Battling Writer's Block: A Personal and Practical Approach
Writer's block can feel like a massive hurdle for students, often caused by self-doubt, feeling overwhelmed by complicated material, or simply the fear of a blank page. Getting past those feelings is crucial if you're going to succeed in your studies.
By building small, daily habits you can keep progressing and avoid getting stuck. Without these routines, writer’s block can stop you from engaging with your work, answering questions clearly, or showing what you’ve learned. Confidence is key here—the more you practice, the more you'll trust yourself to break down complex material and communicate your ideas effectively.
External pressures like rising tuition fees, living costs, and constant social media comparison only worsen things. These financial and social stresses can make carving out time for uninterrupted study writing feel even more difficult.
For students in new or unfamiliar environments, these challenges can be even harder to manage, making academic writing a more daunting task. This pressure doesn’t just impact writing—it affects your ability to focus and manage the demands of your course.
Understanding Writer's Block
Writer’s block is defined as the inability to produce written work, even when there is a clear intention or need to write.
According to research by Mike Rose, up to 50% of students experience this at some point in their academic careers. His study emphasises that perfectionism and fear of evaluation are major contributors to writer’s block, creating additional pressure to perform. The overwhelming nature of academic tasks—deadlines, word counts, and high expectations—only intensifies this mental block. It’s destabilising, as many of us are caught in a cycle of self-doubt and fear of failure, making it difficult to start or finish writing.
For many students, this constant pressure to meet academic standards feeds into a paralysis that is hard to shake.
Several triggers contribute to writer's block among students. One of the biggest is cognitive overload—many students struggle to manage the large amounts of complex information required for their coursework, which overwhelms their working memory and makes it hard to organize their thoughts. To avoid burnout, using AI tools to help manage this overload can be a game-changer.
Another common issue is a need for more self-efficacy. Students who doubt their writing abilities are more likely to experience writer's block because they fear their work won’t meet the expectations of their professors. This lack of confidence can stop them from even starting.
Emotional factors like anxiety, frustration, and stress can also worsen writer's block. Sitting down to write becomes a daunting task when you're worried that you won’t meet the criteria. On top of this, environmental distractions—such as adjusting to new surroundings and meeting new people at university—can make it hard to focus. Having a dedicated study space, like the library, can remove some of these distractions. I find places like the British Library, where you’re surrounded by quiet and useful resources can improve focus.
Lastly, poor time management is another major factor. Without proper planning, the pressure to meet deadlines adds unnecessary stress and makes it harder to produce quality work. Breaking tasks into manageable, hour-long chunks is key. I use Notion to organise my tasks and keep all my research in one place. This way, I can easily access my work on the go, making the writing process smoother and more efficient.
My Personal Experiences with Writers Block
During my Masters at King's College London, I often felt out of place, especially while studying Comparative Literature. This led to a constant fear that my work wasn’t good enough, which only worsened my experience with writer’s block. One of the most challenging moments was writing my dissertation on feminism and fairy tales, focusing on Angela Carter’s work. The sheer amount of research, reading, and deadlines created anxiety. I constantly worried that I wouldn’t complete the dissertation on time, given the number of words I had to write while also juggling other course demands.
On top of this, I was working part-time at FatFace to pay tuition fees, which meant I was rarely at home. My days were spent either at university, work, or the KCL Library, trying to keep up with the workload. Looking back, I wish I had asked for more help sooner, as missing deadlines only deepened my writer’s block. I could manage the introduction, but the main body of work felt impossible to complete.
How AI Can Help Combat Writer's Block
If I had access to AI tools like Scholarcy back then, I’m confident I could have worked more efficiently and avoided having to ask for extensions or seek help too late in the process.
Scholarcy assists students by breaking down complex academic material into digestible summaries, organising key points, and highlighting important sections. This makes it easier to quickly gather relevant information and reduces the feeling of overwhelm that comes with managing large volumes of research. By simplifying and structuring the material, Scholarcy helps students focus and get started on what matters most—the writing process.
Scholarcy can alleviate some of the pressure and help you to feel more confident about approaching writing. It helps you manage the research and reading stages by streamlining tasks like note-taking, reference management, and comprehension. This helps students to focus on and structure their thoughts and ideas. Scholarcy helps them reach the point where they feel prepared to begin writing independently.
Tools like Quillbot and Wordtune also play a valuable role in overcoming the initial hurdle of getting words on the page. These tools can rephrase sentences, suggest alternative word choices, and offer guidance for structuring ideas. By providing prompts and revisions, they help reduce the intimidation of a blank page, making it easier to draft an outline or improve existing content.
Recent updates to Scholarcy, like the Research Comparison Tool and the Show Findings feature, further support students by allowing them to compare new research with earlier studies and understand the contents of the paper without getting overwhelmed. These updates help students gather and process information more efficiently, reducing the cognitive load that often leads to writer’s block. Additionally, improvements to the reading experience, such as larger fonts and a clearer layout, make it easier for students to engage with their material—particularly for those with specific learning differences such as dyslexia.
Practical Advice For Writers Block
To achieve a productive and structured writing process, students can combine some of the tools mentioned here with their own critical thinking and writing skills. Apps like Scholarcy can help users organise their research and streamline the preparatory work—summarising texts, understanding key points, and structuring their arguments —but students must apply their unique voice and analysis to their writing. This balance ensures that their final work remains both original and well thought out..
Using these tools to approach research papers and other texts section by section, take meaningful notes, and build a good understanding of the subject can help alleviate the stress of starting and completing an assignment. Setting manageable goals and working in small time blocks can further reduce writing-related anxiety.
However, it’s essential not to rely solely on technology.
While AI can help manage information and support students with reading and comprehension, it cannot replace the critical thinking and creativity needed for quality writing. By integrating AI as part of their overall strategy, students can ensure their work is thoughtful, original, and reflective of their understanding and insights.
If you have a story you’d like to share about your struggles with writer’s block at university, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with us at [email protected].