Editing Writer's block (section)

==Coping strategies==
Irene Clark describes the following strategies for coping with writer's block: class and group discussion, [[Journal therapy|journaling]], [[free writing]] and [[brainstorming]], clustering, list making, and engaging with the text.<ref name="Clark"/> To overcome writing blocks, Oliver suggests asking writers questions to uncover their writing process.<ref name=Oliver /> He then recommends solutions such as systematic questioning, free writing, and encouragement.<ref name=Oliver /> A recent study of 2,500 writers aimed to find techniques that writers themselves use to overcome writer's block.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} The research discovered a range of solutions from altering the time of day to write and setting deadlines to lowering expectations and using [[mindfulness meditation]].

Mindfulness meditation has proved to increase awareness and improve writing skills. Kate Chaterdon, an English professor at Marist College, suggests mindfulness not only improves writing skills but also allows writers to transfer their knowledge of writing into other contexts of life.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=CF 50: Mindful Practice & Metacognitive Awareness by Kate Chaterdon |url=https://compositionforum.com/issue/50/mindful-practice.php |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=compositionforum.com |language=en}}</ref> Chaterdon recommends meditation as a grounding exercise to help people becoming more metacognitavely aware. Chaterdon had conducted a study in her two writing classes at Marist College and concluded that practicing mindfulness at least once a week is essential in developing higher levels of metacognition.<ref name=":12" />

===Right-brain involvement===
{{Main article|Lateralization of brain function}}
Garbriele Lusser Rico's concern with the mind links to [[Lateralization of brain function|brain lateralisation]], also explored by Rose and Linda Flowers and John R.&nbsp;Hayes, among others. Rico's book ''Writing the Natural Way'' looks into invention strategies, such as clustering, which has been noted to be an invention strategy used to help writers overcome their blocks,<ref name=Rico>{{cite book |last=Rico |first=Gabriele Lusser |date=2000 |orig-year=1987 |title=Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers |edition=Revised |location=New York |publisher=Tarcher/Putnam |isbn=0874779618 |oclc=42592844}}</ref> and further emphasizes the solutions presented in works by Rose, Oliver, and Clark. Similar to Rico, James Adams discusses "[[right-brain]]" involvement in writing.<ref name=Adams /> While Bill Downey proposes that he is basing his approach in practical concerns,<ref name="Downey">{{cite book |last=Downey |first=Bill |title=Right Brain – Write ON!: Overcoming Writer's Block and Achieving Your Creative Potential |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |publisher=Prentice-Hall |date=1984 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/rightbrainwriteo0000down |url-access=registration}}</ref> his concentration on "right-brain" techniques speaks to cognitive theory approach similar to Rico's and a more practical advice for writers to approach their writer's block.<ref name="Downey"/> Mike Rose mentions that [[peer tutors]] provide supportive feedback so that blocked writers can feel secure in sharing their problems and experimenting with new ideas about writing.<ref name=":6">{{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 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/356589 |journal=College Composition and Communication |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=389–401 |doi=10.2307/356589 |jstor=356589 |issn=0010-096X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Writing environment===
It is also important to evaluate the environment in which the writing is being produced to determine what is the best condition to work in. One must look into these different factors to determine whether it is a good or bad environment to work in.<ref name="Huston">{{Cite journal |last=Huston |first=Patricia |date=January 1998 |title=Resolving writer's block |journal=Canadian Family Physician |volume=44 |pages=92–96 |pmc=2277565 |pmid=9481467}}</ref> Psychologists who have studied writer's block have concluded that it is a treatable condition once the writer finds a way to remove anxiety and build confidence in themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huston |first=Patricia |date=September 2001 |title=Taking the Helm; Combining Responsibilities |journal=Canadian Journal of Public Health |volume=92 |issue=5 |pages=325–327 | pmc=6979793| doi=10.1007/bf03404972 |pmid=11702481 |issn=0008-4263 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Sarah Ahmed and Dominik Güss state that solutions for coping with writer's block include using more efficient writing strategies during the composing process, more effective goal-setting strategies, and even brainstorming ideas with others.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ahmed |first1=Sarah J. |last2=Güss |first2=C. Dominik |date=2022-07-03 |title=An Analysis of Writer's Block: Causes and Solutions |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436 |journal=Creativity Research Journal |language=en |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=339–354 |doi=10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436 |s2cid=246367048 |issn=1040-0419|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Splitting the writing into smaller pieces===
Research has also shown that it is highly effective if one breaks their work into pieces rather than doing all of their writing in one sitting, in order to produce good quality work. While it can be helpful to split up the writing process into pieces, Patricia Huston suggests that starting with different sections of a paper, rather than trying to start with an introduction, can be a useful strategy to cope with writer's block. She points out that if a person is stuck on the introduction, they can try moving onto a different section like a body paragraph. Huston states: "There is no need to begin at the beginning and write an article in sequence".<ref name="Huston" />

