why is essay writing so hard

How it works

Why Students Struggle With Essay Writing

Published by Alaxendra Bets at August 19th, 2021 , Revised On August 23, 2023

Writing comes naturally for some of us. Students with good essay writing skills have words flow into sentences , sentences, paragraphs , and paragraphs into an essay or dissertation . However, for many students, writing is tedious work they want to avoid.

If you are struggling with essay or dissertation writing , rest assured you are not the only student facing this problem. But it’s important to understand the reasons for your essay, coursework, exams, or dissertation writing failures to put your academic life back on track.

Here, we discuss and attempt to figure out the causes as to why are so many students struggling with essay writing.

In the unfortunate event that you have already failed coursework, dissertation, essay, or exam, we have compiled comprehensive guidelines on what you could do to improve your situation.

Reasons Why Students Struggle with Essay Writing

Before we shed light on the obscure causes of students finding it hard to deal with essay and coursework writing , let us look into the more apparent causes. Research studies have confirmed that writing and reading are reciprocal processes. Apart from providing professional writing guidelines to students, we also provide professional writing services , i.e. essay services , coursework writing services and dissertation writing services .

If you read regularly enough, your writing will improve by leaps and bounds. Likewise, your writing improves your reading significantly. Many students apprehend the importance of this relationship as they read complicated transcripts and texts to improve their writing abilities.

But not all students can comprehend this relationship between reading and writing, and eventually, writing becomes a continuous struggle for them. Debbie Lee, in her article published on Educator Community (2017), states that;

“To write, we use many parts of our brain at the same time as well as the kinesthetic process of writing. For many students, especially those with language or fine motor skill delays, the task of writing is challenging.”

Poor Mechanical & Content Skills

In the same article, Debbie argued that students with poor processing and poor content and mechanical skills often struggle with essay writing. The most notable processing skills that many students would often lack include fluent development of ideas, language formulation and ideation, and active working memory.

Content and mechanical skills that are essential for any student to be good at writing are as follows;

Expressing ideas
Organising ideas
Punctuation
Capitalisation
Basic Spelling & Vocabulary
Automatic Letter Formation
Clarity of Expression
Use of appropriate grammar in essay
Different styles of essay writing
Flexibility in the writing process
Understanding the viewpoint from the text in books
Lack of enthusiasm and passion

Want to know what essay structure and style will work best for your assignment?

Problem fixed! We can write any type of essay in any referencing style. We ensure every essay written is beyond your expectations.

When you consider all of the above underlying skills that students should master to become proficient writers, you can understand how frustrating it can be. Perhaps, it also explains why most students prefer not to write their papers and get experienced writers to write .

No Right Answers When You Are Inexperienced

Unable to find what the right answer to a particular problem question is? Many students end up scratching their heads around the basic question they must answer as part of their essay or dissertation assignment.

While every other skill student learns the right way to do it, it can be hard to figure out the correct way to write an essay because most of us approach writing naturally and emotionally.

But let it be clearly stated here that the right or correct way of writing an essay does exist if your supervisor or tutor is not teaching the essay writing structures for different types of essays , dissertations, and research papers, you are not getting the help you deserve, and the confidence needed to jump into an assignment writing task.

To produce a high-quality essay paper, you need to learn to be good at brainstorming, writing the essay outline, and developing the rough draft and the final copy because that is how you will improve your writing skills.

ResearchProspect provides the tools, and they help students need to have their essays written to the highest possible academic standard.

Fear of Failure

Have so many questions in mind before writing even a word of your assignment? What is the question I need to address ? What is the objective of this assignment? Which academic sources should I use as reference material? What should be the structure of the essay ? What abilities and skills will I be graded on? What writing style must I follow?

These questions and many more could swarm around in your mind. Don’t worry, Don’t Panic. Don’t Be Overwhelmed! It’s normal to have so many questions. It’s completely normal to fear failure, especially if you haven’t had much writing experience in your previous academic years.

If you haven’t been taught about the writing and structuring processes (yes, a range of writing structures and styles exist), it can be pretty hard to get going. The fear of failure will stay with students if they do not provide help on creative writing rules and the different types of essay writing structures .

For example, this is an article on how you structure a dissertation paper.

Also read: Sociology Essay Writing Service .

Calculate your Plagiarism Score

Compare your paper against millions of publications and billions of web pages.

The most advanced plagiarism tool
Detect plagiarism and generate similarity report
Largest database

Calculate your Plagiarism Score - ResearchProspect

Helping Students Who Struggle with Essay Writing

The world we are living in is changing rapidly. With texts, tweets, posts, snaps, and Insta around us, it’s no wonder students don’t want to get in struggle with writing. This is particularly frustrating for teachers and students alike, as students scrap to express their thoughts and views clearly in the traditional fashion their schools expect them to.

But the world of academia has remained pretty much unchanged over centuries, with universities expecting students to become good researchers and capable writers . We will never replace essays , assignments, research , dissertation , and analysis with tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook stories in universities.

Your teachers will not be delighted with you if you eagerly indulge in social media postings but struggle with basic essay writing tasks. A study conducted by ResearchProspect concluded that as many as 3 of every 5 students lack proficiency in writing – a number that cannot be ignored.

Our Essay Writers

ResearchProspect writers know the writing rules and are proficient in all types of writing structures and styles.

Our essay writers understand that essays aren’t going anywhere, and so they have mastered the art of presenting their expression, arguments, and analysis through their writing. They love sentence diagrams and grammar drills because it is their job to do so.

Have a last-minute essay to finish? Don’t panic! Please fill out our online order form and get your essay paper delivered to your email address promptly. Any subject, any deadline, any complexity – we promise 100% plagiarism free and 100% confidential service.

The essay writing tips in this blog post aim to help readers establish why they struggle to write a first-class essay or dissertation paper that meets academic expectations. The post directly aims to help students experiencing writing difficulties in achieving the grade they desire despite their writing limitations.

View some essay writing samples here!

Learn how to write an essay with a bang!

Helping Students Succeed Since 2011!

ResearchProspect is the UK registered essay writing website helping students across the globe since 2011. Our writers hold master’s to Ph.D. degrees from reputed educational institutes. No matter how urgent or complex your requirements are, our services have helped thousands of students over the years at a time when they needed them the most. So stop struggling with essay writing and get essay writing help from our professional essay writers . View our essay services here or view our full range of services here.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many students struggle with essay writing.

Many students face challenges with essay writing due to various factors such as lack of effective strategies, time management issues, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with academic conventions. Support and guidance can help mitigate these struggles.

9 Writers on Why Writing Is So Hard

Best-selling authors talk to Shondaland about what makes their craft so difficult and special.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Shondaland editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

There are few things as magical as reading a book that fully immerses you in a new world. Poetic and profound prose can evoke emotions that can remain with you for your entire life, transforming how you see the world. With that in mind, this month, Shondaland is exploring the world of books, from authors discussing their favorite reads and a publisher explaining the need for more transparency in the industry to a nearly published author sharing what it’s like to be on the brink of putting her first book out into the world. Happy reading!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “If writing were easy, everyone would do it!” You’ve likely read it a million times, right? Well, there’s a reason for that. You see, everybody has a story to tell. But it’s the actual telling of those stories that separates writers from everyone else yearning to share their tales. That being said, even the most seasoned and celebrated writers will quickly let you know that writing is just downright hard!

So, what is it that actually makes putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) so daunting, and how do you combat that difficulty when trying to write your story? Shondaland caught up with some of our favorite authors to find out. And what they have to say just might surprise you.

Why is writing so hard?

The solitariness of it, the elusiveness of it. If forced, we could generate words, sentences, paragraphs, but it would be meaningless. So, the thing that makes it a story, the words that etch out a character that the reader can see and feel and hear … there’s plenty of tricks to get there. You can create the conditions for that element to come forward, and do what you can to push yourself into that state that makes it happen … but part of it remains mysterious.

Alex Aster (author of Curse of the Forgotten City ) @alex.aster

Writing is so hard because we put so many expectations on our writing, and those expectations weigh down not only our fingers while typing, but also our words. I started writing books when I was 12, which I think saved me from a lot of the fretting about writing that I see so many people struggle with. When you’re a kid, you do what you love just because you love it. You don’t think to yourself, “Will these words be worth the time and effort? Will they turn into a book that will sell for enough money to allow me to pay my rent?” You just … write. As an adult, there are so many constraints on our time, so it’s natural for us not to want to waste it. We don’t have time to simply play the way we used to. Writing is hard because it’s a fluid, organic, almost magical form of creation that we often try so hard to bottle up or cookie-cut so it can be monetized.

Brandy Colbert (author of Black Birds in the Sky ) @brandycolbert

For me, not writing is often harder than writing. I don’t believe you need to write every day, but when I’m in the middle of a project, I either need to be actively thinking about it — working out plots and character arcs in my head — or getting words down on the page. I start to feel antsy and a bit anxious when I’ve taken too much time away from a project, to the point where it’s actually a relief to get back to work.

Sarah Gerard (author of True Love ) @sarahnumber4

It can be hard. It can also be easy and fun. Or fun and hard. Or hard but important, exciting, and fulfilling. We wouldn’t keep doing it otherwise. It’s hard because doing it well matters, because stories matter, and the details matter, and there are often a lot of details. Sometimes they take years to organize. The feelings and ideas and memories that we put into the writing also matter, and are layered, and we can’t force an understanding of them. We can only try to approach them with words, and, as many words as there are to choose from, or create, and despite their myriad iterations, they’re never enough.

John Green (author of The Anthropocene Reviewed ) @johngreen

I think writing is easier than many other things. For me, anyway, it is much easier than talking. But still, writing is difficult for me. Sometimes it is difficult because I do not know what I want to say, but usually it is difficult because I know exactly what I want to say but what I want to say has not yet taken the shape of language. When I’m writing, I’m trying to translate ideas and feelings and wild abstractions into language, and that translation is complicated and challenging work. (But it is also — in moments, anyway — fun.)

Kosoko Jackson (author of Yesterday Is History ) @kosokojackson

For me, the hardest part of writing is deciding what to write about. I have a lot of ideas, but not every idea is a viable idea. Is there a character? Is there a plot? Is there a through line? Is this something I want to spend 18 to 36 months on? Do I know enough to walk through the forest, but not so much that it feels boring to tell the story to myself? Writing is a journey for me that is as much writing a story that will appeal to readers (and my agent and editor) as much as telling a story to myself. What “lesson” am I trying to teach myself? What skill am I trying to sharpen? These are just a few of the questions I ask myself when making a novel, and not every novel has the answers — yet.

Morgan Jerkins (author of Caul Baby ) @morganjerkins

Writing is hard because sometimes — or perhaps many times — the words do not match the imagery of a specific scene that you have in your mind. It feels like there is always something that’s lost in translation as soon as it’s immortalized on the page.

Jonny Sun (author of Goodbye, Again ) @jonnysun

Writing is hard because you are dealing with the infinite. Out of a blank page, there is an unlimited number of possibilities of what to write. And at every scale of writing, this limitlessness exists — it feels like every word is an impossible choice. Every sentence can be written in endless different ways. And the ways those build to say something also exist in a million different permutations. The ideas and the way you structure those ideas are endless — the endlessness multiplies itself.

Chuck Wendig (author of The Book of Accidents ) @chuckwendig

I don’t know. Why is it hard digging ditches? Why is it hard being a god? Writing is somewhere in between both of those. You’re the god of digging ditches. You’re navigating this interstitial terrain between art and craft, between self-actualization and commerce, between empathy and evil. It has all these rules, and almost none of them are true. The work is the work, and the work is sometimes hard. It’s supposed to be easy, and some days it is — ironically, the easy days don’t mean the work was good, and the hard days don’t mean the work was bad. The short answer is, again, I don’t know. Maybe it’s hard because it needs to be hard, because if it were too easy, it wouldn’t really matter.

What do you do when writing gets most difficult?

Megan Abbott (author of The Turnout ) @meganeabbott

Go to a matinee. Take a walk. Read a writer I love. Main thing for me: Step away from the computer.

When writing gets really difficult, I stop writing. But just for a few hours. When words are hard to wrangle, I don’t try to force them onto the page. I have tried before, and the result was just more food for my computer’s trash bin! That being said, when I’m on deadline, I treat writing like any other job that has to be done, regardless of my mood. So, I’ll take a walk, reread something I’ve written that I particularly like (almost to show myself, see, you can make something good; you’ve done it before! ), or watch a movie. Once I’m out of the writing chair for a while, I’m often itching to get back in it to try again.

I do write every day when I’m on a tight deadline, and some days it takes hours just to squeeze out a few words. Sometimes I have to power through and remind myself I can fix whatever is not working in edits, either the next day or down the road. But it’s also important to realize when you need breaks. I’m a big fan of taking in other forms of storytelling, like watching television and films, reading graphic novels, newspapers, and magazines, or even rereading a favorite author’s work. Getting outside for some fresh air or a walk or hike usually helps. Cooking and yoga are also soothing ways for me to reset. Just engaging in activities that don’t require you to stare at a computer screen or notebook are all helpful.

Look at one piece of it at a time, rather than trying to apprehend the entire project. Alternatively, take 10 steps back and apprehend the entire project. Look at a different piece of it. Look at a different piece of writing altogether. Make dinner. Read. Hang out with my partner.

I get so frustrated. I cry. I take a walk. I get really angry at myself for being such a terrible writer. This is stupid! Why am I even attempting this when I am so hopelessly inept at storytelling? And then eventually, I get over myself and write. If there is a way to write without at least occasional weeping and gnashing of teeth, I have not yet found it.

I try to take a step back and evaluate “Is the issue I’m facing difficult or something that I truly don’t know how to solve?” If it’s the former, then that means I’m learning, and I’ve learned to be comfortable in the discomfort and trust my skills. If it’s the latter, then there’s something missing. Maybe I’m not at the skill level I need to be. Maybe I need to read more in the genre or more examples of what I’m trying to accomplish. Writing is as much pen-to-paper as it is refilling the well and learning from those who came before you.

I like to tell myself that it’s only a draft. I have to build a foundation first no matter how bad it is because it’s not meant to be perfect. Other times, I take breaks in between writing sessions. It may be a day, or four. I also have been okay with knowing that not every writing session is going to be easy. There are good days and bad days.

I try to establish rules and boundaries so that the limitlessness feels like a puzzle. Instead of a blank everythingness, defining a container helps to figure out how to use those bounds to express things that feel outside of those bounds, and also helps to figure out when I can break those rules for specific purposes. I also — when faced with indecision — just try to write the bad version, and then revisit later. It’s always easier to edit and have something in front of you that you can improve as opposed to coming up with something when nothing is in front of you.

It depends on when, and why, it’s difficult. If it’s difficult toward the end of a writing day, I give up and go do something else for the day. If it’s at the start, I try to push through. Sometimes it’s a problem in the work, sometimes it’s me, sometimes it’s, I dunno, a Thursday on a full moon with a high pollen count. Sometimes the thing to do is go take a walk, get the blood moving. The blood carries oxygen, and the brain needs oxygen, so churn that red stuff, get the idea bubbles bubblin’.

Do you have any advice for fellow writers struggling with their work?

Write badly. Give yourself permission to write badly. We’re always trying so hard to make it good, vivid, real, faithful to the vision in our head … and that’s a lot of pressure. If we give ourselves permission to write one bad page, two bad pages, we can forget all the rest and just churn out words, ideas … and, in the best circumstances, get to see that beautiful unconscious place that leads to good stuff!

The times when writing is most difficult is when I don’t have a plan. Anyone is going to look at an empty page and think, what am I supposed to do to fill it?! So, I recommend always working with some sort of outline. Some might believe it takes the magic out of writing, but what it really does is just gives a writer a place to start … and a direction to go when they’re a little lost. Almost like a map.

I also recommend writing for yourself first. When I began writing at 12, I was just writing the type of book that I wanted to read. Pretend you’re the only one who will ever read it. At least in the drafting stages. That way, you won’t be afraid to take risks.

I think writers could stop being so hard on themselves — myself included. It’s irrational but easy to compare works in progress to finished books on our shelves, and it helps to remember that no piece of writing comes out fully formed. And that every project is different, so it’s best to go into it without expectations and know that you might have to figure out new ways to shape the piece into what you want it to be.

Talk to other writers about it. Meditate on what brings you to the work in the first place, what is important to you at the core of it.

Try to be nice to yourself!

Your journey won’t match anyone else’s, and you should embrace that. Find what works for you and what doesn’t, but don’t be ashamed. I’m a writer who bounces around a lot, but when I settle? I settle. I write so many hundreds of pages of books that will never become real. That’s okay because that’s me. I’m also a messy drafter; that works for me. Don’t be ashamed of what works for you, and embrace what makes you unique.

Write it down. Just write it all down. Set the foundation first before you start sculpting. Who knows? Even the pieces you inevitably discard may help to propel the next plot point or character development. All can be useful if you allow it.

Figure out what you enjoy writing about and the ways you write that make you enjoy writing. It’s less about “write what you know” but more “write what you know you like.” So much is already difficult in this world — it doesn’t help to also make writing something a struggle too. I think it helps to find the topics and structures and ideas that make writing feel exciting and joyful — the writing will still be hard, of course, but if there’s something there that makes you keep wanting to revisit it, over and over, that you still feel excited about trying to figure out, then I feel like that means you’ve found something to continue following.

Write a lot. That’s it, really. Iterate as often as you can. Part of this is, obviously, doing the thing helps you learn the thing, but more specifically it also helps you learn your process and your voice, and in knowing those things, you come to recognize when a difficult writing day is normal — meaning, it’s part of your process, your pattern — and when it is abnormal. Abnormal difficulty can mean you’re not dealing with a writing problem, but rather anxiety or depression or some other neurodivergence, and those are normal and okay but can’t be solved the same way you’d solve an average writing block — you can’t “write your way through” depression. You’ll only sink deeper, like with quicksand. You have to be able to see clearly the difficulties in front of you and see when they belong to your writing process or exist outside of it. Writing a lot helps you get to that kind of clarity.

Scott Neumyer is a writer from central New Jersey whose work has been published by The New York Times , The Washington Post , Rolling Stone , The Wall Street Journal , ESPN , GQ , Esquire , Parade magazine , and many other publications. You can follow him on Twitter @ scottneumyer .

How Amanda Anderson Created Her Bookstore

Dolly Alderton Does It Again

This Novel Is a Love Story for the Ages

The 13 Best College-Set Novels of All Time

Kaveh Akbar Explores New Territory in ‘Martyr!’

Authors to Watch: Christina Cooke

Venita Blackburn Is Rarely Wrong

‘The Bullet Swallower’ Tackles Morality

There Are No Heroes or Villains for Olivie Blake

a woman standing in front of a red wall with a sign

Stefanie Wilder-Taylor Says Goodbye to Drinking

jeanne mackin, author of picasso's lovers

You’re Wrong About Pablo Picasso’s Lovers & Muses

Is Writing Hard: The Top Reasons Why Writing Is Hard, With Tips

Is writing hard? It can be difficult if you have been told to re-write or revise after the first draft. Learn more in this article.

If you find the process of writing to be challenging, try not to get frustrated. The goal is to become a better writer, and even a good writer can have a hard time from time to time. For example, Ernest Hemingway is widely considered one of the greatest writers of all time. However, even he had some struggles with creative writing occasionally.

