Arredondo 1

Jose Luis Arredondo

English 1301 – 125

Instructor. McCann

23 October 2023

Writer’s Block

Originally, at the start of the fall semester, I had a bit of trouble when it came to writing, mainly

due to writer’s block. Often, I found it hard to actually start a piece of writing and at the time it

felt sort of impossible to even come up with any ideas, as writer’s block essentially stopped me

from progressing at all when it came to writing. However, as the semester has progressed, I’ve

managed to better overcome writer’s block by drawing. Whenever I start writing and I find

myself unable to think of anything to write, usually what I like to do is to draw in order to help

clear my mind. I don’t end up drawing anything really complicated though, it's mainly just

doodles, but I feel as if these help me to get creative and to better focus on what I want to write

about. On another note, when it comes to problem solving and how it correlates with writers'

block, I feel as if they both go hand in hand with each other. Writer’s block is basically the

inability to write due to external and internal circumstances which can be seen as a problem. In

order to help solve this problem, we must find a solution to it and apply it. In the text, Mike Rose

goes through many ways to solve problems using plans, algorithmic rules, and heuristic rules.

Heuristic rules sort of vary depending on the problem at hand, while algorithmic rules are set and

help to develop a precise solution each time they are applied. Given that writing is sort of left up

to a writer’s interpretation of what they want for that piece of writing, I feel heuristic rules would

be best to apply when it comes to solving writers' block. Given Rose’s explanation, heuristic

rules will often differentiate when it comes to planning to overcome a problem. However, this is
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essentially perfect as heuristic rules could also help to establish multiple solutions to our problem

of writer’s block. For instance, maybe instead of drawing I could instead thoroughly read the

prompt beforehand or maybe I could instead brainstorm ideas so that I won’t have to worry too

much about them when actually writing. Since we're applying heuristic rules to our plan, the

solutions to writer's block could possibly be endless.