Potential Writers,

You are about to go through a journey that has been years in the making. Through the mountain

of myths, over the river of anxiety- with its current that carries all away, to the tranquil fields of

recovery. This journey will be treacherous, it takes many years to reach their final destination. It cannot

be taken alone, you will need a guide in the form of a teacher. This guide will help you to escape the

mountain, safely cross the river, and guide you through the fields. After this journey, you will find

yourself a stronger, confident, and passionate writer. There will be stumbling blocks along the way, but

your guide will be there to help. Your guide will have been trained to get you through this.

The mountain of myths will be the hardest part of the journey. You have been led up this

mountain, led to believe it is where you are safe, but this mountain will be your downfall. Each level

requires unlearning a believe that others you have trusted have installed in you. To cross the river will

require you to put faith in your new guide, they will help you over this and in a way that the current

does not sweep you away. You may be carried away but relax and do not let yourself drown in the

stress. Once you have arrived at the fields of recovery, you may believe your journey is over, but this is

just the beginning of another great journey. This space will allow you to enjoy yourself and explore this

new area. You will need to learn how to navigate these fields. If not, you may find yourself retreating

and back on the mountain before you know it.

Your guide,

Seneca

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 Table of Contents

Pword 3
Illustration of a pencil as a sword

Frequently Asked Questions 4

A list of questions that may be asked most commonly of writing anxiety

Thoughts from The Writers Desk 5

A stream of consciousness poem in freeverse

Writing Cycle 6
A visual representation of the writing process if unbroken

Across Writing 7
Acrostic poems focusing on Writing and Anxiety

The Constitution of the United Writing Processes 8-10

Rules and amendments about writing

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3
 Frequently Asked Questions

What is writing anxiety?

Writing anxiety is a fear of writing and its process. Anxiety can be present in writers through
procrastination in starting a project or giving up because they feel inadequate as a writer.

How is this anxiety formed?

This type of anxiety is formed through learned behaviors by students and reinforced ideals of
writing and common myths that are associated with the process. If students believe that they
are bad at this action, then they will shut down and avoid interacting with it at all costs.

What are the writing myths?

The writing myths are basically ideas about writing that do not reflect the known best practices.
It is reinforced as students believing that there is only one way to write, and that it carries
through the genres, that mistakes are bad at every stage, longer is better, and various others.

How does this affect the classroom?

Students are affected by this through dropped or lower grades, bad writing scores on tests, and
an anxiety that has been instilled that could be avoided. Teachers are affected because this
anxiety keeps students from wanting to write, causing pushback when giving even simple and
low stakes writing assignments.

Is there a way for teachers to help?

Yes! There are several ways for teachers to combat this writing anxiety in their students. The
first and foremost would be to crack down on learned myths about the writing process.
Demonstrate for students’ new ways for their talents to be used in the classroom. Teachers can
frame writing through a positive frame for students, giving them room to explore the genres and
what is comfortable for them once they have begun to unlearn these myths.

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 Thoughts from the Writers Desk

I can’t
There’s so much
Where’s the time gone?
An hour past, with only a word written
This won’t be finished
My fingers have no circulation

The words
Just forced out
Only coming
In spurts
My mind is complete mush

Did I finish this sentence

All this: punctuation, is off
Lok at thise typis
The formatting isn’t even right
I can’t write good at all

Eraser marks
Ruining the page
Writing is too hard
I shouldn’t be doing this.
I give up.

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 Student gets
taught
traditional
writing process

Impliments
Habits are
these supposed
formed through
writing truths
using writing
into a classroom
myths
of their own.

The idea that

writing should
be hard is
normalized

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 Across Writing

Mysterious
You will believe
Tenacious
Harmful
Sedentary

Annoyed
No words
X -out the mistakes
I can’t do it!
Erratic
Turbulent
Yikes

Warm
Relieving
Imaginative
Thoughtful
Inspired
Nonconforming
Good release

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 The Constitution of the United Writing Processes

Law: There Is Only One Way To Write

Amendment: Writing can take form in many different ways, and the process can go from
different ways as well. There is no one correct way to brainstorm, outline, or draft. If a style
has been developed that works best to write and create a final product, that is the right way
for someone to do it.