Becoming a professional writer can be hard, and good writing should be an interactive experience. Yes, writing is difficult, but it is also enjoyable. If you want to overcome writer’s block, you need to identify some of the biggest challenges. Then, you can use your writing skills to overcome them.

1. Writing Is Hard Because It Requires Your Undivided Attention

2. writing is a long process, 3. writing requires bravery, 4. writing takes a lot of practice, 5. writing caters to perfectionists, 6. writing has an inconsistent schedule, how to overcome these challenges, final word on is writing hard, why is writing so hard, if i want to become a better writer, what should i do.

One of the biggest reasons writing is so hard is that it requires your undivided attention. Have you ever taken a job where you were doing a bunch of mindless tasks? For example, you might have had a job where you had to copy information from one spreadsheet into another. Or, you might have had a job where you had to watch videos and then give your thoughts at the end. You do not necessarily need to pay attention to these tasks the entire time. Instead, you can tune in and out, still getting the job done.

When it comes to writing, this is not an option. If you do not focus on the task at hand, your writing will not be very good. Laziness cannot creep into your writing, or your work will suffer. There is no way you can put your brain on autopilot and end up with a good result. You need to focus on the task at hand if you want your writing to come out well.

If you aren’t focused on your work, it is better to take a break and do something else. Then, come back to your writing when you can truly focus on it.

Another reason writing is hard is that it does not lead to instant gratification. If you want to see the fruits of your labor at the end of the day, writing may not deliver. It takes a long time to write a good story. Regardless of whether you are writing a poem, a short story, or a novel, the process is lengthy. Some of the greatest poets in the world have spent a month crafting a single poem.

Therefore, you might not see the results of your hard work for days, weeks, or months. Sure, at the end of the day, you might have a bunch of pages written, but this does not necessarily mean they are any good. You won’t truly feel satisfied with your work until the entire story is finished.

Because there is a long time before you experience that feeling of fulfillment, writing can be hard. You might even start a story only to scrap it at the end because you do not like it. Most people do not have the patience to deal with the full scope of the writing processing.

Do you want to go through life anonymously? Do you want to sit in the background where nobody will bother you? Taking risks is hard, and being a writer is brave. However, virtually everything you write will eventually be reviewed by somebody else. Are you a professional writer? If so, then a client or an editor will review your work. Do you work for a large firm? If so, a manager will review your work at the end. Do you want to publish a book? If so, your reader base will have an opinion on your work.

Someone else is going to read your work eventually. It can be nerve-racking to wait for them to give their opinion. After all, you might have spent months, or even years, writing that story. If the other person doesn’t like it, it could mean that all of your work has been for nothing. Or, if they don’t like your work, it could make you angry. It is your work, not theirs! Who are they to criticize it?

It takes a lot of courage to put all of your work on display. Unfortunately, many people are not willing to make themselves vulnerable like this, which is why writing is so hard.

If you want to be a good writer, you need to practice repeatedly. The only way you will ever get better at writing is by practicing it daily. Even when you don’t want to write, you should let your fingers flow to put words on the page. Then, you can come back and organize them later.

If you play a musical instrument, you need to practice every day. Otherwise, your skills are going to rust over. Likewise, if you play a sport, you need to practice daily. If you take a lot of time off, you might get out of shape, causing you to fall short when you come back. Writing is the same way. If you don’t write regularly, your writing skills will get rusty. Then, when you are ready to write again, you might fall behind.

Because writing takes a lot of practice, it can be incredibly challenging.

If you are a perfectionist, you might embrace the challenge of writing. But, unfortunately, it is not unusual for writers to expect themselves to be perfect. “Good enough” is never really good enough for a writer. Now, you might think that the endless drive for perfectionism brings out the best in a writer. Expecting yourself to do better can indeed be a positive quality in a writer; however, it can also be a tremendous challenge.

Think about it like this. If you are running a book for someone, you may have a deadline to meet. The deadline is coming up, and you aren’t anywhere close to being finished. Why is that the case? You may have spent a long time writing the first chapter because you always felt like there was a better version. Therefore, that chapter was never perfect, causing you to fall behind on the rest of the book.

This is what they call crippling perfectionism. It is true that you need to go back and edit, proofread, and review your work. Then, you might be able to make it better. On the other hand, it takes a lot of practice to learn when to put down the chapter and move on to the next area. If you expect everything to be perfect, you will spend endless hours agonizing over a single word choice. This is another reason why you need to practice regularly. You need to learn when to make changes and when to let it go.

If you enjoy a routine, you may have a difficult time sticking to one as a writer. For example, you might be someone who likes to write early in the morning. You might be someone who likes to write during business hours only. You might even be someone who likes the right in the middle of the night.

You will quickly learn that you do not have a lot of control over when you write. If you don’t have a pen and paper, you might think that you can stay away from writing; however, if a moment of inspiration strikes you, you will probably pull out your phone and start to type into a notepad.

The point is that you will write when inspiration strikes you. You never know when you will feel like writing, and you don’t want to miss that critical moment of “eureka.” As a result, it is easy to let your writing seep into other areas of your life. It can be difficult for you to stick to a routine, and it can impact your relationships. It takes a lot of discipline to learn how to contain your writing while still getting the most out of your skills.

These are a few of the biggest challenges you will face if you would like to get better at writing. Fortunately, there are some ways you can overcome these challenges as well. These include:

Learn when to take breaks. It is okay to take breaks from time to time. If you are sitting there and nothing is coming out, put down the pencil and do something else. You may find that spending time outside gives you the moment of inspiration you’ve been looking for.
Make sure you designate time for family members and friends. If you just assume you will spend time with those closest to you, you may not spend as much time with them as you would like. Instead, block off time to be with other people. This could help you improve your writing as well.
Invest in a tool that can help you stay organized. For example, if you have multiple projects going on simultaneously, make sure you have a calendar of when they are due. That way, nothing will fall through the cracks.
You may feel like you don’t have enough confidence in yourself. If that is the case, remember that vulnerability can be a valuable asset. You might want to try meditation or positive affirmations that can make you feel better about yourself. Then, remember to stay humble when you present your work to other people.
Finally, you need to make sure you get enough sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep at night, you won’t give your brain a chance to recharge. This could cause you to fall behind on your work. You might even want to set alarms for yourself that tell you when to go to bed.

Everyone has a different strategy for overcoming these challenges. Of course, you will learn more about yourself as you go, but consider putting a few of these tips to use if you want to overcome some of the biggest challenges facing writers.

So, is writing hard? It is highly unusual for someone to say that writing is easy, but everyone has their own talents. If you want to be a professional writer, you need to practice regularly. Then, make sure you give other people the chance to review your work. Listen to what they have to say.

Everyone has a different opinion, so make sure you put their opinion in the context of your work. Finally, remember to take breaks. There is a light outside of writing, and spending time with other people away from your work can help you improve your assignments when you go back to them.

FAQs About Is Writing Hard

Writing is hard because it requires a tremendous amount of patience and focus. It also requires a lot of vulnerability, as other people will be reviewing your work. You also have to be critical of yourself as you review your assignments, which can be a challenge for many people.

If you want to be a better writer, you need to practice regularly. Most importantly, you should try to practice different forms of writing. That way, you can improve different writing skills, apply additional writing tips, and get better at expressing your ideas through the act of writing. Freewriting is critical for exploring different styles of writing

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

View all posts

Why Is Writing So Hard? (And What to Do About It)

Do you ever find yourself asking why is writing so hard?

When people picture the working process of a writer, they often picture a carefree, fun, and creative situation.

Perhaps that’s how you imagined being a writer would be. Often, our earliest experiences with writing lead to us discovering we enjoy writing or have a talent for it in a way that isn’t the case for other creative pursuits.

Often, this discovery of something we love to do leads us to imagine that it will be easy and enjoyable. Yet, when we begin our writing life, the process of sitting down and getting words onto the page ends up being harder than expected.

Finding writing hard isn’t a reason to stop. Writing is something the world needs and it changes lives for the better.

Instead of focusing on the fact that writing is and can be hard, it’s better to focus on the solution. Here are some of the main reasons you find writing hard and what to do about it.

You need motivation

Often, the experience of finding writing hard stems from not having the proper motivation to sit down and get it done.

For a lot of writers, wanting to write is part of their identity and something they truly believe. Perhaps that’s the case for you. But have you ever taken the time to go deeper and explore where that motivation comes from?

Making progress with your writing, and feeling committed to seeing it through to completion, is a lot easier when you have a clear and powerful reason for wanting to write.

Only you know what that reason is.

Perhaps you enjoy the activity of writing more than almost anything else out there. If that’s the case, you can always justify taking the time to write . Remind yourself that even though it’s difficult at times, deciding to write is deciding to do the thing you enjoy the most.

Or maybe writing goes beyond enjoyment for you. It might even feel like a compulsion. You might find writing to be your best form of self-expression and a way of making sense of the world around you.

You can also think in terms of what your writing brings to the world. As well as being something you love doing, think about how it helps people. Whether that’s by showing other writers that it’s possible to succeed at something you dream about, or giving readers the enjoyment of your work, the impact of your writing goes beyond yourself.

Having a clear understanding of the deeper motivation behind your writing is one of the best ways to maintain your drive. When you feel writing is particularly hard, focus on the reason you do it. Let that focus reinspire you to keep going.

You’re overthinking instead of writing

Sometimes, writing is hard because of the way we think and the story we tell ourselves about our work.

One of the major manifestations of this problem is judging instead of creating. Think back to a time when your writing flowed and you were able to make progress without feeling too negative or stuck . You weren’t stuck in your head or thinking critically about your efforts.

To avoid letting negative thoughts and judgment interrupt your writing, it’s important to be vigilant about the problem, so you can stop it in its tracks. As soon as you start to find yourself thinking about how hard writing is, stop. Focus on breathing. Focus on anything but your thought process. Remove that negative mental chatter and then return to the creative process itself.

Losing a sense of perspective can also be a major mental cause of finding writing difficult. This can take different forms. One is when you put too much importance on your writing. It’s easy to slip into this state of mind when following a solitary creative pursuit. When you lose sight of the world around you, and writing becomes your be-all and end-all, the level of mental pressure you experience is often difficult to cope with.

If you feel like your challenges with writing are down to an unhealthy focus on its importance, permit yourself to regain perspective . Take some time to do something purely for pleasure unrelated to writing. This will often refresh your mentality and give you the energy you need to write successfully again.

Another effective remedy is to stop focusing on the fact that you’re finding writing hard and instead offer some time and attention to others. When we move our focus away from our own challenges and instead seek to help others, we often end up regaining the cognitive calm and emotional state needed to write well.

You need to adjust your writing approach

Finding writing hard is often down to a lack of motivation or a suboptimal state of mind. But not always. The practical approach we take to writing can often make it a lot easier.

Many different practical factors impact the way we write. Taking the time to find the best mix for you is worthwhile and a good way to focus on solving your difficulty with writing rather than wallowing in it.

One aspect to experiment with is the time of day when you write. Sometimes, it’s a case of squeezing in a writing session whenever your schedule allows . However, if you have the freedom to write at different times, it’s worth experimenting to find the time when your writing flows most easily.

If you’ve always written at a particular time, it may be the case that you’ve found your ideal time by default. But what if you haven’t? You’ll never know if there’s a better time to write until you experiment. Sometimes the novelty of writing at a different time of day or night is also enough to give your brain a boost and make writing easier again.

As well as the time of day, think about experimenting with both the location you write in and the tool you use. Some writers find writing easier in a solitary environment no matter what. Others need the stimulation of a busy environment such as a cafe to stay stimulated and focused . Finding your optimal writing location can make writing easier and more enjoyable.

Writing apps are great, but when was the last time you tried to write by hand? If you’re finding it difficult to make progress, try writing using a comfortable pen and a notepad. Changing the physical way you write often lessens the frustration you’re feeling.

Finally, the way you fuel your mind and body plays a big part in making your writing life easier. Eating in a way that energizes you and staying hydrated can make a big difference. Plenty of writers consume coffee like the world’s about to run out of it, but drinking water as well can really help.

Nothing worthwhile is easy

One final thought is the idea that writing shouldn’t always feel easy. The times when it does, and the words flow freely, are amazing and to be embraced.

Nothing worth doing is totally free from difficulty. By experiencing the challenge of writing, and pushing through the times when it’s tough, you grow both as a writer and a person.

By all means, take the time to find ways to make your writing life easier. But, no matter what, don’t give up. Keep going. You have a unique contribution to make as a writer and you should never lose sight of that.

How To Launch A Writing Career: 10 Tips For Success

Many creatives want to launch a writing career, but taking the steps to do so is a frequent roadblock. The good news is, if you want to launch a writing career and are committed to doing so, you’re likely to succeed. Of course, the definition of success is...

6 Book Introduction Examples: Helpful Secrets To Compelling Intros

The topic of book introduction examples is vital to dive into due to their influence on readers’ mindset. How a reader feels when he or she starts chapter one and page one of your manuscript impacts how they respond to your writing. When you’ve spent weeks, months, or...

5 Tips To Write Faster: Finish Your Book In Record Time

Did you know that if you want to write faster than the average typist (40 words per minute) there are actionable steps you can take to do so? Whether you are working on typing out your debut novel or have been in the game for years, there’s always an opportunity to...

Vision Boards For Writers: 3 Ways To Achieve Your Dreams

Vision boards are more than just a fun activity to engage in at the start of a new year or season. While vision boards are often designed to be aesthetically pleasing and can be a relaxing activity, they actually can be more helpful to your writing dreams than you...

JOIN OVER 2 MILLION READERS

Is It Too Late to Start Writing?

Perhaps you’ve always wanted to be a writer but haven’t made it happen yet. There are so many reasons why you might not have made the leap from aspiring to write to actually starting to do it yet. Maybe you doubt whether you’re good enough. Maybe writing has...

How many words are in a novel?

If you plan to publish and sell your own novel, knowing how many words in a novel you need to use is very important. Word count guidelines exist because of certain reasons, such as marketing and sale, as well as to help the writers in creating stories that don't have...

About The Author

The 7 Best Pens For Writing

by Sarah Rexford | Be Creative , Motivation , Resources for Writers

Did you know that you can purchase some of the best pens for writing without breaking the bank? Yes, pens can definitely be a costly purchase, but if you’re looking for both a comfortable and affordable writing tool, we have you covered. In addition to the...

How to Find Freelance Writing Work (2024 Guide)

by Guest | Be Productive , Tips

Freelance writing is a great way to earn some extra money on the side. But as you may discover once you get a foothold in the industry, it’s more than possible to turn it into a full-time job and lifelong career. There are some hurdles that you have to overcome,...

Hero’s Journey In Nonfiction: 4 Steps To Spectacular Writing

by Sarah Rexford | Be Inspired , Non-Fiction , Tips For Writers

The hero’s journey is a classic story structure that has been used for centuries. This timeless storytelling technique encompasses the three core aspects of a protagonist’s journey. Using it in fiction often seems like common sense, but the secret is to use it in...

How To Find A Good Reading Chair + 7 Of Our Favorites

by Jackie Pearce | Tips For Writers

When you first become a passionate reader, you might not understand the importance of a good reading chair. It will only take a few weeks or months of reading for your body to figure out that sitting in something comfortable that supports your posture is essential to...

31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing

by Leo Babauta | Be Inspired

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. - Jack London No matter how much you love writing, there will always be days when you need inspiration from one muse or another. In fact, I would argue that inspiration is not just a desirable...

25 Writing Prompts For St. Patrick’s Day

by Sarah Rexford | Be Productive , Enjoy Creative Exercises , Resources for Writers

Prompts are a great way to get your creative juices flowing, and what better option than to take advantage of writing prompts for St. Patrick’s Day? Whether you celebrate the man after whom this holiday is named, or celebrate the pride of the Irish, below are...

How To Write A Bedtime Story: 4 Tips To Make A Magical Impact On Readers

by Sarah Rexford | Create a Book , Fiction , How to Write Stories , Tips , Tips For Writers

If you want to learn how to write a bedtime story, you have a great goal. From children to adults, bedtime stories are a loved pastime. Whether it’s the three-year-old asking you to read their favorite one, or a sleep app for adults with a slow, sleepy voice...

Essay Writing Tips: 10 Steps to Writing a Great Essay (And Have Fun Doing It!)

by Joe Bunting | 117 comments

Do you dread essay writing? Are you looking for some essay tips that will help you write an amazing essay—and have fun doing it?

Lots of students, young and old, dread essay writing. It's a daunting assignment, one that takes research, time, and concentration.

It's also an assignment that you can break up into simple steps that make writing an essay manageable and, yes, even enjoyable.

These ten essay tips completely changed my writing process—and I hope that they can do the same for you.

Essay Writing Can Be Fun

Honestly, throughout most of high school and college, I was a mediocre essay writer.

Every once in a while, I would write a really good essay, but mostly I skated by with B's and A-minuses.

I know personally how boring writing an essay can be, and also, how hard it can be to write a good one.

However, toward the end of my time as a student, I made a breakthrough. I figured out how to not only write a great essay, I learned how to have fun while doing it .

And since then, I've become a professional writer and have written more than a dozen books. I'm not saying that these essay writing tips are going to magically turn you into a writer, but at least they can help you enjoy the process more.

I'm excited to share these ten essay writing tips with you today! But first, we need to talk about why writing an essay is so hard.

Why Writing an Essay Is So Hard

When it comes to essay writing, a lot of students find a reason to put it off. And when they tackle it, they find it difficult to string sentences together that sound like a decent stance on the assigned subject.

Here are a few reasons why essay writing is hard:

You'd rather be scrolling through Facebook
You're trying to write something your teacher or professor will like
You're trying to get an A instead of writing something that's actually good
You want to do the least amount of work possible

The biggest reason writing an essay is so hard is because we mostly focus on those external rewards like getting a passing grade, winning our teacher's approval, or just avoiding accusations of plagiarism.

The problem is that when you focus on external approval it not only makes writing much less fun, it also makes it significantly harder.

Because when you focus on external approval, you shut down your subconscious, and the subconscious is the source of your creativity.

The subconscious is the source of your creativity.

What this means practically is that when you're trying to write that perfect, A-plus-worthy sentence, you're turning off most of your best resources and writing skills.

So stop. Stop trying to write a good essay (or even a “good-enough” essay). Instead, write an interesting essay, write an essay you think is fascinating. And when you're finished, go back and edit it until it's “good” according to your teacher's standards.

Yes, you need to follow the guidelines in your assignment. If your teacher tells you to write a five-paragraph essay, then write a five-paragraph essay! If your teacher asks for a specific type of essay, like an analysis, argument, or research essay, then make sure you write that type of essay!

However, within those guidelines, find room to express something that is uniquely you .

I can't guarantee you'll get a higher grade (although, you almost certainly will), but I can absolutely promise you'll have a lot more fun writing.

The Step-by-Step Process to Writing a Great Essay: Your 10 Essay Writing Tips

Ready to get writing? You can read my ten best tips for having fun while writing an essay that earns you the top grade, or check out this presentation designed by our friends at Canva Presentations .

1. Remember your essay is just a story.

Every story is about conflict and change, and the truth is that essays are about conflict and change, too! The difference is that in an essay, the conflict is between different ideas , and the change is in the way we should perceive those ideas.

That means that the best essays are about surprise: “You probably think it's one way, but in reality, you should think of it this other way.” See tip #3 for more on this.

How do you know what story you're telling? The prompt should tell you.

