Writing is difficult for me on a number of levels. Physically, although I now I use eye gaze technology to write it can be also tiring. Sometime, I find myself falling asleep in the middle of typing, not sure what that is about. The other main difficulty I have is my spelling and grammar are not terribly strong, however, they have massively improved the over years in doing my presentations, undertaking my Honours degree and now doing my PhD research.
Nevertheless, I think the biggest struggle is starting and keeping writing. I get an idea to write, yet I don’t start because I don’t know all details of the piece or I will get struck on a word and an idea. One of best piece of advice I have received was in a writing workshop I attended in doing Honors. The advice was each day to write for an hour. They recommend putting aside a time when you just write avoiding any distractions.
Distractions can be anything that stops you from writing. The need to write perfectly first up can be a big time waster as each wiggly red and blue line on the screen crying out for your attention be corrected but let them keep crying. You have to keep pushing writing. I have numerous on my screen at the moment but I know if I stop writing to correct errors the piece might not be finished. The corrections and tide up will take less time at the end rather than risking stopping the flow of writing. I think that the best way combat the old writers’ is to just start to write. Write anything. Write anything that comes to mind, you can always tidy it later. Other trick I use to overcome writer’s block is I ask myself what do I really want to say and I just begin to pour out garbage in my head and push through. I use this technique a lot when writing for university. So, get writing!