Transcript Confront Your Fears

Confront Your Fears
& Overcome Writer’s Block
With Heidi Marshall, MFA
The Writing Center: Quick View
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What are your fears?
• Why did you chose to come here today?
“It is good to have an end to journey
toward, but it is the journey that matters
in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
To Write or Not to Write?
What are your avoidance techniques?
Take a quick inventory on the strategies you
use to avoid sitting down to write.
For example:
• Laundry
• Clean Kitchen
• Weed Garden
• Set up the perfect office
How Do I Start, Then?
First and foremost:
Writing is a process,
not an event
And, as with most events,
you need to plan and you need to prepare
The Preparation
For most papers you write, your preparation
is the research you do before you write the
paper
Follow these five easy steps to make sure
you are well prepared to start writing:
The Preparation
1. While reading, make sure that you're taking notes on what interests you.
2. Provide a citation (author, year, page number) for every note that you
take. This way, returning to the text won't entirely interrupt the writing
process.
3. Synthesize all the literature you've read. If you grouped your notes
together, this should be easy. What does each individual grouping
suggest? Write down a sentence for each. You'll then want to synthesize
again. What is the collective suggestion once you've combined all the
grouped sentences?
4. Once you have a good idea of what the literature says (you should have
discovered this during the synthesis process), you should be able to
construct a thesis, which is essentially an argument that's grounded in
literature.
5. Create an outline for your paper
Getting to the Outline Strategy 1: Listing
Listing is just that: making a list of all your thoughts
and ideas to get them out on to the page.
The important thing to keep in mind when listing is
that no thought or idea is a bad thought or idea.
In other words, write down EVERYTHING that
comes to mind. You will narrow and refine your
list as you begin to organize it into an outline.
LISTING
10 Year High School Reunion
Old friends
Embarrassment level
Career
Success level
Appearance
Relationship status
People I did not like
Location
Bad memory
Ex-boyfriend
Alcohol?
Gossip
Makeup
Outfit
Hint:
Use your
notes to
guide you!
LISTING
Try It!
Getting to the Outline Strategy 2: Webbing
Webbing is another strategy for getting ALL of your
thoughts and ideas out on the page.
The important thing to keep in mind when webbing
is to experiment with the connections among the
ideas on the page. Don’t be surprised if you find
connections you never realized were there
before.
WEBBING
Old friends
Location:
Chicago
Appearance
10
Year
Reunion
Outfit
Career
Gossip
WEBBING
Try It!
Getting to the Outline Strategy 3:
Verbalizing a Thesis
• If you can verbalize your argument, you can write your argument.
• If you can give a 30 second elevator speech that explains your
argument, then you know your argument.
• The important thing to remember when verbalizing is that your
listener needs to understand what you are saying. Ask him or her to
summarize or paraphrase your ideas so you can determine if your
point is coming across well.
VERBALIZING
Try It!
Talking it through:
Spend 2-5 minutes talking about your topic
with a partner
In 30 seconds or less:
Summarize everything you just talked about
into three to four sentences, or 30 seconds
worth of dialogue
Outline
Introduction
Thesis Statement: Going to my 10 year High School Reunion will
be fun.
The logical
second step
to listing and
webbing is to
make an
outline!
Old Friends
Jeanne
Dan
Brad and Amy
Location: Chicago
Can see my dad
Lots of great restaurants
Cheap flight
Outfit
Cute new dress
Black paten leather shoes
Silver necklace
OUTLINE
Try It!
OK, So Now What?
You have an outline, but that is not exactly
what your instructor is looking for when he
or she asks for an 8-10 page paper that
cites a minimum of 10 articles, is it?
After you have synthesized the literature,
formed a thesis, and organized your ideas,
start your prewriting
WHAT IS PREWRITNG?
Prewriting is literally the writing you do before you start writing your
paper.
Prewriting helps you to organize and formulate your thoughts before
you start writing your paper. Prewriting exercises can also help
you get unstuck during the writing process.
Prewriting activities are designed to help your ideas flow out on the
page in an organized manner. They can also help reveal how it
is you really feel about your subject matter and why it is
important to you.
Prewriting is great for those scholars who are new to writing longer
papers, have been out of academia for several years, are
terrified of writing, or who frequently experience “writer’s block.”
Techniques for Prewriting
Write Without Abandon
Free writing is a technique that requires you to write off the top of your
head for a specified period of time without stopping.
Use free writing to help you remember why it is you are interested in
this topic in the first place. This strategy is like creating back story
for a novel. Write about what interests you about this topic, why it is
of importance to you on a personal level. Get this all out on the
page, and you will most likely be able to narrow down your ideas.
The important thing to remember about free writing is not to stop, even
if it means you have to write about how you have nothing to write
about. Kick that internal editor to the curb!
STRATEGY 4: FREE WRITING
Now that you have done all the work of creating an outline you might
find that you are just staring at the outline not knowing what to do
next.
OR
You might find that you are trying to write your paper in order from
introduction to conclusion and just aren’t making any sense
Free Writing Exercise
Pick the one idea from your outline
that most stands out to you
Now, put your outline away
Write that one idea at the top of a
blank piece of paper
Start writing
Discuss with your group:
• Where you started vs. where you ended
• Barriers you faced
• Avoidance strategies you used
Now…
• Go back to your writing and pick a
passage that surprised you or that you
found particularly good/interesting and
share that with your group.
• Remember, the more you do this, the
more you will keep.
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
•
Know your audience
•
Be prepared
•
Have a plan
•
Don’t edit yourself
•
Embrace the “shitty first draft.”
•
If you get stuck: walk, stretch, change locations, stand on your head, talk to
your cat, anything to give your brain a break!
•
Use the writing specialists at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/
•
Have fun. You are here at Walden because you want to be!
Know Your Audience
For Whom Does Your Bell Toll?
• Pick someone for whom you write:
– Visualize talking to that person about your
research and really wanting to impress him or
her
– Visualize that person reading your paper
– Write to impress
Don’t Edit Yourself
Don't get caught up in the way your paper
sounds. If you find yourself reading and
rereading what you do have, listening for
the ways that the words dance on the
page, stop, take a breath, and move on. If
you don't, you're going to lose sight of the
bigger picture (the essay as a whole). You
can always address issues of precision
during the revision process.
Embrace the Shitty First Draft
Remember that you're not working with stone
tablets. You can commit anything to paper
and delete it later. Go ahead and write
something, anything, even if you know it's a
placeholder. You can always go back and
change, delete, or revise what you've
written. At the very least, this'll keep the
process moving. It might even help in just
getting a few ideas on the page.
REFERENCES
•
Miller, B. & Paola, S. (2004). Tell it slant: Writing and shaping creative
nonfiction. Boston: McGraw Hill.
•
The OWL at Purdue. (2007). Prewriting (Invention). Retrieved September
19, 2007, from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan1.html
•
Tomlin, S. (1998). Pre-Writing. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from
http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/process/prewrit
e.htm