Lets Start at the Very Beginning

The hardest part of any assignment is beginning. It can feel so daunting, looking at an open word document or blank power point presentation, the blinking cursor taunting you, as you struggle to craft the perfect first phrase. I can’t say how much of my life I’ve spent glaring at that open page, waiting for inspiration to come out of nowhere.

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Unfortunately, writing rarely works that way. Most of the time, you have to put all of your ideas down on paper in this sort of haphazard way and then edit, edit, and edit some more. From my experience, this second method seems to be more efficient. (This may seem strange, but I have a hunch it’s because I don’t spend the first half of the time having a staring contest with a blank document).

Once I got my momentum, I found that it was easier and easier to write – sort of… The tricky thing with writing is that you can trip yourself up thinking of each paragraph or even each sentence as something new you have to start. If you do that, you can end up back at the beginning, looking blankly at your paper (like I had been prone to do).  Instead it is easier to keep trying.

        

With time and good editing everything will come together.

Working on assignments in 20.109 has taught me how to overcome the inefficient method of waiting for the perfect moment to get started and instead prompted me to jump right in.