Write It Down: Why It Is Hard to Express Your Thoughts on Paper

Many people underestimate writing, thinking that any literate individual can write well. In fact, we all can write, of course, as well as we all can dance, sing and paint.

However, we still call someone a gifted singer, a talented dancer, and a genius painter. Just like all those skills, writing is all about mastery and talent.

At school, college, and university, writing is rather considered as a tool for learning. We use it to express our ideas and opinions, demonstrate our knowledge and skills, provide an opinion, and question one’s point of view. 

Writing is communication, and often this is one of a very few ways your professor can evaluate your academic success. However, many students complain that they find it difficult to write a well-structured and logical text.

Communicating with clarity is, at times, rather challenging. Writing with clarity is even harder. At the same time, the essay definition itself states that it is a composition that is usually analytical and shares a personal point of view.

Losing the main argument and clarity makes writing vague, and the text becomes overlapping.

In this article, we are listing the main reasons why putting your thoughts into words is tough.

You Do Not Plan Your Writing

In many cases, writing is even more difficult than speaking. When you talk during a discussion, expressing your ideas and thoughts, there are possibilities of taking time to correct yourself if the idea is unclear. If you mess up with writing and fail to notice it, you will most likely get a poor grade.

Thus, to come up with a more consistent and coherent piece of writing, you need to plan what you will write about and how. It is a good idea to create an outline where you will put the main ideas to include in your essay. It will be much easier to write coherently once you have a plan.

Writing Is Thinking

Writing comprises thinking, communicating, and creating. This is why it is so difficult. You need to do everything at once while maintaining clarity and logic. Just remember the last time you were working on your essay. Have you ever felt as if your head was going to blow because of different thoughts that were coming to you? We bet you did.

When you feel that there are too many thoughts, make notes separately from your main work. You will be surprised, but you can later find these mind-storm suggestions useful. Some of these ideas can be developed further in your writing.

You Cannot Control Your Focus

Like any other work, writing requires concentration. If you are distracted on your phone, email, or TV, you are most likely to lose the general idea of what the writing is about. 

Any distraction deprives you of a chance to finalize your point and changes the logic of the entire sentence or passage.

Thus, it is better to write your assignments in a quiet place where you can limit all interactions. It is also suggested to turn off all your notifications because even if you manage to avoid checking them, you will definitely be distracted by the sounds.

You Have No Idea How to Start

Some people find the process of topic selection or composing introduction too difficult. What’s more, sometimes, the topic can make you stuck with writing. Try to approach it from a different angle, and you may find writing easier.

It is indeed hard enough to start with nice words or sentences. Your readers should like your intro to want to get to the rest of the text. To come to peace with your writing, allow yourself to put everything that comes to mind on paper.

Some people call it a stream-of-consciousness-style.

Let you be yourself, and do not be afraid of streaming your thoughts onto paper. Once you are done, you will definitely see some nice ideas to proceed with.

Final Thoughts

Writing is a labor-intensive but also interesting and creative process. It requires preparation, planning, and full concentration. It is wrong to assume that writing is a common skill that is available to anyone.

If you find it hard to express your mind in writing, plan your text to the dot. Come up with an outline that includes all major points. Rely on it while composing each sentence so that your text has a clear structure.

Do not forget to make notes of all thoughts that come to your mind and make use of them when the time comes. Avoid all distractions, and you will definitely have a nice text to submit.

Who knows, maybe you will even see your true calling in writing!