Writer’s block can freeze your productivity. One study (Rose, 1984, p. 72) suggests that writer’s block thrives when writers labor under false rules. I call these rules bad folklore.
Over the years, students have reported rules they claimed their writing teachers enforced. Below are the top ten. All are wrong … bad folklore that hobbles good writers.
- Never begin a sentence with And or But.
- Never begin a sentence with Because or However.
- Never begin a sentence with a preposition (Sheesh. How does the Book of Genesis begin?)
- Never begin a sentence with “The.” (Yes, someone actually believed that!).
- No two sentences should begin alike. (Laboring to obey this rule will cripple any writer.)
- Vary your sentence length and structure to keep readers’ interest. (Nonsense. Good writing bases sentence length and structure on the old-new rule and its corollaries—never on arbitrary variation.)
- Never end a sentence with a preposition. (Even the Brits scorn this old chestnut.)
- Write the introduction first. (No, it is usually faster to draft the document first. Ideas for good first paragraphs often pop up late in the draft, as you summarize.)
- Edit sentences as you draft. (Derails your train of thought and saps your confidence.)
- Write your thesis before you draft the paper. (While an initial thesis may help you focus, good writers learn as they write. I often “post-write” a better thesis than the one I had prewritten.)
