On this blog, until now I've gotten lucky. (Yes, this post "just got meta.") If I am working with a subject that actually interests me, I can synthesize text with ease because the thoughts come naturally. Papers merely explicating on research are already frustrating, but I am really up against a wall when I am expected to draw some conclusion or offer my own thoughts if there is little pertinent thought in my head to begin with. For the same reason, outlining and other pre-writing techniques don't help. "Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you."? No thanks.
It's difficult to articulate how I feel when I look at a blank document and mentally calculate: 0 out of 4 pages completed. I press on. 1/15 of desired length. My head hits the desk a few times. Repeat an indefinite amount. Then it's 3 am and I'm lamenting looking forward to sleeping tomorrow instead of tonight. Length not yet quite to assignment expectations; quality far below personal expectations.
An analogy would be to be told that you must get in front of an audience and speak--only on this subject, meeting these criteria, for [amount of time] minutes. Here's this scenario in screenplay format:
(screen pans to SUBJECT's face)This is Oscar material. I just need to write the rest of it.
LEADER: You have been selected for today's drill. Proceed to the podium and speak to your fellow subjects on the subject of alpaca breeding habits, refraining from any use of technical jargon and including your own personal reflection, for 10 minutes. Begin.
SUBJECT: (10 minutes of blank stares, nervous twitching, "Uhhhhh...", etc.)
I agree with you that it’s difficult to share your thoughts in writing when you don’t have any sound thoughts to share. As long as I have a few starting points in my head to draw from, I am usually able to come up with enough written material to support them fairly easily. Purely research-based papers seem to provide you with these launching points, and no matter how boring the subject, at least give you an idea of where to start. I believe that the most difficult writing is the kind similar to what we do for these blogs. Having a fairly substantial post with no concrete requirements completed by a deadline has been a challenge. The most difficult part for me has consistently been coming up with the ideas for what to write about.
ReplyDelete