Any list of essay prompts includes various topics and tasks associated with them. Within those topics are characters (historical, fictional, or topical) faced with difficult choices. Your job is to work with those choices, usually by analyzing them, arguing about them, researching them, or describing them in detail.

2. Before you start writing, ask yourself, “How can I have the most fun writing this?”

It's normal to feel unmotivated when writing an academic essay. I'm a writer, and honestly, I feel unmotivated to write all the time. But I have a super-ninja, judo-mind trick I like to use to help motivate myself.

Here's the secret trick: One of the interesting things about your subconscious is that it will answer any question you ask yourself. So whenever you feel unmotivated to write your essay, ask yourself the following question:

“How much fun can I have writing this?”

Your subconscious will immediately start thinking of strategies to make the writing process more fun.

The best time to have your fun is the first draft. Since you're just brainstorming within the topic, and exploring the possible ways of approaching it, the first draft is the perfect place to get creative and even a little scandalous. Here are some wild suggestions to make your next essay a load of fun:

Research the most surprising or outrageous fact about the topic and use it as your hook.
Use a thesaurus to research the topic's key words. Get crazy with your vocabulary as you write, working in each key word synonym as much as possible.
Play devil's advocate and take the opposing or immoral side of the issue. See where the discussion takes you as you write.

3. As you research, ask yourself, “What surprises me about this subject?”

The temptation, when you're writing an essay, is to write what you think your teacher or professor wants to read.

Don't do this .

Instead, ask yourself, “What do I find interesting about this subject? What surprises me?”

If you can't think of anything that surprises you, anything you find interesting, then you're not searching well enough, because history, science, and literature are all brimming over with surprises. When you look at how great ideas actually happen, the story is always, “We used to think the world was this way. We found out we were completely wrong, and that the world is actually quite different from what we thought.”

These pieces of surprising information often make for the best topic sentences as well. Use them to outline your essay and build your body paragraphs off of each unique fact or idea. These will function as excellent hooks for your reader as you transition from one topic to the next.

(By the way, what sources should you use for research? Check out tip #10 below.)

4. Overwhelmed? Write five original sentences.

The standard three-point essay is really made up of just five original sentences surrounded by supporting paragraphs that back up those five sentences. If you're feeling overwhelmed, just write five sentences covering your most basic main points.

Here's what they might look like for this article:

Introductory Paragraph: While most students consider writing an essay a boring task, with the right mindset, it can actually be an enjoyable experience.
Body #1: Most students think writing an essay is tedious because they focus on external rewards.
Body #2: Students should instead focus on internal fulfillment when writing an essay.
Body #3: Not only will focusing on internal fulfillment allow students to have more fun, it will also result in better essays.
Conclusion: Writing an essay doesn't have to be simply a way to earn a good grade. Instead, it can be a means of finding fulfillment.

After you write your five sentences, it's easy to fill in the paragraphs for each one.

Now, you give it a shot!

5. Be “source heavy.”

In college, I discovered a trick that helped me go from a B-average student to an A-student, but before I explain how it works, let me warn you. This technique is powerful , but it might not work for all teachers or professors. Use with caution.

As I was writing a paper for a literature class, I realized that the articles and books I was reading said what I was trying to say much better than I ever could. So what did I do? I quoted them liberally throughout my paper. When I wasn't quoting, I re-phrased what they said in my own words, giving proper credit, of course. I found that not only did this formula create a well-written essay, it took about half the time to write.

It's good to keep in mind that using anyone else's words, even when morphed into your own phrasing, requires citation. While the definition of plagiarism is shifting with the rise of online collaboration and cooperative learning environments, always err on the side of excessive citation to be safe.

When I used this technique, my professors sometimes mentioned that my papers were very “source” heavy. However, at the same time, they always gave me A's.

To keep yourself safe, I recommend using a 60/40 approach with your body paragraphs: Make sure 60% of the words are your own analysis and argumentation, while 40% can be quoted (or text you paraphrase) from your sources.

Like the five sentence trick, this technique makes the writing process simpler. Instead of putting the main focus on writing well, it instead forces you to research well, which some students find easier.

6. Write the body first, the introduction second, and the conclusion last.

Introductions are often the hardest part to write because you're trying to summarize your entire essay before you've even written it yet. Instead, try writing your introduction last, giving yourself the body of the paper to figure out the main point of your essay.

This is especially important with an essay topic you are not personally interested in. I definitely recommend this in classes you either don't excel in or care much for. Take plenty of time to draft and revise your body paragraphs before attempting to craft a meaningful introductory paragraph.

Otherwise your opening may sound awkward, wooden, and bland.

7. Most essays answer the question, “What?” Good essays answer the “Why?” The best essays answer the “How?”

If you get stuck trying to make your argument, or you're struggling to reach the required word count, try focusing on the question, “How?”

For example:

How did J.D. Salinger convey the theme of inauthenticity in The Catcher In the Rye ?
How did Napoleon restore stability in France after the French Revolution?
How does the research prove girls really do rule and boys really do drool?

If you focus on how, you'll always have enough to write about.

8. Don't be afraid to jump around.

Essay writing can be a dance. You don't have to stay in one place and write from beginning to end.

For the same reasons listed in point #6, give yourself the freedom to write as if you're circling around your topic rather than making a single, straightforward argument. Then, when you edit and proofread, you can make sure everything lines up correctly.

In fact, now is the perfect time to mention that proofreading your essay isn't just about spelling and commas.

It's about making sure your analysis or argument flows smoothly from one idea to another. (Okay, technically this comprises editing, but most students writing a high school or college essay don't take the time to complete every step of the writing process. Let's be honest.)

So as you clean up your mechanics and sentence structure, make sure your ideas flow smoothly, logically, and naturally from one to the next as you finish proofreading.

9. Here are some words and phrases you don't want to use.

You (You'll notice I use a lot of you's, which is great for a blog post. However, in an academic essay, it's better to omit the second-person.)
To Be verbs (is, are, was, were, am)

Don't have time to edit? Here's a lightning-quick editing technique .

A note about “I”: Some teachers say you shouldn't use “I” statements in your writing, but the truth is that professional, academic papers often use phrases like “I believe” and “in my opinion,” especially in their introductions.

10. It's okay to use Wikipedia, if…

Wikipedia is one of the top five websites in the world for a reason: it can be a great tool for research. However, most teachers and professors don't consider Wikipedia a valid source for use in essays.

Don't totally discount it, though! Here are two ways you can use Wikipedia in your essay writing:

Background research. If you don't know enough about your topic, Wikipedia can be a great resource to quickly learn everything you need to know to get started.
Find sources . Check the reference section of Wikipedia's articles on your topic. While you may not be able to cite Wikipedia itself, you can often find those original sources and cite them . You can locate the links to primary and secondary sources at the bottom of any Wikipedia page under the headings “Further Reading” and “References.”

You Can Enjoy Essay Writing

The thing I regret most about high school and college is that I treated it like something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do.

The truth is, education is an opportunity many people in the world don't have access to.

It's a gift, not just something that makes your life more difficult. I don't want you to make the mistake of just “getting by” through school, waiting desperately for summer breaks and, eventually, graduation.

How would your life be better if you actively enjoyed writing an essay? What would school look like if you wanted to suck it dry of all the gifts it has to give you?

All I'm saying is, don't miss out!

Looking for More Essay Writing Tips?

Looking for more essay tips to strengthen your essay writing? Try some of these resources:

7 Tips on Writing an Effective Essay
Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

How about you? Do you have any tips for writing an essay? Let us know in the comments .

Need more grammar help? My favorite tool that helps find grammar problems and even generates reports to help improve my writing is ProWritingAid . Works with Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, and web browsers. Also, be sure to use my coupon code to get 20 percent off: WritePractice20

Coupon Code:WritePractice20 »

Ready to try out these ten essay tips to make your essay assignment fun? Spend fifteen minutes using tip #4 and write five original sentences that could be turned into an essay.

When you're finished, share your five sentences in the comments section. And don't forget to give feedback to your fellow writers!

[wp_ad_camp_2]

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

Join over 450,000 readers who are saying YES to practice. You’ll also get a free copy of our eBook 14 Prompts :

Popular Resources

Book Writing Tips & Guides Creativity & Inspiration Tips Writing Prompts Grammar & Vocab Resources Best Book Writing Software ProWritingAid Review Writing Teacher Resources Publisher Rocket Review Scrivener Review Gifts for Writers

Books By Our Writers

You've got it! Just us where to send your guide.

Enter your email to get our free 10-step guide to becoming a writer.

You've got it! Just us where to send your book.

Enter your first name and email to get our free book, 14 Prompts.

Want to Get Published?

Enter your email to get our free interactive checklist to writing and publishing a book.

Read our new Case Study on Cypress Elementary.

TMLC Support
Training Calendar

What Makes Writing So Hard?

MAY 9, 2022

Many students struggle with writing—but what makes it so hard? And why do so many students hate to write? Writing is a task with a very high cognitive load. Giving students meaningful practice and clear structures for writing helps them move their thoughts out of their heads and onto the page.

Who Needs to Write? Everyone.

Based on the most recent NAEP writing assessment , only about one in four students at any grade level is proficient in writing—and that number hasn’t shifted meaningfully in decades. One in five students scored at the lowest proficiency level, Below Basic, at each tested grade level. Clearly, the traditional English Language Arts (ELA) programs used to teach writing are not, on their own, enough to move the needle for most students.

At the same time, writing is more important than ever in our knowledge economy. Writing is a “gatekeeper” skill for many higher-paying professions. Most white-collar and technical jobs require at least basic writing skills, whether for creating formal reports or simply communicating through email. In blue-collar and service jobs, people are often expected to be able to write clearly to communicate with customers. And writing will almost certainly be required to advance beyond the entry levels. In fact, a survey of business leaders put written communication skills at the top of the list of sought-after attributes.

Beyond the workforce, writing, like reading, is a skill that enables full participation in our modern world. Good writing skills allow people to participate in democracy by writing letters to the editor or expressing their views to a representative. Writing also allows people to participate in, rather than simply watch, all of the discourse and entertainment happening online. Writing can empower people to self-advocate in a variety of contexts, from healthcare to consumer interactions to legal proceedings. Writing skills are essential for anyone who wants a seat at the table in today’s complex political, consumer and personal realms.

The High Cognitive Load of Writing

By some metrics, today’s kids and teens are writing more than ever—that is, if you count texting, commenting on online content, and interacting in multiplayer games. But these interactions do not rise to the level of writing required to be successful on state assessments, college assignments, or workplace tasks. When students are faced with an authentic writing task—such as responding to a piece of text, writing a research paper, or developing an original narrative—the majority struggle.

In part, that may be because students don’t have much practice with formal writing, especially in extended form. There is some evidence that students today spend less time on writing than in the past, especially on argumentative writing and writing in the content areas. The Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) recommends that students have 60 minutes of writing time each school day , including a mix of direct writing instruction and writing assignments that span different purposes and content areas. However, only about 25% of middle schoolers and 30% of high schoolers meet the standard, and many students are only spending about 15 minutes each day on writing.

But even with ample time and instruction, writing is hard —in fact, it is arguably the hardest thing we ask our students to do. Natalie Wexler, the author of The Knowledge Gap , explains that writing has an even higher cognitive load than reading . That’s because, in addition to processing information, students also have to figure out how to get their own thoughts on the page.

Writing is a highly complex skill that involves many discrete sub-skills at both the “macro” and “micro” levels.

At the “macro” level, students have to figure out what to say: what is the point they are trying to make or the story they are trying to tell? What is the best way to organize their ideas and structure their piece? What are the big ideas and conclusions they want to get across? What kind of supporting evidence or details are needed?
At the “micro” level, students must apply a myriad of foundational writing skills, from the motor skills involved with keyboarding or handwriting to decisions about word choice, syntax and grammar.

All of these writing processes are happening at the same time , adding to the overall cognitive load of the task. To lower the cognitive load, students must achieve proficiency and fluency at both the macro and micro levels. When students struggle with foundational skills such as letter formation and word selection, they may not have enough cognitive resources left to focus on the “big picture” of what they want to say. On the flip side, students who don’t know how to organize their ideas will not have much energy to focus on developing their writing style and editing and polishing their work.

The Hardest Part of Writing is Thinking

For most students, the hardest part of writing isn’t writing out individual words or forming a complete sentence. It is simply figuring out what to say . In fact, the Writing Center of Princeton says:

Writing is ninety-nine percent thinking, one percent writing. In other words, when you know what you want to say and how you want to say it, writing becomes easier and more successful.

Writing is, fundamentally, thinking made visible. If you can’t think, you can’t write. One of the best ways of lowering the cognitive load of writing is to give students a structure for organizing their ideas and thinking through the flow and structure of their piece.

That’s where Thinking Maps come in. Thinking Maps provide the structure for thinking through a writing task and organizing ideas prior to writing.

It starts with understanding the task itself. Students in a Thinking Maps school learn to use “signal words” that indicate what kind of thinking is required for a task. Then, they know what kind of Map to use to start their thinking process. For example, if the prompt asks them to explain the similarities and differences between two historical eras, they know immediately that this will be a “compare-and-contrast” task. The Double Bubble Map provides the structure they need to organize their ideas, whether from their existing knowledge, in-depth research, or a text provided with the prompt. Once they have fleshed out their ideas, students can use a writing Flow Map to develop their piece section by section. Having this kind of structure helps students move through the planning and organizing phases of writing more quickly so they have more time to spend on other parts of the writing process, including revising and editing. It also leads to clearer, more organized writing.

At Pace Brantley Preparatory, a Florida school serving students with learning disabilities in grades 1-12, adding some dedicated Thinking Maps planning time prior to writing led to better writing products on their benchmark assessments. Read the Pace Brantley story .

In our Write from the Beginning…and Beyond training , teachers learn how writing develops across the grade levels and how to use Thinking Maps to support student writing, including using the Maps to process thinking before writing and using the writing Flow Map to plan writing. Advanced training includes specific strategies for different genres, including Narrative, Expository/Informative, Argumentative, and Response to Text.

When students can think, they are ready to write. And when students can write, they are ready for anything.

Want to know more about Thinking Maps and writing?

Download the recording: Building a Deep Structure for Writing

February 15, 2024

A majority of teachers believe that students are finally catching up from pandemic learning losses. But those gains are far from evenly distributed—and too many students were already behind before the pandemic. To close these achievement gaps, schools and districts need to focus on the underlying issue: the critical thinking gap.

January 16, 2024

Student engagement is a critical factor in the learning process and has a significant impact on educational outcomes. Thinking Maps enhance engagement by encouraging active participation in the learning process, facilitating collaboration, and providing students with structure and support for academic success.

November 15, 2023

Project-based learning (PBL) immerses students in engaging, real-world challenges and problems. Thinking Maps can give students a framework for thinking, planning and organizing their ideas in the PBL classroom.

October 16, 2023

Drawing complex concepts results in better learning outcomes than listening, reading or taking written notes. Learn what the research says and how Thinking Maps can help students tap into the benefits of drawing.

Free AI Essay Writer
AI Outline Generator
AI Paragraph Generator
Paragraph Expander
Essay Expander
Literature Review Generator
Research Paper Generator
Thesis Generator
Paraphrasing tool
AI Rewording Tool
AI Sentence Rewriter
AI Rephraser
AI Paragraph Rewriter
Summarizing Tool
AI Content Shortener
Plagiarism Checker
AI Detector
AI Essay Checker
Citation Generator
Reference Finder
Book Citation Generator
Legal Citation Generator
Journal Citation Generator
Reference Citation Generator
Scientific Citation Generator
Source Citation Generator
Website Citation Generator
URL Citation Generator
AI Writing Guides
AI Detection Guides
Citation Guides
Grammar Guides
Paraphrasing Guides
Plagiarism Guides
Summary Writing Guides
STEM Guides
Humanities Guides
Language Learning Guides
Coding Guides
Top Lists and Recommendations
AI Detectors
AI Writing Services
Coding Homework Help
Citation Generators
Essay Writing Websites
Language Learning Websites
Math Solvers
Paraphrasers
Plagiarism Checkers
Reference Finders
Spell Checkers
Summarizers
Tutoring Websites

Most Popular

Student accuses peer of plagiarism, seeks ways to prove originality of their own essay, five pulitzer and polk awards winners admit to using ai in their work, why are admission essays so hard to write well common mistakes revealed on reddit.

Image: ascenglish.com

The challenge of penning the perfect college essay is one that plagues students across the globe. Like an intricate work of art, a great essay requires finesse, creativity, and, above all, authenticity. Yet, for many, the training and guidelines provided in their education system serve as obstacles rather than aids. The constant push to impress rather than express has led to a plentitude of common tropes, unoriginal themes, and essays that lack the unique voice of the writer. As a result, the vast majority of papers fail to stand out in the fiercely competitive admissions process. But the real conundrum isn’t just in recognizing that there’s something wrong with an essay; it’s understanding how to fix it. A recent Reddit post by a seasoned reviewer and consultant offers a window into why so many students struggle with their essays, where the pitfalls of clichéd topics and the lack of personal expression are only a few of those that each of us must be so familiar with.

Key takeaways:

Most initial attempts at writing an expressive essay are mediocre at best. Training in academic writing might even work against students, undermining their authentic voice and personality.
Many students are prone to writing about overused topics or trying to impress rather than express.
Essays often fail due to a lack of evidence to support claims or the use of generic statements.
Wasteful or unrelated introductions and clichéd or repetitive conclusions can weaken an otherwise strong essay.

The Widespread Struggle and Identifying the Problem

The essay dilemma is not an isolated issue but rather a widespread concern. The anxiety around writing a compelling and personal college admission essay resonates with countless students. The author of the post highlights the core of the problem:

“Essays are art, not science or math. Most students feel the same way when they are suddenly asked to write expressively about themselves for the first time. Your English class probably failed you miserably.”

Indeed, traditional English classes often fail to prepare students for this type of expressive writing, forcing them to stay within the boundaries of “standards.” It makes so many students fall into the same traps over and over again when they’re trying to be overly impressive, pitying, or unique, often leading to insincere or artificial essays that lack everything but predictability.

“Don’t try to spin a sob story – they aren’t going to admit you out of pity. Don’t try to blow them away with how smart you are – they already see your grades and test scores. Don’t try too hard to be unique – you’ll just look weird.”

It’s not just a matter of mere dissatisfaction; the bad essay problem has measurable implications. As the college admissions process becomes more competitive, particularly in top-tier colleges with single-digit admit rates, the essay’s role becomes even more significant. With an estimated one to five truly outstanding essays out of every hundred, the stakes are high. Research by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) found that in 2019, 23% of colleges attributed “considerable importance” to the essay in admission decisions.

The problem is compounded by the fact that students are often trained in a way that undermines their authentic voice. The issue doesn’t just lie in the inability to write well; it stems from the complex challenge of introspection, understanding oneself, and articulating that understanding compellingly and genuinely.

This discussion illuminates the more significant issue: What should students look at to start thinking outside the box and boost their chances to stand out among thousands of similar faceless papers?

Identifying Common Mistakes in College Essays

Drawing from their rich background as a reviewer and academic consultant, the post’s author asserts that they have long recognized the recurring issues often found in student essays. They offer advice to the Reddit community on how to prevent or address these problems.

Overused Topics

Many students fall into the trap of choosing common or overused topics for their essays. These may include writing about sports, video games, or life-changing trips. However, these subjects are often difficult to execute well and end up lacking originality or insight. The key to success is personalizing the essay, zooming in on a specific experience or relationship, and writing about common topics in uncommon ways.

