Writer's block

The affliction now known as writer's block has been recognized throughout history. Writers who are known to have struggled with it include authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joseph Mitchell, Joseph Conrad, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, and songwriter Adele. Another possible example is Herman Melville, who stopped writing novels a few years after writing Moby-Dick. In earlier history, during the development of Chinese poetry, writing was not about personal expression, but rather writing was tied to rituals, communication with spirits, and representing political leaders. If an individual struggled with writing, it was not a mere block, but they were failing a societal position. Early Romantic writers tended to attribute writer's block (whether seriously or merely poetically) to a power that no longer wanted them to write. Its interpretation became less mystical during the time of the French Symbolism. During this age, renowned poets would give up writing early in their careers on the grounds that they were unable to find the language to convey their messages. Such was the case for Arthur Rimbaud, who, after producing the bulk of his literary output during his late teenage years, completely stopped writing at the age of twenty. Though still, during the Great American Novel period (mid-19th to mid-20th century), the affliction was construed as something that stopped writers and caused them emotional instability. The condition was first clinically described in 1947 by Austrian psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler, who identified it as being caused by oral masochism, mothers that bottle fed, and an unstable private love life. Research concerning this topic was done in the late 1970s and 1980s. During this time, researchers were influenced by the Process and Post-Process movements and therefore focused specifically on the writer's processes. ==Causes==

Writer's block may have several causes. Some are creative problems that originate within an author's work itself. A writer may run out of inspiration or be distracted by other events. The writer Elizabeth Gilbert, reflecting on her post-bestseller prospects, proposed that such pressure might be released by interpreting creative writers as "having" genius rather than "being" a genius. A fictional example can be found in George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, in which the protagonist Gordon Comstock struggles in vain to complete an epic poem describing a day in London: "It was too big for him, that was the truth. It had never really progressed, it had simply fallen apart into a series of fragments." While some may think that writers block applies to only writing assignments and can only affect people in writing classes, the problem extends out of that consensus. Writer's block is more of a classification than a "writing specific" problem. To expand on this thought, the problem of writer's block is when someone feels confined and overwhelmed on a topic. This sense of overstimulation blocks our creativity receptors in the brain, causing the sense of feeling blocked. This being said, "writer's block" does not just have an effect on pen to paper, it can delay the thinking process for any kind of work or assignment resulting in a poor outcome. Physiological and neurological basis Physiological and neurological bases of writer's block have been suggested. Under stress, a human brain will "shift control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system". The limbic system is associated with the instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response; and behavior that is based on "deeply engrained training". The limited input from the cerebral cortex hinders a person's creative processes, which is replaced by the behaviors associated with the limbic system. The person is often unaware of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked". Flaherty suggested in her writing that there are many diseases that may impact one's ability to write. One of which she refers to is hypergraphia, or the intensive desire to write. She points out that in this condition, the patient's temporal lobe is afflicted, usually by damage, and it may be the same changes in this area of the brain that can contribute to writer's-blocking behaviors. Not to be confused with writer's block, agraphia is a neurological disorder caused by trauma or stroke causing difficulty in communicating through writing. Agraphia cannot be treated directly, but it is possible to relearn certain writing abilities. Brain trauma Other research identifies neurological malfunctions as a cause. Malcolm T. Cunningham showed how these malfunctions can be linked to trauma both mental and physical. Physical damage can produce writer's block. If a person experiences tissue damage in the brain, i.e. a stroke, it is likely to lead to other complications apart from the lesion itself. This damage causes an extreme form of writer's block known as agraphia. From a composition perspective, Lawrence Oliver said in his article "Helping Students Overcome Writer's Block": "Students receive little or no advice on how to generate ideas or explore their thoughts, and they usually must proceed through the writing process without guidance or corrective feedback from the teacher, who withholds comments and criticism until grading the final product." He said that students "learn to write by writing", and often they are insecure or paralyzed by rules. She said, "I needed to write to feel, but without feeling I couldn't write." She urges a "partnership" between writers and instructors so that responses become a conversation. According to him, freshman students write well about topics they are passionate about. Marshall Moore, in his article "Articulate Walls: Writer's Block and the Academic Creative," thinks similarly by writing: "...his or her practice is paralysingly out of sync with the syllabus; and teaching from a state of creative depletion may engender a cascade of self-doubt. This paper will look at the process by which these practitioners attempt to navigate this zone of creative disconnect.". Saying having assigned, planned out, and required papers is contributing to loss of motivation. Aline Alves-Wold, in her article "Assessing Writing Motivation: a Systematic Review of K-5 Students' Self-Reports" states that there is a general lack of research on the motivation of students to write in the first few years of education, which is problematic when one considers how important initial experiences are in motivating students to write. Success generally enhances one's belief in their efficacy, whereas failure weakens them. "These mechanisms are particularly evident in early phases of skill development where failure typically occurs before a sense of efficacy has been firmly established. This implies that children in their first years in school have writer self-beliefs that are particularly malleable and dynamic". A research study done on K-12 students on writer's block also observed that it is common to understand writing struggles in students as a lack of knowledge or incapability when underlying factors such as minority based backgrounds and societal struggles play a role as well. '''''' Negative self-beliefs and feeling of incompetence 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 about what they write based on how it will be perceived by the audience.'''''' 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. 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. 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. 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." 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. 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. An unmindful tutor might accidentally reinforce a student's negative thinking patterns. ==Coping strategies==

