The Writing Tutor The Vital Importance of Writing Badly

This is the first in a series from our resident novelist on writing and editing. Today, to help you deal with the most intimidating thing of all, the blank page, we offer some remedies for that most mythic of literary ailments: writer’s block. I hate the term â€Å"creative writing.† I tend to put it in quotation marks. Why? Because it suggests that there is such a thing as uncreative writing. There is not. There is good writing and there is bad writing, but all of it is necessarily creative. Whether it’s a poem, an article on the spread of tuberculosis in Bangladesh, the typed-up minutes of a homeowners’ association meeting, or a blog post on the Knicks’ wretched draft picks, all of it must be carved from pure air; all of it starts with the white blank page. As a novelist, book reviewer, and expository writing tutor, I have seen just about every kind of writing difficulty, from orchid-purple prose to pure grammatical butchery. I've seen it in fluttering amateurs and hardened professionals from New York to Beijing. The one thing that consistently defies my skills as a writing teacher, though, is the dreaded â€Å"writer’s block.† I have a theory about why: I think it’s because it doesn’t exist. â€Å"How do I get over writer’s block?† I get this question a lot. It's hard to even know where to begin. For me, I think of writer's block as simply a luxury I can't afford—as a professional with deadlines, I could no more allow myself to have writer's block than I could take a cab to the airport and impulse-buy a ticket to Fiji. Sure, I have moments where I just can’t write, but that’s not a â€Å"block† in the classic sense. That’s just me being obsessed with the Olympics. I think maybe a lot of people decide they have writer's block when what they really have is a bad case of "writing lame." It happens to everyone, even—especially—professionals. When you’ve got a case â€Å"writing lame,† everything you put to paper comes out limping, dragging one foot behind itself. It’s not just that you’re not inspired, you’re barely even intelligible. Soon you decide that you CAN'T write, you’ve forgotten how, your brain is sick, your liver hurts, something is wrong, and therefore you decide to sort of wait the "writing lame" period out. Of course this prolongs the whole miserable business to where suddenly writing becomes this huge dark hideous presence hovering over you like a high-pressure weather system bearing down on the Florida coastline. And instead of calling this feeling â€Å"performance anxiety,† which is what it is, we call it â€Å"writer’s block.† The fact is, if you're limping around, you just have to do what any high school soccer coach will tell you to do: walk it off. In other words, the only way to get past it is to write your way out. Imagine a wooden door in humid summer weather, so swollen it's become stuck in its jamb. The only thing to do is keep hurling your shoulder against that door. Sure, it'll hurt, but it's pretty much the only way of getting it open. And if, after a while, you're still pounding away at it, and it's still stuck, well, you might have been (just to wring the last drops from the metaphor) pushing on a "pull" door all along—which means you need to toss all the work you've done lately, and try a different strategy. I've done this a bunch of times, decided all the writing of the past week, or even month, was garbage, and cut the lot of it. It happens to the best of us. The point I want to make today is that it's important to know when you're writing lame, but it's more important to keep doing it. Back when I was tutoring in Cambridge, I used to use my dad's old typewriter; I would use it when I didn't know where the story was going, and I knew that everything I wrote was going to be wretched. That way, I could get all the thoughts out, but I also knew that since I would have to retype all of it anyhow, I didn't particularly care. Because I knew that I was writing lame, I didn’t feel any need to write well—and that, for an author, is the purest liberty of all. Writing badly in an attempt to get out of a slump is the literary equivalent of reading US Weekly in the dentist's office: it's the one time no one will judge you for it, and it's wonderful. So in sum, I am not sure writer's block really exists (except, maybe, when the writer is so phobic and seized with performance anxiety that he genuinely can't come near the page). I think it's the term we use when it's just too hard to face down the enormously unpleasant task of writing. For me, I’d say that 9 days out of 10, writing fiction is pure misery. It’s hard! As Thomas Mann said, â€Å"a writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for other people.† But it’s hard for everyone else, too, because it is relentlessly creative, because no one else can tell you, in real time, whether your words choices or sentence structure or paragraph breaks are correct. There’s only you, beating your brains against the blankness. Writing is a struggle. It is work, and to do it well you must be as ruthless with your own language as Frank Underwood. And anyone who tells you otherwise—who tells you that writing should be joyful, should be about inspiration and self-expression and raw emotional, is absolutely full of beans.

