Coursework

“Writer’s Block” – The uninvited break

“I don’t believe in writers block particularly. I think you can feel you’re getting writer’s block and then you call it writer’s block and you’re in trouble. So I refuse to call it writer’s block. I call it ‘time for tea’ instead.”
[Graham Coxon, via morjames]

You’d be forgiven for thinking that “writer’s block” is some sort of disease, given the amount of coverage and advice it gets.

photo by amypalko

photo by amypalko

Faced with a 2,000 word essay, your words need to be important, hard-hitting, scholarly, impressive…

You want those words to be right, so you don’t write any old stuff.  You ponder the possibilities and dismiss most ideas as non-starters.  After hours of doing this, you’re no closer to completing the essay.

Thinking too much about the right words can stop you in your tracks.  You’re allowed to write whatever you want while nobody is looking.  The nonsense you start producing now won’t be the final essay you hand in for marking.

So write nonsense.  Talk rubbish.  Get words down on the page and see where it takes you.

James Dunn recently mentioned writer’s block “coming in waves, as inspiration wavers, usually through little mental stimulation or nothing of note occurring”.  James isn’t alone.  It’s hard to be inspired all the time.

Thursday Bram makes this point, saying that she can pump out 500 words in 30 minutes with no problem, but that doesn’t mean an eight-hour day of writing should produce 8,000 words.  She has managed this feat and even written a 12,000 word e-book in a day:

“But every time I’ve made a push at writing so many words, I’m absolutely useless for two or even three days afterward. There are certainly elements of exhaustion: writing that much leaves me feeling physically wrung out and like I just hiked up a mountain. I may not have run a marathon, but I’ve definitely exerted myself.

“The other reason that I need so much recovery time is that I feel like I’ve burned up whatever it is that lets me put together sentences in a generally pleasing fashion. My writing simply sucks after one of my all-day writing sessions.” [Thursday Bram]

Some people find it a struggle to even begin, let alone pumping out 500 words in 30 minutes.  It’s not burn-up, because the match hasn’t even been lit.

As writer’s block is psychological, there is no solution to fit all shapes and sizes.  Blocks can manifest themselves in many ways, such as:

  • General tiredness
  • Personal problems
  • Burn out
  • Lacking inspiration
  • Seeking perfection ‘out of the box’
  • Pressure to produce something ‘better than last time’
  • Uncertain what is required
  • Not enough research to provide much discussion
  • Distractions
  • Lacking belief in your own ability and/or comparing yourself to others

Just look at famous writers and artists.  Nobody is immune from writer’s block, no matter how talented they may be at their craft.

If you’re truly stuck, try writing random words.  Write a shopping list and then write about writing the shopping list.  Write about why you can’t write.  Type out a paragraph from a book and look at the words on the screen.  The screen isn’t blank any more…is that less intimidating?  Increase the font size on screen and let the text take up more space.  Use handwriting instead of the keyboard, and vice versa.  Try something…anything different.

If you really don’t want to suffer from writer’s block, don’t accept the break exists.  On the flipside, do accept that you need a break sometimes.  I don’t want to hear that you’ve gone bonkers…

Students, Know Your Rights!

In light of news that a student did not own the copyright to her dissertation, it pays to be aware of your rights.

You may be asked to sign away the copyright and ownership of your work when you begin studying.  This could be through signing an intellectual property (IP) release. Your work may no longer strictly be considered your work.

photo by threephin

photo by threephin

All institutions have different rules.  Some let you keep all rights while others want you to give up ownership.  Students are not properly briefed on this in most cases.  The strange situation generally leads to no issues, but that doesn’t mean there’s no problem in this.

I recommend you do the following things:

  1. Don’t sign any document/contract/agreement unless you understand what you’re signing.  If you don’t understand, question it.  It’s hard (if not impossible) to later argue that you didn’t realise what you were signing.  However, if the understanding is fundamentally changed or the contract is simply unfair, the contract can be argued and could be worth nothing.
  2. Check your university’s IP policy.  If you’ve already signed away rights, it’s best you know.  Even if you haven’t, it’s best you understand how the university regards work that you consider your own.

