Writing resources

ACK! The cursor taunts me, winking on the blank document. I stare at the screen, type something nonsensical, delete it. I go get a soda and chips and get distracted by the TV show my sister’s watching. My best friend texts me… four hours later I wake the computer up and that cursor sticks its tongue out at me. Again. An hour later, the document still blank, it’s too late to get anything done anyway. I’ll type something during info processing tomorrow. I work best under pressure anyway.

Sound familiar?

The hardest part of writing is getting started, getting something sustained and meaningful out of our scattered, wandering consciousness.

Stop wasting time. Stop glaring at blank screens, cursing at cursors. Don’t try to write your paper from first sentence to last. That’s not the way your mind works (unless you happen to be Charles Dickens). Work with your mind: use a process to think and refine your thinking until it’s ready for public consumption. What follows sounds long, but I guarantee you it will save you many hours of time and frustration.

Writing, like thinking, is fluid and non-linear. The steps below, which sound linear, don’t have to be. As a rough guide, however, they’ll help you to avoid the dreaded blinking cursor.

Your mind is at its best when you get out of its way and let it work the way it works. You’re random. You’re distractible. You have a short attention span. You do. We all do (except maybe Tiger Woods. Wait. Scratch that). Pretend it’s a virtue. PREWRITE.