![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/dealing-with-obstacles-300x200.jpg\")
\r\n\r\nYou may be thinking, \u201cAll this advice is good, but sometimes I just get stuck! What I normally do just isn\u2019t working!\u201d That\u2019s a familiar feeling for all writers. Sometimes the writing just seems to flow as if by magic, but then the flow stops cold. Your brain seems to have run out of things to say. If you just wait for the magic to come back, you might wait a long time.\r\n\r\nWhat professional writers know is that writing takes consistent effort. Writing comes out of a regular practice\u2014a habit.\r\n\r\nProfessional writers also know that not everything they write ends up in the final draft. Sometimes we have to write what Anne Lamott calls a \u201cshitty rough draft.\u201d One of my favorite writing professors, Duncan Carter, used to say that he was a terrible writer but a great reviser, and that\u2019s what helped him write when inspiration wasn\u2019t available. So how do writers get going when they feel stuck or uninspired? They develop a set of habits and have more than one way to write to get the words flowing again.\r\n\r\nWhat is Writing Anxiety and How Do You Know if You Have It?<\/h1>\r\nDo you worry excessively about writing assignments? Do they make you feel uneasy or agitated? Do you have negative feelings about certain types of writing? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might suffer from writing anxiety. Writing anxiety simply means that a writer is experiencing negative feelings about a given writing task. The last of the questions above points out something important about this condition that has been afflicting writers everywhere for centuries: writing anxiety is often more about the audience and\/or purpose for a given writing task than it is about the mere act of writing itself.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s consider this situational nature of writing anxiety for a moment. Say you just bought a new pair of headphones. You brought them home, removed all the packaging, plugged them into your MP3 player, and they\u2019re amazing!\u00a0 So you decide to visit the company website, and you write a stellar review of the product, giving it a five-star rating and including descriptive details about the headphones\u2019 comfortable fit, excellent sound quality, ability to cancel outside noise, and reasonable price.\r\n\r\nNow, let\u2019s say that the next day in biology class your instructor covers the topic of biomes, and you learn about animal habitats and biodiversity and the interrelation and interdependence of species within biomes. You find it fascinating and can\u2019t wait to learn more. But then something terrible happens. Your instructor assigns a term project on the subject. As your instructor begins to describe the length and other specifications for the report, complete with formatting guidelines, citation requirements, and a bibliography at the end, your palms start to sweat, your stomach feels uneasy, and you begin to have trouble focusing on anything else your instructor has to say. You\u2019re experiencing writing anxiety.\r\n\r\nWriting anxiety is the condition of feeling uneasy about writing. Writer\u2019s block is what you experience when you can\u2019t manage to put words on the page. But your condition isn\u2019t about the act of writing. Just yesterday you wrote a great review for those cool new headphones. So why do you suddenly feel paralyzed by the thought of writing the biology essay? Let\u2019s consider some possible causes.\r\nWhat Causes Writing Anxiety?<\/h1>\r\nThe causes of writing anxiety are many. Here are just a few:\r\n\r\n \t- Inexperience with the type of writing task<\/li>\r\n \t
- Previous negative experiences with writing (e.g., someone, maybe a teacher, has given you negative feedback or said negative things about your writing)<\/li>\r\n \t
- Negative feelings bout writing (e.g., \"I'm not a good writer\"; \"I hate writing.\")<\/li>\r\n \t
- Immediate deadline<\/li>\r\n \t
- Distant deadline<\/li>\r\n \t
- Lack of interest in the topic<\/li>\r\n \t
- Personal problems or life events<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nLevel of experience may explain why you felt comfortable writing the headphone review while you break out in a sweat at the thought of the biology paper. If you\u2019ve never written anything similar to a specific assignment, maybe you\u2019re unsure about whether or not you can meet the assignment requirements or the teacher\u2019s expectations. Or maybe the last time you turned in a written report for school you received negative feedback or a bad grade from the teacher. Maybe you procrastinated most of the term and now the paper is due next week and you feel overwhelmed. Or maybe it\u2019s the second week of the term and the finals week deadline seems so far away that you\u2019re not motivated to write.\r\n\r\nKnowing the cause of your writing anxiety can help you move beyond it and get writing, even if you can\u2019t completely eliminate the problem. If the topic doesn\u2019t interest you or if you\u2019re having problems at home, those probably aren\u2019t issues that will just disappear, but if you try some of the following strategies, I think you\u2019ll find that you can at least move forward with even the most anxiety-inducing of writing assignments.\r\n
