Sunday, December 4, 2011

Writer's block has been solved!




Have you ever had writers block? Even the best writers of all time have blank sheet of paper in front of them and no ideas coming forth. Great writers overcome writer's block by using tricks. Ms. Fleming’s students may not realize this, but having writer’s notebook every day, helps us become better writers. By writing out our thoughts in such a short time span, it does not give us time to have writer's block. This exercise, trains our brains to write down what comes to mind and then go back, to read it and fix it.
William Stafford, a great poet, wrote a poem that gives advice on how to deal with writer's block, specifically, “There is no such thing as writer’s block for writers whose standards are low enough”. This is not saying that you have to write badly, it is saying you have to relax and let go. Do not worry about what others think about your writing, just write. Then go back and see if you have an idea that sparked while you wrote your ideas down.
When writing, you need to start somewhere. Writer’s notebook helps you brainstorm and clear your mind about thoughts. As humans, we have so many thoughts in our heads at once, that if we took a second we could write them down. By writing our thoughts down, an idea from your writer’s notebook may flourish. What does the writer’s notebook do for you? Can you see that it helps you with your writing? When you start to write a paper and cannot think of what to write about, what do you do personally?


When I was doing my research I used two websites:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/brainstorm_block.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stafford_(poet)

6 comments:

  1. Writers block happens to me almost every time i sit down to write a paper. I do admit that this year for all the papers Ms. Fleming has assigned i either immediately thought of an idea or one came to me shortly after. Looking back on those papers now maybe the writers notebook was the push i needed to be a better brainstormer. My favorite days were brain drain because it was nice to have complete silence to get all my thoughts out on paper. It was relaxing and helped me later on because when i sit down to write a paper i think of the assignment given. Then i think of all my memories that have to do with the certain topic( if it is a personal essay). After that step i pick and choose the ones that could work for my paper. Then i think of other possible ideas that could go with the topics and in the end i pick the topic that i had the most possible ideas about. I do this because i think it will be easier to write a paper if i start off having numerous ideas. I am always very cautious while picking stories for my essays. I hope in the future the writers block will appear less and less.

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  2. Everyonce and a while even durring my writers notebook I get some writers block. Now I realize that I am thinking too hard. I need to just fill up the page with ideas. I'm so fucused on trying to impress others with some amazing improbable story or break through that I can not even write anything. I could write a simple idea and go from there. Although I do not ussually find myself with writers block before a paper. I think that I do not have writers block because I always make an outline for every paper I do. This helps me put down simple ideas then expand on them when I go to write

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  3. The writer's notebook helps me get over my writer's block sometimes because everyday you only have an allotted amount of time to write and you can't sit there trying to think of something to write. It helps you just write without thinking about what you have to write about because she gives you a certain topic that you can elaborate on and write about. When of I cannot think of anything to write, and start to basically close my eyes and relax and try to think about what I can write about that relates to the topic at hand. Sometimes I also writing ideas on paper and then write the formal thing on another sheet. It helps to write my ideas on paper because sometimes I forget some of the ideas that I have at first, so then it would be there for me to use.

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  5. I think that by having five minutes almost everyday to right something down about a specific topic does help us as writers. Personally I do not enjoy making up and writing stories, but with the option to just write about what comes to my head, it helps me brainstorms when writing essays. Writers notebook helps me a lot, because it not only gives us time to practice writing but it also helps me become more creative. When I start wringing essays I first get ideas, and when I have a main idea I just try to get other ideas that branch off of the main idea.

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  6. Writer’s notebook helps me try out different styles of writing. Writer’s notebook gives me a chance to try different things when it comes to my writing such as using flashbacks, motifs, or even just a new word. Even though we only write for a few minutes each day it is still practice, and just doing a small amount of writing everyday can really add up. When I have writer block I usually go for a run, or do some type of exercise. By doing so I am able to clear my head. Usually while I run I just let my mind drift, and by doing so I am able to come up with many different ideas.

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