Understanding Writing Blocks

by Keith Hjortshoj

Book Overview

Why do capable students and scholars fail to complete writing projects? What are "writing blocks," and how can writers overcome them? Why are writing blocks more common for advanced and experienced writers who are not supposed to need help? And why are they more common in the humanities than in the sciences? Keith Hjortshoj answers these and other questions in Understanding Writing Blocks. This book demystifies the causes of writing blocks, which...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195141369
• ISBN13: 9780195141368
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I can write!

I found this book to be extremely helpful in overcoming my frequent issues with writing blocks. The book really helped me to consider the ways that I think about and approach writing which enabled me to better understand why I often find myself unable to write and gave me the tools to develop a new mindset in regards to writing. This isn't a feel good self-help book with lots of specific techniques for overcoming writing difficulties so if that's what you're looking for, then you will probably find this book to be a bit of a bore. But if you are interested in approaching the topic from a more theoretical perspective, you will gain a lot of useful wisdom from this book. This book also focuses primarily on academic writing, which is great for college or grad students or professors, but probably not so beneficial to an aspiring fiction writing (though I may be wrong). If this book could help me after all of the desperate struggles that I've had with writing, then it's bound to be useful to many others as well.

I failed at Nanowrimo so I learnt more

I did not really fail. Last year, my first, I completed the assignment, but it was a horrid first novel, so bad as to be shelved rather quickly by me. I was depressed. Honestly, this really got to me. But I tend to want to discover what happened and in the next year, this one, I have read all that I could get my hands on so that led to me reading more and more about the writing process so as to see what i did wrong, why my first novel, well thanks to Keith Hjortshoj (this is a difficult last name) I realise now it was just my first composition, was such a dud. Keith claims that this book is geared towards academic writers. Well quiet honestly, my academic career is long over, but perhaps it wouldn't have been had I met him earlier, but that's another story. What this review is about is The Best Manual on the market on Writing Blocks. I found his help incredible and his massive bibliography and citation of other books, Peter Elbow, Bonnie Friendman, Victoria Nelson (which is how I found this) Daniel Murray and then John Steinbeck, Georges Simeonon John Irving, and F. M. Alexander of the Alexander technique incredibly helpful. I was stunned to see how much of my writing suffered from not as i thought one problem but a myraid of problems, lack of focus, no attention span, too judgemental,fidgetiness and his chock-a-block how-to manual really hit all my bugaboos chapter after chapter after chapter. I took prodigious notes. I found the Elbow Freewriting exercise to be the most helpful and that got me just writing, but I needed more, as I saw that was not the only problem I had. I was rather stunned and so I read on and saw more and more problems, gee I was rather surprised, how many do I have ? First time, I chucked the book. I got depressed and read the Van Gogh Blues and the Artists Quest for Inspiration, which basically hinted at the same issues, though in a much milder tone, and finally returned and re-read the whole thing. This time i was totally immersed and read thorughly, interestingly and took better notes. Midway through I wanted to chuck it and start on my next composition, but like an over eager patient, I realised I needed to read the whole thing first to make sure that I had gotten the whole thing...and I was glad I did. This is a great manual, well written and spot on. I think I've read everyone on creativity and blocks since last November and this is the literally the best out there. Good luck to you, you blocked writer, for Keith Hjortshoj is here to help, and I for one am sure glad he's there. This book really is gold. Remy.