: Re: How to get over writer's block related to revising? I'm a PhD Student in the social sciences. When I do focused free-writing on a topic, my thoughts just fly out and I can easily generate

@Debbie451

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You've got the seeds of your answer in your edit. When you write, you're just dumping. Whatever comes to mind, without structure or discipline, and who among us doesn't love the sound of your own voice?

But when you're done, now you have to shape your thoughts into a coherent argument. And for some people, that's not particularly fun. (In fiction, this is called "discovery writing" or "pantsing," as in "writing by the seat of your pants.")

Reverse-engineering an outline from your logorrhea sounds like the simplest plan. Take each sentence or thought of your dump and figure out what topic it belongs to: psychology, talk therapy, pathology, chemical treatment (or whatever your topics are). Make one document for each topic idea. Copy each sentence or thought into the relevant document. (Scrivener is fantastic for this.)

Now you have four or five separate documents with a paragraph each. Move the individual sentences around until you have something coherent, and add transitions as needed. Thread the paragraphs back together and you have a more structured essay.

This is essentially the reverse of the technique I described in my answer to this question. See if that's useful to you.

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