Due to the recent case mentioned above, I question whether universities should be granted an individual, unique say in regulations.  Surely it would be reasonable, easier to understand, and in the interests of students for the issue of copyright and ownership to be made standard across all institutions?

There is an ethical point in this particular case and I don’t have enough information to understand whether or not large parts of the student’s work was used without enough attribution to the author.  The author was apparently credited as the third author on the paper, but was this enough?  Is this even relevant?

Some people argue this is all standard practice.  I don’t think that’s the point.  Deeming something standard practice doesn’t make it reasonable.  Until a case like the one above gets properly tested in court, I fear there won’t be a proper resolution to the problem.

Whatever the score, make sure you’re in the know.  If you have a choice, don’t automatically sign away your rights.

20/20 – Day 12: 20 escapes from essay writer’s block

A poem:

Blank mind, blank screen, all is clear.
Scared to start and full of fear.
Not quite sure where to begin,
Nothing grand inspires within.
Vicious circles loop the loop,
“How can all my thoughts regroup?”
Take a look below and see
If these ideas can set you free.

  1. Free writing. Let all sorts out. At least you’ll be writing. Wikipedia has the rules.
  2. Compose without editing as you go. Similar to free writing, but not quite so relaxed.  For when your main problem lies mainly with perfectionism.  Leave that issue for later.
  3. Mix it up. Start at the end if you like.  Start wherever you want. Writing doesn’t have to be a linear process.  If you prefer to conclude before anything else, that’s okay with the world.
  4. Sum up what you want to argue/explain in a few sentences and work from that. Armed with your own overview, you’ve got more to go on.
  5. Use headings and notes as a core structure. Don’t know where to start? Take the information you already have and create a plan that way.
  6. Find quotations to work from.  You quote throughout an essay to back up, give examples, and engage.  Turn things on their head by using quotations as a way to start the writing process.
  7. Agree to craft just one sentence before walking away.
  8. Now agree to just one paragraph before walking away.
  9. Now agree to just one section before walking away. Little steps become bigger with confidence.
  10. Do/Don’t listen to music as you write.  Do the thing you normally wouldn’t do.
  11. Create a list of points instead of writing in full paragraphs. Challenge yourself to making 50 points. If you only end up with six points, who cares? You’ve made six points! Woo!
  12. Go for a walk and think about the essay as you survey the world.  To be sure you remember the good stuff, take a notepad and pen.  Don’t note stuff down on your phone/Blackberry.  Make this special, make this separate from everything else.
  13. Get rid of distractions.  Stay focused and don’t let anything get in your way.  That goes for distractions on screen too.  Try DarkCopy or Writer for getting rid of distractions while writing.
  14. Deconstruct the essay question.  The question is never as simple as you first imagine.
  15. Eat, drink, be merry. Is your gut holding you back?  Don’t go hungry or thirsty.  You’ll be most productive when you’ve satisfied your appetite.  But don’t eat too much or you’ll be annoyed by indigestion instead.
  16. Stop calling it a block.  If you treat any lack of writing as a block, you’ll feel more blocked.  It’s an opportunity to shine, not a block.
  17. Take relevant lecture notes, write them out again and work around them.
  18. Find dictionary terms for words mentioned. Look for inspiration through the definitions.  If that’s not enough, look the words up in a thesaurus too and see where else you can head.
  19. Change medium and/or location.  Handwritten essays can be typed up.  Try writing the old fashioned way.  And why always work in your room or in the library?  Use a bench on campus, a different computer room than your usual norm, anywhere that’s different.
  20. Refer to your essay as a ‘draft’. Your final version is where you think about the exact structure and ultimate arguments.  Don’t be so formal with a draft. Let rip!
Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)

20/20 – Day 10: 20 pushes to get you working

Difficulty in starting a project doesn’t have to be down to procrastination.  A number of factors can buzz around, disrupting your efforts.  You may not even know what’s causing the problem.

If you’re serious about starting, or at least want a nudge in the right direction, here are 20 possible solutions for you.