Law: Mistakes Are Bad

Amendment: Mistakes are inevitable. Everyone will make them, you can’t make a mistake
intentionally. They’re always and accident and to learn how to better handle them will teach
you how to grow as a writer. If mistakes weren’t made early on, then you never would have
been taught and grown to the writer you are now. Mistakes mean learning is occurring.

Law: First Drafts Should Look Like The Last

Amendment: First drafts should look like a draft- messy and unfinished. They are the
beginning step where you are still exploring writing. Mistakes are okay and natural to make,
they can and will be cleaned up at later editing stages to fully polish a finished draft.

Law: Outline, Outline, Outline

Amendment: Outlines are not always the first step. They can be when you have an idea
already of what you are writing about. There is a silent step before outlining, brainstorming.
Before something can be outlined as a project, the ideas need to form. Outlines are important,
but not the quintessential first step.

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Law: Correctness Matters Most

Amendment: Grammar and punctuation are to be fixed in later editing. Simple mistakes from
getting ideas out and typing or writing too quickly that were looked over are no big deal. The
first drafts should be messy and be content focused. You’re still learning about what you are
writing about, it matters most about getting content out. It can derail a train of thought to
focus on editing as you write. Writing should be a stream of consciousness as the content
comes out. It is the job of later editing to fix this.

Law: The More You Write, The Better

Amendment: Dragging out a paper for two or three pages just to reach the page count can
ruin a perfect piece by weighing it down. If an argument is made and defended in 12 pages
when the assignment says 15, it will work better in the end to keep it at 12 and have a solid
argument. Conciseness is key in the best writing you can do. If something can be said in
fewer words, don’t fluff it up with nonsense.

Law: Have Your Words Planned Before You Even Begin

Amendment: Have an idea of what you want to write, and let the words come to you as your
write. Everything will change with revisions, writing starts with an idea and putting words to
a page. As long as you start, you can write. Your thesis is a placeholder and will be changed
by the time your paper has finished, requiring the most revision of all. The first thesis is a
diving board to begin the paper.

Law: Stick to Your Chosen Form, Content Aside

Amendment: Content is the star of the show, a form should take place around it to best
showcase what is on display. Form is important but not as much as the content itself. It
should grow as the writing grows, giving room for development and experimentation. Genres
can come together and create new forms to benefit the content most.

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Law: Revising Is Editing

Amendment: Revision is changing the words, sentences, and order of a document. It involves
actual word change and thought of how best something flows for the purpose. Editing is the
fine tuning of a paper. It is overlooking the grammar and mechanics, ensuring there are no
glaring mistakes, and then looking over it again for smaller mistakes. They exist separately
for separate purposes.

Law: Keep Your Voices Separate

Amendment: Your voice as an author should be similar to your own voice. Writing and
reading flow as smoothly as speak. It should not take intense dissection to realize what you
are saying in a sentence or paragraph. The words should flow smoothly and mimic speech
closely.

Law: Writing Can’t Be Taught

Amendment: This holds no truth whatsoever. Writing is an art and requires teaching from
outside sources, as well as teaching yourself what methods for each step of the process
work best for you. You need to be taught the mechanics and basics of sentences and
paragraph structure, different forms, and finally how to put it together. Even people with
natural gifts for writing can always be improved by being taught new or different
techniques.

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 Works Cited

Bishop, Wendy Teaching Undergraduate Creative Writing: Myths, Mentors, and

Metaphors Journal of Teaching Writing, Online.

Martinez, Christy T., Ned Kock, Jeffery Cass. Pain and Pleasure in Short Essay Writing:

Factors Predicting University Students’ Writing Anxiety and Writing Self-Efficacy.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 2011. Online.

