This presentation formed session one of the student conference entitled 'Academic Writing Made Easier' which was held at London Metropolitan University on March 16 2009.
20. It seems that writers block is a mysterious phenomenon . I've heard it said that it's fashionable to deny the existence of block, which I suppose is tantamount to saying that block is the result of a poor work ethic, a lack of ideas or just general absence of moral fibre. But thinking on, it has affected many excellent writers who had produced a lot of work and who had an excellent writing track record. I'm thinking that famous passage from New Grub Street, or...oh sod it, can't remember what else. When I think of block I always think of Janet frame, who, when she was released from her awful time in psychiatric hospital, was mentored by a writer who gave her a shed in the garden to write. She found that she couldn't write, when she'd been hitherto prolific. So she just did typing exercises for weeks , basically so that her hosts would hear her typing and she wouldn't be shamed by the fact that she actually wasn't writing anything! But, guess what, gradually words came out and her stories took shape. This seems to suggest a relationship between repression and oppression. There's something about oppression which liberates, and perhaps when it is absent repression takes its place – we oppress ourselves. This is reminding me of Isaiah berlin's two kinds of freedom , positive and negative. Positive freedom is the absence of oppression, but negative freedom is all about freeing us up to choose what is good for us and not merely what gratifies our worldly urges. So, I want to write the excellent work of scholarship I know is deep within me but I keep going to the pub instead. If my mates were to lock me in my bedroom – ha, like in I Capture the castle – with only a pen and some paper, then I would surely remain undistracted and my excellent thoughts would have no choice but to be expressed. If only. One other thought about block is that it might be sort of like garbage in garbage out – perhaps we are receivers first and creators second and can't hope to produce anything good or even anything at all unless we are nourishing ourselves with the work of other writers and thikers. Freewriting as a Basis for Further Research: 1
![What is Freewriting? ,[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)