“Don’t write about the sport you played, the championship you won/lost, or the injury you sustained and how that taught you the value of teamwork and perseverance. Make it more meaningful by writing about a common topic in an uncommon way. Go back to your list of personal qualities you want to showcase, identify a core value that does not easily relate to your common topic, then find a way to make it fit.”

Lack of Personal Expression

The lack of personal expression in admissions essays is a problem that occurs in several ways. Many students write what they think the admissions committee wants to hear, leading to insincere and impersonal statements. Overly formal language can rob the essay of personality, making it sound robotic and detached. Failing to share personal insights and reflections results in a superficial recounting of events without revealing character or values, while hiding behind accomplishments without context can make the essay feel like a mere list of accolades. Some essays even drift from the prompt, disconnecting the narrative from the question asked.

Why Are Admission Essays So Hard To Write Well? Common Mistakes Revealed on Reddit

To overcome these issues, students must focus on authenticity, using a conversational tone that reflects their genuine voice. By going beyond mere narration to share personal insights and reflections and by explaining the importance of their achievements, students should create a compelling narrative that answers the prompt and reveals their unique character.

“Trim the sections of your essay that don’t say much about you. Add more in the sections where you’re really diving into your core values, personal strengths, motivations, etc. Make a list of what you want the reviewer to know about you. Then, brainstorm some examples, anecdotes, relationships, conversations, etc. that will showcase these things.”

This multifaceted approach to personal expression allows students to connect with their true selves and articulate their experiences in a way that stands out in the competitive college admissions process.

Unsupported Claims

In their desire to impress, students often make claims or grand statements about themselves, their beliefs, or their experiences without providing evidence or context to support these assertions. This lack of substantiation can lead to a hollow or insincere essay. Moreover, the failure to approach their subject with subtlety and nuance can result in an overblown or melodramatic tone that undermines the authenticity of the narrative. Rather than engaging the reader with a thoughtful exploration of ideas, these essays often resort to clichés and platitudes that feel forced and inauthentic. To address this problem, students must learn to ground their claims in specific examples, experiences, or reflections that provide concrete evidence for their statements.

“You can’t just say “I’m a creative problem solver” any more than a random redditor can just say “I know a lot about admissions essays.” No one will believe you unless you show that or support it with an example, anecdote, etc. Look for statements you’ve made that are more “telling” than “showing”. Sometimes these can indicate that you aren’t being convincing.”

By approaching their subject with more subtlety and nuance, weaving in personal insights and observations rather than relying on broad generalizations, they can create a richer and more engaging narrative. This careful crafting of claims, supported by evidence and delivered with subtlety, can transform an otherwise lackluster essay into a persuasive and authentic reflection of the student’s character and values, significantly enhancing its impact on the admissions process.

Ineffective Introductions and Conclusions

These elements of admission essays serve as significant stumbling blocks for many students. The introduction and conclusion of a paper are vital components that frame the entire narrative, and when executed poorly, they can overshadow the content in between. Ineffective introductions often fall into the trap of being overly general, vague, or clichéd, failing to grab the reader’s attention or provide a clear roadmap for what’s to follow. They might lack a hook that draws the reader in or provide a thesis statement that is too broad or lacking in focus. On the other hand, weak conclusions may abruptly end the essay without summarizing the main points or leave the reader hanging without a sense of closure or resolution. Such shortcomings in the introductory and concluding sections can leave an impression of disjointedness or lack of cohesion, detracting from the overall impact of the essay. To overcome this challenge, students must carefully craft engaging and insightful introductions that clearly outline the purpose and direction of the article. A unique anecdote, question, or statement can help hook the reader, while a well-articulated thesis can guide them through the paper.

“Some of the most common essay advice I give is to just scrap the entire introduction. The reason for this is that the good stuff so often starts right after. If this is you, go ahead and scrap your introduction. If you have a reference or something in there that is needed later, find a way to work it into your new and improved intro.”

Likewise, conclusions should not be an afterthought but should tie together the essay’s main points, reflect on what has been learned, and leave the reader with something to ponder. By investing time in creating powerful introductions and conclusions, students can frame their essays to enhance their overall narrative, leaving a lasting impression on admissions officers.

Crafting a standout college admission essay can be challenging, but understanding common pitfalls and ways to avoid them makes the task more manageable. By focusing on unique subjects, genuine personal expression, solid evidence, and well-crafted introductions and conclusions, students can create compelling essays that resonate with admissions officers. With careful attention to these key areas, the daunting task of writing the perfect essay becomes an achievable goal, opening the doors to academic success.

Comments (0)

Welcome to A*Help comments!

We’re all about debate and discussion at A*Help.

We value the diverse opinions of users, so you may find points of view that you don’t agree with. And that’s cool. However, there are certain things we’re not OK with: attempts to manipulate our data in any way, for example, or the posting of discriminative, offensive, hateful, or disparaging material.

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

More from Academic Writing Tips

Five Pulitzer and Polk Awards Winners Admit to Using AI in Their Work

Hooked from the Start: The Most Creative, Weird, and Catchy Opening Lines in Student Essays

Remember Me

What is your profession ? Student Teacher Writer Other

Forgotten Password?

Username or Email

Helping Writers Become Authors

Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.

Start Here!
Story Structure Database
Outlining Your Novel
Story Structure
Character Arcs
Archetypal Characters
Scene Structure
Common Writing Mistakes
Storytelling According to Marvel
K.M. Weiland Site

7 Things to Try When Writing Is Hard

Often, the difficulty lies simply in the unwieldy story—and the need for an ever-evolving understanding and ability in order to manage it. According to my estimate, as much as 75% of what is referenced as “writer’s block” is really just “plot block.” Something in the storyform is out of balance and/or the story’s problem is temporarily outpacing the author’s skill level. With enough persistence, these plot blocks give way sooner than later—and usually with the reward of either a better story or, at least, a greater awareness in the writer.

But then there are the difficulties that fall under the heading of that other 25%. This is when the writing is hard in ways that aren’t so easy to bull our way through.

These are often deeper issues, arising from our life beyond the page. They might include illness (our own or someone else’s), exhaustion, stress, fear or other unresolved emotions, burnout, or any other number of things. Sometimes the cause seems to be something as simple (and vague) as a mood.

And it’s infuriating. Unlike with plot blocks, solving the problem isn’t always as simple as finding the right mental thread to pull. Sometimes, it’s a matter of putting things other than writing first for a while (and coming to peace with that). Other times, it’s a matter of using the writing difficulties to help us work through what’s really causing the block.

Writing Is Hard Right Now: My Story

Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration (Amazon affiliate link)

Until recently, I’d never experienced that second type of writer’s block. Plot block, sure. But I’ve spent my creative life building a skill set that helps me efficiently and effectively deal with that . (Indeed, it’s not really an exaggeration to say “avoiding plot block” is the entire reason I write this blog!)

But real live life-induced writer’s block? Not so much.

However, as I mentioned in the podcast intro a couple weeks ago, I now find myself somewhat bemused to be experiencing a definite (if not quite definitive) case of writer’s block. I am objectively aware it’s not the end of the world. There’s a part of me that is genuinely rolling my eyes at and passing the coffee to the other part of me that is getting really grumpy. And as I say, it’s not definitive ; I’m still writing; there are still words.

It’s just that the writing is hard right now. Harder than I ever remember it being. It’s hard in a different way.

Dreamlander (Amazon affiliate link)

Part of this surprises me, since I’ve been incredibly eager to start the outline for the third book in my Dreamlander trilogy. But on the other hand, it makes sense. I moved last year, so I’m in a new place, figuring out a new routine. There’s also some heavy family stuff that knocked me for a loop when it first arose a few weeks ago. Also thrown in there were several layers of personal growth that decided to peak all at the same time.

And… then there’s the story itself. This is my first attempt at a series, so even though this book will be my eleventh rodeo, it’s still brand new ground. This is the first time I’ve ever had to tie off a multi-book story arc in a single volume. I started Book 3’s outline with the realization that I’d generously bequeathed myself dozens of little plot blocks—ideas I’d set up in Book 2 with vague ideas of their payoff in Book 3, but not enough info (yet) about how to get there.

Anyway, altogether it’s made for a potent mix that is allowing me the opportunity to learn new things about myself as a writer and a person. Some of those lessons are the tactics that have inspired this post—tactics that have already helped me move forward positively both in working on my story and working past the difficulties.

7 Things You Can Try When Writing Is Hard

For me, realizing I am most definitely not the first author to experience the whole “writing is hard” thing has helped me draw on the compassionate (and incredibly tough ) wisdom of the many authors whose legacies permeate my life.

Today, I want to, in turn, reach out to those of you who may currently be finding that your writing is hard (whether normal hard or hard hard). Here are a few practicable steps I hope will give you comfort and/or help you start moving toward a solution for your own unique writing challenges.

1. Just Admit the Writing Is Hard

In my experience as a writing mentor, I find writers tend to have two different kinds of relationships with writer’s block. The first kind uses writing difficulties as a comfy excuse to embrace the drama:

“Woe is me! I simply can’t write! I have WRITER’S BLOCK!!!”

The second approach, however, denies there’s any problem at all:

“I can’t have writer’s block! I never get writer’s block!! I don’t believe in writer’s block!!!”

That was me for a while there. And then it was like:

“Wow, I have writer’s block…”

My first step was accepting that the difficulties I was facing on the page weren’t just plot blocks, but something bigger. That knowledge then provided me what is always the foundational key to problem-solving: correctly identifying the problem.

How did I know I was facing down something bigger than just your normal, ordinary, everyday, garden-variety plot block? Because the normal solutions to plot block (asking plot questions and looking for the right “thread” to pull) weren’t getting me anywhere. I was scribbling furiously; I just wasn’t advancing.

2. Identify the Cause

I suppose it’s possible serious writer’s block could be caused by a single issue (e.g., the death of a loved one). But for most of us, it’s a condition arising out of a unique cocktail of convergences. For me, the catalyst was a shaken-not-stirred mix of diverse ingredients that included everything from January ennui to unprecedented storytelling challenges to exhaustion/recovery from a big move last year to stressful current events—and more.

Most of these things, I had no control over and little to no recourse for “fixing.” Winter’s gonna end when winter’s gonna end. My emotional processing of life events is gonna take as long as it’s gonna take. Other people are gonna do what other people are gonna do.

After accepting that, I dialed in on the causes I could do something about. First, I figured out what I believed were my main problems:

a) Having a hard time sticking with a daily writing routine.

b) Struggling with ideas that just weren’t flowing.

From there, I started implementing strategies to see if I could unblock the dam.

3. Take Care of Yourself Before You Take Care of Your Writing

A truth that has become increasingly clear to me is that art and life are synergistic. If I’m not taking care of myself on basic personal levels—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually— then my creative pursuits will necessarily suffer . In the artistic life, discipline extends far beyond the desk.

Since I knew many of the reasons for my writer’s block had nothing to do with the actual writing, my initial strategies also had little to do with writing. For starters, I completely restructured my daily schedule in recognition of the fact that I’m slowest in the mornings, with my motivation consistently climbing throughout the day.

Another thing I did was set my phone to “Do Not Disturb.” This allowed me to check it in between projects, rather than taking the risk that my focus and energy would be disrupted in the middle of flow.

4. Trust the Process

So there I was, sitting with pen in hand, scribbling along, face scrunched in determination—and it’s just not working . No matter what question I asked myself, I couldn’t find the right answer. No matter what idea I tried to chase, it never seemed to be the one that set my imagination on fire.

While this was happening, the one thought that kept me grounded was: Trust the process .

I would take a deep breath and return to the basics that, by now, are second nature . On my iPad, I would open up Helping Writers Become Authors and review my own posts—every one of them inspired by some challenge I had faced on a previous story. I would remember the specific steps I needed to take:

Ask “ what if ” questions.
Identify your characters’ thematic Truths .
Find the antagonist’s motive and goal .
Look for the structural plot points .

None of these things “cured” my writer’s block. But like familiar road signs popping into view on a snowy night, they kept me grounded, reminding me I knew where I was going because I’d been here before.

The process never fails me. If I stick with it, it will see me through.

5. Go Back to Basics: Daydreaming and Dreamzoning

Outlining Your Novel (Amazon affiliate link)

Even though my writing process is built around intensive causal outlining , I don’t “make up stories.” I will sit down and brainstorm things that need to happen to move a story from Point A to Point B, but I never “create” the A and the B. They come me— spontaneous gifts from my subconscious imagination .

And that, I realized, was one of the reasons I just couldn’t move forward with this outline. I didn’t have enough “As” and “Bs” yet. I knew the bare bones of what needed to happen. But I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t feel it.

From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler (affiliate link)

So I went back to basics. For me, the hotline to my imagination is what I call “ dreamzoning ” (a term I got from Robert Olen Butler’s excellent From Where You Dream ). Basically, this is just intensified daydreaming. I’ll put on an appropriate playlist in the background, use something mindless but moving as a visual focal point (firelight is perfect, though a lava lamp isn’t bad either), and then just sit back and watch the show. I realized the other night that, really, it’s an almost meditative exercise. I’m trying to zone out of my surroundings and go deep into my head, dreaming vivid visual dreams fraught with emotional consequence.

All I get are snippets, flashes, photographs, and sometimes slow-mo movies. But these are the seedlings of my stories. If I gather enough, the story will write itself. Buh-bye, writer’s block. And in the meantime, spending my writing sessions chilling with a candle and some tunes is both productive and seriously low-stress.

6. Find the Right (Guilt-Free) Routine

Ironically, writer’s block often seems to come with a fair-sized dose of guilt. We can’t write, and yet we self-flagellate because we should be writing.

Depending on the root cause making our writing so hard for the moment, the best choice might be giving ourselves permission to not write for a while (as I am—more or less—by allowing myself to focus solely on “dreamzoning” for a while). Other times, just tweaking a writing routine or schedule can do wonders.

Once I realized that outside drama and other factors were wreaking havoc with my ability to stay focused during a morning or afternoon writing session, I switched things around. I moved my writing session to the evening, when my energy is always most reliable. This gave me the ability to once again consistently show up for writing time—which removed the useless poison of guilt from my already complicated cocktail of problematic catalysts.

7. Inhale Information and Inspiration

Often, writer’s block is simply the result of an empty well. As I discovered in #5, above, if I have no inspiration, how can I honestly expect myself to have anything to write about?

This goes for more than just imaginative bursts. It also goes for information—of all sorts. Any story is ultimately a reconstruction of things the writer has either experienced or learned. If you find yourself with nothing to write about, it could be as simple as that: you have nothing to write about.

Start filling your well. If you haven’t been reading faithfully, start a daily routine. If you’ve been reading the same type of thing for years, try something new. Get out. Do new things. Watch new movies. Listen to new songs. Go to a museum. Fill your inner eye with wonders.

And read about writing. My success last year with a host of amazing writing-related books has prompted me to make sure I read something powerful and inspiring about writing, or art in general, every single day.

Writing is hard for everyone. Some days are harder for some of us than for others. But the wheel keeps on rolling, and we all get our turn sooner than later. I feel certain that when it is time for me to return to the page, after a couple weeks of dreamzoning, I will find most of my challenges fulfilled. If not, I know further solutions will await me as long as I seek them with patience and discipline. In the meantime, I offer my encouragement to those of you who might be experiencing a similar trial, and I am thankful we get to walk together on this road—in all its many terrains and weathers!

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What’s the first thing you do when your writing is hard? Tell me in the comments!

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in iTunes ).

Sign Up Today

K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

Thank you for this. Lately, events outside my control have made it really hard to have any kind of consistent writing time or energy. (My mom’s been sick. It’s not fatal since we caught it in time, but hanging out in doctor’s waiting rooms is mentally and emotionally exhausting.) Sometimes just giving yourself permission to be struggling is a big thing. And reminding yourself that the outside events really are not going to last forever.

Very sorry to hear about your mom. That kind of thing comes first. Although writing can often be cathartic in painful situations, it can also be an energy drain when other things should be priority.

I really should keep reading. It might help me with my story.

Totally. Information is a writer’s greatest currency.

When the heck will you open a Patreon account?

It’s down there on my to-do list. 😉

Again, so timely! I’ve been thinking how awesome it is when a big life change happens…but you have advance warning. I have one rolling down the pike right now. I’m retiring from full-time go-to-work work on 3/29/19. Just around the corner it is. And I’m thinking, now I’ll have exactly 24 hours to play with for my optimal writing routine, instead of having to parcel some of those hours to a time clock. And I’ve been thinking, ahead, of the pitfalls of retirement that I’ve heard about from those who’ve gone before. One of the monsters is: shedding a routine because I can. I’ve been counseled to structure my day instead of just letting it “happen”, otherwise nothing important or vital will happen.

But, Kate, can I just live that way for a week-please, please, please? I’ve been punching a clock for 51 years now, and now I’d like to punch it just once, literally.! Bwahaha!

I think you deserve at least *two* weeks off. 😉

Terrific information, Katie! I am in the same space too. I think it’s partly due to the angst in the world that I am sensitive to. I recently wrote a post on “A Time to Write and a Time to Not Write” that says much of the same. We need to honor those seasons when the writing isn’t there. Thank you!

Another tactic I’ve been practicing long-term, for several years now, is tuning out the media. If something doesn’t add value to my life (or allow me to add quantitative value in return) and is, instead, feeding off my energy, I don’t want it in my day. I haven’t regretted it once. The news that filters around the edges is often more pertinent, clearer, and more thought-provoking.

>due to the angst in the world that I am sensitive to.

Same here. I can’t resist reading the news, even though I try. Apparently, I can’t go more than a day without clicking on a newsreader app. I tried to deal with this through my writing (Democracy’s Thief), but it didn’t work.

Find a replacement for the addiction. IMDb is my nicotine replacement. 😉 I still get to browse a news feed a couple times (and one that actually does still feed me most of the big stories) but without as much of a negative barrage.

This article was very timely for me. Over the last year, a cascade of hard changes, both good and horribly bad, have left me staring at my laptop unable to feel my story. Words come by force, and some of them are very good, but I feel detached from the process.

Like you, this is not my first round (I’m drafting my 11th book as well), but never in my more than 2 decades of writing has it ever been THIS hard.

As you said, many of the problems influencing my writer’s block are out of my control, but you’ve encouraged me to identify the ones I can control and make those changes.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. But every day I ask myself, “A few years down the road, will I feel better having written this story–or having not written it?” That answer, at least, remains clear.

All of these points are spot on! Whether or not we readers were/are already aware of them, these make a good reminder for us to stop and take a deep breath, to gather ourselves for the coming fray.

When I’m stuck, I either begin random stream-of-conscious noodling – usually pencil to reams of scrap paper – asking every question about the issue that comes to mind, allowing absurdity without self-censorship. Sometimes the gem we seek is in the response to that crazy what-if.

Or I go work on something else entirely, maybe or maybe not related to writing.

Two years ago I was caught in that “beyond the author’s skill” morass, and after isolating what I needed to do (in which I recognized my inadequacies and the need to consult with others), I began reaching out to those with experience in my trouble areas. It took about a year to gather the information, let it sink into my heart and soul, and then use that infusion to inform the chapters I needed to write. Even with the advance work of interviews, analysis, and self-examination, that was the hardest writing I’ve ever done. But I had to do it. The integrity of the story would have been compromised without it. My characters’ respect for me would have been damaged without it. And the work, as hard as it was, strengthened my skills massively. I truly enjoyed the challenge.

