Writing a Paper, The Other Things That Can Help

When I know I have a paper coming and soon there are a few things I do to help me get going. Of course in school we learn to draft, have a thesis, opening statement, opening paragraph…blah blah blah. When I was in school these prerequisites were just awful for me. It was as if I were supposed to have the paint on the walls of my house without even having a roof. Throw away those concepts for now. They are very important but what is the point in having all these things if you can’t even get started. It’s better to have something you can organize later than to hand in a blank piece of paper.

Find a comfortable place to work. If your space is cluttered, your mind will be as well.

Make sure you’ve got the basic essentials covered are you thirsty, get some water, bring it with you. Have you had a good meal. These are all things that will distract you from the task at hand.

Sit down and think not about the end product but just the topic being addressed.

If your blank screen and blinking cursor is too much for you to handle. Go to the store get a two dollar notebook and a package of pens. Find a writing utensil that you like and go!Make sure you are comfortable.

If comfortable means with music go for it. If it means you need to have the kids running around, or the TV on then go for it. Whatever you need to be comfortable. Including who is around you and what you are wearing.

The most important thing about writing is that you need to be comfortable.

Now you are ready to free-write. That means forget about punctuation, grammar, spelling etc. This is the part that will create your paper. This is just for you. This will create your paper. Free writing means write anything and everything about your topic. Free write, free write, free write. The more you free write the better off you will be.If you are having trouble doing that. Write some questions down for yourself pertaining to the topic and answer them.

Once you have a couple pages of free writing, go do something else. Something completely unrelated to the paper at hand. Take a break. Relax.

When your ready return to writing.

If you feel like you have created sufficient content to create a paper than wonderful. Now you have the foundation to your paper! Congratulations.

For me this was the part that no one ever taught me. It was always,start with an opening paragraph, have a thesis. But realisticly it just impeded my writing.

Every paper that I have ever written for school I’ve free wrote prior; sometimes with more content then I needed. The end result has been that I have taken all this information and fit it into a paper. It’s easier to take pieces of writing that you have already created then to be stumped by what the next sentence is going to be.

I can tell you this is the first step to writing a great paper. I wish more people would do it.

Good luck and go get ready to free write.