Defeating Writer’s Block

For any Thai student or ajarn, trying to write a thesis or academic article in English is an extremely difficult challenge.

Even writing a letter in English can seem a scary task. Some people have dignified this problem with the term “writer’s block,” which may not be the most accurate way of discussing the matter. To have writer’s block, you have to be a writer. That means writing texts regularly in English. Fortunately, most Thai people only need to write English occasionally, so their difficulties might be better described as “writing anxiety.” Their emotions are very real, starting with hatred and resentment inspired by years of boring English lessons by Thai teachers. Then there are the pain and embarrassment of making mistakes and feeling somehow inferior, which can cause even the boldest and most outgoing personality to become shy when it is a matter of expressing ideas in English writing. While some Thai people are confident about getting their personalities across in speech, most feel that they are at a disadvantage when they have to put their thoughts down in black and white on paper.

Students have a common way of avoiding the problem. They simply fail to do an assignment and when asked what happened, will laugh and say, “I’m so lazy!” This typical response from young Thai people reflects a lot of cultural assumptions. First of all, that being lazy is somehow sympathetic. It may be pointed out to the student that in a developing country such as Thailand, where many people work long and hard hours to survive, just because some students’ parents earn enough to support them comfortably, this does not make laziness an appealing quality. So get to work!

Change your habits.

One basic approach would be to work in a way which prevents you from wasting any time with Facebook, email, Line, cell phones, or any of the other common occupations today. If necessary, work in a room without any such hi tech devices, with only a pad, pencil, and books. That is how people wrote theses and articles in the old days, and they managed to be quite productive. With all of the modern time-saving technology around us, it is easy to become distracted, especially in Thailand, where it seems few people ever eat a snack or meal without taking a photo of it and posting it onto Facebook. Promise yourself that during hours reserved for work, you will stay offline. You may feel discomfort and withdrawal symptoms at first, but you will be pleased by how much you get done. Perhaps you may even find that most of the messages you missed were not so urgent after all.

Books of advice.

The TU Libraries have a number of books offering suggestions for how you can get better organized for the tasks you must accomplish:

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=416130

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=495494

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=619811

The ideas in these books may or may not be ideal for you. You must design your own method for getting things done. For instance, many Thai students get into a routine of spending a lot of time with sanook activities, whether playing badminton or going to the mall with friends, and then when academic work is due, staying up all night in a frantic effort to finish long-postponed assignments. Doing everything at the last minute is a national problem, not just a student problem, in Thailand. With few exceptions, most people think more clearly and are more productive during daytime hours than at night. If you can, arrange your work schedule so you can read books, articles, and other printed texts by natural light which tires the eyes much less than fluorescent or other lighting. Make writing a day job. Some students who work late at night claim it is quieter and they have fewer interruptions at that time, although many work in groups which would seem to contradict this claim. There are ways to find relative quiet even during the daytime, whether it is choosing to work in one of the less crowded libraries or at one where your best friends usually do not appear. Some books suggest that to fight writing anxiety,  talking a walk is good exercise. These books are not written for people who live in Bangkok, a city where it is usually impossible to take a pleasant walk except inside a mall. If you have to take the time to travel to the mall where there are other distractions to be able to take a walk, it may be better to just sit and write.

What are you afraid of?

At the heart of any anxiety, including writing anxiety, is fear. Of what? Of being wrong, having one’s work criticized, looking less intelligent than one hoped. Remember that almost no Thai person, no matter how intellectually accomplished, can write an article or thesis in perfect English without a single flaw. If you make mistakes, you have a lot of company. You should never feel ashamed or embarrassed for making mistakes. What’s the worst that can happen? The whole point of being at university is to make mistakes in a controlled environment where the results of such errors are rarely devastating. Once you are out in the “real world” of jobs, if you make a major mistake as an employee and cost your company money, you may be fired and other nasty things can happen. At university, your ajarns want you to succeed – they would much rather read a good paper than a bad one – so take full advantage of asking their advice at every stage of your work. If for whatever reason you cannot complete any assignment, be honest and admit it ahead of time without any excuses such as “my grandmother’s dog ate my homework.” If you are honest with your ajarn, chances are some compromise can be reached where you will be able to complete the required work.

Stop reading at a certain point and write an outline.

It is difficult to make a general rule about how much preparatory reading is needed before an article or thesis can be written. At some point, you will need to read less and write more. Be sure that you are not avoiding the task of writing by reading all the time, even past the point where it is necessary. When it is time for you to express yourself, make an outline for your own personal benefit. A numbered list should remind you of what you need to get done, and should help you with any confusion about the order of things that must be achieved. Organizing your job and deciding what to do first are major steps in actually conquering the challenge at hand.

Timing is everything.

Students and ajarns are very busy and typically have very little free time. Even so, devoting twenty minutes every day to an assignment is better than nothing at all, and you may find that if you allot twenty minutes, you may become interested in your task and spend more time than you thought you had, after all. It is perfectly all right to trick yourself into getting things done. Similarly, if you need to persuade your mind that it is okay to start writing, start by pretending to write a letter to a friend or relative explaining what you are writing about for class. Since the friend or family member will not be an expert in the subject of your thesis or article, you must use simple, non-technical language, which is the best way of writing anyway. If you write just a few sentences, they may be useful when adapted for the final project.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).