By Lucy Oliver, Research Fellow, University of Exeter
Students often say the hardest part of writing is getting started. As one girl (in year 9) put it to me recently: ‘When you don’t know what you want to say is when you have a problem – on a bad day I’ll just sit there for ages, a blank-out kind of, and I know that the time’s running out and I can’t think a thing and I’m like Aargh!’ Like stage fright, being stuck for words can be terrifying when the spotlight is on you to produce. For students, the problem is frequently compounded by their perception that ‘a good day’ depends on forces outside their control: with luck or ‘inspiration’, that elusive idea will somehow pop into their head and they’re off: ‘For me it would be luck and what I can think of on the day. If I can get that first sentence, the rest just comes and I’m alright’. Continue reading “Can’t think of nothin’”