Writer’s Block Symptoms and Cures from “The Owl at Purdue”

Symptoms and Cures for Writer’s Block from The Owl

From the editors at “The Owl at Purdue”, Because writers have various ways of writing, a variety of things can cause a writer to experience anxiety, and sometimes this anxiety leads to writer’s block. Often a solution can be found by speaking with your instructor (if you are in school), or a writing tutor. There are some common causes of writer’s block, however, and when you are blocked, consider these causes and try the strategies that sound most promising:

Symptom

You have attempted to begin a paper without doing any preliminary work such as brainstorming or outlining…

Possible Cures

• Use invention strategies suggested by a tutor or teacher
• Write down all the primary ideas you’d like to express and then fill in each with the smaller ideas that make up each primary idea. This can easily be converted into an outline

Symptom

You have chosen or been assigned a topic which bores you….

Possible Cures

• Choose a particular aspect of the topic you are interested in (if the writing situation will allow it…i.e. if the goal of your writing can be adjusted and is not given to you specifically, or if the teacher or project coordinator will allow it)
• Talk to a tutor about how you can personalize a topic to make it more interesting