d. m. arney, m.a.

Sometimes just the sight of blank paper or a white computer screen would send me into fits of procrastination. There was this great anxiety about what I wanted to say, and more about how I wanted to say it. That was the part I couldn’t figure out, that took more brain power than the actual ideas. There just didn’t seem to be the words to express what I was thinking. So I would spend hours just staring, or trying and immediately judging any attempt as a failure. What I learned to do was to write what I say, or write what I mean. You can try this with any age. Just take away the paper/computer screen and have them talk to you. Once they get the ideas out, write them down or type them up. Then let them edit the work. They will begin to learn they really can write.