Brains thrive on feedback. Give a brain a cookie (via your mouth & tastebuds) brain says “YUM, more please.” The feedback loop is instantaneous: taste, texture, response, thought all flow quickly. Or touch a hot pan – brain says “OUCH, stay back.” Even when you are doing something like programming, or even solving a math problem, though it’s not instantaneous, the feedback loop is relatively quick in telling you if you’ve gone fair or foul.

The information you see from the work you’ve done tells you pretty quickly whether or not you’re headed in the right direction. If there’s success, your brain incorporates this information and allows you to do the next thing. And if there’s failure, your brain adjusts and recalibrates your strategy.

But with writing, the feedback loop is way longer. You may not figure out what you’re trying to say until sentences, paragraphs, even pages later. You may not even get feedback in the form of objective comments from your instructor for days or weeks (or months if you’re working on an honors thesis). It can be hard to convince your brain to keep plugging away when there’s no reinforcement that says “YUM” or “OUCH.”

That’s why writing can be hard. You feel like you’re wandering around and you don’t know if you’re in the right place. So what to do?

1. Be patient
2. Ask your friends to think/talk through your ideas
3. Read what you’ve written aloud to see if your ears can make sense of it
4. Recalibrate your pace – not all good things in life are fast