===Free writing and brainstorming===
{{Main article|Brainstorming}}
[[Free writing]] is a widely accepted technique for overcoming writer's block.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2016-12-14 |title=Overcome Writer's Block |journal=Nonprofit Communications Report |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1 |doi=10.1002/npcr.30569 |issn=1549-778X}}</ref> Taught by [[Peter Elbow]], free writing is similar to [[brainstorming]] but is written in prose form without stopping.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kwame Harrison |first=Anthony |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/6383/chapter/150146250 |title=Writing Up Research Findings |date=2018-05-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199371785.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-937178-5 }}</ref> To free-write, one writes without pausing to think or edit, and one pours raw ideas onto paper.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Michael |chapter=24. Writing in Search of Lost Time |date=2013 |doi=10.1525/9780520954823-025 |title=The Other Shore: Essays on Writers and Writing |pages=150–154 |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520275249 |s2cid=226887120 |oclc=808007361}}</ref> Author Benjamin Solomon described the rationale for the technique: "Writer's block is a rut, a ditch, a trap, a swampy mire, and in order to lift yourself out, you need to ''do'' something—anything!—to jog yourself into motion."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2004-09-01 |title=The midnight disease: the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain |journal=Choice Reviews Online |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=42–0127–42–0127 |doi=10.5860/choice.42-0127 |doi-broken-date=1 February 2025 |issn=0009-4978}}</ref> Cherryl Armstrong, who worked with the South Coast Writing Project, stated that one can free-write about anything, even a completely different subject than one was going to write about: "any writing will do".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Armstrong |first=Cherryl |date=January 1983 |title=There's no such thing as writer's block; (or if there is, some suggestions for dissolving it) |journal=The Quarterly of the National Writing Project |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=14–15, 18 |url=https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1826 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231206085741/https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1826 |archive-date=December 6, 2023}}</ref> Oliver claims that after free writing the writer is able to analyze many ideas that might not have been generated before and develop a clearer sense of what theme is trying to be communicated throughout the writing.<ref name="Oliver" /> Lawrence J.&nbsp;Oliver suggests that {{clarify span|freewriting is another|Is it different from "free-writing" and "free writing" described above, or this paragraph must be edited for consistency and sequentially?|date=June 2024}} effective method that has helped people deal with writer's block. This method consists of writing down ideas or thoughts about a certain topic. Freewriting doesn't focus on grammar or style. There is only one rule for this method, and that is to keep on writing. Educators should also never read students' freewriting unless asked to do so.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oliver |first=Lawrence J. |date=1982 |title=Helping Students Overcome Writer's Block |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40029248 |journal=Journal of Reading |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=162–168 |jstor=40029248 |issn=0022-4103}}</ref>

