How Can I Force Myself to Write Every Day? (1 Viewer)

[bujolover]

Hi guys,
I am struggling a lot in English (not as much as I did last year, but I'm still not doing well enough to get 90+), and as part of my action plan to fix this problem, I am trying to write essays and creatives, and even do reading tasks (I plan to alternate the type of writing every day) within 40 mins, as practice for the HSC.
The problem is: I very frequently get writer's block, and although I read a variety of texts compared to my peers (I actually read the texts we're prescribed for both 2U and 3U English, and usually, if I'm not, I read a fiction or non-fiction book; I also read a lot of news articles often, not just to be aware of current affairs, but also to influence my creative writing), I struggle to gain ideas for my creative writing when I'm practising writing something in 40 mins, and then I don't end up writing anything at all or even having a story outline, and this leads to a vicious cycle of me getting demotivated to pursue writing something every day. I obviously can't keep this up for long, as when I go into Year 12, we'll very likely have to practise writing multiple essays and creatives every week! Does anyone have any ideas for how I can motivate myself to write every day and, mainly, gain ideas quickly, with the hope that I may eventually be able to write swiftly and with high quality?
Even with practising reading tasks, I always do every question except the last question (the mini-essay); I just avoid it all the time and never end up actually doing it. How do I stop doing this and force myself to answer it?
Annnnd...essays are my worst-procrastinated tasks. I always convince myself that I don't know enough about my texts and either just waste time trying to find techniques and analyses, or else don't even touch it until the day before the exam. Why do I keep doing this and how can I stop it???!! :/

 

[Mathew587]

Start of with something small like an essay a day. And by that I mean do an essay OVER a day.
Don't forget to read your texts esp. as you're doing ext. For my creative, I've got a couple of samples which I practice occasionally to different stimuli.
If all else fails, remember that you only get one shot at this... unless you want to repeat.

 

[strawberrye]

I agree with previous poster, break tasks into small chunks so it is less overwhelming, also it may not be necessarily to write every day to maximise your marks. I think in your case, targeted help as in face to face tutor would help you significantly, to break down structure of essay/creative for you and get you started on some ideas you might want to explore. For example, write one paragraph per hour (but make sure it is good haha)... just don't put too much pressure into yourself, try your best and learn from exemplar sample essays which you can ask your teacher for or alternatively find online or also browse resource section of our website

 

[iStudent]

Instead of writing dozens of creatives to practise writing 40 minute creatives, have you considered writing just 1 or 2 and perfecting it then more or less memorise it so you can use it to adapt to essay questions to come?

Just something that worked for me and most others (it is rare for someone to write a good creative with pure creativity in 40 minutes). Might save you a lot of time too!

 

[bujolover]

Instead of writing dozens of creatives to practise writing 40 minute creatives, have you considered writing just 1 or 2 and perfecting it then more or less memorise it so you can use it to adapt to essay questions to come?

Just something that worked for me and most others (it is rare for someone to write a good creative with pure creativity in 40 minutes). Might save you a lot of time too!

I am well aware of this method (I presume just about every kid does it), but I was also thinking it'd be a good way to expand my creativity by writing lots of different creatives in Year 11, with the added advantage of being able to choose the best two out of them in Year 12, thus saving creative writing time from then...

 

[strawberrye]

I am well aware of this method (I presume just about every kid does it), but I was also thinking it'd be a good way to expand my creativity by writing lots of different creatives in Year 11, with the added advantage of being able to choose the best two out of them in Year 12, thus saving creative writing time from then...

Whilst I definitely advise you to write more, but you will be able to think more carefully and meaningfully about less ideas than juggling like lots of creatives at the same time, i.e. write like three or four max and then develop your favourite ones further... you shouldn't necessarily think of 'saving creative writing time', I think that the people with the best marks ultimately see it as a process... you would need to continually develop and refine it... rather than just 'save time'. English may not be the best subject for this mentality simply because you can always improve on your language expression capacities.