Essay about Women in Leadership Roles - 2119 Words

INTRODUCTION More and more women are rising to the leadership challenge, even in some of the most male-dominated industries. The increase in the number of women attending college, the increasing number of women in the workplace or starting their own business has demonstrated to men who own businesses that women can be both managers and mothers, thus showing their male counterpart that women can in fact do it all. In this paper the history of women in the workforce will be outlined, as well as the challenges they face. The changing attitudes towards women taking over family businesses will be looked at briefly, how women lead in comparison to how men lead, and a comparison of their leadership style will also be discussed. HISTORY AND†¦show more content†¦Those days have since past. As women are achieving higher levels of education and are being employed in more prominent positions, their leadership roles in family organizations have increased. Many young women are refusing to accept the rule of primogeniture (Nelton, 1999). Primogeniture is defined as a birthright or an inheritance. Although women are making great strides in this arena, there is still the feeling out there that the son should be considered first and the daughter as a second option, only if there is no son or if the son declines the offer. But, Nelton says that, young women by and large feel that if they want to go into the family business, the opportunity is there. In each of the cases described by Nelton, the fathers encouraged their daughters to become involved in the family business. As well, each father let his daughter run the show once she was named CEO-the surest sign of support (Nelton, 1999). In more and more famili es and in business in general, gender is becoming not an issue. As roles increasingly change on the home front, the business world will soon mirror the changes taking place in the family structure. Nelton also urges women in leadership roles to not lose sight of the bottom line. She says it is easy for women to get caught up in the management of people (Nelton, 1999). She goes on to say that if you cannot prove that you are also profit-driven, you will never make it to the successor level. LEADERSHIP STYLE Ââ€" WOMENShow MoreRelatedWomen in Leadership Roles1671 Words   |  7 Pagesresearch on gender equity in educational leadership published since 1997until 2010. Even though women attaining jobs in school leadership has increased, women still do not fill administrative positions in comparison to men. The majority of research related to women and leadership examines the barriers women face in entering or moving up in the leadership hierarchy. Looking at the differences and similarities in how men and women take on and exercise leadership roles, the authors of the articles suggestRead MoreThe Role Of Women s Leadership Roles Essay3057 Words   |  13 PagesTHE ROLE OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP 11 THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP 12 The Role of Women in Leadership Edward Minter SOC 402: Contemporary Social Problems the Workplace Dr. Peggy Morrison October 17, 2016 In our society, men are usually always in the role of being a leader. We see, men as leaders in Politics, in the military, as CEO?s of major companies and in churches just to name a few of areas men are leaders. Why do women in the same fields not get the recognitionRead MoreChallenges for Women in Leadership Roles1121 Words   |  5 PagesChallenges for women in leadership roles A recent study by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (2008) looking at the challenges facing women in leadership roles highlighted the following areas as being significant; †¢ Culture - What are the forces that lead to a male dominated culture in this organisation? What does the term male-dominated culture really mean? What does cultural fit connote in this organisation? Does the concept of cultural fit perpetuate homogeneity and withRead MoreThe Role Of Women s Leadership Program1684 Words   |  7 PagesSome high-performing women who are evaluated as competent managers may also fail the likeability test, whereas likeability and competence seem to go hand-in-hand for their male counterparts. These women may receive high marks for task related items such as acting decisively and making difficult decisions in the face of adversity, but low ratings on relational tasks such as taking into account another’s viewpoint or using feedback to learn from one’s mistakes. Ibarra, Ely, and Kolb (2013) also statedRead MoreEssay On Role Of Women In Senior Leadership Position750 Words   |  3 Pagesthink women are under-represented in these posi tions? Yes ( ) No ( ) 17. If yes, what do you think is responsible for low participation of women in senior leadership positions in your university? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 18. Have you known women who haveRead MoreEssay on Historical Roles of Men and Women in Leadership1231 Words   |  5 Pagesprofessions held by men verses those held by women through history, the concept of history that needs to be observed is a vast period of time. For if all or most of known history about humans is not taken into consideration, then much of present day analysis of leadership gender roles might actually start to make sense. The previous sentence was not an error in thought or printing. Much of modern analysis of gender perspectives in leadership and the roles of men and women seem to forget the thousands of yearsRead MoreThe Role of Leadership Theory in Raising the Profile of Women in Management692 Words   |  3 PagesLeadership Title: The role of leadership theory in raising the profile of Women in Management. The article is founded on the concept of leadership and the varied conceptions that have been propagated on the same since the early 11930s to the contemporary times. The focus is majorly on the shaping up of the leadership theories over time to come and converge at the pivotal position of women in management. Leadership is described here as the ability of an individual to influence, motivateRead MoreEssay about Historical roles of men and women in leadership 1217 Words   |  5 Pagesprofessions held by men verses those held by women through history, the concept of history that needs to be observed is a vast period of time. For if all or most of known history about humans is not taken into consideration, then much of present day analysis of leadership gender roles might actually start to make sense. The previous sentence was not an error in thought or printing. Much of modern analysis of gender perspectives in leadership and the roles of men and women seem to forget the thousands of yearsRead MoreWhale Rider : An Exemplary Film Of Feminism And Women Coming Into Leadership Roles889 Words   |  4 PagesDani Colyer Anthropology Professor Doumani 9 December 2014 Whale Rider Whale Rider is an exemplary film of feminism and women coming into leadership roles. This entire film is example of discrimination between male and female. Whale Rider is the story of a female that constantly tries to be the leader of the tribe even though she is a female. The biggest gender role breakthrough for this tribe is when Paikea finally becomes the first female leader of the Maori tribe. The film â€Å"Whale Rider† isRead MoreLeadership As A Woman Or Under A Man1459 Words   |  6 Pagesperspective of the world, which helps them gain, and equipped the leadership role. The topic that I’m going to cover throughout this paper is the idea of leadership under a woman or under a man. The question that I am asking is do you think that a male makes a better leader or do you feel that a woman makes a better leader. The first website that I examined was from forbes.com. What forms really examined is the leadership roles that women hold in office what men hold in office. It states that in the

