt, but you should also consider who you're conceptually writing
for.
-
What kind of information can you assume your audience will already
have about the topic?
o
Would you need to explain what TTYL stands for?
-
What context does your audience need?
o
The fact that they are Valentine’s candy would suggest that
messages like “smile” or “call me” have a different sentiment than they would coming
from a photographer or a business card.
-
What are you ultimately hoping to achieve with regards to your
audience?
o
When you send a Valentine to a friend, the message will likely be
different than the one you send to your romantic interest.
To help you remember how to acknowledge the importance of your intended audience, here’s a somewhat forced acronym relating back to candy hearts:
How: how are you expected to present your information? The mode of communication will provide some clues into who your intended audience might be.Expectation: what
can you expect your intended reader to already know?
Additional: what
extra background information will your reader need you to provide in order to
fully understand what you’re trying to say?
Response: is there
something you hope your reader will do with the information after reading? Are
there potential questions or arguments you could circumvent by addressing them
in your writing?
Task: what is the ultimate
task you’ve been given with regards to the assignment? Would your reader be
able to easily determine it based on what you’ve written?
To my intended
audience: I hope you had a fun Valentine’s Day—or are at least similarly
benefiting from reduced-price treats. And I hope this acronym and post in general
are memorable enough to help you in your next writing assignment!
Kacy Walz is a writing instructor from St. Louis, MO. She is currently working on a PhD in Literature from the University of Missouri. Along with her work on the blog, Kacy also cohosts the Walden Writing Center podcast. She enjoys piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.
2022: Just Keep Swimming
In his 2017 bestselling book Finish, author Jon Acuff writes, "I thought the biggest problem for people was the phantom of fear that prevented them from beginning...Fear was the ghost holding them back and starting was the only way to beat it. I was half right. The start does matter. The beginning is significant. The first few steps are critical. But they aren't the most important. Do you know what matters more? Do you know what makes the start look silly and easy and almost insignificant? The finish."
Last March I introduced the blog's 2021 theme of Motivation. This year--a year actually beginning in January!--I'd like to continue that concept into a new theme: the theme of Momentum.
As Acuff points out, starting is important. And motivation can help us get to the starting line. But momentum is what gets us through the slog of the "messy middle." According to Acuff, the most important point of any major goal or project is what happens "the day after perfect."
The day after perfect is what Acuff calls the period of time that follows the first instance someone doesn't live up to their own idea of what the completion of their goal should look like. It's the day after the first time you hit snooze instead of waking up early for a run, the night after the night you fell asleep without writing in your journal, the meal after you passed on the salad bar and went straight for dessert. It's the moment you might be tempted to say, "Well, I've already messed up, might as well just give up entirely!"
So this year we're going to try to build on our motivation and find the momentum to keep moving forward even after our plans go slightly askew. The topic will be applied to writing-related issues, but hopefully these ideas will be useful in all areas of life. Here's to 2022!
Reference
Acuff, J. (2017). Finish: Give yourself the gift of done. Portfolio/Penguin.
How to Find and Keep Your Confidence as an Academic Writer
How does confidence impact writing and the motivation to write? What adds to our confidence when it comes to writing, and what diminishes it? How can a writer maintain, develop, or rebuild confidence in their writing skills?
To begin with a definition (because it's probably best to know what the thing is before we discus how to increase it!), Merriam-Webster (n.d.) described confidence as "a feeling of or consciousness of one's power" and "faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way." In other words, confidence is trusting that we are capable of accomplishing a goal we've chosen to pursue or a task we've been assigned. Confidence is feeling good about our ability to be who we want to be and do what we want to do.
Reciving a disappointing grade, or criticical feedback that doesn't seem helpful understandably brings us down, especially if our confidence when it comes to writing is already shaky. Also, if we feel we're alone in the writing process, or like we don't know enough about academic writing as a genre to be able to do it well, we definitely won't be enjoying the good feelings confidence brings.
