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Writers block

Make a bring topic interesting or personal

Writers block from being overcritical

Distance yourself from the writing and the audience

Speak the paper instead of writing it

Order doesnt matter

Where to start

Take a break

Physical exercise

Carry paper and pen around

Writer’s block from being overcritical

Another common cause of writer’s block is being too critical and worried about what you’re going to write. You may write a sentence, but not be happy with the wording, and so delete it and start again. In severe cases, some people may spend all day writing and rewriting just one sentence. You’ve probably seen the stereotypical writer in a movie sitting in a room at their typewriter, with scrunched up balls of paper all over the floor. So what can you do in a situation like this?:

Well, what you need to do first is remind yourself that what you’re writing down now might be nothing like the final version you hand in, so it doesn’t matter if it’s no good! In fact, it may even help if you go out of your way to deliberately write down horrible, almost nonsensical stuff on the page. If you can force yourself to write a couple of sentences of crud, then you’ll start the writing juices flowing, and you should be able to get a lot down on paper, even if it’s no ‘good’.

Getting the stuff on paper is the key. Once you’ve got stuff on paper, even if it appears to be horrible and has no grammar, you’ve got something to work with. It then becomes just as much an editing process as a writing process.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Distance yourself from the writing and the audience