The real bonus was after it was done, with publication a couple months away, when the story sent me a definitive message about my next writing project. A work of non-fiction, that will be the hardest writing I’ve ever done. Now I realize that my previous challenge was an apprenticeship, or boot camp, for the next book.

I love connections like that!

This whole comment is great, but especially this:

“When I’m stuck, I either begin random stream-of-conscious noodling – usually pencil to reams of scrap paper – asking every question about the issue that comes to mind, allowing absurdity without self-censorship. Sometimes the gem we seek is in the response to that crazy what-if.”

This came in the nick of time XD Thanks!!

Yay for good timing! 🙂

As someone with ADHD, writers block is a tremendous pain. BUT… I draw, keep notes going on ideas, and just read for inspiration when it clobbers me

I’m always happy when life gives me any excuse to read and call it work. :p

KM, I believe your article speaks to every writer. When writing is especially hard for me, I literally write down everything that’s bugging me and sort out what I can impact and what I can’t. Then I try to take by the horns the things I can control. It helps to see that many of my annoyances are actually under my power to impact. Thanks!

Yes, love this! Brain dumping on the page is great way to get a more objective perspective within the messiness of whatever is going on.

All of the above comments ring true.

Sometimes I try a different approach. Good writing comes from the right side of the brain where my inner child lives. My blocks occur when the left brain is just overwhelmed with life’s demands. My child is ignored and can’t get any attention. When I switched careers and became a patent attorney I had no right brain time left at the end of the day. That lasted 12 years!

These days I let the negative take over. I tell myself, fine, you’re done, burned out and it’s time to quit. Get a job at Home Depot and sweep floors. (I treat some of my characters this way). Of course, my inner child who loves to tell stories doesn’t like the adult actually agreeing that he has nothing to say and should quit. So the rebellion in my head starts with an agreement that I won’t write very often and, of course, that the book I’m working on will never be finished. Sooner or later, the inner child misses writing so much that the time increases, the energy returns and the right brain takes over once again. Doesn’t always work but sometimes it’s just about letting your various personas clear the air.

Hah. Love this. Reverse psychology on yourself. 🙂

I go back and tweak earlier chapters of my draft in easy ways, like searching for vague verbs like “went” and replacing them with more vivid ones, or adding sensory details. That’s a gentle way of reawakening my interest in the story and characters or “getting my head back into it.”

Glad you brought this up. I’ve been doing this as well, with the book I just finished. It’s cathartic and helps with impostor syndrome (usually 😉 ).

Thank you very much for this – a great help on many different levels.

What I do is write free flow for twenty minutes or so. I scribble about anything and everything – whatever is in my overloaded yet tired brain. No editing – just rambling forth. No one will ever see it so there is no pressure – just a warm up for the muscles and the mind. Then comes the important part of the exercise – into the kitchen for a rewarding cup of tea. Cheers.

Yes, I’m remiss not to mention my muse: Coffee. :p

Yeah. I used to get terrible problems with January. I’ve helped it a lot by taking a holiday at that time of year in the sun. Sometimes I’ve even gone away for the whole winter, which can be amazingly cheap if you go to out of season resorts. For example I went to Malta for 3 months and paid as little as £4 a night. Mediterranean or desert places are a good choice, the weather is cool but there is still sunshine. It helps with mood and energy. The other thing is to take vitamin D in the winter. I don’t use a SAD lamp, but I’ve heard they can help. Before, I used to get murderous rages in the winter and I never felt properly awake. Exercise, particularly dancing, is good to boost the serotonin levels. Plot blocks can eat away at your motivation to write, but the worst things are what I call existential blocks where nothing in life seems to have any meaning, and writing seems futile. Remind yourself what makes writing sexy to you- the slant, strange, absurd or beautiful things that compelled you to write in the first place. Then aim to mine that spooky hair-raising feeling. I think that Julia Cameron has the right idea when she tells you to go on an Artist’s Date every week (for me that is once a fortnight) to fill the well. The other thing I do is to write something more indulgent like some poetry and leave the heavy novel project alone for an afternoon. Going to a Writers’ Group and showing off a bit can help to light a fire under you again. Perform something great you wrote in the past and let people fawn over you : )

Now that it’s finally gotten a little warmer, I’ve been walking every afternoon. That helps a lot.

I got a better understanding of my humanity through reading Eric Barker’s posts. He suggests if you’re blocked give yourself one tiny task. Go to your writing area and put one thing that’s out of place away. Or create the word processor document and enter the title. One thing leads to another. Thirty minutes later you’re still fixing “just one more thing…”

I like that!

Thank you KM, this was very helpful. I struggle with depression, so most of the time it’s really hard for me to write (or doing anything, for that matter), but the feeling of accomplishment I get when I CAN do it, even if just a little, is worth fighting for.

Totally agree with this. Focusing on the feeling we get after we do something, rather than when we’re doing it can be tremendously helpful.

Another eye-opening post. I realized that it’s not enough for me to admit that it’s not working or I’m just not up to it today (at which point I go out for a walk or something, which has its own rewards). But identifying the reason, even if it’s nothing to do with the work, is key to moving forward. When I’m stuck on the writing, I usually write out the supposed problem in my notebook, I just let the ink fly, no worries about spelling or grammar. At the very least, it gets the problem out of my head. I also love point 7. It reminds me of a Hemingway quote; “You have to stand up and live before you can sit down and write.” Thanks for sharing this!

Love that Hemingway quote!

1: To get started, write one true sentence.

Hemingway had a simple trick for overcoming writer’s block. In a memorable passage in A Moveable Feast, he writes:

“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.”

http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/seven_tips_from_ernest_hemingway_on_how_to_write_fiction.html

I’ve always liked that anecdote.

Hemingway’s stuff is enigmatic. It’s like he has to play a game with you before he lets you in on his secrets. And then sometimes, he just plays games (Hills Like White Elephants). When he talks about squeezing the orange peel and squirting the little droplets of oil into the fire or just looking out over the rooftops, I believe he was encouraging himself to have faith *in himself*. “Take your mind off things. The words will come. They always have. They always will. You can’t rush them.” All we can do is fix our thoughts on the one fact we know is true and not speculate on things we know nothing about.

In the “Old Man and the Sea,” he starts out with the old man going 84 days without catching a fish. Yet, Santiago doesn’t whine or worry. He doesn’t control when the fish will bite. I think that was another one of Hemingway’s ways of saying, “Don’t worry. Be Happy.” The one true fact in that scene is that you can’t control when the fish will bite. But you sure won’t catch anything by worrying.

Just my $0.02.

You know, Old Man and the Sea is actually a perfect analogy for writer’s block.

For me, “writer’s block” vanished two years ago. I’d read James Scott Bell’s “Voice” and found a huge gold nugget: the 300-word sentence. Here it is. 1) Get a yellow legal pad and a good black-ink pen. 2) Isolate yourself. Be in quiet, staring, still mode for 10 minutes. 3) Speculate on two or three scenes that might work. Pick one. 4) Write a 300-word sentence, using only commas, ABOUT that scene.

(For example, “this scene is about Julia, and she just saw her ex in the grocery store, behind the cabbages, and she hunkers down but, damn it, Jake saw her and he is smiling so she just leaves the basket on the floor and makes it to the exit, but instead of going to her car she tucks into the drug store and heads down the shampoo aisle, accidentally bumping into two elderly women, and takes refuge next to the reading glasses display, wondering why the hell she is avoiding him in the first place, why couldn’t she face him because it had been over a year now, and just when she felt calm and collected there he was, looking for her, and when she turned to leave she knocked the entire display case over, spilling glasses everywhere and in her panic to pick them up Jake shows up, just stands there with that smart*ss grin and she could have smacked him hard for it but, no, that would reek of unfinished business, and all she could do was accept his help and apologize to the employee who had already up righted the display case, and she knew that after they picked up all the readers she’d gather her wits and tongue and do the infuriating mature thing and act surprised to see him, this non-committal, video-gaming hot mess that moved to Chicago, leaving her behind.”)

Works every single time.

This is a great exercise for blocks in the drafting stage. My outlining process isn’t so much about getting words on paper as it is working through causal relations for scenes. Essentially, however, what I’m doing in the “dreamzoning” phase is a stream-of-conscious equivalent for a different part of the process.

Yes, the different kinds of writing . . . for me it’s the Post-it outlining stage, the 300-word sentence stage, the getting it on the laptop stage, then tweaking the chronology and lastly, the revision stage. Don’t know why we call it writing. It should just be called ‘re-writing.’

Yes, even for someone like me who prefers to do most of the heavy lifting upfront in an outline, rather than in revisions (when all goes well), the process is still a long procession of tweaking and refining.

“In the artistic life, discipline extends far beyond the desk.” I shall write this above my desk as it is exactly what I needed to hear right now. Working it out may take some time but that doesn’t negate the truth behind it. Thanks for that, Katie.

I’ve been mulling on this concept quite a lot lately. I will be doing posts on in it in the future. Basically, I find myself more and more interested in something I’m currently calling “whole-life art.”

I sometimes deal with this, especially in the summer. I need to be outside in the sun, in the wind, listen to the ocean breaking a block away from me. Being stuck inside is the worst! So I bought a table for the deck, and some chairs. I sit in the sun and write whatever I feel at the moment. It’s nothing that will be published, that’s not the point, it’s just for me. It doesn’t feel like spinning my wheels, and sometimes, something good comes out and moves one of my plots forward. I always have more than one book on the go, because I run myself into plot problems and need to let them stew until they figure themselves out. Mostly, I take time for me, with a long walk through the waves, or sitting and reading a book or a series I love. I get a good tan (and the much-needed Vitamin D I’m chronically short on), and I get some space for whatever I’m needing. We have 9 months of rain here on the Oregon Coast, so those three or four months of sun are precious and much needed. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this, but you’re doing it right. Hang in there.

Generally, winter is the more difficult writing season for me. But summer certainly presents its own challenges. Somehow I’m always surprised by how much busier I tend to be in the warmer months.

Personally, I write best when it’s cold and dreary, when I’m stuck inside comforted by the wood stove. I think of everyone reading good books in wintertime – it allows me to envision my reader, to capture her attention. I can edit well in the sublime days of summer, but right now is my planting season and I damn the crocus. (Go Ducks! My alma mater.)

I do like writing by candlelight!

I always find it funny how similar the minds of creative people work. Going through a similar valley myself for a while now, I appreciate someone else speaking the same truths, and especially, coming to similar solutions! Everything in this post hits with me, but especially #5. I don’t know when I realized this as a creative writer, but whenever I did (a few years back), it opened a whole new understanding as how to nurture my subconscious. And the thing is, I felt like I’ve barely scratched the surface. Ugh, I wish I had a fire place ;-p. But yeah, you’re so right. And if I can encourage you any more, just remember that each season or chapter of your life gives you (creative) tools that you don’t even know were instructive. Whatever happens in your personal difficulties, it *will* influence your art for better. I have no doubt about it.

Fire places (and pits) are awesome. But just get a big candle. I found a big three-wick soy candle at TJ Maxx. It does the trick admirably–and with far less mess.

That’s a good idea. We have some candles, guess I should confiscate them under the guise of “writing necessities.”

Just keep them away from the dog. 😉

When getting to the page is the problem, I try to forgive myself. There are so many reasons why writing seems to take last place in life some days. But often I WANT to get to the page, even when life is throwing me curveballs.

When I don’t want to write because I’m fretting over a plot problem, I force myself to sit down. One technique I use to get past the block is to bring another character into the scene I don’t know how to write, typically a know-it-all who tells the other characters what to do. It might be good advice or it might be bad, but whichever it is, the new character acts as a catalyst. Whether the advice is good or bad, the protagonist then responds — he or she may do what the catalyst says to do, or may not, but SOMETHING will happen.

Once something has happened, and the scene is written, then I can edit it. It’s the blank page that’s most frightening.

Similarly, I used to have a list of prompts on the bulletin board by my desk. One was: “Have somebody shoot a gun at somebody else.” I never literally used it, but just glancing at it always got my creative mind going.

WOW! I am impressed. I’m a new subscriber and so this is the first time I’ve been here. The way you have designed this website is great. A moment after I clicked on the email you sent, I was here reading your fact filled blog, with no beating around the bush like some places do. The amount of useful information you have packed into this one article is amazing. I know I’ll have to go back and read it again several times just to absorb everything.

I’m not an author like you in the true sense of the word because I’ve never published anything yet, though I do enjoy playing with words. About four years ago, I completed a short, creative writing course sponsored by the University of Iowa. From three of the assignments, I’ve slowly, yes sadly to say, very gradually, been developing a story. Lately I’ve found that I can’t seem to get back to it, though after having written about 30,000 words, I’d like to see it finished. My tired fingers have punched out about the same number on another tale that’s unrelated to the first one. It too has come to a screeching halt. In my defense, I will admit that for awhile my work occupied every waking moment. I’m hoping some of the ideas presented here will get me going again. If nothing else, you have given me lots to think about.

I wanted to stop in to say ‘HI’ and to let you know I think you are doing a marvelous job here. THANK YOU for sharing some of your experiences with us. It is helpful to learn about how other people that have ‘been there and done that’ have worked their way through similar problems. Your fan club just grew by one because I know, I will be back.

I’m glad you stopped by. Great to hear you found the article useful!

And let me just say that, if you write, you’re a writer. Being published may offer official validation, but we’re all writers long before that happens. 🙂

Hear, hear! Indeed quite so!

When I get to that place that the flow for that day is not starting. I start writing a part that might or might not fall in place in this book. I have to pretend that it will be a part of one of the next scenes. Mostly it will fit in…but it gives me a next point to go to or to go from.

Thinking outside the box is huge in breaking through blocks. Usually, I find it’s not so much about a solution as it is simply rephrasing the problem. One of my favorite approaches is to work backwards. I’ll jump forward to a scene I know about, then start working my way backwards toward another known point, until I’ve filled in the blanks.

I have sometimes found that delays (like writer’s block) are a signal to me that I’m not ready yet for what I am attempting to accomplish. As difficult as it is for me to do it, I step away for a season (of varying lengths) and just wait. Often I will sense a small nudge when it’s time to return to the task. And when I do, usually I discover what was evading me before is now waiting patiently for me to come back and get reacquainted. I once heard Neil Gaiman say that it was ten years from the time he had the idea for The Graveyard Book until he was ready to write it. That is very encouraging to me!

Truth. And I’m considering this for myself at the moment. As much as I love order (and schedules), art and creativity don’t always play by the rules.

For the last few months, I’ve been struggling to find out how to get one sentence on the page, without deleting two. After sitting down to write every single day and only and only ending up with a page of decent writing, I knew that something wasn’t working. I needed to learn how to write fast, and be satisfied with terrible writing the first time around, just to get something on the page. This was the hardest thing I have ever tried to do, but it works, and if I can accomplish this, it will be the greatest writing victory I will ever score.

Hear, hear. Writing fast is one of the best ways to beat perfectionism in the drafting phase. Sometimes, when I’m really struggling with this, I will force myself to write 300 every 15 minutes. This always gets my fingers typing and the words flowing.

I wish I could join you in commiserating about the hard-hard moments, but I never showed up for them. Instead, I just put the stories on the side.

Do any of you face things that need to be done and you realize that you’ve refused to do what needed to be done because your real goals weren’t the service of the story. Like last week, I knew that I needed to put more focus on the danger posed by the antagonist. In order to do that, I had to have these thoughts elbow out the MC’s rhapsodizing crushy feelings for an ally. I wept at the prospect. I was able to do it, this time–I don’t yet know how successfully.

It is like, these people are a lot more to me than figures in a story. So I wonder if it will even be possible for me to persevere until the story happens.

Sounds like you’re faced with “killing some darlings.” This is always hard, but if it’s in the story’s best interest, it can open up a lot of avenues that were previously blocked.

Yes, there are days when writing is harder than usual. Conversely, there are days when it flows easily. Thanks for the roadmap for the tough writing days.

Truth! Nothing beats those days when we’re in the zone.

Thanks for this excellent list of strategies.

I have found some clues to help me overcome one of my current writer blocks: I haven’t been able to write my daily prayer blog for a while, and I am also having trouble keeping to the schedule for my writer blog. I will be praying about how to use your list to get me moving again )i(

So while I have been pushing aside the guilt associated with not fulfilling my promise to myself, I have picked up a pen and started taking notes on real paper. A while ago, I swapped the real ink and paper method for the faster typing of my ideas directly onto the computer page (which also allows me to hit delete because I don’t like what I discover). I chose a journal that was a gift, so ripping out a page is impossible, and each time I start writing a sentence, I feel a sense of privilege because I know that the book was given because the giver knew I want to be an author.

I have also subscribed to lots of reader-writer pages and newsletters, so that I don’t feel so isolated. Nothing beats filling my journal with notes and comments about how other writers deal with the BIG issues.

The one area where my writer’s block isn’t having a catastrophic outcome (ie blank page) is the Romantic Suspense series of novels I am writing. I am privileged to have three manuscripts, in different stages of pre-publication. When I get stalled with manuscript four, I can do some more work for the others. I set up a closed discussion group on facebook with friends who have already demonstrated that they are sensitive to my emotional state and make the appropriate comments that push me back into a more positive frame of mind. To let them know what is going on, I keep them updated with the project, and any other big issues relating to this writing journey. So far, their feedback has been helpful in moving me forward.

From the sounds of that last paragraph, I’d say you’re still being awfully productive for someone experiencing a block. Good for you! 🙂

“1. Just Admit the Writing Is Hard”

This actually works, holy cow! I just said those words to myself and all the tension in my mind just went away.

Hah! That’s awesome. 😀

Thank you for this post! I am actually struggling with an idea I like very much but don’t know how to make compelling enough! And with the tendency I have to over-complicate mi plot *sighs*

If you’re trying to make the story more compelling, take a good hard look at what it is *you* love most about this story. Try to add more of that.

I find that, sometimes, if I just start writing stream of consciousness, writing without thinking about it, whatever pops into my head, at some point in time it will dislodge the boulder that’s in the way and I can go back to thoughtful writing on the story I’m working on. I learned how to do this by reading Jack Kerouac and other “beat generation” writers, plus William Faulkner. I am told this is how these people wrote everything. Stream of consciousness, no revision, just wrap it up and send it to the publisher. I’m not recommending that, but the practice does often work to get the muse unstuck. Then I take the drivel and send it to electron heaven. Certainlywouldn’t want to foist it on anyone else.

Stream of conscious techniques are excellent ways of tapping the subconscious creativity. This is basically what I’m talking about (sans the actual writing of sentences) when I’m “dreamzoning.”

Wonderful and timely article. LOVED it. I read through my outline and take notes. Right now I am struggling with the sequence for ACT2b. I know what should be there, I know what my ending is. I am struggling with what organically should be in this sequence without cliche stuff. I also write the Cliche stuff and then Mind map how to make it non-cliche. And then there are times where I call it out and say I am resisting writing. Once I say that, then I become determined to overcome the resistance. A great book on that is The War On Art by Steven Pressfield. Once I recognize the resistance, I pull out my outline notes and just read and before I know it I am working on my story again and breaking through the Plot Block and the resistance.

One thing I like to do in situations like this is ask myself two questions: What will the readers expect to happen here? And-What won’t they expect?

I’ll write lists of answers for both questions and usually somewhere in there I’ll find a unique solution.