But there is hope. (We definitely wouldn't publish this post if we didn't think so!) When it comes to academic writing and APA style, the Walden WritingCenter’s website offers a number of resources to help students learn more about the expectations involved. We also strongly encourage you to reach out to your professors to clarify what is required of you for any assignments that seem confusing or unclear, or to discuss any feedback they provide. Finally, forming meaningful relationships with your fellow students--for instance, creating spaces where you can vent to, commiserate with, and encourage each other--can help keep those feelings of loneliness at bay.
Reference
Merriam-Webster.
(n.d.). Confidence. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confidence
Grete Howland is a writing instructor who's been with the Walden Writing Center since 2019. Before joining the Writing Center, Grete taught English and creative writing to middle and high school students. When she's not working with words, Grete loves paddle boarding, running, wine tasting, and hanging out at home with her husband and dog.
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Keep Your Motivation on Track with the Pomodoro Technique
- 25 minutes work
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 20-30-minute break
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 5-minute break
- 25 minutes work
- 20-30-minute break
Here are some key factors that I find make me more successful in implementing the Pomodoro Technique:
Tailor the System
I recommend that you experiment with the system and find the time spacing that works best with your own neurology. If 25 minutes of work and a 5-minute break doesn’t quite fit, you may find you work better in 30-minute chunks of time with 10-minute breaks. Maybe you will need to write for 10 minutes and take a 3-minute rest. Don’t be afraid to work the system to meet your working style.
Treat Yourself
A reward system tied to achieving your goals might also be helpful. Some folks are motivated sufficiently by the act of checking items off a to-do list, but I confess that I like a more tangible reward. The short break is a type of reward, but If I have a particularly challenging day where I cannot find the motivation to stay on task, I may add more rewards into my short breaks to keep me interested in pushing forward. In a five-minute break, I can do a quick game or dance party with one of my children, which is not only fun, but allows me to reconnect with family before getting back to writing. Throughout the day, I track how many Pomodoro sets I have completed, and if I have met my daily writing goal, I have a small reward like a square of dark chocolate and a cup of Earl Grey tea. When I meet a weekly writing goal, I want a more significant reward like a 2-hour binge of my latest favorite show or a grown-up playdate (NO KIDS!). What brings you joy? Use that to reward yourself for getting the job done.
Tackle Distractions
During your work time, set yourself up for success by keeping distractions at bay. Mute your phone, don’t answer the door, find a quiet space or put on sound-canceling headphones, and take advantage of tools and apps on your computer (such as Microsoft’s Focus Assist or the Stay Focusd Chrome extension) to avoid the distractions of instant messaging, social media, and email notifications. If random thoughts intrude that you can’t ignore, quickly jot the ideas down in a notebook to deal with later and get right back on task.
Don’t overthink the Pomodoro system, or you might plan yourself into procrastination. You don’t need the perfect timer, a semester time grid, or a reorganized workspace to get started. Any digital or analog timer will do, so you can start right now. What can you write about for 25 minutes? I hope you’ll report back on how it went, maybe over a cup of Earl Grey.
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"Sprint" Towards Motivation!*
Sometimes just getting started writing
can be the most daunting task. Even though I am an experienced writer, I still
struggle when I start a writing project. However, once the first few sentences
are on the page, I can generate ideas much more easily, and I experience what
psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997) calls flow. In a state of flow,
I lose myself in the joy of writing and forget about time and outside pressures.
Flow is different than just enjoying an activity like binge watching a series on Netflix or eating a favorite food. You cannot engage in flow as a passive participant. Flow is experienced from the joy of actively producing (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997), and it is something that has been studied in education and writing, but also in sports such as archery, golf, and billiards (Gute & Gute, 2008). Athletes who sprint build muscle recovery ability and increase their resistance to fatigue (Girard et al., 2011); similarly, writers who engage frequently in short bursts of writing develop fluency and the ability to focus quickly on a writing task (Literacy Information and Communication System, n.d.). The flow states kicks in when the writer or athlete has formed the habits, knows what to do, and engages fully in act of writing itself.