Strategies for Overcoming or Managing Writing Anxiety<\/h1>\r\nThere are a number of strategies upon which you can draw to help you move past the feeling of being lost or stuck. Consider if some of the following tactics can help you to get writing again.\r\nJust Start Writing<\/h2>\r\nIt might sound like it\u2019s oversimplifying the matter, but it\u2019s true. Half the battle is to just start writing. Try some strategies like freewriting or dialectic notetaking. (For more on freewriting, see \u201cStrategies for Getting Started<\/a>\u201d in the \u201cPrewriting\u201d section of this text, and for more on dialectic notetaking<\/a>, refer to the section on \u201cWriting about Texts\u201d). You should also believe in the importance of writing badly. Bruce Ballenger, a well-known writer and professor of English at Boise State explains\u00a0why\u00a0writing badly is an important part of the writing process:\r\nGiving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don\u2019t expect to write, and from those surprises will come some of my best writing. Writing badly is also a convenient alternative to staring off into space and waiting for inspiration.<\/blockquote>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_55\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/unsculpted-clay-300x225.jpg\")
Unsculpted Pottery Clay, CC0 Publuc Domain Image[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSometimes the biggest problem writers have with getting started is that they feel like the writing needs to be good, or well organized, or they feel like they need to start at the beginning. None of that is true. All you need to do is start.\r\n\r\nHave you ever seen a potter make a clay pot? Before a potter can start shaping or throwing a pot, they have to bring the big wet blob of clay and slap it down on the table. It's heavy and wet and messy, but it's the essential raw material. No clay? No pot. \u201cBad writing\" is a lot like that. You have to dump all the words and ideas onto the table. Just get them out. Only then do you have the raw material you need to start shaping the words into something beautiful and lasting. You can wait until the revision stages to worry about shaping your writing to be its best. For now, just get the ideas on the table.\r\nCreate Smaller Tasks and Short-Term Goals<\/h2>\r\nOne of the biggest barriers to writing can be that the task just seems too large, and perhaps the due date is weeks away. Each of these conditions can contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed or to the tendency to procrastinate. But the remedy is simple and will help you keep writing something each week toward your deadline and toward the finished product: divide larger writing tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks and set intermediate deadlines.\r\n\r\nThe process that the authors used for writing this text provides a good example. As authors, we had to divide the text into sections, but we also had to plan the process for a first draft, peer reviews, and revisions, along with adding images, links, and other resources, not to mention the final publication of the text online. Had we not divided up the larger tasks into smaller ones and set short-term goals and deadlines, the process of writing the text would have been overwhelming. We didn\u2019t meet every single intermediate deadline right on time, but they helped move us along and helped us to meet the most important deadline\u2014the final one\u2014with a complete text that was ready to publish on schedule.\r\n\r\nImagine that you have a term paper that\u2019s assigned during Week 1 of a eleven-week term, and it\u2019s due during finals week. Make a list of all the tasks you can think of that need to be completed, from beginning to end, to accomplish all that the assignment requires. List the tasks, and assign yourself due dates for each task. Consider taking it a step further and create a task table that allows you to include a column for additional notes. Here\u2019s an example:\r\n
- \r\n \t
- Inexperience with the type of writing task<\/li>\r\n \t
- Previous negative experiences with writing (e.g., someone, maybe a teacher, has given you negative feedback or said negative things about your writing)<\/li>\r\n \t
- Negative feelings bout writing (e.g., \"I'm not a good writer\"; \"I hate writing.\")<\/li>\r\n \t
- Immediate deadline<\/li>\r\n \t
- Distant deadline<\/li>\r\n \t
- Lack of interest in the topic<\/li>\r\n \t
