Understanding Writing Blocks

Why do capable students and scholars fail to complete writing projects? What are "writing blocks," and how can writers overcome them? Why are writing blocks more common for advanced and experienced writers who are not supposed to need help? And why are they more common in the humanities than in the sciences? Keith Hjortshoj answers these and other questions in Understanding Writing Blocks. This book demystifies the causes of writing blocks, which are often ignored, misunderstood, or attributed to obscure psychological disorders. Hjortshoj examines blocks instead as real writing problems arising from specific misconceptions, writing behaviors, and rhetorical factors present at different stages of the writing process. In a lively and informative style, he defines the nature of writing blocks, examines their causes, and offers advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professional writers the diagnostic tools and strategies necessary for getting their work done. Although appropriate for any writing course, Understanding Writing Blocks targets advanced composition students and graduate writers who are most likely to encounter immobilizing obstacles, and whose experience supports the author's assertion that a writing block is usually "an affliction of the good writer." Hjortshoj draws his material and evidence from extensive research, interviews, and consultations with blocked writers from his twenty-five years of teaching. Especially helpful to students working on dissertations and other complex projects, Understanding Writing Blocks illuminates the factors that undermine writing ability in a wide range of endeavors.

Writing blocks are likely to strike any writer, even experienced ones, at sometime or another. Academia has its own challenges which can provoke blocks particular to that environment. Drawing on her knowledge as writer, psychotherapeutic counsellor and university tutor, Kate Evans has put together a book which addresses many of the differing aspects of writing blocks, including looking at their emotional and psychological foundations. With discussion and practical exercises, this volume suggests that an infusion of creative techniques can offer pathways through writing blocks in the academic environment. The case studies provide an in-depth consideration of varying experiences of writing blocks. The book is aimed at students with essays, projects or reports to write, or theses to tackle; as well as academics who are working on articles and books. It will also offer insights for supervisors who wish to support those who are writing and guidance for people running writing groups within academia. Over-all the book encourages a creative, collaborative approach which aims to equip academics for writing within the context of the twenty-first century. “This book offers something for every academic writer, whether budding or experienced. Students struggling with essays and dissertations will find many practical exercises along with invaluable advice. More practised writers will encounter fresh insights.... I am confident that you, the reader, will enjoy this book, which is itself a model of good writing.” Dr Linda Finlay, the Open University, UK.

Beautifully written and unexpectedly moving, John Darnielle's audacious and gripping debut novel Wolf in White Van is a marvel of storytelling and genuine literary delicacy. Welcome to Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival! You may now make your first move. Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. His primary creation, Trace Italian, is an intricate text-role playing game that enables participants far and wide to explore a dystopian America, seeking refuge amidst the ruin. However, when two high school players, Lance and Carrie, extend the game into their reality, the consequences are horrifying, leaving Sean to account for it. Darnielle’s Wolf in White Van invites us to comprehend the depth and intricacy of Sean's life. Told in reverse, the story draws us back to the moment that fundamentally altered Sean’s life as he knows it.

This innovative book explains writer's block (and other creative blocks) as a symptom of a larger disorder. These disorders can affect all creative and would-be creative people. This book is the first to treat writer's block from a classic, DSM-IV diagnostic perspective. Kantor identifies 10 kinds of writer's block, classified according to the underlying disorder that causes that block. Included in the text is a discussion of the general characteristics of blockage and how the therapist can distinguish between acute and chronic forms of block, as well as an exploration into the causes of block. With this book, Kantor has laid the foundation for the development of a successful treatment approach. Throughout the text, case studies drawn from historical sources and the author's patients illustrate the various kinds of block.

From Student to Scholar guides graduate students through the "hidden" developmental transition required in writing a dissertation and moving beyond, to become a successful scholar. Identifying common rhetorical challenges across disciplines, author Hjortshoj explains how to accommodate evolving audiences, motivations, standards, writing processes, and timelines. One full chapter is devoted to "writing blocks," and another offers advice to international students who are non-native speakers of English. The text also offers advice for managing relations with advisors and preparing for the diverse careers that PhDs, trained primarily as research specialists, actually enter. On the basis of more than thirty years of consultations with graduate students, this volume is an important addition to graduate thesis seminars and composition courses, as well as an invaluable reference for writing centers, workshops, and learning support centers.

In Beyond Productivity, a wide range of contributors share honest narratives of the sometimes-impossible conditions that scholars face when completing writing projects. The essays provide backstage views of the authors' varying approaches to moving forward when the desire to produce wanes, when deciding a project is not working, when working within and around and redefining academic productivity expectations, and when writing with ever-changing bodies that do not always function as expected. This collection positions scholarly writers' ways of writing as a form of flexible, evolving knowledge. By exhibiting what is lost and gained through successive rounds of transformation and adaptation over time, the contributors offer a sustainable understanding and practice of process—one that looks beyond productivity as the primary measure of success. Each presents a fluid understanding of the writing process, illustrating its deeply personal nature and revealing how fragmented and disjointed methods and experiences can highlight what is precious about writing. Beyond Productivity determines anew the use and value of scholarly writing and the processes that produce it, both within and beyond the context of the losses, constraints, and adaptations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Write on! Writing the Four-Blocks(R) Way gives teachers of grades K–6 a glimpse into writing classrooms throughout the school year. This resource includes ideas for setting up a writing classroom, motivating students to write and keep writing, teaching reading through writing, supporting struggling writers, and teaching different genres. This 240-page book supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and features lessons on editing, revising, sharing, and publishing.

Meet the learning needs and preferences of all students using Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Blocks(R) Way for students in grades 1–3. This 144-page book provides a glimpse into an inclusion special-education classroom that uses the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model. This wonderful collection of ideas, strategies, and resources includes information on Self-Selected Reading, Guided Reading, Writing, and Working with Words. It also includes strategies for reading and writing success in special-education classrooms, variations for students with disabilities, teacher's checklists, IEP goal suggestions, examples of assistive technology, and answers to commonly asked questions. The book supports the Four-Blocks(R) Literacy Model and provides a list of children's literature that can be used in lessons.