I have hit this several times since taking up writing more seriously a few years ago. Like you said, sometimes it’s just “plot block”. but for me, many times it’s actually something else that is sucking me dry (parenting, homeschooling, commitments to friends or other groups), leaving me feeling like I have nothing left to create with. I’ve tried a lot of things, but consistently I find that planning ahead in everyday life (meal planning, making a double batch of food, ordering things from amazon rather than running to the store) and taking the time to do the little things I enjoy (getting a nice smelling bar of soap, starting a fire, or enjoying a new kind of tea) help me to feel a little more relaxed and ready to try. maybe the words will be few, maybe they will be awful. but overall I will feel better when I start trying and will feel better when I end because I tried.

“I will feel better when I start trying and will feel better when I end because I tried.”

Love this. Sometimes even just making the time to write a sentence makes the day better. And one sentence often leads to two…

Another great article, KM!

I just got out of a long writer’s “funk” a couple days back, but I know these tips will prove useful in the future when I get stuck again.

This time, for me, it was mostly about distractions – shiny object syndrome, which feeds my self-proclaimed “useful procrastination.” It’s so easy to give in to chasing after a tool or skill that at the time seems to offer exactly what I think I need to move on, scale up, or just plain improve momentously. There’s always something, and they almost never deliver the injection of super-mojo I was hoping for. In some ways this is the curse of the internet – TMGP (too many green pastures).

At any rate, I got some life-changing news recently and it made me reevaluate all this arm-flapping activity. I realize now that, while some of that stuff is important to follow up on (there is good stuff to be learned), it is not as important as doing the hardest and most rewarding work I’ve ever known: writing.

Here’s hoping you come out of your current “funk” with colors flying and your hair on fire! KC

Glad to hear you made it to the other side!

This post came at just the right time for me! My main character is in prison and some fellow prisoners are working with him to escape. He then chooses not to escape but the escaped prisoners see him as a friend and ally. I have been stuck on this for days! I have bought your book on writer’s block (a very fair price). And being rewarded with a solution following your ‘what if’ scenario which came to me as I was writing this. It’s blindingly obvious really. He does escape but then he is caught and put back into prison. Yes! Yes! Thank you

That’s great! The “what if” exercises is one of my all-time favorites.

Hi. I was interested with the fact that your problems are arising from the fact that your current WIP is the last in a series. This is exactly tha situation that I am in. The first two books are ready to self publish but I don’t want to do that until I’ve got a fair idea of how Book 3 will pan out. There’s plenty of foreshadowing in the first two books that I can use (or not), but they are all looking a tad contrived as I’ve been thinking about them for so long. And then there’s the self-inflicted time pressure to finish it that I’ve put on myself!

Yes, as I’m discovering, writing sequels is a whole new ballgame. Usually, when I finish a book, I’m able to put it and its problems aside for a while as I move on to outlining the next one. But not so with this one! The problems came right along with me. 😉

This podcast confirmed what I’ve been going through with writer’s block. Life hits and we need to be settled again. Thank you for your insights.

Sorry to hear that. Here’s to all of us moving forward!

My problem is usually motivation. I’ll get as far as sitting in front of the keyboard and will start typing. But then whatever I type seems wrong and I can’t figure out what it is. I end up walking away from the keyboard.

The solution I use when facing this problem is writing in timed bursts. I tell myself I have to write 300 words in 15 minutes. Once I get going, I’m almost always surprised that what writing isn’t that bad after all.

Where does self-doubt fall under types of writer’s block? Does it have the same cures, or different? To me it feels like a different beast, but maybe not!

Yeah, self-doubt is a huge factor in blocks. I go through (at least) one bout of impostor’s syndrome with every book I write. That’s part of my “cocktail of convergences” right now, actually. :p The only solution I know of is to ignore the nay-saying inner voice and just keep moving forward.

I decided that since I was still waking up at the same time (cats 😂) but going in to work later, I should schedule that extra time for writing, or at least thinking about what I need to write. Haven’t got perfect with that – I’m very distractible. But it’s helped me realize that the problem I was having was that my story’s premise didn’t fit the main character. I’m rethinking the premise. Haven’t done any more actual writing yet, but starting to understand what I need to write once I’m ready.

Good for you. I’m all about hacking life.

Thank you so much for writing this! It has really shed some light on why writing has been so hard for me lately, and what I can do about it. You rock, K.M.!

That’s great. We’re all going to conquer this together. 🙂

I’m currently writing and finding that my words just don’t sound the way I want them to. I’ve set a small daily word count that so far I’m on track with but I think that I’m going to have to go back and rewrite it to the style and sound that I’d like. But as the saying goes, “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

Truer words never written. Perfectionism is often a chief cause of writer’s block.

Thanks for this post! I can relay on that 🙂

I find myself with the hard, hard writer’s block over a month now, and it still doesn’t works. I know, what I want to write. I think I know enough about the outline. I found a good beginning a few days ago, but the flow just don’t want to come. The thing is, sometimes I prefer dreamzoning instead of real writing, and the problem with that is, that you could get addicted to it. On the other hand, if you don’t write… then what sense does it have? My main characters are surprisingly cooperative. Too cooperative. This may sound strange to some people, but though it’s annoying if the characters don’t want to go along with my definer outline, I get easier into that writing flow when they aren’t.

I will try a new writing routine next week, that includes more less, but hopefully more focused and productive writing. I’m also up to resolve the biggest problem in my life outside writing, so I hope I can start writing regulary at the end of next month. Or earlier.

Again, thanks for the post, I think it helps me to be more efficient in trying to accomplish my goal and, therefore: Solving that damn writer’s block problem 😀

Creativity is messy, and that’s just part of the deal. But I’m a fan of efficiency. It never fails to help me. Best of luck!

Hey, KM, you mentioned in an article a few weeks that you researched keywords for Wayfarer. I’ve a reference to that elsewhere, but I don’t know where to look or research. Do you have any tips? Thanks

I used KDP Rocket . I’m planning to do a review and more in-depth post about it in a few months.

I come to writing novels after having first written screenplays, only to discover how much more difficult it is to write a novel than a screenplay. A screenplay is a kind of blueprint for a movie. The emphasis is on clear direction to the actors and director, and snappy dialogue. Flowery descriptions don’t work as screen direction, so the whole game is a concise capturing of dialogue and actions.

One technique in writing for the screen that may be helpful to novel writers derives from this more simplified structure. In “Television and Screen Writing From Concept to Contract” by Richard A. Blum, Mr. Blum suggests the idea of a step-outline, which is a very simple numerical listing of the events of the story, usually in chronological order, including snippets of dialogue. I bought this book when I experienced another form of writer’s block; I sat down to write a screenplay and realized I had no idea how to write a screenplay.

I have found writing these outlines are so free from critical concerns about structure that they devolve into a brainstorming effort where the creative side of the brain is completely free. I wrote these outlines longhand with a glass of wine while at some relatively quiet tavern, or while on vacation on a boat somewhere. I am the type that is typically alone in crowd, which is a little better for me than being alone in my room.

I found at times I would have to rearrange events and make other revisions when writing the script, but this technique definitely helped sketch out the overall flow of the story. Moving to a novel from the script involved a lot of decisions about POV and such that I never considered, and the excruciatingly painful search for different and interesting ways to say things like “walked” and “looked”. In screen direction, actors typically walk and look, rather than “saunter” or “peruse.” Novel descriptions may actually confuse actors, especially those with lighter hair. Oh, snap! I didn’t just say that!

Once I had the step outline worked out, the script was just “scribbling and bibbling,” as Mozart said in Amadeus. Getting a novel is trickier from the step outline, but you will have the ammunition for completing a more formal outline, and the confidence that you have the backbone of the story worked out.

Anyway, if anyone gets stuck, this simple technique might help. If you are stuck trying to figure out how to tie details together, it might help to step back and focus on the simple steps that make a story, then work the details in later. Don’t worry so much about what the story “needs” and focus on sketching how the dominoes fail, and let them fall where they may. You can always pick them up and rearrange them later.

Bit of a late commenter, but just wanted to say I really appreciated this post. Ever since self-publishing my first novel back in December of 2016 (which is also when I found out I was expecting my first child), I’ve been battling the “hard-hard” blocks almost consistently. I had to come to peace with the fact that my life was changing in a seriously HUGE way, and that I needed to give myself time and space to process and do what was best for myself first.

I still haven’t found my writing flow…and here I am, now with 2 kids and a third on the way. I’m not sure I will ever write as much as I used to, but there is a flame of passion in me that refuses to go out. So I will keep journaling (as that’s about the only writing I’m consistently able to do) and let my story ideas keep percolating.

There are moments here and there where I have a few ideas ready to put on paper for safe keeping, and I relish those moments. But to your point of taking care of yourself FIRST, that is truly essential to the process. I just have to trust that I WILL write again, and not guilt myself for putting myself and my growing family as top priority, for however long it needs to be that way.

I’m a writer who deals with recurring depression and I often forget how important and legitimate self-care is. Some days are just not going to be writing days. Some days, I need to re-charge my brain with yoga or a long walk or even a nostalgic marathon of a favorite kids’ TV show. I’m often surprised by the ideas I get while doing seemingly unproductive tasks.

My case of plotter’s block right now consists of me being unsure of which story I should ACTUALLY be working on right now. I’ve been dabbling on The Woodsman lately, and have multiple scenes written out. I even have some of the ending written!

But then I was thinking of Arrows today…and argh, I just have a hard time focusing in general!

Of course, I could try to get up early before work to write…but I’m sort of a night owl, so I never end up in bed on time to do that.

Something I should work on the next few months…

I’ve taken the plunge to choose an editor for my manuscript. I found it always hard to take time out to rest and recuperate but I did. I gave myself permission. We’d had a horrific time of a family member’s illness over Christmas so it was encouraging to know that I could take the pressure off. I didn’t write for weeks knowing that the assessment was coming and I’d be rested. Gave myself guilt-free time off to do other things and as you said, fill up the well. Movies, books, people, keep my fitness up. Now I’m reading the report, fresher and looking forward to tackling the issues. It’s not going to be easy as I have to move plot points and do a lot of fixing work. Thank you for your input. It’s very helpful.

[…] 25, 2019 by K.M. WEILAND | @KMWEILAND 102 COMMENTSWRITER’S […]

[…] 7 Things to Try When Writing Is Hard […]

Write Your Best Book

Check out my latest novel!

( affiliate link )

Free E-Book

5 Secrets of Story Structure by K.M. Weiland

Subscribe to Blog Updates

Subscribe to blog posts rss, sign up for k.m. weiland’s e-letter and get a free e-book, love helping writers become authors.

Return to top of page

How It Works
All Projects
All Services
Write my essay
Buy essay online
Custom coursework
Creative writing
Custom admission essay
College essay writers
IB extended essays
Buy speech online
Pay for essays
College papers
Do my homework
Write my paper
Custom dissertation
Buy research paper
Buy dissertation
Write my dissertation
Essay for cheap
Essays for sale
Non-plagiarized essays
Buy coursework
Term paper help
Buy assignment
Custom thesis
Custom research paper
College paper
Coursework writing
Edit my essay
Nurse essays
Business essays
Custom term paper
Buy college essays
Buy book report
Cheap custom essay
Argumentative essay
Assignment writing
Custom book report
Custom case study
Doctorate essay
Finance essay
Scholarship essays
Essay topics
Research paper topics
Essay samples
Top Query Link

What To Do It You’re Really Struggling to Write an Essay

“I am worried that I can’t write essays and get top grades.” This is a common worry that many students in colleges and universities have when faced with academic assignments. Because essays are very common when assessing students, having challenges to prepare them could result in failing grades or being required to repeat a course. You do not want any of these consequences because of simply struggling with writing essays. Do you?

The good news is that if you are really struggling to write an essay, we have a solution. This post is a comprehensive guide on why it is so hard for students to craft good essays. Also, we will tell you what to do if you are having a hard time writing an essay.

Why is Writing So Hard for Students?

For most people, going to college or university is one of the critical steps toward achieving the success they want in their careers. When in college, the bulk of the time is used in academic work, such as writing assignments. However, most students find it challenging to prepare the assignments, and we are going to tell you why:

Problems Picking the Right Topic for Essay The first step in writing a good university academic essay is getting the right topic, but this is never easy. Most students end up getting stuck even before starting the work. If you make a mistake of selecting any topic, there is a risk of starting an essay that will bore you midway or without enough resources. Poor Writing Skills “I can’t write an essay because of poor writing skills.” This is one of the common reasons that students give when seeking expert help. We agree with the students that acquiring good writing skills is a process that takes time. For example, you need to learn how to use different writing and formatting guides, from APA to MLA. Another important aspect of writing skills is researching and extracting the correct information about your topic. Take the example of a history essay on World War II. In such a paper, you should be able to research and get the key arguments, such as the causes, effects, and the world’s preparedness to prevent a similar war in the future. Good writing skills also mean you are able to organize your ideas well to strike a seamless flow from the introduction to the conclusion. For some students, these skills take a lot of time to develop, and it is advisable to seek help from professional writers for quality papers that cannot wait. Tight Deadlines Are you a new student in the university and wondering, “Why is writing so hard for students?” One of the main reasons is tight deadlines. This happens in two ways. Although rare, your lecturer might issue an order with a very tight deadline, which is hard for students to beat. The second method, which is pretty common, is students forgetting the assignments and only remembering them when the deadline is only a few days or hours away. For example, you might have so many assignments or parties to attend that some of the essays are forgotten. Then, you remember them when the task is one day, 9-hour, 12-hour, or 3-hour to the deadline. The Topic is Tough, and You Do Not Know What to Do “I can’t write essays because they are really tough for me” is another common reason given by students who are not prepared well for their studies. If you have so many activities and limited time is available for your studies, there is a serious risk of finding the topics of your essays really challenging. In some cases, teachers might ask students to write assignments on topics ahead of what they have covered to encourage them to read ahead. So, if you have not read ahead, facing such questions might be really tough. The best way out is to seek assistance from a professional. Lack of Correct Writing Resources Is access to the resources for preparing your essay challenging? If “yes,” you are likely to find it challenging to write quality essays. For example, most colleges require students to use the latest resources, no older than 5-10 years. If getting these resources is a challenge, preparing a quality essay can turn out to be an uphill task for you. A lot of Competing Tasks Why are essays so hard to write? The truth about essay writing is not that they are so hard to prepare, but students may have many competing tasks that make it tough to do the tasks professionally. For example, do you have multiple assignments to do at any one moment? In some cases, students taking part-time jobs might use the bulk of their time at work, leaving very little for their assignments. Other activities that can take a lot of your time include games, parties, or medical issues. Fear of Getting a Failing Grade Sometimes the difficulty of writing an essay arises not from lack of confidence. For example, if you performed poorly in the previous essays and there is a risk of getting a failing grade, preparing other essays might appear impossible. This fear can be so much that even getting started with an essay is almost impossible.

Put An End To Struggling With Writing Essays

“Why do students struggle with writing in college?” Now that we have answered the question, let us now turn to the main steps needed to craft your essays like a pro for top grades.

Step One: Determine the Type of an Essay It Is

When your lecturer gives an assignment prompt, he is likely to point out the type of an essay it is. For example, is it an argumentative, cause & consequence, or definition essay? If the teacher does not define the type of essay, you need to determine its type.

Step Two: Pick the Right Topic and Research It

Once you know the type of essay under consideration, the next step is selecting the preferred topic and researching it comprehensively. Make sure to go for the topic that is interesting and that has ample resources for research.

When researching the topic, you should pick the main arguments that will be discussed in the paper. Also, gather the main points that you will discuss under every argument. Where you need to use quotes, numbers, and figures, make sure to capture the respective page numbers.

Step Three: Develop a Good Essay Structure

What is the best essay format for top grades? This step is very crucial because the essay structure tells you where to discuss what points. The commonest structure for writing essays is introduction, body, and conclusion. If the essay is a short one, a five-paragraph model should suffice, where the first paragraph is the introduction, three paragraphs for the body, and finally the conclusion.

In addition to these pages, you might need to add a title page, which captures your details, department, registration number, and lecturer’s name. An additional page for the references might be required after the conclusion. This last page highlights all the resources that you used to prepare the essay.

For those preparing lengthy and complex essays, separate pages might be required for appendices, a list of figures and tables, and acknowledgment. It is important to liaise with your lecturer to determine if these additional pages are needed. In standard pages, the only additional pages needed are for the title and references.

Step Four: Introduce Your Topic

Now that you have the essay structure, the next step is writing the essay, and the starting point is the introduction. Because it is the first part of the essay that the reader encounters, it is crucial to ensure it is professionally written and make the reader want to continue reading the rest of the paper.

Open the essay with an appropriate hook statement to grab the attention of the reader and then provide some background of the issue discussed in the body. Another crucial component that you should bring out in the introduction is the thesis statement, which is your stand about the issue you are tackling in the essay.

Step Five: Write the Body and Conclusion of the Essay

The points that you found when researching the topic should go into building the body of the essay. When preparing the body, it is crucial to ensure that each point takes its own paragraph. Besides, every paragraph should start with the topic sentence while the subsequent sentences provide supporting information.

To make the essay enjoyable to read, make sure the points are flowing well from the start to the end. For example, a student writing an essay about global warming might want to start by looking at the definition of global warming and then delve into at the causes. Finally, outline the effects. If the essay is lengthy, consider breaking the body down into parts with subheadings.

Step Six: Write the Conclusion

This is the last part of your essay and should be done as professionally as possible. Start the conclusion by restating the thesis statement and then summarizing the entire essay. Note that you are not supposed to introduce new points in the conclusion. However, you can place a call to action, such as citing gaps that might need additional research.

How to Write an Essay and Score High: Special Tips

Why is it so hard to write an essay? As we have demonstrated, many reasons can make a student find it challenging to prepare assignments, but with the above, all should be well. Now, we will tell you some tips used by expert writers to prepare A-rated essays.

Write Your Introduction as the Last Item.

Although the introduction comes as the first item when a reader is going through your essay, it is a good idea to consider writing it as the last item. This is because you will have researched the topic extensively and captured the main points in the essay. At this point, preparing the introduction will be very easy.

Start by Preparing a Draft Before Writing the Final Essay

Starting your essay by preparing a draft allows you to progressively improve the work along the way. By the time you submit the final copy for grading, it will be a lot different from the first draft, increasing the chances of getting a better grade.

Proofread Your Work Well.

Even if you prepare a great essay, but it contains errors, it is likely to give the lecturer impression of a student who is not serious with his/her work. Therefore, go through your work several times to identify and correct errors before submitting it for marking. You might even ask a close friend to help with proofreading.

Read Essay Samples By Experts to Overcome the Difficulty of Preparing Quality Work.

Get Essay Writing Help if Still Unsure of What to Do

If you are really struggling to write an essay, this guide has demonstrated the main causes of the problem how to crafting top-quality work. So, are you ready? If you are still finding it challenging, do not give up because you can use professional online writing assistance to prepare top-rated essays.

Our online expert writers have a lot of experience in preparing academic assignments and will stop at nothing in ensuring you get A-rated work. For them, there is no essay that is too difficult to write. So, reach us today and we will be ready to help and guarantee you the best grade. Why get stressed about your essay or fail when a pro ready to help is only a clock away?

Why is Academic Writing so Confusing?

It’s a story many students will find familiar. You sit in the library, doing your assigned readings, and notice yourself stumbling over the same few sentences. You re-read them but you’re still perplexed; the author uses advanced terms without explaining what they mean, and structures his sentences in the least straightforward way imaginable. You read them again. Once you finally feel that you understand the message, you’re crushed by the discovery that the next paragraph is even more confusing than the last.

