{"id":43605,"date":"2018-05-08T12:56:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T19:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=43605"},"modified":"2018-05-08T12:56:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T19:56:24","slug":"writing-and-stuck-try-a-ventilation-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/writing-and-stuck-try-a-ventilation-file\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing and stuck? try a \u201cventilation file\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I am sure that most of us have experienced that feeling of guilt and dread that comes from not getting down to a writing task. We find lots of other things to do instead. More important things. Like looming deadlines. Like people asking for our help. Like new and interesting writing. And when we do \u2013 finally \u2013 sit down to write, the words don\u2019t come. Despite being determined to crack the nut, the writing just doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not talking here about a bit of trouble getting going. The faltering beginning and stuttering start\u2026 well, that happens a lot \u2013 and to all of us. Usually, eventually, after some false beginnings, perhaps some free writing or some brainstorming, the words begin to flow. At first, there aren\u2019t many, and then the pace picks up. And then you are writing. I call this writing-your-way-into-writing \u2013 sitting down and working at what needs to be said till what has to be written becomes clear and possible.<\/p>\n

Nope. That\u2019s not what I mean.\u00a0I\u2019m talking about those times when you can\u2019t actually even bear to start. When the project you were working on is stalled. It\u2019s dead on the screen. Inert. Static. Going nowhere.<\/p>\n

These are times when it might be useful to recognise your own resistance and try to figure out what\u2019s going on. Rather than self-diagnose a block or some other writing syndrome, why not just work with the feelings of not-doing-it? Ask yourself \u2013 what is the\u00a0logic<\/strong>behind this inactivity, this resistance? Why can\u2019t\u00a0you, and won\u2019t you, just write?<\/p>\n

David Sternberg had a solution for this kind of stuckness. Sternberg wrote one of the first books about doing\u00a0a doctoral thesis \u2013\u00a0How to complete and survive a doctoral dissertation<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1981). He suggested that thesis writers keep a\u00a0ventilation file<\/strong>\u00a0for those moments when they are bogged down.<\/p>\n

The ventilation file is a place to write down every negative, angry, frustrated and\u00a0 self-sabotaging thought that you have about the writing that won\u2019t happen. The ventilation file is a place to say why you think this particular piece of writing is pointless, dull, useless, downright tedious, yawn-making, irritating and going nowhere. The ventilation file is a place to say why this piece of writing is scary, could cause you to be ridiculed by your colleagues, get you into all kinds of trouble with your supervisor and examiner, and make you a laughing stock if you don\u2019t get it right.<\/p>\n

Actually, Sternberg had a file for just about every aspect of the doctorate. He believed that one of the primary problems that dissertation writers face is organisation. Getting better organised ahead of time significantly increased the odds of completion, he argued. He\u00a0advocated keeping a timetable file, a meetings with supervisor file, a contacts and arrangements for fieldwork file, a troubleshooting file, an inspiration file, a random serendipity ideas and thoughts file, a devil\u2019s advocate anticipating thesis objections file, a \u201chow am I doing\u201d self-assessment file, a dissertation support group file and a master review of progress and audit reports file.<\/p>\n

Among this panoply of files, the ventilation file had a particular purpose. According to Sternberg, venting about the writing you don\u2019t want to do \u2013 or any other doctoral issue you can\u2019t face \u2013 acknowledges the problem that you\u2019ve got. You don\u2019t pretend that it doesn\u2019t exist, you don\u2019t shovel it under the carpet \u2013 that pretence usually fails. \u00a0Sternberg says:<\/p>\n

Whenever a strong dissertation emotion comes upon you\u2014 be it impatience with an adviser who is holding you up by reading your chapters at a maddeningly slow pace, anger with your husband (<\/em>sic) who isn\u2019t keeping up his commitment to take over the children and household chores to give you your full time in your office, outrage over how one of your fieldwork samples was treated by a superordinate that day, frustration with inability to find a satisfactory analytic statistic for a key section of your data\u2014 get it down. (<\/em>p 68)<\/p>\n

Venting helps you to come to terms with what\u2019s not happening. You face up to life, the universe and\/or writing. Writing about the troublesome chapter, or talking about it into a recorder (another one of Sternberg\u2019s ventilation strategies), can be a way to work out what the problem actually is. Writing about the not-writing makes it seem more manageable because it is now tangible, Sternberg says, it\u2019s something able to be written\/talked about. Writing about the emotions attached to the not-writing may be a way of putting the resistance into perspective, making the feelings of anger, despair and anxiety seem less scary and utterly impossible to control. The problem has been domesticated, tamed. It\u2019s now named.<\/p>\n

Sternberg notes that there is no come-back from anyone if you let off steam or moan about your writing stuckness \u2013 no one is there to sanction or censor you. You are your only reader.<\/p>\n

And because writing about doctoral stuck points and traumas can also lead to problem-solving, this means that it is possible to review your ventilation file or recordings if and when the next writing problem comes along. You can see that you got over it. You can examine what worked last time. Ventilation is a kind of self-help.<\/p>\n

I suspect that Sternberg\u2019s ventilation files won\u2019t work for everyone. And I\u2019m sure that they have limited use. They won\u2019t work all of the time. They aren\u2019t a magic bullet. But I also reckon that they might be one strategy to try out, one way to come to terms with some of the logics underpinning writing resistance. There are often pretty sound reasons for actions that first appear to be negative and self-defeating. Venting can help these surface.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s not to like about the ventiliation file? What is there to lose but a few moments trying it out? If you have a piece of writing that you just can\u2019t get going on, why not have a play with writing-talking-venting to see if it will help you get to grips with what\u2019s really going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sure that most of us have experienced that feeling of guilt and dread that comes from not getting down to a writing task. We find lots of other things to do instead. More important things. Like looming deadlines. Like people asking for our help. Like new and interesting writing. 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