研究方法| 如何突破写作障碍？
暑假已经开始，今日也已入伏，接下来是长达40天的三伏天。许多人选择在假期完成数据分析和写作，但这个过程并非一帆风顺，炎热的天气常常让人思维阻滞，神思枯竭。有一种情况几乎所有人都会遇到——“写作障碍”，也就是writer's block或者叫writing blocks。
写作障碍在什么情况下会出现？我们为什么会遇到写作障碍？有哪些策略或者措施来解决写作障碍呢？
writer's block
When the ability to manage the writing process, or self-belief, or optimism and resilience fails, the result can be the appearance of what is often known as "the first draft wall", a form of writer's block.
当我们无法掌控写作过程，或者失去自信心、积极性和适应力时，常常会遇到人们说的“初稿壁垒”，这是写作障碍的一种。
先来看一则文学作品中有关“写作障碍”的小故事。
It's got to be flawless.In Albert Camus' novel 'La Peste', written in 1947, a town in Algeria is cut off by the bubonic plague, and the people inside gradually realize that they will all die. They begin to prepare for death in a dignified way. Among them, Joseph Grand is a civil servant who has always aspired to be a great novelist. He announces to his collegue, 'What I really want, doctor, is this. On the day the manuscript reaches the publisher I want him to stand up—after he's read it through, of course—and say to his staff: “Gentlemen, hats off!” … So you see, … it's got to be flawless.’
Grand takes extraordinary pains to bring his work to perfection, with evenings and whole weekends 'spent on just one word'. He dies having written just one sentence, beyond which he can never progress.
Grand的完美主义倾向导致了写作障碍：他想让事情完全正确，而且他并不只是希望人们认可他的作品还不错，而是渴望达到某种非凡的成就，于是他无法推进写作。不过，他还是始终保持着自我激励和自律，写作一定程度上让他生命的最后时光有了意义。
另外一个有关写作障碍的著名例子，是2004年Joan Acocella在一篇文章里描述的诗人柯勒律治的经历。这位诗人在1832年写道：
O Sorrow and Shame… I have done nothing!
“Yesterday was my birthday. So completely has a whole year passed with scarcely the fruits of a month. O Sorrow and Shame… I have done nothing!”
不管是Grand还是柯勒律治，都不可避免地遭遇写作障碍。以下是从英国两所大学的博士一年级和二年级学生四年的小组讨论中总结出的一些写作障碍情形，你是否也经历过呢？
Writer's block occurs when...a. I don't know how or where to begin.
b. I thought I knew what I wanted to write but suddenly I realize that I'm not so sure.
c. I lose the plot and can't remember what I want to say next.
d. I lose any sense of direction and don't know where my writing is leading me.
e. I feel that what I am writing is trivial and of no real interest to the reader.
f. I get distracted by other ideas which are on my mind.
g. I have so many ideas at once that I cannot get any of them down on paper.
h. I keep writing the same section/paragraph and cannot seem to go beyond it.
i. I lose interest in what I am writing.
j. What I am writing has stopped making sense to me.
k. Ideas start jumping around all over the place.
显然，某些写作障碍情形要比其他情形严重。引起写作障碍的原因是什么呢？这些学生提出的原因，哪些引起了你的共鸣？
The main causes are usually...a. outside distractions
b. lack of time
c. tiredness
d. general anxiety
e. perfectionism
f. trying to live up to very high standards established by others
g. lack of confidence in the end product
h. thinking which is muddled or blinkered
i. a feeling that I am heading up a blind alley or running out of options
j. procrastination: putting off big decision-making
k. an inability to impose a clear structure on my writing
l. a premonition that I am heading for ultimate failure—so why bother?
m. not reading enough that is relevant to what I have to write
n. a lack of ideas or lack of knowledge
o. negative feedback from readers
p. language difficulties
那么，有哪些策略或者措施来解决“写作障碍”呢？
a. I tell myself to preserve and that determination will win out.
b. I walk away and do something completely different.
c. I skip what I am writing and try another writing task.
d. I change the location of where I write.
e. I change the time of day when I write.
f. I play some soothing music.
g. I offer myself some kind of reward or incentive.
h. I talk to someone about the blockage.
i. I talk to myself about the blockage.
j. I print out a section of my work and examine it off-screen.
k. I try to get inspiration from reading something relevant.
l. I write to myself before I walk away.
还有一些建议被反复提及：
Start writing in the middle of something: a chapter, an argument, a dialogue with an expert. Just begin where you feel comfortable to write. Step back and produce a brief diagram of where this could fit in your chapter, so you can jigsaw it in when you have written other parts.
Remember it is only a draft!—Write fast as it comes to you and then return to edit for:
Conceptual level—ideas, theories, themes, as well as concepts.
Expressions—does it say what you want it to?
Clarity of expression—deal with grammar and punctuation, inexplicit words and expressions.
Practise 'free writing' to loosen up thought processes and creativity. (limited time, without stopping, loosely round topic)
Use diagrams and visualisation.
Write with a partner or a colleague or in a writing group.
当你遇到写作障碍时，不妨试试这些策略，没准儿很适合你呢！
（本文节选自《研究生科研手册》第292—305页，《博士生写作手册》第155—168页。）
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