If this sounds like you, don’t worry — you are not the problem. If the purpose of academic writing is to clearly communicate one’s ideas and research to the reader, then writing that is difficult to understand is bad writing. Period.

Many academic papers skip the process of defining basic terms and concepts; perhaps the authors assume that their work will only be read by other scholars in their field. But on the other end of the academic spectrum are “popular” works, which try to make some area of study understandable (and interesting) to the public. The movie “Hidden Figures,” for example, is a work of popular history, because it tells the story of the African American women who helped America’s space program in an engaging and easy-to-grasp way.

If the goal of our university system is to foster a well-educated public, not just to create a class of intellectual elites, then scholars who produce academic papers should be grateful to their peers who create “popular” works of academia. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. In many areas of scholarship, it’s commonplace to find a divide between “academics” and “popularizers,” where the former is often dismissive or condemnatory of the latter. For example, I was recently warned that a particular source in the history of science had received criticism for being “too much of a popular history.”

This makes no sense. If we take a random popular history book off the shelf, then there are many valid critiques that could potentially apply to it. Maybe the book oversimplifies the facts, or it creates a false narrative in order to make history seem more interesting. However, it would be invalid to say the book is bad merely for being a work of “popular history.”

We should praise authors who want to make history, science, and philosophy accessible to the public. We can suggest that they refine their methods, but we should be supportive of their goal. Instead, many academics seem to dismiss the popularization of their fields as a useless, risky pursuit.

I think there are two potential reasons for this. The first is academic elitism. If you’re one of the world’s only scholars on the Flemish goose, then you’d naturally feel some pride in possessing a set of knowledge that very few people have. So, you might disapprove of a popular science book on the Flemish goose, as this would spread that knowledge to many people who weren’t originally part of your small club of academic goose-lovers.

But, let’s be generous and assume that elitism isn’t the main cause for the academic-popularizer divide. Then, the only remaining reason for a scholar to oppose popular works is if they sincerely believe that academic fields can only be popularized through the use of major rhetorical or analytical flaws.

To some academics, the idea of making a subject “understandable” is synonymous with making it deceptively oversimplified. I wholeheartedly disagree. Converting an academic subject into something that the public can understand is not easy, but it’s certainly possible. Communicating complex truths without being misleading requires skill and subtlety; rather than create some easy answer, you’ll need to be honest with your listener about the things that confuse even the foremost intellectuals in your field. Some academics might think that this is too much for the public to handle, but I believe that the average person is a lot smarter than scholars give them credit for.

Above all, scholars need to understand that humans have the natural tendency to view simpler arguments as more convincing. In 2015, U.S. Senator Jim M. Inhofe (R-OK) brought a snowball into Congress, essentially suggesting that global warming was a hoax because it was cold outside. This ( familiar ) argument is extremely simple, which, for many people, makes it especially convincing. Those of us who wish to defend climate science are left with two options: Counter a simple lie with a 97-page research paper full of terms like the “albedo effect,” or counter a simple lie with an easy-to-understand version of the truth.

To me, the choice is clear. In order to get people to listen, we need scholars who are skilled at translating complex ideas into accessible language. Harvard students are especially fortunate, as the quality of our education is unparalleled. For this reason, we should try to share what we learn with as many people as possible, whether we do it through making videos, articles, or even intelligent Twitter threads. Once we free ourselves from the notion that academic knowledge can only be communicated through esoteric research papers, then we realize that every day offers us the opportunity to help educate (and learn from) those around us.

Daniel L. Leonard ’21, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a joint History of Science and Philosophy concentrator in Winthrop House.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Why is academic writing so hard… and how can Writefull help

Writing a scientific paper is undoubtedly challenging. in this blog post, we highlight the most common problems people face, and how writefull can help overcome them..

1. A style of its own

Academic writing has a style of its own , different from spoken language and also from other types of written language like emails, blogs, newspapers and fiction. It has a formal register, meaning conversational language should be avoided . It is neutral and objective, meaning adjectives or adverbs implying judgment (e.g. 'great', 'terrible') have no place. Finally, it often includes technical words and phrases, or technical meanings assigned to generic words. How Writefull helps: AI-trained models make the language feedback tailored to scientific writing . Informal words and casual turns of phrase are replaced by formal or neutral alternatives. Our contextual spell checker corrects misspellings of highly scientific terminology. Beyond the proofreading, our five writing widgets offer language that is academic-like.

2. Following conventions

If you’ve read lots of published articles, you will have noticed patterns in the way authors phrase certain things. This is because papers are structured in similar ways : featuring an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusion. What each of these sections achieves is also similar across different papers: introducing the aim of your study, highlighting gaps in current knowledge, reporting significant results, etc. Those structuring and wording conventions need to be followed to make your text easy to parse and understand.

How Writefull helps: Take your pick from Sentence Palette , a collection of +600 ready-made sentences covering everything from your abstract to your conclusion. Find generic phrasings that work across all disciplines, which you can copy-paste directly into your text with no risk of plagiarism. 3. Structure and signposting

A journal article is a substantial piece of work of a few thousand words. A Master’s dissertation or a PhD thesis are considerably longer. To make them easy to parse, efficient signposting is essential. It can take various forms, from headings to transitions between sections, to summarizing at the end of a section before moving to the next, etc. Ideally, your scientific paper should read like a story where each part derives from the previous. But the hard work of crafting good sentences can make you forget the importance of the overall narrative.

How Writefull helps: The Sentence Palette will help you find phrases to summarize your results (e.g. ‘Taken together, these results suggest that…’), which can be used before concluding your paper. It also has a list of connectors, or words used at the beginning of a sentence to connect it to the previous (e.g. ‘as a result’, ‘however’, ‘furthermore’, etc).

4. Conciseness

Yes, a manuscript can be 8,000 words long. But that doesn’t mean conciseness isn’t needed. In fact, many researchers find it hard to cram an entire research study into the word limit allowed by their journal of choice. So more often than not, you will need to cut down words before submitting. You will need to decide what to leave out and what to shorten. This is a hard, unavoidable part of writing which will actually benefit your paper, as shorter sentences are often clearer. How Writefull helps: Our Full Edit mode provides feedback on conciseness. It will correct wordy phrases and redundancies and replace them with shorter alternatives (e.g. 'due to the fact that' > 'because'; 'comparatively larger than' > 'larger than'; 'draw a conclusion' > 'conclude').

5. Synthesizing information

Some sections of an academic text are easier to write than others. The hardest tend to be those placed at both ends of the paper ( introduction and conclusion ). Those are meant to set the scene and wrap the whole, respectively, and are crucial in shaping readers’ impressions on your work. In addition, a good abstract can be very hard to write. It should synthesize your entire paper in just a few hundred words in a compelling way. Not to mention your title, which should do so in 15 words or so.

How Writefull helps: Our Abstract Generator uses AI to auto-generate abstracts based on an entire text. Use it as a starting point and refine it from there; you’ll be surprised how far it gets you. If you’re stuck for a title, use our Title Generator to auto-generate one from your abstract.

6. Avoiding plagiarism

With the best intentions, accidental plagiarism can still occur in a paper. If you accidentally forget to acknowledge the source of an idea, or use someone’s words too closely, you are plagiarizing. These things are very easy to do, if you are caught in a writing flow or failed to keep track of where your information came from. And if you don’t even know what actually constitutes plagiarism, it’s all the hardest to avoid it. But the consequences are severe.

How Writefull helps: Our tool Writefull Cite (for institutions only) screens papers for citation completeness. It highlights sentences that may be missing a citation, thus reducing the odds of accidental plagiarism. Our Paraphraser helps authors rephrase sentences, so that they don’t use the same wording as other authors.

Academic writing has many more challenges, some of them common to all types of writing. And Writefull helps with those too. Writefull’s Proofreading mode of language feedback fixes grammatical errors. Language Search shows you words and synonyms that work for the context of your sentence. Watch out for more widgets to come!

Campus Leaders is an affiliate for companies including Amazon Associates and earns a commission on qualifying purchases.

11 Reasons Why College Essays Are So Hard

If you’ve ever applied for college admission, then you know that the essay can be a very tough aspect of the application, and after you get into college. The techniques associated with college essays are often learned by experience, not by time in the classroom, and this can often pose a few problems. But why are they so hard?

Here are 11 reasons why college essays are so hard:

Writing essays create anxiety.
College essays differ greatly from high school papers.
College essays have strict guidelines.
Competition between students can lead to stress.
Freedom and unstructured time lead to procrastination.
Essay-writing is often not taught in high school.
Critical thinking can be difficult.
There is more than one way to write.
College essays require expert levels of grammar.
A blank page can be intimidating.
Writing an essay often feels like a big commitment.

In the rest of this article, I’ll go through all the reasons why college essays are so tricky and why these problems are often so challenging to overcome. Everyone’s experiences are different, but problems with writing tend to be universal.

1. Writing Essays Create Anxiety

So many people suffer from some form of anxiety, which can hit college students especially hard. It can come in so many different formats and can be produced as a response to specific triggers.

Writing an essay is sometimes one of the biggest triggers.

Anxiety related to essay-writing hits everyone at one point or another, often regardless of perceived writing skills. It is the biggest mental health barrier to college students, with around 41.6% of college students suffering from it at some stage in their academic careers ( source ).

There are so many times when essay-writing seems almost impossible, especially when negative thoughts are coming at the forefront of that.

Worrying about your writing skills, being paranoid about criticism from other students and professors, and waiting until the last minute to finish up those last few paragraphs can all lead to anxiety.

Negative criticism can be an essay-killer, and lacking the confidence to write an essay to the highest standard is one of the biggest problems facing college students.

Unfortunately, learning to deal with these thoughts is the only way to overcome them.

2. College Essays Differ Greatly From High School Papers

Once you’re thrown into your first year of college, you might be surprised at the standards set for college essays.

Academia in the world of higher education is much more subject to scrutiny, and all of a sudden, you’re writing papers that are 5-10 pages in length, rather than smaller 2-page essays you’re used to writing in high school.

College essays differ significantly from high school papers mainly because of the length.

A typical high school essay is 300 – 1000 words, but an undergraduate essay at college is around 1500 – 5000 words in length. This is a huge difference and can take a while to get used to.

Additionally, a graduate essay is even more significant in word length, averaging between 2500 – 6000 words. With each level of education, the word length increases, and so do the standards set for the essays ( source ).

Getting used to this extra word count, and dealing with it without any sympathy from strict professors, can take a while. Many students struggle with college essays because the word counts are so extensive.

3. College Essays Have Strict Guidelines.

Thinking back to your high school years, the guidelines were probably quite flexible. You probably only had to fill up one page worth of material, and there weren’t too many rules relating to content and sources.

Guidelines for writing college essays are strict because the type of writing required is much more extensive. Specific formats must be adhered to, and only certain sources are allowed. In addition, proper citation and referencing procedures are often very rigid.

Using specific sources can be difficult since the allowed sources are often graduate-level academic papers that can sometimes be difficult to understand. Coming from a place where your usual reference standard was Wikipedia, researching and analyzing these materials can be challenging for a college student.

Additionally, these guidelines can make writing an essay feel unnatural. You’re writing a paper that an invisible entity will read, and it’s inevitably a one-sided discussion that leaves you sometimes not knowing where or how to begin ( source ).

4. Competition Between Students Can Lead to Stress

Writing a top-shelf essay can be hard in itself, but competition often makes that more stressful. If you have a class that’s open about grades and feedback, you might feel embarrassed if you didn’t quite hit the mark the first time, which can lead to clashes between students.

Competition between students can lead to stress, leading to college essays being more complex. Having the confidence to sit down and write to the best of your ability can get difficult if you feel like the other students are doing better or struggling less than you.

Stiffer competition can lead to more significant struggles, especially if students struggle with confidence. Confidence is vital for academic writing and acknowledging this is the only way to move forward with your academic career.

Statistics have suggested that up to 64% of college students lack the confidence to use statistics in college essays, which is a necessary skill in a higher education environment.

Confidence is one of the biggest setbacks in writing essays, so without it, you might struggle.

5. Freedom and Unstructured Time Lead To Procrastination

For a new college student, the concept of freedom is fantastic.

Finally being able to make your own decisions, create your own schedule, sleep when you want, and generally have more control over your lifestyle is an incredible feeling.

However, freedom and unstructured time can lead to problems when writing college essays. If you have too much freedom, the idea of being tied to your desk for many hours isn’t exactly appealing.

Being forced to write an essay that you may not be interested in impedes your personal freedom. Finally having a small taste of freedom won’t make you want to write a college essay, especially if the article has a complicated topic or you have no particular interest in the subject.

Additionally, having unstructured time and vague goals can inevitably lead to a greater level of procrastination. Unfortunately, procrastination is a vicious cycle, and cleaning, sleeping, or going out to avoid writing that essay will make it seem an even more uphill task than it was before.

6. Essay-Writing Is Often Not Taught In High School

Most people have never really been taught how to write an essay. While the essential skill of putting coherent thoughts down on paper is something we learn passively over time, it isn’t generally a class subject.

The fact that essay writing isn’t a taught skill is one of the reasons that college essays are so tricky to write. Unless you have taken extra study skills courses at high school, structuring a paper is based on your own intuition rather than something actively learned over time.

Unfortunately, nobody ever tells you exactly how to write an essay.

Understanding how to write takes many years of trial and error, and many people say that writing isn’t something you can be taught. It’s something that you learn passively.

Knowing how to gather relevant academic sources and organize them appropriately is also a skill nobody is ever actively taught. You learn over time what works best for you, rather than being told what to do, which is one of the reasons why college essays are so difficult ( source ).

7. Critical Thinking Can Be Difficult

Critical thinking, just like essay writing as a whole, is a learned skill. Using your cognitive abilities to analyze a piece of academic material requires a whole lot more than common sense, and it’s much harder for some than it is for others.

This can be difficult, especially in college, because higher standards of analytical evaluation are required to get higher marks. Regurgitating what you’ve read onto paper in your own words is more complicated than just writing what others have written.

Using your intellect to create an efficient piece of writing is hard, especially when considering how many academic sources you are using.

Knowing how to critically analyze something and putting that down on paper in your own words can pose its own challenge, especially if you aren’t great at written communication ( source ).

8. There Is More Than One Way To Write

As the old adage goes, there isn’t just one way to put pen to paper.

If you’re writing something requiring some level of academic analysis, knowing exactly how to write what you want to say can make writing a challenging task for college essay writing.

There’s more than one way to write, which can be a considerable problem for college-level students. Since writing can’t necessarily be taught because everybody works in different ways, and there are many different writing styles to adhere to in college, writing essays is even more difficult.

Knowing how to use appropriate writing styles for different essays is a learned skill that’s not easy to learn. Breaking down what you want to say into digestible chunks can make it easier, but sometimes college students will find this difficult because of the amount of information they have to process.

Nobody is born with an innate skill for essay-writing, so comparing yourself with other students in this way is counterproductive. Understanding that there are many different ways to get your point across is a step in the right direction.

9. College Essays Require Expert Levels of Grammar

Grammar is a difficult thing to learn, especially in academic learning.

Using grammar efficiently can be a complicated task, especially when combined with complex sentence structures that need to be understood from various educational resources.

The fact that college essays require expert levels of grammar and lexicon is one of the reasons why college essays are so incredibly hard. Putting your thoughts into words on a page is one thing, but structuring it in a grammatically-sound fashion is more complicated than it might appear.

A solid foundation in complex sentence structures, basic style construction, and putting punctuation in all the correct places is something that many college students don’t yet fully understand when they first arrive at college.

Unless you’ve taken extensive grammar courses throughout your high school time, you’ll likely find this particular part of essay writing difficult. Only with time, trial and error, and experience will you find that it begins to come naturally.

10. A Blank Page Can Be Intimidating

Staring at a blank page before you start work on your college essay can be terrifying. That blank page can cause higher levels of procrastination, and you may find yourself a bit intimidated by the idea of even beginning your essay.

A blank page can be intimidating because it’s often difficult to know where to start.

Knowing what you want to put down on paper requires a certain level of prior planning and a complete understanding of the essay question. If you don’t have a solid plan, it might stop you from even beginning.

Knowing where to start can be an issue related to anxiety, or perhaps you just don’t understand the subject well enough to dive in straight away.

Looking at a blank page can often cause problems.

Additionally, if you’ve left your essay until the last minute and you have a deadline looming, this can also be a problem. That blank page looks even more terrifying because there are anxieties associated with meeting that deadline, which is one of the reasons college essays can be so hard ( source ).

See 17 Common College Essay Cliches To Avoid at All Costs

11. Writing an Essay Often Feels Like a Big Commitment

If you have a college essay with a big word count, this can lead to performance-related anxieties. Therefore, college essays sometimes feel like something you have to commit yourself to fully, and alongside the pressures of meeting a deadline, this can cause problems in itself.

Writing an essay often feels like a big commitment because it’s precisely that: a big commitment. If your essay is over 3,000 words, it can take a lot of time to complete. This is time that you’d rather be spending on social activities with your friends or even catching up on sleep .

College papers are a bit like writing for an audience, which can be a scary feat.

Committing to writing something that may or may not get good marks might feel a bit intimidating, and it might be one of the biggest reasons you don’t want to start writing in the first place.

Good communication, proper sentencing, appropriate referencing and citation, and getting your point across in an academic fashion can all make the essay seem like too big of a commitment ( source ).

Why is writing sometimes so hard, and other times so easy?

Writing can be a joy or a chore. I thought of this as I saw this tweet from Raul Pacheco-Vega:

“I’ve noticed something really funny: I struggle with putting words into paper, up until I reach a point where BOOM, the words just start pouring from my finger tips. Does this happen to you too?”

Every writer has experienced this. It may be mysterious to you, but it makes sense to me.

There are two main reasons why writing doesn’t flow: content deficiencies and environmental challenges. And then there’s a third reason, which is more fundamental.

You can’t write if you don’t know what you want to say

Imagine that I gave you the task of writing an article on artificial intelligence and how important it will be for the future. (Unless you’re an AI expert, in which case, for this thought experiment, imagine that you have to write an article about competitive women’s tennis.)

OK. Sit down at a keyboard. Start writing. Right now, come on, you can do it.

What? You’re drawing a blank? Of course you are. Because you don’t know what you want to say yet.

You can’t write without an idea. Your idea might be “There are too many technical challenges for AI to succeed yet.” Or it might be “AI needs training data, and that data is just becoming available.” Or it might be “AI will be the death of the world as we know it.”

But you can’t even decide on that idea until you do some research. Talk to some people. Read some papers and articles. Develop an idea, not just of what you want to say, but of all the steps in your argument.

You may think you have writer’s block , but you don’t. Your problem is ignorance.

Of course, you may have researched the heck out of this topic and still be unable to write. You need a lede . You need a hook for the piece. You need a theme. You need a throughline — a track for the article to follow. If you don’t have these things yet, perhaps you should talk to a developmental editor about your idea and work them out.

if you’re not ready to write the article, write a fat outline instead. A fat outline is just a dump of the concepts and ingredients of your article, without worrying about formats or writing style. It’s easy and low-stress, since you’re just moving bits and pieces around. If you have content, writing a fat outline should be easy.

Then, once the fat outline is written and you know where you’re going, you can start writing the actual piece.

Still stuck? Perhaps your problems are environmental, rather than content-related.

