How to Get Rid of Writer’s Block

How to Get Rid of Writer’s Block

Students are assigned many writing exercises through the course of their academic careers. The topics can range from the arts to science, from mathematics to literature. Each of these disciplines requires that students learn to express themselves with the written word. One of the biggest challenges for all students at every level of education is writer’s block. This is that panicky feeling in your stomach and head when faced with an assignment and a blank screen (or page if you are old school). In order to overcome this hurdle, simply remind yourself of the following truths.

• You don’t need to worry about the “right answer.” Leave this outlook for the multiple choice tests. When writing any type of essay, creativity is outlook you need. There is no “right answer” despite what years of formal education have told you! While you must stay within a certain framework for the assignment, stretch it so that you can include creativity.
• It’ OK to be “wrong.” This is closely related to the first truth mentioned above. Students are so afraid of getting something wrong that they limit their ability to expand their knowledge and understanding. If you worry about the teacher thinking you are wrong on a point, then make it your goal to convince them otherwise in your essay!
• Everyone is creative. This one is worth saying again – Everyone is creative! Students are often faced with a writing assignment about which they have little information. This first step is to find some nuggets of topic-related ideas, and let you brain wander around the points. Brainstorm words or phrases, write them down, and begin to organize your thoughts. These simple steps are creativity in action!
• Give you creativity room to grow. As students write college essays, they should not consider the editing function of essay writing at first. This tends to hamper the creative process if you are worrying about spelling, grammar, etc. These things are important, but the place for them is at the end of the process during the copyediting or proofreading stage. For now, face the blank screen or page with abandon!