Murray, Donald M. Write to Learn. Canada: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. Print.

Smith, Frank. Myths of Writing. Language Arts. 1981. Print.

Staw, Jane A., Make Your Writing Anxiety Disappear By Thinking Small. Jane Friedman. 2018

Online. https://www.janefriedman.com/make-your-writing-anxiety-disappear/

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 End Notes
Pwond
The idea for this visual came to be after reading the article by Jane Staw and how to
combat writing anxiety. She discusses in that article that any piece of writing, even very
informal pieces, were at because she had these nagging thoughts in the back of her mind
about being a bad writer. I thought back to the old saying that “the pen is mightier than
the sword” and dwelled on that. To students with severe anxiety about their writing, a pen
can feel as heavy as a sword. It can be hard to pick up because these are one in the same.
They know their words will be scrutinized and heavily critiqued. Students with anxiety
are scared to make mistakes and believe that they cannot be made at all or it will make
them a bad writer. That is why the eraser is gone and replaced with the top of the sword,
not only is this pencil heavy to lift, but it is impossible to correct any mistakes with.

FAQ
The frequently asked questions sheet came from a combination of the “Pain and Pleasure
in Short Essay Writing” article as well as the “Myths of Writing” article. These focused
the most on anxiety and writing myths specifically. I wanted to make a FAQ sheet for
this because when I began this myself, I had a lot of questions that required deep research
to begin to find the answer to. If there was more of something simple and introductory
someone could read to understand the basics, maybe this situation would be better
understood by teachers and students alike. I included answers for how teachers could best
help that came from a mixture of each articles advice and what overlapped between them
most.

Thoughts from the Writers Desk

This was a style of poetry I wanted to tweak around with and try to incorporate both
stream of consciousness and poetry. I took thoughts I had while writing the final draft of
my capstone paper and took them into poetic form. Each of these is a thought that I had
that stood out and caused my writing anxiety to worsen. I chose stylistically to make the
punctuation, grammatical, and formatting mistakes that were referenced. I misspelled
common words, added punctuation where it didn’t’ need to be as well as forgot to add it,
and I set the line about formatting to the side where the rest of the poem is not. This poem
was sparked after the article by Bishop. I feel most insecure about my creative writing
and to try a new style was interesting. It argues with the fact of if creative writing can be
taught, and I wanted to see if I could teach myself a new style by keeping an open mind
with it. It also discusses how students come in with closed minds on things and that is
reflected through several lines about not feeling good enough, even if I have the
knowledge that drafting doesn’t equal perfection and that the writing process is a cycle of
sorts.

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Writing Cycle
The writing cycle was inspired by both the article by Jane Staw, as well as Murray’s
Write to Learn. It demonstrates how the cycle of perpetuating writing myths harms
teachers and future writers if there is no step in there to break it. So long as teachers go
through and do not adopt the knowledge that the writing process is not what they went
through in their schooling, they will keep this going by teaching writing in the way they
were taught. If this cycle is broken, over time the attitudes of students will change and
more may be receptive to writing instead of closed off to it. Teachers need to unlearn
these things, so their students will not be forced to in the future.

Across Writing
The acrostic poems were inspired by the “Pain and Pleasure in Short Essay Writing”
article. It discusses writing anxiety the most and I wanted to use short words or phrases
that encapsulate Writing and what it should be, Anxiety, and Myths. For Anxiety I used
red to bold the first letter of each word because anxiety will stand out the most to writers
and be the biggest hurdle. The only word I used positive language with was Writing,
because that is what it is supposed to be. Writing should be positive and happy and a way
to express yourself when not shadowed by anxiety brought on by these myths that need to
be unlearned.

Constitution
The Constitution of Writing was inspired by the list of things that need to be unlearned by
David Murray. For each I created an amendment, using the knowledge gained through
this class and discussions in it, and each of the articles referenced in this. It is the
culmination of all the knowledge from the article and what should be done to change the
writing process for new writers and students.

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