The Devastating Effects of Writer’s Block

Generally when thinking about writing, most would think that the biggest problem to come up would be small errors. These small errors being sentence structure or paragraph flow. Although these can be common errors, they don’t affect the completion of the paper. The biggest problem with writing comes down to the writing process that someone upholds. And in the writing process it generally has to do with writer’s block or simply taking breaks in the writing. Writer’s block seems to be the biggest problem I have in writing, as sometimes it can ruin my entire essay.

Writer’s block is my biggest problem in writing as I get so many different types of it. The main different types of writer’s block that I have a problem with are starting the writing process, trouble meeting extensive word counts, and running out of ideas. These problems have proven to be detrimental to my process of writing. Writer’s block is a problem overall where a cause results in not being able to continue with the writing. The cause being whatever type of writer’s block is occurring. But these writing blocks can be easily overcome once you understand your own writing process. Because your writing process is generally what leads to these blocks. So with understanding your writing process better, it will be easier to strengthen the process and avoid these writing blocks. 

One of the most common blocks would be getting to the point of actually starting to write. This is a problem with most writers as sitting down to write the essay can be troublesome. You can see this problem in my essay, “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars are the Future” (Maul, 2). Something that you can notice that is a positive is how well this paper flows together. This is due to the fact I couldn’t get started on the paper and put it off to the last minute. This was beneficial to me though because it meant that I had to start writing and not stop to ensure I made the deadline. Although this is not something my audience could see, it is a good example where being able to get started on the essay was troublesome. There are so many different types of distractions to prevent the writing process from even taking place. One of the main causes of distractions is attempting to write the essay in barracks. Barracks is one of the most distracting places and there is never a moment of complete silence. There will always be people coming into your room to talk or ask questions on something they need help with. But this is only one form of distraction, there are also cell phones, tiredness, boredom, and many other factors that cause distraction. One of the best ways that I have found to avoid these distractions is to get a private room in an academic building with no one else in it. This makes for a quiet place to sit down and begin the process of writing. Another option I have found is to go with one other person that you know also needs to do their schoolwork. Seeing the other person doing their work gives motivation to begin your own. Although these options might not be more for some people, it works for me to avoid this form of writer’s block. 

The next form of writer’s block is something that occurs on most every essay that I write, being the hardship of meeting the word count. Some essays require a word count that seems nearly unachievable. You can sort of see this problem in my essay,  “Rhetorical analysis on the confusing future of automobiles” (Maul, 1). You can see that in some areas I was giving more of a summary of the source instead of a rhetorical analysis. This is because I ran out of ideas that fit exactly to my topic. So the solution to this block that I found would be to just give more information on the source. But this leads to dead ends in the essay and a loss of flow when you are attempting to pull together ideas to put more words on the page. Once you get to this point, most of the time the paper begins to fall apart as the flow is sabotaged by the breaks in the paper. There is no true way to avoid this when writing as most of the time you will just run out of ideas. But the best way of combating this problem is to just continue writing, then go back and fix paragraph placement to strengthen the flow. As the flow of the paper is one of the main things needed to keep the audience from getting confused. Another great way to combat this problem is to go back and add some filler sentences into previously written paragraphs. This helps because you can generally always add more details to claims, which in the end helps the audience understand exactly what is being said. But the hardship of meeting a lengthy word count can be a detrimental aspect to a paper, but it can be combated.

Something else that I have always had trouble with would be finding ideas to write about. This is a great problem because it leads to basically every other writing block that I have trouble with. My writing process revolves around writing without stopping. As when I stop writing, writer’s block takes over and ruins that section of the paper. Everytime that I stop writing it is obvious to whoever is reading it, as the flow is altered and my ideas changed. For example, in my previous paper, “Where is the Automobile Industry Headed” you can see nearly everywhere I got writer’s block and stopped writing (Maul, 2). Especially in the fourth paragraph where it is just one large clump of a topic. I ran out of ideas so I had to go back and add more information to a paragraph. This also applies to meeting the word count as I also needed to expand another paragraph to meet the word count. Although the paragraph is all technically on one topic, it is all over the place. It goes into detail about nearly every negative to electric vehicles. This section ruined the flow of the essay as it went from trying to promote hydrogen cars to simply describing why electric vehicles are not the best choice for the future. The audience could get thrown off by this paragraph, as it doesn’t necessarily follow my thesis and it takes up a good majority of the essay. Something I could have done to make this less of a problem is just go into the topics of negatives of electric vehicles and then comparing them to hydrogen vehicles. While also backing these claims with research, which I didn’t do much of in the paper. 

One thing that I have a large problem with is when writing an essay I know a lot about, I let my prior knowledge take over. This could be considered a sense of bias as in some places in my writing it can seem almost opinionated. An example of this would be in my paper, “Where is the Automobile Industry Headed” (Maul, 2). In paragraph three there are a few places where it could come off opinionated. Especially where I am talking about how hybrid cars are basically a gimmick to make people think they are saving money or the environment. Although this paper was supposed to be persuasive, I should have incorporated more research to back my claims so it would not come off as biased. As I have prior knowledge on this topic, it is hard to not be opinionated in some places. This can be seen again in my paper, “Rhetorical analysis on the confusing future of automobiles”. In paragraph three I begin to get more opinionated based on observations from the graphs provided in the source. This paper is supposed to be an analysis and not based around my opinion on the source. Although bringing in more information is effective, getting opinionated about people’s preferences was unneeded and could reduce my credibility to the audience. This was most likely caused by my prior knowledge on the topic again. This problem is something that arises in nearly every paper where I am more fluent on the topic. 

Overall my main problem with writing consists of different types of writer’s blocks. The main ones are not being able to meet a word count, running out of ideas, and not being able to begin the essay. All of these problems can be corrected with different tactics that will positively affect my writing process. This would really strengthen my writing, to the point where the audience will be able to read and comprehend my writing efficiently. After reading over some of my previous essays, it is prevalent that writer’s block can make or break an essay. But using this overview to my advantage, correcting my writing can be accomplished. 

 

Work Cited

Maul, Hunter. “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars are the Future” 4 May 2022. Writing and Rhetoric II, Virginia Military Institute, Student Essay

 

Maul, Hunter.  “Rhetorical analysis on the confusing future of automobiles” 4 May 2022. Writing and Rhetoric II, Virginia Military Institute, Student Essay

 

Maul, Hunter. “Where is the Automobile Industry Headed” 4 May 2022. Writing and Rhetoric II, Virginia Military Institute, Student Essay

 

HR: None other than previous essays and Textbook, Hunter Maul