Narrative Writing free essay sample

Throughout my whole life I have always been a perfectionist. Everything I do has to be perfect even down to the tiniest detail. This has caused me to spend more than five hours on a project, taking the whole day to get the measurements of a cake just right or making sure I have straight A’s. The whole process of trying to achieve the unachievable was so exhausting and time consuming. One day my body could not keep up with the perfect work my brain desired. That is when the whole world I made for myself feel apart. My middle school years were very difficult. In sixth grade, I found out that I have anxiety which explained why I was always overwhelmed. A few years later, in eighth grade, I started being very upset and sleepy. As a result, I was diagnosis with depression. The whole rest of the year was filled with many ups and downs. We will write a custom essay sample on Narrative Writing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page On the last day of middle school, I was excited that next year I would be able to have a new start. But over the summer I started having negative thoughts about high school. I would tell myself that if I could not handle middle school, I would never be able to survive high school. I later realized that because I was so hard on myself, I made myself believe that I could not get through high school. The first two months of school were good. I was able to keep up with my schoolwork and make some new friends. Slowly the work was getting more and more difficult. Worse of all there was a ton of formal writing. I could never come up with a topic to write about and the moment I did, the bell would ring. I was getting piled with work and I could not keep up. I stopped turning in assignments, which caused me to fall behind in many classes. Then I just gave up, I stopped doing any of the assignments my teachers gave me. I would come home from school and sleep for the rest of the day. At one point I started telling myself that if I was not going to do any schoolwork, then why bother going to school. School became a fear of mine, that I did not want to conquer. The person that I had been before was being taken over by another side of me. One that I was very unfamiliar with and scared of. I ended up taking the rest of the year off to get help overcoming my mental illnesses. I also started taking online classes so I could get the ninth-grade credits I needed. Taking that time helped me understand why I could not keep up with my schoolwork, I found out that I have dyslexia. Throughout my elementary and middle school years I found ways to cope with the dyslexia, so my learning disability went unnoticed. Without my difficult freshman year, I would have never known. This experience has helped me learn to see the positive side of every bad situation.