Comments | anti_cyclone: Academic discourse

anti_cyclone

Academic discourse

Apr 27, 2006 01:05

Tonight I've been writing a paper for art history. This is the first real paper I've had to write in many, many years. The first, in fact, since I started consciously trying to overcome my tremendous phobia about writing. And of course the conditions were less than ideal, but they always are: I didn't have nearly as much time as I would have ( Read more... )

art-sniveling

Comments 7

sanspoof April 27 2006, 16:31:24 UTC

I _completely_ blame diarying for my ability to write coherently. I still feel like a stupid kid or an impostor in my real classes (seriously, in science writing the style and grammar bars are low but the content bars are really really high), but if I hadn't been recording things in a useful way (e.g. readable by others) since, uh, 2001? I'd be in much worse shape.

Did your writing phobia spring from anything? I'm curious about how it worked, but you don't have to write about it if you don't want to.

anti_cyclone April 27 2006, 21:25:01 UTC

I had a horrible fifth-grade teacher. I had just changed from the local crappy public school to a pretentious private school, and it was the first time I'd ever been expected to write, and the teacher wouldn't tell me anything about how to do it or what he wanted. Then I'd turn stuff in and he'd hand it back with comments like "FEEBLE" in giant red letters. It got so that I would get hysterical and have panic attacks at the mere sight of pencil and paper.

Not too long ago I found a website for the school, and he's still teaching there. I thought about sending him a nasty e-mail, but decided against it.

sanspoof April 29 2006, 16:20:12 UTC

Eeugh. Horrible.
I'm sorry.

jamiam April 27 2006, 20:29:06 UTC

Yay, no more writing phobia!

... whatever drugs you use, could you please pass them this way?

anti_cyclone April 27 2006, 21:19:21 UTC

Tea, gunpowder green, hot.

Or really, any kind of tea. It fuels the writing without fueling the rage.

jamiam April 29 2006, 20:02:31 UTC

hee, rage.

Really, I could use a bit of rage -- I'm sure it would be an improvement over abject hopelessness puntuated with despair.

anti_cyclone April 30 2006, 01:43:54 UTC

Yeah, ugh, I've had a fair amount of those this semester too. I don't know what fixes them. Tea isn't strong enough, and I fear that other chemicals might be too strong. Increased light and warmth seem to be helping, in my case.

Gosh, hang in there. I hope things get better for you.