You can’t write if you’re not in the right frame of mind

If you have a roadmap and you still can’t write, your problem may be in your head. If you feel like a worthless loser and every time you start typing you erase what you wrote and kick yourself, this may be the problem.

To enter a “ flow ” state, where, as Raul describes, the words just start pouring out, here are some things to do.

Find a spot where you feel comfortable and won’t be interrupted.
Set aside at least a couple of hours to write.
Eliminate distractions like Facebook and your buzzing phone.
Ensure that you have the right blood-sugar level. It’s best to write when you’re not hungry, but not right after a big meal. Plan your food intake so your brain has sufficient energy. (I’m not a coffee drinker, but if you are, you probably also have to get the right level of caffeination, so you’re neither sleepy nor bouncing off the walls.)

Now, write.

If the words still don’t flow. Don’t worry about it. Just write crap.

Yeah. Don’t worry about about quality. Just get words down on the page. If you do this, you’ll get going, and it will get better as you go along.

Or, you may end up with a shitty first draft . That’s way better than nothing.

And when you go to rewrite it, having chewed through all the content once, you’ll find it far easier to get into a flow state for the rewrite.

Of course, it’s always possible that you just suck as a writer. But probably not. If, like Raul, you have experienced a flow state in writing before, you will be able to attain it again. If you have written good things, you can write more.

Just make sure you have assembled your content, your idea is strong, and your brain and body are ready.

One more thing.

Writers write.

I write every day. When do you write?

You can’t get good at golf without playing a lot. You can’t get good at the violin without practice. What makes you think you can sit down and write great stuff without practicing?

Words go together better in some ways than others. You, in particular, will find that you are better at some ways of writing than others. The only way to find that out is to do it.

If you don’t write much and your words don’t just flow when you do, your problem may not be talent. It may be commitment.

Blog. Write on 750 words . Keep a journal. But whatever you do, find times to write. Do it on a schedule. It will pay off in the long run.

PDF Download

Enter your name & email to download this pdf.
Name First Last

Submitting this form will also add you to the WOBS mailing list.

Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Why is it so hard to write an essay?

Table of Contents

Writing requires focus

Ideas don’t come quickly, many students don’t outline, writing requires practice, writing requires diligence, writing requires courage, lack of confidence and fear of failure, related posts:.

Stri Purush Tulana by Tarabai Shinde Analysis
Random Phrase Generator [English]
Howl Poem By Allen Ginsberg Summary, Notes and Line by Line Explanation in English
What is an Adjective | Examples | Types | Degrees of Comparison
Why Falling in Love with a Writer is the Most Beautiful Thing
Business Phrases in English for Meetings, Emails and Conversations [List of 372]

Academic writing service that has your back

EssayPro will help you with any task, always.

Our professional team knows what you need and how to help you achieve greatness. Trust your assignments to us today.

Trusted by 1,5M+ happy customers

Meet our team of professionals

Academic writers with years of experience are here to make your life easier and your school performance better.

A time-tested academic writing service

We know what you need and are here for you. Let us make you feel safe.

Your instructions are our law

Individual approach to every order is an EssayPro guarantee. You can trust us with the most ambiguous instructions, and we will still deliver a perfect paper.

Thousands of experts

Our team of writers will help you with any task. Each one has at least three years of practice in academic writing and real-world experience in their field.

Originality is a non-negotiable

Delivering unique papers is a must for us. Every paper goes through a Turnitin-based plagiarism checker. Claim your free originality report to confirm.

Privacy & confidentiality

You don’t have to give us any personal information except your email. Stay completely anonymous if you wish. No private data is shared with third parties.

Three easy steps to claim your perfect paper

Step 1: sign up.

Step 2: Pick your expert

Writers will start bidding on your order. Choose the right expert by comparing their qualifications

Step 3: Get your paper

After receiving an email notification, read your paper and confirm receipt. Ask for revision if necessary

Read customers’ testimonials to see why they choose us

There are many academic writing services to choose from. Here’s why people choose ours:

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to use academic writing services, do your academic writers provide original work, what exactly can you help me with, is there a way to talk to my writer, why is academic writing so hard.

Academic writing is the main way of assessing students’ comprehension, critical thinking and analysis skills. This is why it is not supposed to be easy. However, in the current landscape, it is arguably a lot harder than it used to be just ten years ago. Students truly have a lot on their plates, and getting a trusted service for academic writing help is a necessity rather than a luxury. But still, finding a reputable academic writing company that would not scam you out of your money and private data can be a struggle. We recommend always reading through the terms and conditions before giving an online service your money. Sure, reading through dozens of pages of legalese is not fun, but it’s a sure way to safeguard your funds and, most importantly, your privacy. An easier way to determine the trustworthiness of a company is by looking at the payment methods they offer. Always look for a padlock character at the beginning of the address bar in your browser, as this tells you the website is safe. The payment methods also have to be recognizable and trustworthy. If all those conditions are met, you know that the research papers writing help service is safe and can be trusted. But if it raises any suspicions, run away immediately!

Reasons to choose us for your writing needs

There are plenty of academic writing services to choose from these days, and feeling confused when you have to settle for one is natural. The reality is you don't have to settle for one! You can test different services, compare their professional academic writers, support teams and other aspects and then return to the one you liked best. The thing is, though, we are pretty sure EssayPro will be the one you settle for, regardless of how many different services you try out. We have some of the most affordable prices, a huge pool of writers who all have been excessively tested and trained, round-the-clock support, and many features that other services charge for are free at EssayPro. We are always willing to listen to feedback and learn from it. This is why even if you had a disappointing experience with us, we will give you free, unlimited revisions or even a refund. Our policy has you, our client, in the center. Your satisfaction, privacy, safety and happiness are important to us, and it's in our best interest to do everything possible to support these claims. So, hurry up, place your first order today, and claim your discounts!

Newsletters
Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

I Thought I Was Too Young to Get Shingles. I Learned the Hard Way.

If you’re over 50, get the vaccine..

A little more than two weeks ago, I took a red-eye home with my then-11-year-old daughter from a perfect winter break trip to Disneyland. It was more fun than I could have imagined, even with the eternal lines, ride breakdowns, and lack of vegetables. We rode every roller coaster in the day and the dark, ate uncountable clouds of cotton candy, and generally marveled at how clean everything was. (We live in Brooklyn, after all.)

But on the flight back from California, I could feel that something was weird with my leg. I didn’t think too much about it—I was on an airplane! But by the time we walked into our apartment around 7 a.m., I knew that something was wrong. The whole inside of my right thigh was sore. There wasn’t a lump, but thanks to having, well, ample thighs that love to connect with each other, I was very uncomfortable, and concerned.

On Monday morning, I woke up with a new symptom: an intermittent, painful, pins-and-needles sensation spreading down the front of my right thigh. I also had a little red blotch of skin, but as I said, my thighs rub together, so maybe it was nothing? I had previously booked a yoga class for that morning and showed up to it (on Zoom), despite my discomfort. My teacher suggested I talk to a doctor right away in case it was a blood clot. That hadn’t even occurred to me. I booked a virtual urgent care appointment with the doctors at NYU—the advances in apps, scheduling, and access have made moments like this so much easier—and spoke to someone later that morning. She doubted a clot but suspected I had pinched a nerve while walking so much at Disneyland.

Tuesday, everything was worse. More pain, and in my hip too. It was hard to walk. I made an appointment to see my primary care doctor the next morning. To get to sleep, I took half an old Percocet left over from a friend’s C-section.

But the next day at the doctor, I downplayed everything. “I feel a lot better today!” I told her. I thought it was true, but maybe I was wishing? It was my daughter’s birthday. I had to be fine, right? My doctor agreed with the one from the virtual appointment: some kind of nerve aggravation. She suggested ibuprofen.

By Thursday morning, I had a rash all over my right leg, above the knee. I had therapy (also on Zoom) at 8:30, and I told my therapist what was going on. Nicole winced. “It sounds like shingles,” she said.

Anyone who had chickenpox as a child can get shingles as an adult; the virus lives in us forever. That’s why it’s so beautiful that kids can get chickenpox vaccines now—that means they won’t get shingles later in life. I had a very mild case of chickenpox as a kid—like, maybe three or four spots. But that doesn’t lessen the chance of getting shingles. Most believe that stress is a contributor . Although I had a beautiful time at Disneyland, the travails of raising a middle schooler have definitely had an impact on my stress level (and surely so has the overall state of the world). And while shingles is more of a concern for adults over 50, it has, in recent decades, risen among younger people , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, something doctors have noticed too .

Still, when Nicole suggested shingles, I barely heard her. Shingles is for old people and super painful , I thought. I’m only 48. Plus, my leg was sensitive to the touch, but the splotches weren’t killing me or anything. I took a picture of the new rash on my leg and sent it to my doctor. The response was almost immediate. “Call the office,” the voicemail said.

That afternoon, I had my third appointment of the week, a virtual one with an RN who works with my primary care doctor. We were on for barely 30 seconds before it was confirmed: “I am not seeing you in person, but … I think you have shingles. Did you have pain on the inside of your thigh?” She listed all my symptoms. She prescribed antiviral medication and told me to start it right away.

I regretted that it had taken four days to sort out what was wrong with me—and have continued to regret that. But I hoped maybe I’d headed off the worst at the pass. I hadn’t.

It turns out shingles is super painful—and way worse than I had imagined. I’d thought it was, like, a big, red, unsightly, blistery rash that was painful. No. It’s “this is a virus attacking your nerves” painful.

Also, I thought everyone said it was so painful in part because old people got it, and old people are weaker than younger people. As my symptoms worsened, I wondered how people with real nerve problems manage to get through their days. It hurt to wear pants. It hurt to stand up. Sometimes, I wished I had gotten shingles on my face, or my head, instead of my leg; maybe that would be, ironically, less intrusive. I did not want to leave the house, and mostly didn’t. I burst into tears, frequently, because there was nothing else to do. Occasionally, I could create some distance from the pain by immersing myself in Survivor , but alas, that was only temporary.

I am writing as if this is the past tense, but it is very much my present. This morning, two weeks into having shingles, I scheduled another virtual urgent care visit. The lovely doctor on the other end told me he would prescribe me gabapentin, which sounds like a wonder drug the more I learn about it. It will help the pain, especially as I increase my dose. Its main side effects are to help with sleep (yes, please!) and ease anxiety (also yes, please).

Disappointingly, my prescription came with a reality check that this shingles pain will last weeks—or months. (Cue more tears.) I was hoping to use this spring to get in shape, get sunshine, get … happy. All that’s on hold until I can ease the pain and not be a self-pitying basket case.

Earlier in my shingles journey, I posted on Instagram, begging my friends over 50—who can easily qualify for the shingles vaccine—to go get the shot. And so I am asking you to do the same, even though I don’t know you. If you aren’t 50 but have a vulnerable immune system or are under lots of stress, it might be worth talking to your primary care provider about your options. I thought I was extremely unlikely to get shingles. But now I’ve heard about friends in their 20s and 30s getting it. We are all vulnerable! But maybe I can help you be less so by sharing.

IMAGES

What makes writing an essay difficult- Why is essay writing so hard
Why Is Writing So Hard? Here are Three of the Real Reasons. #how to
Why Is Writing So Hard? 7 Common Obstacles (and What to Do About Them
Why is Writing a B-School Essay So Hard?
Why Essay Writing Is So Hard And What You Can Do About It?
11 Reasons Why Essay Writing Is Important In One’s Professional Life

VIDEO

Essay writing I Top essay writing online
WRITING AN ESSAY
Of course i did it for my novel. But why is it so hard to write? 😂 #writersoftiktok #funny
Write an Essay Properly ! #essay #speaking #writing #eassywriting
Essay Writing
Fundamentals of Academic Writing: Calm Focus

COMMENTS

Why Is Writing So Hard? 7 Common Obstacles (and What to Do About Them)
1. You're anxious or insecure about your writing. Writing requires courage in the obvious ways, like being brave enough to share your work with the world, send it to publishers and reviewers, or read it aloud. But even putting your thoughts and ideas on paper can be an act of bravery.
What makes writing hard?
I think that one reason many people find writing so hard is that they miss step 1. entirely. They're trying to do "presentation-style" writing, when really what they need to be doing is "stream-of-consciousness-style" writing. It's really hard to focus on both the content of what you're expressing, and how that content is ...
Why Students Struggle With Essay Writing
Poor Mechanical & Content Skills. In the same article, Debbie argued that students with poor processing and poor content and mechanical skills often struggle with essay writing. The most notable processing skills that many students would often lack include fluent development of ideas, language formulation and ideation, and active working memory.
9 Writers on Why Writing Is So Hard
Why is writing so hard? Megan Abbott (author of The Turnout) @meganeabbott. The solitariness of it, the elusiveness of it. If forced, we could generate words, sentences, paragraphs, but it would be meaningless. So, the thing that makes it a story, the words that etch out a character that the reader can see and feel and hear … there's plenty ...
Is Writing Hard: The Top Reasons Why Writing Is Hard, With Tips
It takes a lot of courage to put all of your work on display. Unfortunately, many people are not willing to make themselves vulnerable like this, which is why writing is so hard. 4. Writing Takes a Lot of Practice. If you don't write regularly, your writing skills will get rusty.
Why Is Writing So Hard? (And What to Do About It)
As soon as you start to find yourself thinking about how hard writing is, stop. Focus on breathing. Focus on anything but your thought process. Remove that negative mental chatter and then return to the creative process itself. Losing a sense of perspective can also be a major mental cause of finding writing difficult.
Essay Writing Tips: 10 Steps to Writing a Great Essay (And Have Fun
But first, we need to talk about why writing an essay is so hard. Why Writing an Essay Is So Hard. When it comes to essay writing, a lot of students find a reason to put it off. And when they tackle it, they find it difficult to string sentences together that sound like a decent stance on the assigned subject. Here are a few reasons why essay ...
What Makes Writing So Hard? » Thinking Maps
The Hardest Part of Writing is Thinking. For most students, the hardest part of writing isn't writing out individual words or forming a complete sentence. It is simply figuring out what to say. In fact, the Writing Center of Princeton says: Writing is ninety-nine percent thinking, one percent writing. In other words, when you know what you ...
Why Are Admission Essays So Hard To Write Well? Common Mistakes
Most initial attempts at writing an expressive essay are mediocre at best. Training in academic writing might even work against students, undermining their authentic voice and personality. Many students are prone to writing about overused topics or trying to impress rather than express.
Why Is Writing So Difficult? Here Are 3 Reasons Why
Here are the three main reasons why writing is more difficult for some writers. 1. Crippling perfectionism. Try telling a perfectionist "done is better than perfect.". They'll say nothing's better than perfect, that's why it's perfect! The problem is, it's nearly impossible to produce anything perfectly.
Why Is Writing So Hard?
Writing researchers typically refer to writing as a sociocognitive activity, that is, it is both social and cognitive. This chapter discusses five common strategies to develop discipline and accountability in writing: Shut Up & Write groups, accountability partners, scheduling writing in a scientific way, deliberate and distributed practice ...
5 Simple Reasons Why Writing is Hard, Really Hard
Writing is hard. 5. Writing requires humility. There are days when you're just humming along. "Oh, I've got this," as the focus is crystal clear, the muse is bouncing on your shoulder spewing garlands of poetic prose. The sense of accomplishment may be a bit premature or it may be valid, but it is probably short lived.
7 Things to Try When Writing Is Hard
Here are a few practicable steps I hope will give you comfort and/or help you start moving toward a solution for your own unique writing challenges. 1. Just Admit the Writing Is Hard. In my experience as a writing mentor, I find writers tend to have two different kinds of relationships with writer's block.
Really Struggling to Write an Essay? Tips To Overcome It!
How to Write an Essay and Score High: Special Tips. Why is it so hard to write an essay? As we have demonstrated, many reasons can make a student find it challenging to prepare assignments, but with the above, all should be well. Now, we will tell you some tips used by expert writers to prepare A-rated essays. Write Your Introduction as the ...
Why is Academic Writing so Confusing?
If the purpose of academic writing is to clearly communicate one's ideas and research to the reader, then writing that is difficult to understand is bad writing. Period. Many academic papers ...
Why is academic writing so hard… and how can Writefull help
5. Synthesizing information. Some sections of an academic text are easier to write than others. The hardest tend to be those placed at both ends of the paper ( introduction and conclusion ). Those are meant to set the scene and wrap the whole, respectively, and are crucial in shaping readers' impressions on your work.
11 Reasons Why College Essays Are So Hard
Here are 11 reasons why college essays are so hard: Writing essays create anxiety. College essays differ greatly from high school papers. ... The fact that college essays require expert levels of grammar and lexicon is one of the reasons why college essays are so incredibly hard. Putting your thoughts into words on a page is one thing, but ...
Why is writing sometimes so hard, and other times so easy?
A fat outline is just a dump of the concepts and ingredients of your article, without worrying about formats or writing style. It's easy and low-stress, since you're just moving bits and pieces around. If you have content, writing a fat outline should be easy. Then, once the fat outline is written and you know where you're going, you can ...
Why Is Writing So Hard?
Writing researchers typically refer to writing as a sociocognitive activity, that is, it is both social and cognitive. This chapter discusses five common strategies to develop discipline and accountability in writing: Shut Up & Write groups, accountability partners, scheduling writing in a scientific way, deliberate and distributed practice ...
Why is it so hard to write an essay?
Many students wonder why writing essays is so hard, but the main issue is that they don't want to put in the necessary effort that it takes to develop writing skills. Furthermore, diligence means letting go of many things you love, compromising other hobbies like sports, dinners, parties, and your precious "me time" that you get after the ...
Why Is Writing So Hard To Teach?
Yes, it's hard to find the time, but it's still necessary. Some of the obstacles have been inflicted on the field from outside. Standardized testing, teaching manuals, moldy sets of ...
Why is writing such an inherently painful and hard process for many
I think it's because writing is hard, if you're pushing yourself. Writing sharp, fresh original prose whilst also presenting a cast of diverse, believable evolving characters whilst also telling an engaging story and depicting a convincing world, and doing all this to a professional standard...it's pretty tricky stuff, and you're up against Tolstoy, Steinbeck and the rest of the Old Guard, as ...
Academic writing services for every student: Get the help ...
Academic writing is the main way of assessing students' comprehension, critical thinking and analysis skills. This is why it is not supposed to be easy. However, in the current landscape, it is arguably a lot harder than it used to be just ten years ago. Students truly have a lot on their plates, and getting a trusted service for academic ...
Why This College Essay Guide + Examples
The Top Secret Three-Word Trick to Finding Specific Info for Your "Why this College" Essay. Step 2: Organize Your Research. Step 3: Decide on Your Approach: Approach #1: The Basic, Solid "Why this College" Essay That Includes a Bunch of Reasons. Approach #2: The "3-5 Unique Reasons" Strategy. Approach #3: The "One Value" Strategy.
Shingles: Younger people can get it. I learned the hard way
And while shingles is more of a concern for adults over 50, it has, in recent decades, risen among younger people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, something doctors ...
Why the House voted to effectively ban TikTok and what it could mean
YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and X have all created scrolling video features that mimic TikTok's, although many users say those competitors haven't nailed the recommendation ...
Why is it so hard to write a good book about the tech world?
Monopolies are not so in vogue these days. Yet the simplest explanation for why it is so hard for a book about Silicon Valley to hit the mark is probably the most obvious: timing. The snail's ...