Invention Strategies

Having a hard time getting started on a paper or even choosing a topic? The following tips give you strategies for overcoming writer's block, brainstorming, and finding a focus for your paper. If you need more assistance, don't forget we are here at the Writing Desk to help with any stage of the writing process - even brainstorming a topic.


Ways of overcoming writer's block:

  • If you get stuck worrying about sentence-level problems or word choice, try turning the monitor off on your computer and keep typing. You can always go back later to make changes and decipher, but writing 'blind' will force you to work through your thoughts rather than focusing on the individual words you see before you.
  • If you get writers' block simply sitting down at a computer or grabbing your pencil, talk into a tape recorder and type later. It may help to talk through your ideas (to a tape recorder, yourself, or a friend) before you feel the pressure to put something down on paper.
  • If you are having a hard time finding a topic, choose something you know or care about. Or try reading until you find yourself in a mental dialogue with the author; chances are you will then have something to say about the topic.


Tips for Getting Your Ideas on Paper:

  • Freewriting- The key to freewriting is to start writing and don't stop! Don't worry about how it sounds when you freewrite, what you should leave out, or whether you are meandering, JUST WRITE. Try not to think about sentence structure or word choice. If you can't think of the right word, draw a line there and come back to it. Your thoughts do not have to be organized, or even coherent, at this point; the goal is to get your ideas down on paper. Worrying about perfection is frequently the root of writer's block. And if you allow yourself the flexibility to be messy now, you never know what ingenuity will come out of your scribbles. No writer's brain processes information systematically or produces organized polished writing in the beginning. That is why it is called a brain-storm . We must allow the process of recall to be what it is-unorganized.
  • Mapping / Looping/ 'Spider Graph'- These strategies allow writers to brainstorm with key words and fragments rather than written out sentences. To create a 'map' first write down all the words that come to your mind about the topic. Then, when you feel you have adequately exhausted your brainstorm, look through your ideas and try to make connections between them. Circle what seem to be the main ideas and draw lines to related, supporting points. This will help you create what can look like a web of interrelated thoughts, and you will typically be able to rank ideas from the most important or the central ideas to those that are least important. You should keep brainstorming until your main ideas are supported with sufficient examples. Many writers find it useful to scratch out their ideas who don't have the patience to freewrite or who can not escape the pressures of perfection when they begin to put sentences on paper.


Finding a Focus:
Once you have chosen a topic, you can use the following questions to turn your topic into a manageable focus.

  1. Determine Your Purpose: Why am I writing? What is my goal? What do I want to accomplish?
  2. Assess your Audience: For whom am I writing? What will my reader expect? How do I want to effect my reader?
  3. Narrow the Topic: Have I found a topic that I can reasonably cover in the space I have been given? Should I choose one aspect of the topic that interests me? Can I move from a topic I am interested in to a specific question I would like to answer?
  4. Develop a Thesis Statement: Can I finally turn the question that guided my research into a statement, a conclusion I have been able to reach and can support?

Once you have your ideas down on paper, you can try some of the organization strategies provided in the next link. Getting started is frequently half the work; GREAT JOB! If you need more help developing your ideas or finding an adequate focus, please visit our Assistants at the Writing Desk; they are available to you and will be happy to help.