Thoughts From a Writing Specialist: Writer’s Block
By Brian Timmerman, Senior Writing Specialist
Finding yourself stuck, staring at a blank page? I’ve been there. Really. I shed tears on a paper once, an essay about Robert Bage’s novel, Hermsprong: Or Man as He is Not. Real tears. And I was 25. A 25-year-old man shedding tears over a 200-year-old book. No joke.
What I learned from that experience, though, was invaluable. It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten how to write, but I simply hadn’t thought about what I was writing. I was too focused on the blank page knowing that this thing, this paper, was supposed to grow to at least 25 pages plus. What I needed to do was to step away from the computer and just think about the material. What was my argument? What was the purpose of my paper? Why was I writing it (you know, aside from the fact that it was assigned to me)? How was I interacting with the text? Instead, I had jumped in foolishly focusing on the logistics (I need to have a 25-page paper completed by next Tuesday), as opposed to the real task at hand: taking the time to think about what I was going to say about the material I had read. I had put the cart before the horse.
Below are a few things I learned about writing over the years, most of which have helped me overcome writer’s block at some point in time or another.
1. A blank page does not mean that you’re searching for the right word or words to begin your essay. It means you literally have no idea what to say or why you’re saying it (aside from the fact that it’s been assigned). Take the 20-minutes of prep time and construct a thesis. The rest of the paper is then written with that thesis in mind, giving it direction. Trust me. Spend 20 minutes doing the prep work or spend an hour and a half staring at a flashing cursor wondering why nothing’s coming out.
2. If you find yourself stuck midway through your paper (or literally saying, “What the heck am I doing?”), go back to your introduction and make sure that you’re not confusing a thesis with a subject. A thesis is an argument; you can structure a paper around that. A subject on the other hand is a topic, something that has no beginning, no opportunity for narrative, and no way of getting to a reasonable conclusion (thus causing the block). If you find that you have a subject, there’s a good chance you’ll have to go back to the drawing board (which still should be less time consuming than trying to make what you have “fits” into a coherent paper).
3. If you’re stuck, there’s also a chance that you haven’t taken the time to think about what your research means to your essay. In this instance, remove yourself from the paper and return to the literature. As you reread, think of what this information means in the context of your essay’s purpose as well as in the context of the other material you’ve read. You may find that you’ve been trying to write about something that isn’t necessary. You may also discover something new that will jump start the writing process for you.
4. 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 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.
5. If after three or four paragraphs you find yourself stuck, take inventory of what you do have by jotting down a one-sentence purpose statement for each paragraph. This way, by getting a brief synopsis of what you’ve written so far, you’ll know where you are in the argument and what’s needed next.
6. Remember 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.
7. It sounds silly, but you might even want to consider using a voice recorder. Some writers are simply more comfortable expressing thoughts orally than through the written word. Once you’ve recorded those ideas, you should be able to fine tune them on the page.
Finding yourself stuck, staring at a blank page? I’ve been there. Really. I shed tears on a paper once, an essay about Robert Bage’s novel, Hermsprong: Or Man as He is Not. Real tears. And I was 25. A 25-year-old man shedding tears over a 200-year-old book. No joke.
What I learned from that experience, though, was invaluable. It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten how to write, but I simply hadn’t thought about what I was writing. I was too focused on the blank page knowing that this thing, this paper, was supposed to grow to at least 25 pages plus. What I needed to do was to step away from the computer and just think about the material. What was my argument? What was the purpose of my paper? Why was I writing it (you know, aside from the fact that it was assigned to me)? How was I interacting with the text? Instead, I had jumped in foolishly focusing on the logistics (I need to have a 25-page paper completed by next Tuesday), as opposed to the real task at hand: taking the time to think about what I was going to say about the material I had read. I had put the cart before the horse.
Below are a few things I learned about writing over the years, most of which have helped me overcome writer’s block at some point in time or another.
1. A blank page does not mean that you’re searching for the right word or words to begin your essay. It means you literally have no idea what to say or why you’re saying it (aside from the fact that it’s been assigned). Take the 20-minutes of prep time and construct a thesis. The rest of the paper is then written with that thesis in mind, giving it direction. Trust me. Spend 20 minutes doing the prep work or spend an hour and a half staring at a flashing cursor wondering why nothing’s coming out.
2. If you find yourself stuck midway through your paper (or literally saying, “What the heck am I doing?”), go back to your introduction and make sure that you’re not confusing a thesis with a subject. A thesis is an argument; you can structure a paper around that. A subject on the other hand is a topic, something that has no beginning, no opportunity for narrative, and no way of getting to a reasonable conclusion (thus causing the block). If you find that you have a subject, there’s a good chance you’ll have to go back to the drawing board (which still should be less time consuming than trying to make what you have “fits” into a coherent paper).
