Writer's Block

[annwfyn]

It was pointed out to me yesterday that it seems to take me an awfully long time to write essays. I can spend hours fiddling with an essay, writing and re-writing paragraphs, trying to organise bullet points, and in the end it will take me days just to write 5000 words.

On some level, I do think this is ridiculous. It does not take days to just hit the keyboard. It doesn't take days to churn out something...anything. In my days at the National Archives of Scotland, when I was bored and producing a shadow_writers story per day, plus voluminous quantities of e mail, I think I was churning out more than that.

So why does it take me so long now?

Why do I need to potter endlessly?

And why is it when I am 500 words away from completing this goddamn essay, handing it in and being finished with it all, I am utterly at a loss as to how to do this?

Comments

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It's the conclusion. It's always conclusions for me. I get to the end of an essay and stare blankly at it, trying to work out how I conclude 5000 words in 500, and what the hell is there left to say anyway?

Then I beat my head off a wall. To be fair, lately it just has taken me ages to write essays. I'm fine with deadlines. I'm just slow. I also have a suspicion that when I give myself lots of time to get work done so I can finish well before the deadline, I just find new and exciting ways to fill in that time.

On another note - 17 books in a bibliography. That's enough, right? Am panicking a bit about that as well.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

OK, walk away from it for the morning. Then reread it, aloud if neccessary. Then go over the question with a fine toothed comb working out exactly what they want you to answer. Then answer it in 500 words referring back to the major arguments you have made long the way.

You don't have to repeat what you've said, but you do have to draw it together and make the argument really, really coherent. What's the essay on?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

'Compare and contrast the process of Anglicization in Northumbria and East Anglia'.

It is very interesting, to be fair. I like the subject, I've enjoyed writing it. Tis all good.

I just don't know what to say right now.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

What is the key thing that makes them the same?

What is the key difference?

What have you added to the field that wasn't already laid out in your sources?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not meant to be adding too much to the field. That's a dissertation. These two essays are studies in critical analysis - I've critiqued the work of those people who have gone before me and complained about them.

Except in burial data where my brain turned to mush and I wound up offering historical narrative, which is bad but at least ups the word count.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Well, then there's the question: What is the best source on this and why is it good?