BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – As students ease into classroom routines associated with the 2022-2023 school year, some may struggle to shift their summer vacation mindsets to ‘scholar mode.’
If this is the case, when faced with the task of writing a report, writer’s block can become a problem.
Some have found the following techniques helpful in overcoming writer’s block:
Take a quick break
Stepping away from the writing project for a few minutes and clearing your head may be just the thing needed to motivate you.
You might try going for a walk, treating yourself to a healthy snack, or even taking a moment to clean your room.
Talk it out
Talking to a parent, sibling, or friend about your writing project can give you new ideas and help you figure out how to start the paper. Sometimes a project can seem bigger and more complex when we keep it to ourselves. But talking about it with someone who is positive and supportive can make it seem less daunting.
Avoid procrastinating
While it can be helpful to take a short break from your writing project, putting it off for too long is counterproductive. So, procrastinating for hours on end is not a viable option.
According to scholarships.com, “If your paper is causing problems for you early on, it’s highly unlikely those problems will go away. Directly confront writer’s block and fight through it. It can be a long struggle, but in the end, you’ll have a better essay if you start writing it early.”
Try freewriting
Sometimes it can help to put the paper aside for a moment, pick up a journal and write whatever comes to mind, even if it’s not grammatically correct or even logical. Just write. This exercise breaks the ice when it comes to you and the writing work you’d like to complete.
Freewriting can bulldoze the mental roadblock that says “I can’t write” and push you into a more positive mental space that gives you the confidence to write your paper freely.
If the suggestions above still don’t seem to help a student overcome writer’s block, it may be helpful to speak with a teacher or guidance counselor about the issue and ask for help.
