As a writer, you may enjoy writing process but you should also learn to meet the deadlines….

This guide has been developed especially for those essay writers whose creative spirit hinders them from delivering on-time essays as expected by customers.

As results of psychological tests demonstrate, a lot of writers have so-called “writer’s block”. You can overcome it! Easily!

Overcoming Writer's Block

When you are blocked, consider these causes and try the strategies that sound most promising.

IF

You have attempted to begin a paper without doing any preliminary work such as brainstorming or outlining...

THEN

·          relax, open your portfolio with great works done and remember that you are a great writer;

·          use invention strategies suggested by us How to get started by asking the right questions now available:

·          refer to Simple Starting Strategies now available:

IF

You suddenly do not want to spend time writing or do not understand properly customer’s instructions…

THEN

·          resign yourself to the fact that you have to write the paper

·          specify the instructions if they are not clea;

·          try some of the strategies listed above;

IF

You are anxious about writing the paper...

THEN

·          read How to Cope with Writing Anxiety

IF

If you are preoccupied with the idea that you have to write about a subject and feel you probably can not express your most original thoughts regarding the subject...

THEN

·          talk over the subject with a friend or family member

·          use one of the specific strategies listed below

IF

You can not stand to write down an idea until it is perfectly worded or if you do not want to leave a poorly worded section on the page after you've written it...

THEN

·          ease up on your self-criticism

·          force yourself to write down something, no matter how poorly worded that approximates your thought (you can revise this later) and go on with the next idea

·          use some of the specific strategies below

·          break the task up into steps to meet the general purpose of the assignment.

IF

You are worried how harshly your paper will be evaluated...

THEN

·          think of the present draft as a practice run. Write the draft quickly, and revise it later

·          think of previous successfully written papers;

·          use some of the specific strategies below

Begin in the Middle

Start writing an essay at whatever point you like. If you want to begin in the middle, do it. Leave the introduction or first section until later. The reader will never know that you wrote the paper "backwards." Besides, some writers routinely save the introduction until later when they have a clearer idea of what the main idea and purpose will be.

Read the Paper

Read the paper to someone--your teacher,  friend,  roommate,  tutor in the Writing Lab etc. Just pick someone who is willing to give you fifteen to thirty minutes to talk about the topic and whose main aim is to help you start writing. Have the person take notes while you talk or tape your conversation. Talking will be helpful because you will probably be more natural and spontaneous in speech than in writing. Your listener can ask questions and guide you as you speak, and you'll feel more as though you're telling someone about something than completing an assignment.

Tape the Paper

Talk into a tape recorder, imagining your audience sitting in chairs or standing in a group. Then, transcribe the tape-recorded material. You'll at least have some ideas down on paper to work with and move around.

Change the Audience

Pretend that you are writing to a child, close friend parent, to a person who sharply disagrees with you, to someone who is new to the subject and needs to have you explain your paper's topic slowly and clearly. Changing the audience can clarify your purpose.  Changing the audience can also make you feel more comfortable and help you write easily.

Play a Role

Pretend you are someone else writing the paper. For instance, assume you are the president of a strong feminist movement such as NOW and are asked to write about sexist advertising. Or, pretend you are the president of a major oil company asked to defend the high price of oil. Consider being someone in another time period, perhaps Abraham Lincoln, or someone with a different perspective from your own of things--someone living in Hiroshima at the time the bomb was dropped. Pulling yourself out of your usual perspective can help you think more about the subject than writing about the subject.

(Many of these ideas are from Peter Elbow's Writing with Power, [Ch. 8; 59-77] and Mack Skjei's Overcoming Writing Blocks.)

Based on: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_block.html

MORE:

Even if they manage their time and follow writing guidelines, many writers will still experience a time when the words just will not come together, when they are simply "stuck" and can not think of anything to write. This is writer's block. Fortunately, a few helpful techniques make it possible to overcome the challenge of writer's block.