snag: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.

stm

http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/brainstorm_block.htm

Getting Started: Brainstorming Principles of Composition

Overcoming Writer's Block

For many writers the worst part of the writing experience is the very beginning,
when they're sitting at the kitchen table staring at a blank sheet of paper or in
front of that unblinking and perfectly empty computer monitor. "I have nothing to
say," is the only thing that comes to mind. "I am XX years old and I have done
nothing, discovered nothing, been nothing, and there are absolutely no thoughts in
my head that anyone would ever want to read about." This is the Censor in your
brain, your Self-Critic, and sometimes that Censor is bigger than you are. Who
knows what causes the ugly Censor to be there � a bad experience in third grade?
something your mother said once during potty-training? � it doesn't matter. The
Censor is there for all of us, building and rebuilding this thing called Writer's
Block, one of the Censor's many self-limiting toys. It might be some comfort to
know that even professional writers suffer from Writer's Block from time to time.
Some of the greatest writers in literature � Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Katherine
Mansfield, Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway � were tormented by momentary lapses in
their ability to produce text � although you wouldn't think it possible if you've
ever tried to pick up War and Peace with one hand.
American poet William Stafford offers this advice to poets who suffer from Writer's
Block: "There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are
low enough." This sounds terrible at first. "What? I'm supposed to write junk? I
need a good grade! I'm better than that!" No, Stafford is not encouraging writers
to produce garbage. He is suggesting, however, that it's easy to take yourself too
seriously, to think you're going to write a poem or an essay that is going to be
the greatest poem or essay ever written, that you're going to formulate the
greatest, loveliest, most intelligent statement ever made. So you sit there,
thinking how unworthy you are, cursing the day you were born, wondering why you
ever went to college, hating the very act of writing that has you so stymied. A
writer has to let that go, forget about judgment. Go ahead and write drivel at
first, as long as you write. Out of your nonsense and ramblings, however, believe
that something good will come, some idea will catch fire right there on the page,
there will be sparks, patterns will emerge. Be willing to throw stuff out. It's all
right. Do you think Shakespeare didn't litter his kitchen floor with balled-up
pieces of paper? One nice thing about the word-processor is that you're not wasting
paper and trees; you're just exercising the delete key. But this is no time to
worry about the environment. Fill that wastebasket with paper and trust that
something will come of all this scribbling. It will.

Carry with you a pocket-sized notebook in which you can scribble ideas for writing
as they come to you. How often have you been stopped at a red-light and a great
idea has come into your head? It's so wonderful that you know you'll remember it
when you get home, but when you sit down at the table, pen in hand, all you
remember is the fact that you had a good idea an hour ago. Part of the writing
experience is learning that good ideas do not always come to us when we need them.
We must learn to catch ideas as they come to us, fortuitously, even as we're about
to fall asleep at night.

People who tell you that physical exercise is important for mental activity are
telling the truth. If nothing's happening on the computer screen or paper, take a
walk around the block. Hit the treadmill or tennis courts or drive to the gym. But
take your notebook with you. Fresh blood will be flowing through your brain and
jogging might just jog something loose in your head. It happens.
Another trick is to start in the middle of your writing project. Avoid that problem
of getting started by starting on a part of the project that interests you more and
then come back to the introductory matter later. This sounds a bit like starting to
earn your second million dollars before you've earned your first, but it's really
not a bad idea in any case, because sometimes it's easier to say where you're going
after you know where you've been. After all, your readers will never know you wrote
the introduction last (another joy of word-processing technology!). One final
maneuver around the old Writer's Block: talk over your paper with a friend, or just
blab away into a tape recorder (even better). Play the tape back and write down
what you hear in clusters of ideas or freewrite about them.

