After assignments in the winter break and trying, really trying, to rest a bit before the whirlwind of semester two, here I am, staring at my computer trying to make words appear on a page.
Now don’t get me wrong (and don’t tell my supervisor that), I have done work. Many, many and many more readings in order to have a solid literature review and methodology. But other than that, I have been rather stuck with my writing.
Since September, a perfectionism-related blank page syndrome has taken over me. I know that I need to write but nothing comes up. I stare at an opened Google Doc and nothing comes up. When this happened last semester, one of my lecturers told me: ‘The best essay is the one you finish’. Basically, Margaux get started and write anything because you won’t pass otherwise. And it weirdly helped. I got settled and wrote anything that came to my mind on my essay topic which eventually led to an essay.
A couple of weeks ago, I was also introduced to ‘freewriting’ which is the simple act of writing your thoughts down on a piece of paper to articulate them and get started. This did wonders for me.
I spent an hour writing everything down, settling my thoughts, and organising them into categories that made sense. I came out of this experience with a rested mind, like everything I wanted to say before had finally been put into a page.
So, if like me, you are struggling to get started because you have a feeling that everything you write needs to be perfect, take a piece of paper and just write, without thinking back on what you’ve just written. It will create some much-needed space in your mind to think about your dissertation and all other aspects of your life.