So how do you get from the monolithic
blank page to an enjoyable state where the writing you have planned becomes a
natural expression rather than halting stumbles of a few words that you type
and delete in fits of frustration? Although achieving a state of flow does
require mindfulness and experiencing a challenge, researchers have found a
positive correlation between a perception of encouraging feedback and the
experience of flow. This indicates that the more people trust their ability to meet
a challenge, the more likely their performances are to meet their expectations
(Gute & Gute, 2008). Turning off your inner critic and writing boldly and
fearlessly, giving yourself permission to make mistakes that you know you can
deal with later, can help open the pathway to flow.
Many writers experience difficulties
getting started on writing projects in isolation. Once more, science provides
insight into why this may be true, as studies conducted on flow have found that
social flow, or flow experiences created in a group setting, were rated as more
enjoyable than solitary flow (Salanova et al., 2014; van den Hout et al., 2018;
Walker, 2009).
Student writers can apply this research in a practical way. Using in-person café writing groups and social media to create a sense of community in writing, without any judgment on the quality of the work, can be valuable techniques (Mewburn et al., 2014). This is where the social media challenge to “writing sprints” comes in.
In a writing sprint challenge, the
goal of the activity is to write for a given block of time and report back only
on the number of words produced. Comparing sprint writing to longer intensive
boot camp or binge writing sessions,[1] studies have shown that frequent sprint
writing produces more in the long term (Friesen, 2014). In a sprint, writers
announce challenges or personal goals on social media such as Twitter,
Facebook, discussion boards, etc., and they can be set to any length of time. Some
find the structure of “sets” such as the Pomodoro method[2]
helpful, whereas others would rather sprint more spontaneously with their
writing.
Whichever method you prefer, publicly throwing down the gauntlet in a space where other writers can bear witness to the challenge (in a private writing group, on a class discussion board, or just on a Walden University Facebook page) is a great way to create accountability to just start writing. Using social media to your advantage rather than as a distraction can be a great source of motivation. These challenges can help you produce more writing than you would working alone. So, here’s a challenge: try a writing sprint sometime this week. Set a timer for 10-30 minutes and keep writing until it goes off. Once you get started writing, (especially if you know others are engaged in writing as well), you might achieve the rewarding flow experience that leads to the successful completion of your writing project.
References
Cirillo, F. (n.d.). Pomodoro
technique. https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Csikszentmihalyi, M.
(1997). Creativity: Flow and the
psychology of discovery and invention. HarperCollins.
Friesen, E. L. (2014). Structures,
snacks, sprints, and socializing: Strategies to increase writing output for AT
practitioners. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 217,
788-791.
Girard, O., Mendez-Villanueva, A., &
Bishop, D. (2011). Repeated-sprint ability — Part I: Factors contributing to
fatigue. Sports Medicine, 41(8), 673–694. https://doi-org./10.2165/11590550-000000000-00000
Gute, D., & Gute, G.
(2008). Flow writing in the liberal arts core and across the disciplines: A
vehicle for confronting and transforming academic disengagement. The Journal
of General Education, 57(4), 191-222. https://doi.org/10.1353/jge.0.0026
Literacy Information and
Communication System. (n.d.). Increase the amount of student writing. https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/studentwriting
Mewburn, I., Osbone, L.,
& Caldwell, G. (2014). Shut up & write!: Some surprising uses of cafés
and crowds in doctoral writing. In C. Aitchison & C. Guerin (Eds.), Writing
groups for doctoral education and beyond: Innovations in practice (pp.
218-232). Routledge.
Salanova, M., Rodriguez
Sanchez, A. M., Schaufeli, W. B., Cifre, E. (2014). Flowing together: A
longitudinal study of collective efficacy and collective flow among workgroups.
The Journal of Psychology Interdisciplinary and Applied 148(4), 435-455.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2013.806290
Van den Hout, J. J. J.,
Davis, O. C. & Weggeman, M. C. D. P. (2018). The conceptualization of team
flow. The Journal of Psychology 152(6), 388-423. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2018.1449729
Walker, C. (2009).
Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone? The
Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(1), 3-11. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439760903271116
[1] There has
been some conflation of the term “writing sprint” with what is actually a
“writing binge” where writers spent an intensive multiday period writing on a
single topic.
[2] The
Pomodoro method was pioneered by Francesco Cirillo (n.d.), where tasks are
chunked into 25-minute blocks of time, with a short break allowed, and then
another 25-minute block of time, followed by a short break, and this pattern
continues until 4 of the 25-minute blocks have been completed, and a 20-to-30-minute
break is allowed.
*The terrible, punny title of this post was crafted by the current project manager of the blog. Lauri should not be held responsible.
Lauri Barnes is a Writing Instructor at Walden University, and has worked in online writing centers since 2014. She has over two decades of teaching experience and loves supporting writers through the writing process. She is an aficionado of coffee, tea, mysteries, data, Star Wars, Doctor Who, all things nerdy and geeky, science, faith, kindness, and hope. She lives in the panhandle of Florida with her husband, daughter, two sons, and their cat.
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Consider Your Future Audience When Writing Gets Tough
Grete Howland is a writing instructor who's been with the Walden Writing Center since 2019. Before joining the Writing Center, Grete taught English and creative writing to middle and high school students. When she's not working with words, Grete loves paddle boarding, running, wine tasting, and hanging out at home with her husband and dog.
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Learn by Writing; Learn by Listening
Faculty Voices: Writing Advice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjgUvtcxGMc&feature=emb_title
When it comes to writing, like any complex skill, self-study and practice are invaluable. But I recommend you get in the habit of asking for help and advice so you might know what to study and practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent. If you practice wrong or in a counterproductive way, you’re going to repeat those missteps every time you write. That’s why you should seek out successful writers and relish in their advice. Now, we can’t all get face time with Stephen King (although his Twitter feed is fire), but luckily for Walden students, we have access to a whole team of successful, skillful, and helpful writers: our Walden faculty.
You may not have the same career and research goals as your faculty. However, there is still a lot you can learn from taking their advice. Being able to learn from someone who has reached great success in a field that you are interested in could be one of the most important benefits of your Walden education. That’s why I’ve found the Faculty Voices video series to be such a wonderful source of writing advice as I continue to develop my own writing skills and habits.
I’ve always written under the assumption that the finished product of my writing was most important. What Dr. Critchlow’s advice helped me learn is that the ideas are most important, and brainstorming, prewriting, and development are necessary to enhance those ideas. The shaping and forming of my prose should come later once there is something to work with.
For example, something that has always derailed my writing momentum is that persistent internal editor that just won’t be quiet. Even as I write this sentence, I’ve revised it already three times: Reworking the subject first, then replacing the verb with one that is more active, then flipping the entire sentence structure around to highlight my own act of revision. My writing process is arduous because I have trouble finding that writing “zone” where ideas flow and writing is a joy, not a chore. My writing takes forever, and it is a struggle. It’s also hard for me to hold an argument together for any length of time because I’m constantly fiddling and tinkering with the prose. The beauty of my writing is never allowed to flourish because it is always so mediated and edited.
As scholarly writers, Dr. Critchlow’s advice gives us permission to put aside that internal editor and focus instead on the ideas that underpin our writing. The ideas are what matter. No one is studying at Walden University to get an advanced degree in scholarly writing. We use scholarly writing as a vehicle to do something else: Something beautiful that will improve our communities and enrich our own personal and professional selves.
Hopefully the writing advice in these Faculty Voices videos will give you some concrete, helpful tips that you can use today. When you’re done viewing, reflect on what you learned and consider these questions:
- What is the most helpful piece of advice that I’ve ever received about my writing?
- What did that advice change about my writing process?
Max Philbrook is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. Max’s instructional approach is to help writers of every background develop their voice among the many competing requirements of scholarly writing. Outside of supporting the social change mission of Walden writers, Max enjoys hiking in the forest with Zoie and Kirby: Max’s Australian Shepherd buddies.
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