Editing Writer's block (section)

===Negative self-beliefs and feeling of incompetence===
[[Mike Rose (educator)|Mike Rose]] stated that writer's block can be caused by a writer's history in writing, rules and restrictions from the past. Writers can be hesitant of what they write based on how it will be perceived by the audience.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rose |first=Mike |date=1980 |title=Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer's Block |journal=College Composition and Communication |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=389–401 |doi=10.2307/356589 |issn=0010-096X |jstor=356589 |s2cid=26780594}}</ref> Guangming Ling states that there is a negative correlation between self-efficacy and avoidance goals in studies on writing apprehension and writer's block, which suggests that having hesitations about writing may lead to less effort and thus less success.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ling |first1=Guangming |last2=Elliot |first2=Norbert |last3=Burstein |first3=Jill C. |last4=McCaffrey |first4=Daniel F. |last5=MacArthur |first5=Charles A. |last6=Holtzman |first6=Steven |date=2021-04-01 |title=Writing motivation: A validation study of self-judgment and performance |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075293520300702 |journal=Assessing Writing |language=en |volume=48 |pages=100509 |doi=10.1016/j.asw.2020.100509 |s2cid=233567231 |issn=1075-2935|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Similarly to Ling, Dana Driscoll and Jennifer Wells explain writing dispositions in their essay "Beyond Knowledge and Skills". Driscoll and Wells argue that dispositions toward writing play crucial roles in determining whether writers are able to transfer their knowledge of writing into other contexts of life.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=CF 26: Beyond Knowledge and Skills by Dana Lynn Driscoll and Jennifer Wells |url=https://compositionforum.com/issue/26/beyond-knowledge-skills.php |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=compositionforum.com |language=en}}</ref> Related to self-efficacy, Driscoll and Wells suggest that writers who have a positive self-belief are more likely to produce work than some with a negative self-belief.<ref name=":22" /> Self-efficacy is especially important for a writer when it comes to an unfamiliar learning or writing setting because it may seem overwhelming.

James Adams noted in his book ''Conceptual Blockbusting'' that various reasons blocks occur include fear of taking a risk, "chaos" in the pre-writing stage, judging versus generating ideas, an inability to incubate ideas, or a lack of motivation.<ref name="Adams">{{cite book |last=Adams |first=James L. |date=2019 |orig-year=1974 |title=Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas |edition=5th |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-1-5416-7404-2 |oclc=1084631918 |pages=25–133}}</ref>

In "Motivation in the Writing Centre: A Peer Tutor's Experience", Leonie Kirchoff states that "The concept of 'amotivation' describes a lack of motivation due to an individual's feeling of incompetence and helplessness."<ref name=":4" /> Demotivation is the process of reducing or diminishing motivational basis for behavior or ongoing actions through external influences. An external factor such as feedback may affect demotivation, whereas an internal factor, such as pessimistic expectations, may cause amotivation. Even so, both concepts have similar effects on writers.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |date=2022-01-24 |title=Motivation in the Writing Centre: A Peer Tutor's Experience |journal=Journal of Academic Writing |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.18552/joaw.v6i1.282 |url=https://publications.coventry.ac.uk/index.php/joaw/article/view/282 |language=en-US |last1=Kirchhoff |first1=Leonie |doi-access=free }}</ref>

For tutors to provide students with the most appropriate feedback, scholars like Jared Featherstone from James Madison University suggest that tutors should be well educated in mindfulness strategies to combat a student's fixed mindset.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Featherstone |first=Jared |date=2018 |title=The Mindful Tutor |url=https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/dec1/Featherstoneetal.html }}</ref> He argues that tutors or instructors should be mindful enough to be grounded and focused solely on their student so they can pick up on the feelings, stress, or fixed mindsets their student might have.<ref name=":32" /> An unmindful tutor might accidentally reinforce a student's negative thinking patterns.