Do you struggle with getting started on a writing project?

Question

Do you struggle with getting started on a writing project? Have you found it difficult to choose a topic for a paper or frustrated with the process of creating a strong thesis statement? Have you been overwhelmed, unsure of how to organize an essay or struggled with finding compelling and accurate word choice to convey your points more clearly?

Answer 1

It's natural to feel overwhelmed when approaching a writing project—especially when it may seem like there are so many steps involved. Organization is key to successfully writing a paper.

Initially asking yourself what you are trying to accomplish with the paper can help you choose a topic which interests you. Ask yourself who the intended audience of the paper is. Creating an outline can help you see your paper in a structured way. It can help you break up the writing process into manageable sections. An outline also helps you write with better flow as you are able to see how each point connects with the ones preceding and succeeding it.

After you have an outline, you can start writing your first draft! It's okay to make mistakes, especially when writing a first draft—it doesn't need to be perfect. It can be difficult to get started, but, once you have your thoughts on paper, you can use that momentum. A draft will also give you a better picture of areas you can add to or revise to improve your conclusion, back up your claim, or convince your reader more successfully. In the revision process, you can repeat both brainstorming (or questioning) and outlining steps to smooth out any areas that are less clear.

When you break up your writing project into steps and organize your writing, you'll find that's it's much easier to work on.

Answer 2

Absolutely! This is completely normal for any writer, no matter how experienced or naturally talented they may be. I can't count the number of times I've chosen a topic for a paper, spent weeks researching it and writing out early drafts, only to realize I should have chosen another topic entirely. Sometimes I would pick a topic thinking it was narrow enough for the paper's requirements only to find out that it was far, far too broad to sufficiently cover it. Other times it would be the opposite, where I thought there was enough material to fill out the assignment and after some research and attempts to stretch out what I could find it just wasn't enough.

Further still, in almost every paper I've written, there's been a moment where I just stopped and couldn't think of how to continue. Sometimes you have all those ideas swimming around in your head, but you just can't find a way to connect them together. This is nothing to get discouraged over, no matter how tempting or easy it might be to let that happen. I learned over the years that a good way to look at writing is kind of like a puzzle. You have all these pieces and tools, grammar rules and writing guidelines, to pick apart and put together as needed to get just what you want in the end. Sometimes you have to mix and match them up until you find that they click together.

That's what I would do whenever I got "stuck" on a paper or found myself in over my head with a topic: Pick it apart, put it back together, see how it fits, and find a way to make that big picture come to life in the end!