2015-08-21
315
A writer’s block is the feeling of being unable to write. It is different from writer’s cramp, which is stiffness of the hand caused by writing for a long time. Three different kinds of block have been diagnosed: physical, procedural and psychological (Smith, 1982). Beard and Hartley (1984:258) have neatly summarised the main differences:
Physical blocks occur when the writer is tired and it just becomes too much of an effort, to continue. Procedural blocks occur when the writer cannot decide what to write next. Psychological blocks occur when the words should come, and could come, but the writer cannot bring himself or herself to let the words appear on the paper.
One of the main difficulties in writing for native speakers of English is the process of ‘getting started’. A questionnaire was sent to academics at a university in England and one in Canada by Hartley and Knapper (1984:158). They posed the question ‘What do you like least about writing?’ A common response was: ‘Writing the first paragraph’. Hartley and Knapper commented that ‘Almost every respondent confessed to experiencing writer’s blocks’.
If writing the first paragraph presents difficulties for native speakers of English, the problem for non-native speakers of English must be at least as great. This was confirmed by Jordan (1993:75) who conducted a survey by questionnaire of overseas students studying at a British university. Based on their experience in their own countries when writing a paper, 67% of the students admitted to having difficulty in starting.
Various suggestions have been made to overcome the problem of ‘getting started’ in writing. One fairly common one is to begin by simply jotting down ideas or notes on paper (Hartley and Knapper, 1984; Northedge, 1990). In other words, to get what you want to say down on paper as quickly as possible. ‘Editing, polishing, changing, resequencing and the like can be left until later. At this stage it does not matter if sentences are incomplete.’ (Beard and Hartley, 1984:253)