Getting Started: Freewriting Principles of Composition

Freewriting
Many writing instructors use a freewriting exercise at the beginning of each class.
It's a way of getting the brain in gear, and it's an exercise you can do on your
own, safe to try in your own home. (We provide an interactive page for this
exercise, see below.) Write down a topic at the top of that empty page. It can be
either a one-word topic � like "Dentists," for example � or a brief statement of
the topic you've chosen or been given to write about. Set the clock for five to ten
minutes and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and go at it. Write as fast as
you can; the faster the better. You are not allowed to stop writing! If you can't
think of anything to say, write down that you can't think of anything to say,
something like: "I'm stuck but I'll think of something soon." Don't stop. Don't
worry about transitions or connecting the ideas or paragraphing or subject-verb
agreement or even commas. And form absolutely no judgment about what you write.
Your Censor is on vacation. Your writing may take you in some really weird
directions, but don't stop and never think to yourself, "Oh, this is dumb!" If you
get off the subject, that's all right. Your divagation may end up somewhere
wonderful. Just keep writing. Do not criticize yourself and do not cut or scratch
out or revise in any way. Many instructors suggest that at the end of the timed
period, you should write one sentence IN ALL CAPS that takes you back to where you
started � something to do with dentists.
It's probably a good idea to read your freewriting out loud when you're done with
it. Often the ear will pick up some pattern or neat idea that you hadn't noticed
even as you wrote it. Read your freewriting to a friend or have your friend read it
out to you. Your friend might think you're insane, but that's all right. Then it's
time to spend just a couple of minutes going through the freewriting with an aim
toward casual rewriting. The word-processor is a big advantage here. Delete the "I
can't think of anything to say" lines and the pure nonsense. Are any ideas or
patterns emerging?

Don't give up on freewriting after one exercise. Many students think that it's
boring or stupid at first and come to love it after a week or so of exercises.
Freewriting is like any other kind of mental activity: you will get better at it.
The first couple of times you try it, perhaps nothing will come of it. After a few
efforts, though, the exercise will become liberating. Just as you would never start
to play tennis or jog without stretching a bit first, you will never try to write
again without doing a bit of freewriting first. Sometimes, even in the middle of an
essay, when stuck for the next idea, you can do a bit of freewriting to get you
going again.

Here's a five-minute example of free-writing on the subject of dentists written by

an older student, Thruston Parry, who has given us permission to use his work:

DENTISTS
I hate going to the dentist. I'm always afraid that they're going to hurt me, and
I'm not very good at pain, at tolerating pain, I mean. I remember the first time,w
hen I was a kid, going to the dentists, it seemed I never went to the dentist when
I was a kid until I had a toothache, that's my parents fault, isn't it, I guess.
They should have taken better care of my teeth when I was little, and then I
wouldn't have so much grief now with my teeth. But back then I would go to the
dentists and he would have this godawful drill that would make this awful noise and
it seemed like it always hurt. I remember there was this sign in his office that
said PAINLESS DENTIST, UPSTAIRS, but there was no upstairs in his building. Some
joke, huh? I can't think of anything to say, and I can't think of anything more to
say. Oh, I wonder how come anyone in his right might mind would ever want to become
a dentist, putting his fingers into other people's mouths all day, all that spit
and blood and not there's the fear of getting AIDS from your clients that they have
to wear those rubber gloves and I hate the feel of those things in my mouth, too,
and the sound of that thing that draws the spit out of your mouth. I wonder why my
folks didn't take me to the dentist BEFORE i had trouble. Probably because when
they were growing up it was bad times and they didn't have any money for things
like the dentist and it was just taken for granted that you were going to get
cavieties and lose a lot of teeth before you were even an adult. I can't think of
anything more to say. I can't think of anything more to say. all I know is that
when I have kids, they're going to the dentist every six months whether they want
to or not and maybe by then they'll have invented some way to absolutely prevent
cavities and maybe there won't even be any dentists or if there are it'll just be
to clean your teeth and make sure they're straight and pearly white and we won't
worry about cavities and stuff like that that causes pain anymore. DENTISTS, MY
ATTITUDE HAS CHANGED AS I GOT OLDER.
Looking back over this paragraph, do you see any ideas that might lend themselves
toward an essay on dentists or at least the beginnings of one? Why would one want
to become a dentist? or some other "unpleasant" line of medical work (even worse
than dentistry)? How have attitudes toward going to the dentist changed over the
years? Will better toothpastes, etc. eventually make dentists obsolete? How do
dentists cope with the threat of AIDS? Is it a real threat?

Getting Started: Clustering Ideas Principles of Composition

Clustering
Clustering is similar to another process called Brainstorming. Clustering is
something that you can do on your own or with friends or classmates to try to find
inspiration in the connection between ideas. The process is similar to freewriting
in that as you jot down ideas on a piece of paper or on the blackboard, you mustn't
allow that ugly self-censor to intrude and say that your idea (or anyone else's) is
dumb or useless. Write it down anyway. In Clustering, you jot down only words or
very short phrases. Use different colored pens as ideas seem to suggest themselves
in groups. Use printing or longhand script to suggest that ideas are main thoughts
or supportive ideas. Don't bother to organize too neatly, though, because that can
impede the flow of ideas. Don't cross anything out because you can't tell where an
idea will lead you. When you get a few ideas written down, you can start to group
them, using colored circles or whatever. Draw linking lines as connections suggest
themselves.