3. If you’re stuck, there’s also a chance that you haven’t taken the time to think about what your research means to your essay. In this instance, remove yourself from the paper and return to the literature. As you reread, think of what this information means in the context of your essay’s purpose as well as in the context of the other material you’ve read. You may find that you’ve been trying to write about something that isn’t necessary. You may also discover something new that will jump start the writing process for you.
4. 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 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.
5. If after three or four paragraphs you find yourself stuck, take inventory of what you do have by jotting down a one-sentence purpose statement for each paragraph. This way, by getting a brief synopsis of what you’ve written so far, you’ll know where you are in the argument and what’s needed next.
6. Remember 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.
7. It sounds silly, but you might even want to consider using a voice recorder. Some writers are simply more comfortable expressing thoughts orally than through the written word. Once you’ve recorded those ideas, you should be able to fine tune them on the page.
Do Not Come Lightly to the Page
by Jamie Patterson, Writing Specialist
One book that rests on most of the desks in the Walden Writing Center is Stephen King’s On Writing. Even though it isn’t a book about academic writing what King has to say about writing in general is better than just about any how-to guide you can find.
In this part-memoir, part-writing guide King begs of his reader “do not come lightly to the blank page.” As a writer and a writing teacher I read these words for the first time and felt what sports fans feel when their favorite team wins. I embraced these words and repeated them, probably to many of you.
Do not come lightly to the blank page.
But now I’ve changed my mind.
As a writer my number one source of writer’s block is the feeling that I need to get just the right words down the first time and the frustration that follows when the sentence just isn’t quite right squashes my writing spirit.
As a writing teacher, though, I promote the rough first draft; that it doesn’t matter what you get down on paper as long as you get something down. And oh, by the way, don’t come lightly to the blank page. I’ve just recently realized what a difficult mixed message this is to navigate.
I still remember the exercise we did in grade school where the teacher asked us all to name the most effective weapon and once guns, bombs, and the like were exhausted without the right answer she stood before us and held up a pen.
Do not come lightly to the page, indeed.
It’s time to negotiate between the need for the rough first draft and the acknowledged power of the written word. The sixth edition APA Publication Manual has a section on revision that includes the statement that “Most manuscripts need to be revised, and some manuscripts need to be revised more than once” (APA, 2009, p. 227).
Words are powerful. Your words are powerful. The work you’re doing here at Walden is powerful and meaningful to communities within and outside of our university. The end product of this work will be your thesis or dissertation. We start, though, with one word, one page at a time.
The process here at Walden focuses on slowly building to this powerful final document. A series of documents from KAMs to proposals are designed to help you embrace the rough first draft. Our services here in the Writing Center are aimed at guiding you through the revision process: a process even the APA manual took time to point out is simply part of the writer’s work.
Next time writer’s block hits remember this and maybe, just maybe, try coming lightly to the blank page.
One book that rests on most of the desks in the Walden Writing Center is Stephen King’s On Writing. Even though it isn’t a book about academic writing what King has to say about writing in general is better than just about any how-to guide you can find.
In this part-memoir, part-writing guide King begs of his reader “do not come lightly to the blank page.” As a writer and a writing teacher I read these words for the first time and felt what sports fans feel when their favorite team wins. I embraced these words and repeated them, probably to many of you.
Do not come lightly to the blank page.
But now I’ve changed my mind.
As a writer my number one source of writer’s block is the feeling that I need to get just the right words down the first time and the frustration that follows when the sentence just isn’t quite right squashes my writing spirit.
As a writing teacher, though, I promote the rough first draft; that it doesn’t matter what you get down on paper as long as you get something down. And oh, by the way, don’t come lightly to the blank page. I’ve just recently realized what a difficult mixed message this is to navigate.
I still remember the exercise we did in grade school where the teacher asked us all to name the most effective weapon and once guns, bombs, and the like were exhausted without the right answer she stood before us and held up a pen.
Do not come lightly to the page, indeed.
It’s time to negotiate between the need for the rough first draft and the acknowledged power of the written word. The sixth edition APA Publication Manual has a section on revision that includes the statement that “Most manuscripts need to be revised, and some manuscripts need to be revised more than once” (APA, 2009, p. 227).
Words are powerful. Your words are powerful. The work you’re doing here at Walden is powerful and meaningful to communities within and outside of our university. The end product of this work will be your thesis or dissertation. We start, though, with one word, one page at a time.
The process here at Walden focuses on slowly building to this powerful final document. A series of documents from KAMs to proposals are designed to help you embrace the rough first draft. Our services here in the Writing Center are aimed at guiding you through the revision process: a process even the APA manual took time to point out is simply part of the writer’s work.