Irene Clark describes the following strategies for coping with writer's block: class and group discussion, journaling, free writing and brainstorming, clustering, list making, and engaging with the text. Chaterdon recommends meditation as a grounding exercise to help people become more metacognitively 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. and further emphasizes the solutions presented in works by Rose, Oliver, and Clark. Similar to Rico, James Adams discusses "right-brain" involvement in writing. 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. 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. One method to break writing down is to use the Pomodoro technique. How it's done is by writing for 25 minutes, then taking a 5-minute break. The cycle then repeats. A study done by Elva Yohana showed that utilizing this technique can reduce cognitive overload and can be even more efficient when the time keeping tool is digitalized. 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 on to a different section, like a body paragraph. Huston states: "There is no need to begin at the beginning and write an article in sequence". Taught by Peter Elbow, free writing is similar to brainstorming but is written in prose form without stopping. To free-write, one writes without pausing to think or edit, and one pours raw ideas onto paper. 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." 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". Lawrence J. 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. Mind mapping Mind mapping is suggested as another potential solution to writer's block. and nonlinear electronic writing using hypertext. 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. Other techniques Other ways to cope come from ideas such as The Brand Emotions Scale for Writers (BESW). 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 meditation exercises, 33 out of the 40 showed significant decreases in stress and anxiety levels. 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. Feedback from professors, teachers, peers, and bosses can also help the process of overcoming writer's block. In a self-reported survey of college students whom were asked about their writing experiences as English majors, over 55% of them claimed that they used peer review as a tool for writer's block. Students who have stronger reading habits are also less likely to experience writer's block. More recently, it has been suggested that generative artificial intelligence be utilized to overcome writer’s block. In this context, the term does not refer to ghostwriting, but rather to a form of interaction with large language models (LLMs) intended to stimulate the creative process. == Relation to procrastination ==

Writer's block and procrastination are two similar issues that people struggle with when it comes to writing. Writer's block is an issue that can cause people to delay their goals and may prevent them from finishing writing projects. Although writer's block and procrastination are not the exact same issue, they can end up leading to one another. Writer's block is not continuing to do a task, and procrastination is delaying starting the task. In her 1987 Ph.D. thesis (published in 2012), Karen E. Peterson posited two different scenarios on how procrastination and writer's block can lead to each other. One scenario is that a person will procrastinate due to having the fear of past experiences of getting writer's block when doing a task. The other scenario is that a person will have writer's block because of the feeling of being overwhelmed about needing to do a task at the last minute after procrastinating for a long period of time. Kervin's suggestion makes a connection to one of Peterson's scenarios, specifically when someone procrastinates due to fear of past experiences and begins to feel judgmental toward themselves. Kervin recommends taking a mindful approach to combating procrastination in order to become more grounded and improve self-regulation. ==See also==