From Writer's Block to Writer's Door
–Lauren Kelley, The Center for the Study of Teaching and Writing,
The Ohio State University.
Lisa Ede offers the following strategies for overcoming resistance to writing in her book, Work in Progress (St. Martin's Press, 1995). Instructors who want to use writing in their college classrooms should encourage students to engage in these strategies—perhaps even modeling them or devoting specific classroom time to them to let students try them out:
1. Develop a writing ritual:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." Students must face and overcome the fear of writing.
"Many students with disabilities come to our Writing Center for a free tutorial. I find that most of them are just fearful of writing in general. They've had bad experiences at it. Getting them over, or past, that fear is often my main goal in working with them."–Lauren Kelley, The Center for the Study of Teaching and Writing,
The Ohio State University.
Lisa Ede offers the following strategies for overcoming resistance to writing in her book, Work in Progress (St. Martin's Press, 1995). Instructors who want to use writing in their college classrooms should encourage students to engage in these strategies—perhaps even modeling them or devoting specific classroom time to them to let students try them out:
1. Develop a writing ritual:
- Establish a particular time, place, set of tools, background elements, etc. to signal "I am writing" to yourself and others;
- Establish some pre-writing techniques such as doodling for 10 minutes, free-writing, writing in a warm-up journal, etc. See The Writing Process for more information.
- Remind yourself, "It's only a draft; it's only a draft." If you can't think of a clever or good introduction or title, then just don't try to find one. Go on… start somewhere else. Remember: it's only a draft!
- Avoid hypercritically editing every word as you draft;
- Free-write when you get stuck;
- Switch to a writing task that you CAN do at that moment;
- Change approaches or strategies when you get stuck;
- Talk out your ideas: peer talk, instructor conference, or a writing center tutorial;
- Describe for yourself the difficulty you are having;
- Take a break that involves another rhythmic or creative activity.
