We’ve all procrastinated over the act of writing. Of course, when it comes to academic papers, the risk of procrastination is that you’ll miss a due date. And yet, even as you feel the time slipping by, you feel helpless to begin. What can you do?
Many students are daunted by the sight of a white page that they feel they have to populate with a paper. If you feel intimidated, start by filling in the white spaces. It sounds simple, but just creating a title page in the proper format, such as APA format, can give you a sense of achievement that leads you to start filling in some more white space.
For example, even if you don’t have a solid idea about how to structure your paper, you can paste in quotes that are going to be important, write an introduction, or even insert four or five subheadings. Any reduction in white space is psychologically good, as what seemed to be the impossible task of writing a paper is now broken down into the entirely manageable task of filling white space in any manner that makes sense to you.
The bottom line is that, if you wait for an academic paper to flow from your mind onto the page fully formed, you might be disappointed. What you want to do is build confidence, which can be easily accomplished by filling in white spaces on the page. Title pages, subheadings, quotes, notes—put everything on the page in order to build momentum, and trust the essay to take shape as you continue.