===Mind mapping===
{{Main article|Mind mapping}}
[[Mind mapping]] is suggested as another potential solution to writer's block.<ref name=Huston/> The technique involves writing a stream of consciousness on a horizontal piece of paper and connecting any similar or linked thoughts. This exercise is intended to help a writer suffering from writer's block to bypass the analytical or critical functioning of their brain and access the creative functioning more directly, stimulating the flow of ideas.<ref name=Huston/> Other techniques similar to clustering and mind mapping are the writing of notes on cards in a [[card file]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lopeke |first=Linda |date=December 1984 |title=Breaking through writer's block |journal=ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=22–24 |doi=10.1145/1111174.1111177 |s2cid=29780705 |doi-access=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Boice |first=Robert |date=1985 |chapter=Psychotherapies for writing blocks |editor-last=Rose |editor-first=Mike |title=When a Writer Can't Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing-Process Problems |series=Perspectives in Writing Research |location=New York |publisher=[[Guilford Press]] |pages=182–218 ([https://archive.org/details/whenwritercantwr0000unse/page/202 202]) |isbn=0898622514 |oclc=11211866 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/whenwritercantwr0000unse/page/182 |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref> and nonlinear electronic writing using [[hypertext]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kish |first=Judith Mara |date=Fall 2000 |title=Breaking the block: basic writers in the electronic classroom |journal=Journal of Basic Writing |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=141–159 (148) |doi=10.37514/JBW-J.2000.19.2.08 |jstor=43741068 |quote=It is through the use of hypertext itself and an understanding of hypertext theories that instructors can begin to help students to use computers to break through writing difficulties such as writer's block. |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Positive self-beliefs and encouragement===
Camacho, Alves and Boscolo wrote about enhancing students' writing motivation in the classroom. They say that to foster students' positive self-beliefs and beliefs about writing, teachers must nurture their self-beliefs, as well as their beliefs about the writing task.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Camacho |first1=Ana |last2=Alves |first2=Rui A. |last3=Boscolo |first3=Pietro |date=2021-03-01 |title=Writing Motivation in School: a Systematic Review of Empirical Research in the Early Twenty-First Century |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09530-4 |journal=Educational Psychology Review |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=213–247 |doi=10.1007/s10648-020-09530-4 |s2cid=254465022 |issn=1573-336X|hdl=10216/131704 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

===Other techniques===
Other ways to cope come from ideas such as The Brand Emotions Scale for Writers (BESW).<ref name=Brand/> Using the framework of the [[Differential Emotions Scale]], the BESW works with grouping emotions into either states or traits and then classifying them as positive, negative passive, or negative active. Researchers can assess subjects, giving writers a chance to get more work done if left in the right emotional state, since data suggests that writers with positive emotions tended to express more than writers with negative passive or negative active.<ref name=Brand>{{Cite journal |last1=Brand |first1=Alice G. |last2=Powell |first2=Jack L. |date=1986-05-01 |title=Emotions and the Writing Process: A Description of Apprentice Writers |journal=The Journal of Educational Research |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=280–285 |doi=10.1080/00220671.1986.10885692 |issn=0022-0671}}</ref> Scholars and researchers such as Mandy Bamber suggest practicing meditation to reduce negative moods like stress and anxiety. Bamber's team conducted a study on 40 university students who showed signs of anxiety. After practicing mindfulness and mediation exercises, 33 out of the 40 showed significant decreases in stress and anxiety levels.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bamber |first1=Mandy D. |last2=Kraenzle Schneider |first2=Joanne |date=2016-05-01 |title=Mindfulness-based meditation to decrease stress and anxiety in college students: A narrative synthesis of the research |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X15000676 |journal=Educational Research Review |volume=18 |pages=1–32 |doi=10.1016/j.edurev.2015.12.004 |issn=1747-938X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Anne Johnstone suggests a couple of strategies to help with writer's block. When one finds oneself unable to generate content, Johnstone suggests "recopying a well-liked piece" of one's own to help generate ideas.<ref name=Johnstone/> Johnstone states that individuals who are articulate orally but struggle with writing and forming their ideas into sentences on paper should try tape-recording themselves and later transcribing it onto paper.<ref name=Johnstone>{{cite journal |last=Johnstone |first=Anne |date=Fall 1983 |title=The writer's hell: Approaches to writer's block |journal=Journal of Teaching Writing |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=155–165 |url=https://jtw.iupui.edu/index.php/teachingwriting/article/view/677}}</ref>