- Personal problems or life events<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nLevel of experience may explain why you felt comfortable writing the headphone review while you break out in a sweat at the thought of the biology paper. If you\u2019ve never written anything similar to a specific assignment, maybe you\u2019re unsure about whether or not you can meet the assignment requirements or the teacher\u2019s expectations. Or maybe the last time you turned in a written report for school you received negative feedback or a bad grade from the teacher. Maybe you procrastinated most of the term and now the paper is due next week and you feel overwhelmed. Or maybe it\u2019s the second week of the term and the finals week deadline seems so far away that you\u2019re not motivated to write.\r\n\r\nKnowing the cause of your writing anxiety can help you move beyond it and get writing, even if you can\u2019t completely eliminate the problem. If the topic doesn\u2019t interest you or if you\u2019re having problems at home, those probably aren\u2019t issues that will just disappear, but if you try some of the following strategies, I think you\u2019ll find that you can at least move forward with even the most anxiety-inducing of writing assignments.\r\n
Strategies for Overcoming or Managing Writing Anxiety<\/h1>\r\nThere are a number of strategies upon which you can draw to help you move past the feeling of being lost or stuck. Consider if some of the following tactics can help you to get writing again.\r\n
Just Start Writing<\/h2>\r\nIt might sound like it\u2019s oversimplifying the matter, but it\u2019s true. Half the battle is to just start writing. Try some strategies like freewriting or dialectic notetaking. (For more on freewriting, see \u201cStrategies for Getting Started<\/a>\u201d in the \u201cPrewriting\u201d section of this text, and for more on dialectic notetaking<\/a>, refer to the section on \u201cWriting about Texts\u201d). You should also believe in the importance of writing badly. Bruce Ballenger, a well-known writer and professor of English at Boise State explains\u00a0why\u00a0writing badly is an important part of the writing process:\r\n
Giving myself permission to write badly makes it much more likely that I will write what I don\u2019t expect to write, and from those surprises will come some of my best writing. Writing badly is also a convenient alternative to staring off into space and waiting for inspiration.<\/blockquote>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_55\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]
Unsculpted Pottery Clay, CC0 Publuc Domain Image[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSometimes the biggest problem writers have with getting started is that they feel like the writing needs to be good, or well organized, or they feel like they need to start at the beginning. None of that is true. All you need to do is start.\r\n\r\nHave you ever seen a potter make a clay pot? Before a potter can start shaping or throwing a pot, they have to bring the big wet blob of clay and slap it down on the table. It's heavy and wet and messy, but it's the essential raw material. No clay? No pot. \u201cBad writing\" is a lot like that. You have to dump all the words and ideas onto the table. Just get them out. Only then do you have the raw material you need to start shaping the words into something beautiful and lasting. You can wait until the revision stages to worry about shaping your writing to be its best. For now, just get the ideas on the table.\r\nCreate Smaller Tasks and Short-Term Goals<\/h2>\r\nOne of the biggest barriers to writing can be that the task just seems too large, and perhaps the due date is weeks away. Each of these conditions can contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed or to the tendency to procrastinate. But the remedy is simple and will help you keep writing something each week toward your deadline and toward the finished product: divide larger writing tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks and set intermediate deadlines.\r\n\r\nThe process that the authors used for writing this text provides a good example. As authors, we had to divide the text into sections, but we also had to plan the process for a first draft, peer reviews, and revisions, along with adding images, links, and other resources, not to mention the final publication of the text online. Had we not divided up the larger tasks into smaller ones and set short-term goals and deadlines, the process of writing the text would have been overwhelming. We didn\u2019t meet every single intermediate deadline right on time, but they helped move us along and helped us to meet the most important deadline\u2014the final one\u2014with a complete text that was ready to publish on schedule.\r\n\r\nImagine that you have a term paper that\u2019s assigned during Week 1 of a eleven-week term, and it\u2019s due during finals week. Make a list of all the tasks you can think of that need to be completed, from beginning to end, to accomplish all that the assignment requires. List the tasks, and assign yourself due dates for each task. Consider taking it a step further and create a task table that allows you to include a column for additional notes. Here\u2019s an example:\r\n