The Writing Process

Have you ever received a writing assignment and thought “this won’t take long”, only to stay up all night rushing to finish it before the deadline? You’re not alone—many writers struggle to plan effectively, which often results in work that is just not as good as it could be. When you wait until the last minute and fail to engage in every step of the writing process, you’re not doing your best work.

The writing process involves structured steps to develop and refine ideas into a coherent and polished piece, including brainstorming, researching, outlining, drafting, revising, and proofreading:

1. Brainstorming generates initial ideas through techniques like freewriting, mind mapping, or listing to explore and focus your topic.
2. Researching involves gathering credible information from sources like books, articles, and websites to build evidence and support for your writing.
3. Outlining organizes main ideas and details into a structured format, creating a roadmap with an introduction, body, and conclusion.
4. Drafting transforms your ideas into complete sentences and paragraphs, focusing on content development without worrying about perfection.
5. Revising refines your draft by reorganizing, clarifying, and ensuring coherence while addressing feedback and citing sources properly.
6. Proofreading corrects grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting errors to ensure your writing is polished and professional.

The writing process is not linear, but recursive, meaning you will need to move forward through some steps and then circle back to redo previous steps. It starts messy, with ideas in disarray, but gains clarity and direction as you work through it. For example, you might find yourself returning to the brainstorming phase even after you’ve begun drafting, or after completing a draft, you may realize that a significant aspect of the topic is missing, which sends you back to researching. Or, the process of research may lead you to an unexpected subtopic, which shifts your focus and leads you to revise your thesis. This flexibility is a natural and essential part of writing, allowing your ideas to evolve and mature.

It helps to recognize that these steps aren’t rigid and prescribed. Instead, viewing them as flexible allows you to adapt them to your own personal habits, preferences, and the topic at hand. You will probably find that your process changes, depending on the type of writing you’re doing and your comfort level with the subject matter.

Writing Through Fear

Writing is an activity that can cause occasional anxiety for anyone, even professional writers. Start early and use strategies, like those mentioned below, to help you work through writing anxiety.

1. Interrogate your fear. Ask yourself why you are afraid. Is it because you fear failure, success, or judgment? Has it been a while since you’ve written academically, and so this new style of writing is mysterious to you?
2. Write through it. We all know the best way to work through a problem is to confront it. So sit at your desk, look at the screen, and write. You might not even write your assignment at first. Type anything—a reflection on your day, why writing gives you anxiety, your favorite foods. Sitting there and typing will help you become more comfortable with the prospect of more.
3. Give it a rest. This was my approach. After realizing that I was having an adverse reaction, I called it quits for the day, which ultimately helped reset my brain.
4. Find comfort in ritual and reward. Getting comfortable with writing might involve establishing a ritual (a time of day, a place, a song, a warm-up activity, or even food or drink) to get yourself into the writing zone. If you accomplish a goal or write for a set amount of time, reward yourself.
5. Remember that knowledge is power. Sometimes the only way to assuage our fear is to know more. Perhaps you want to learn about the writing process to make it less intimidating. Check out Walden University’s Writing Center website for tips and tutorials that will increase your confidence. You can also always ask your instructor questions about the assignment.
6. Break it down. If you feel overwhelmed about the number of pages or the vastness of the assignment, break it up into small chunks. For example, write one little section of the paper at a time.
7. Buddy up. Maybe you just need someone with whom to share your fears—and your writing. Ask a classmate to be a study buddy or join an eCampus group.

The writing center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the news site Inside Higher Ed, also have helpful articles on writing anxiety.