  1. Start straight away. Important, yet rarely used.  The best way to deal with any work is to start soon after you’re given the task.  You needn’t do loads, just get started.
  2. Small chunks. Part of the brilliance with starting straight away is that you don’t have to spend hours in one go.  20 minutes here, half an hour there…in the first few days you’ll be a lot closer without breaking into a sweat.
  3. Stop treating coursework negatively. It’s easy to feel trapped in essay hell when rushing to complete work, especially when looming close to the deadline.  A negative attitude toward the work will simply make you feel worse.  Fine, given the choice you won’t always jump at essay work over everything else, but when a job’s got to be done, you’ll find it more difficult when you’re downhearted about it.
  4. Study buddies. Some people swear by the power of working with others.  They don’t have to be on your course and they don’t have to be in your year.  It may help for some study, but the main draw here is to get together in a group so you can spur each other on to work.
  5. Write casual. Treat writing like a personal blog post, diary entry, Facebook message, or conversation.  Switching to scholarly gear isn’t an instant process.  Get rid of the problem by going casual.
  6. Use different materials and stick with what makes you happy.  If you hate staring at a blank screen on the computer, get a pen and pad.  If the software proves too distracting, try a minimal interface.
  7. Procrastinate AFTER you start, not before.  Procrastination before you know where you want to go with an essay makes the job harder.  Procrastination when you’re half way through the process is not so bad.
    Anyway, a bit of a pause can be a good thing.
  8. Write drunk, edit sober.  Whether or not you take this advice literally, the point drives home the need to write without fear.  Don’t clear up as you go along, especially if that means obsessing over the exact words and ending up writing nothing at all.  When you’ve written the detail, you’re in a better place to mould it suitably.  Set aside separate time for the editing process.
  9. Take inspiration from unlikely sources.  This depends on the subject, but some lend themselves to this exercise.  An unlikely source doesn’t have to be weird, just away from a regular starting point.  For instance, your lectures are separate entities, but they overlap in terms of content, reference, people, and so on.  Therefore, a generally unrelated lecture may still hold a cue to set you thinking.
    Alternatively, a news story or a YouTube video could provide you with an idea.  Be on the lookout for anything that draws you back to the essay you’re working on.  Anything is possible.
  10. Work somewhere else.  The simple process of leaving one situation and engaging with another is often enough to give you renewed vigour.
  11. Do something daring. Changed perspective and a sense of the unknown help bring clarity to your thoughts.  Step out of your comfort zone and do something you wouldn’t normally. A bit over the top, you might think, but it can feel so, so good!
  12. Don’t offer yourself rewards for work. Just make it rewarding! You should be studying this for a reason.  If it’s that dull, pick a different theme/title.
  13. Find inspiration from quotations.  I’m not talking about self-help nuggets.  I’m referring to quoting others in essays.  When you find a killer quotation, write around that.  Shape the essay around the quotation, rather than shaping the quotation into the essay.
  14. Use your past work as inspiration. I don’t mean you should plagiarise, but you should look back to relevant coursework and refer to key points and major areas in order base your new work.
  15. Go for a walk/run. A very common piece of advice (regularly offered by myself among many others).  Alas, it’s advice commonly ignored.  It works so well, you should at least give it a chance.
  16. Change the lighting.  This is a weird one, but it works wonders.  If the main light in your room is on, turn it off and use a desk lamp instead.  If it’s the middle of the day and your curtains are open, see what happens when you close them and have a bit of artificial light.  Changes in the light do all sorts to your attitude, mood, outlook, and focus.
  17. Use a timer. Race yourself.  Just ten minutes can help.  Force yourself to work until the alarm goes off.  A bit of pressure can go a long way.
  18. Ask the tutor for an interesting reference/starting point.  They’re not going to tell you how to write your essay.  Neither will they hold your hand and give you a killer introduction.  However, they should be willing to discuss where you’re looking to take ideas and suggest key areas to explore based on those ideas.
  19. Brainstorm and mindmap. Go crazy…Write lists, make charts, draw pictures, you name it!  Pick key concepts, search a bit deeper, and attempt to shape a rough outline.  I often do this when preparing anything, not just coursework.
  20. Don’t research. Write blind. See how you do and put the research in after you’ve had a go.  Research can bog you down, so write what you think it best first.  Even if you scrap it all later on, it’s the fact that you’ve actually given the topic thought that helps drive you further.

Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: Retrofuturs (cc)