Next time writer’s block hits remember this and maybe, just maybe, try coming lightly to the blank page.
APA: The Secret Knock to Academia
By Jamie Patterson, Writing Specialist
Even though it’s our job to know APA style like the back of our hand, we still appreciate the struggle students have becoming acquainted with the nuances of APA. With the advent of a new edition we experts thought it would be good to remind ourselves, and you, the student, just why adhering to a particular publication style is so important.
Let’s start with the book itself, shall we? The foreword in your sixth edition publication manual points out that elements of writing “are codified in rules we follow for clear communication, allowing us to focus our intellectual energy on the substance of our research” (APA, 2009, xiii).
Your research and subject matter are yours to master, whereas mastering a publication style is simply learning the rules of the game. We’re passionate about being guides to the rules so that your biggest concerns are related to the information you’re presenting to the broader academic community and the social change this information will affect instead of the nuts and bolts of how this information is presented.
Even though your content is the ultimate contribution to your field, adhering to APA style is the way you indicate to your readers that you are part of the academic community. This makes APA a secret knock of sorts to a very prestigious group. Improper formatting, or failure to talk about someone else’s research in the past tense, tells your reader that you aren’t quite a member yet. A paper that is APA adherent in form and style, however, is the calling card of an academic.
We believe in what Walden students do and want each of you, and your research, to contribute to positive social change. Learning the secret knock of APA, with our help, will help you achieve this.
Even though it’s our job to know APA style like the back of our hand, we still appreciate the struggle students have becoming acquainted with the nuances of APA. With the advent of a new edition we experts thought it would be good to remind ourselves, and you, the student, just why adhering to a particular publication style is so important.
Let’s start with the book itself, shall we? The foreword in your sixth edition publication manual points out that elements of writing “are codified in rules we follow for clear communication, allowing us to focus our intellectual energy on the substance of our research” (APA, 2009, xiii).
Your research and subject matter are yours to master, whereas mastering a publication style is simply learning the rules of the game. We’re passionate about being guides to the rules so that your biggest concerns are related to the information you’re presenting to the broader academic community and the social change this information will affect instead of the nuts and bolts of how this information is presented.
Even though your content is the ultimate contribution to your field, adhering to APA style is the way you indicate to your readers that you are part of the academic community. This makes APA a secret knock of sorts to a very prestigious group. Improper formatting, or failure to talk about someone else’s research in the past tense, tells your reader that you aren’t quite a member yet. A paper that is APA adherent in form and style, however, is the calling card of an academic.
We believe in what Walden students do and want each of you, and your research, to contribute to positive social change. Learning the secret knock of APA, with our help, will help you achieve this.
Writing Center Summer Break!
This is an exciting time for the Writing Center. Because of such a steady increase in our services since we launched the Walden Interactive Reservation E-System (the WIRE) it is time we make some updates to continue to serve you to the best of our abilities. And what better time than over summer break! Don’t worry, though, we aren’t going anywhere. Rather, over the next 2 weeks, we will be offering some new services in lieu of our traditional reservation system. This will allow us to make some much needed updates to the reservation system, launch our new website, and create new resources and update our current resources to comply with the sixth edition of the APA Publication Manual. During this time, you can still send us any writing-related questions to writingsupport@waldenu.edu. In addition, we will honor all reservations in the consultant schedule through August 31 and in the editor schedule through the end of September. We will open up for new September reservations the first day of the semester/term (September 8). During this time, you might also want to participate in one of our webinars about common writing issues. Contact wcwebinar@waldenu.edu for more information on the webinars.
Thank you for your continued use of the Writing Center and for your patience while we make these changes to our services!
Thank you for your continued use of the Writing Center and for your patience while we make these changes to our services!
Minneapolis Summer Session Residency Reflection
The Writing Center staff has been enjoying leading sessions and advising students one on one during the first few days of the Minneapolis residency. If you are attending the residency come say hello to us in Ferguson room 85 on the West Bank campus!
We know how hard it can be to coordinate attending a residency, but we have found that students and staff alike find the experience incredibly worthwhile and rewarding (not to mention it fulfills your degree requirements!). The past few weeks have been hectic for our staff as we prepared for the largest residency yet. Without a doubt, though, the feelings we have when we attend residencies and have the chance to meet our students face to face is well worth all of the preparation. As Kari Wold put it, "I love the opportunity to see students at various stages in their educations/motivational levels. I love seeing them collaborate and motivate each other, and I'm always excited for the opportunity to meet/visit with staff, students, and faculty. It's encouraging to me in my own work here at Walden and in my private studies." Kari is not alone in her sentiments. As our Senior Consultant Amber Cook said, "Residencies offer me the opportunity to learn about all the great work Walden students are doing in their programs and their practice. I always come back feeling inspired and excited to continue my support of Walden student work!" Brian Timmerman, Senior Writing Consultant, added, "Hearing people explain their work. Many times their impromptu, informal presentation is clearer than what they have on the page."
We all know that frustration can come hand in hand with the learning experience. When asked how she responds to students who might be frustrated, Erica Schatzlein said, "I love being able to hear, in more detail, what students are going through and see what I can do to make their writing life a little easier. Being able to offer presentations with helpful, easy to access information and seeing the student response renews my dedication to helping all of our Walden scholars achieve." Sometimes, as Editor Annie Pezalla said, the chance to meet face to face with students, whether they have attended one of our sessions or not, is satisfaction enough: "The aspect of residencies that I like most is the face-to-face contact I have with students who I've been working with online. Seeing them helps to strengthen to bond I feel with those students and makes me want to work even harder to help them reach their goals."
The Dissertation Editors work with our students at several stages in their academic career, including the stressful dissertation process. As Editor Tim McIndoo said, "getting to teach, getting to help students directly and immediately, and seeing the enthusiasm on students' faces" reminds the Editors that it is all worth it in the end.
We know you all as students, and residencies also give us the opportunity to know the more personal side of your lives. As Martha King, Senior Dissertation Editor, said, "What I like most about attending residencies is the chance to meet and connect with students and learn more about what their life and work experiences are and how we can best help support them in the dissertation process."
Jeff Zuckerman, the Director of Writing Services, summed up how we all feel after a Walden residency when he said, "After attending more than 100 residencies, I can still say that meeting with students and faculty face-to-face reminds me of the high caliber of working professionals and caring educators at the heart of Walden. I'm always inspired by our students' stories, by their motivation, and by their commitment to social change. That, plus they still laugh at my jokes after all these years."
We hope to see you at a residency soon!
-The Walden University Writing Staff
We know how hard it can be to coordinate attending a residency, but we have found that students and staff alike find the experience incredibly worthwhile and rewarding (not to mention it fulfills your degree requirements!). The past few weeks have been hectic for our staff as we prepared for the largest residency yet. Without a doubt, though, the feelings we have when we attend residencies and have the chance to meet our students face to face is well worth all of the preparation. As Kari Wold put it, "I love the opportunity to see students at various stages in their educations/motivational levels. I love seeing them collaborate and motivate each other, and I'm always excited for the opportunity to meet/visit with staff, students, and faculty. It's encouraging to me in my own work here at Walden and in my private studies." Kari is not alone in her sentiments. As our Senior Consultant Amber Cook said, "Residencies offer me the opportunity to learn about all the great work Walden students are doing in their programs and their practice. I always come back feeling inspired and excited to continue my support of Walden student work!" Brian Timmerman, Senior Writing Consultant, added, "Hearing people explain their work. Many times their impromptu, informal presentation is clearer than what they have on the page."
We all know that frustration can come hand in hand with the learning experience. When asked how she responds to students who might be frustrated, Erica Schatzlein said, "I love being able to hear, in more detail, what students are going through and see what I can do to make their writing life a little easier. Being able to offer presentations with helpful, easy to access information and seeing the student response renews my dedication to helping all of our Walden scholars achieve." Sometimes, as Editor Annie Pezalla said, the chance to meet face to face with students, whether they have attended one of our sessions or not, is satisfaction enough: "The aspect of residencies that I like most is the face-to-face contact I have with students who I've been working with online. Seeing them helps to strengthen to bond I feel with those students and makes me want to work even harder to help them reach their goals."
The Dissertation Editors work with our students at several stages in their academic career, including the stressful dissertation process. As Editor Tim McIndoo said, "getting to teach, getting to help students directly and immediately, and seeing the enthusiasm on students' faces" reminds the Editors that it is all worth it in the end.
We know you all as students, and residencies also give us the opportunity to know the more personal side of your lives. As Martha King, Senior Dissertation Editor, said, "What I like most about attending residencies is the chance to meet and connect with students and learn more about what their life and work experiences are and how we can best help support them in the dissertation process."
Jeff Zuckerman, the Director of Writing Services, summed up how we all feel after a Walden residency when he said, "After attending more than 100 residencies, I can still say that meeting with students and faculty face-to-face reminds me of the high caliber of working professionals and caring educators at the heart of Walden. I'm always inspired by our students' stories, by their motivation, and by their commitment to social change. That, plus they still laugh at my jokes after all these years."
We hope to see you at a residency soon!
-The Walden University Writing Staff
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