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Writing Problems and Practical Advice

(quoted from Gerd Ueding’s works)

Write lots!
"Write lots, take every opportunity, create your own if necessary (diary, letter-writing), but always check what you are writing, do not just blurt out on paper the first thing that comes into your mind, otherwise it is likely to be as incomprehensible as the workings of our minds often are; namely full of common phrases picked up here and there and our own individual bad speaking habits.“

Concentrate on what you are writing!
"Concentrate, eliminate any distracting factors, whether visual or acoustic. Either do all your chores (shopping, tidying-up and other little jobs) beforehand or consciously postpone them until you have finished."

Expand your knowledge!
"Imprecise or too limited knowledge of the subject about which you want to write is still the most common cause of writer’s block. The wider and deeper your knowledge, the greater the probability that you will do your work without interruptions and achieve good results: an insight originally used in rhetoric, but which can bring great rewards to any writer.”

Learn from and copy the experts!
"This implies dealing with tradition – and that includes figures of authority in one’s own field - in as uninhibited a manner as possible. Since ancient times, rhetoric has emphasised the close connection between reading and writing exercises (lectio and scribendo) and one of the most important aims of such exercises as lying in imitating examples (imitatio). This, in turn, requires a thoroughly instrumental approach to the exemplary, that is to say, to the classical authors; an approach which is as far from being disrespectful as it is from being timid. The declared intention is to elicit the rules of the craft (including those governing grammar, style and composition) from its masters by imitating them; and it is still today the best method of achieving mastery in these skills. [...]"

Plan and organise!
"The accessibility of knowledge is just as important as the amount at your disposal. Thorough planning and good organisation – whether with the help of a well thought-out filing system, using cards, whether stored on your personal computer, or in the form of a list of headings, will help you to achieve this accessibility. A well-organised library of your own - one in which you know your way around better than in any faculty or university library - is still an irreplaceable advantage when doing any kind of writing. Getting your material together [...] is a big step toward getting over the difficult hurdle of writing those first words. It is, moreover, one of the professional writer’s most important skills, whether s/he is working on a newspaper article, a nonfiction book or a speech.”

Check up on your audience!
"Your picture of your readers or audience should be just as clear as your command of your material. It is vital to create an opposite number with whom you wish to communicate in writing. That said, it is also important not to feel that this (imaginary) audience has control over what you write (there is considerable danger of this happening), but to concentrate solely on ways of convincing (or entertaining and aesthetically convincing) your readers and to conciously ignore the real, future reception of your work for the time being. How readers will react to a literary product can be foreseen by the author only to a limited extent anyway, and this depends on conditions over which s/he has not control.”

Crises and Writer’s Block and how to overcome them

"Most often writer’s block occurs when you begin to correct what you have written much too soon.
Whilst you are writing, corrections should be of one kind only: spontaneous alterations (for example because a more appropriate turn of phrase suddenly occurs to you for the sentence you have just written), nothing more extensive should be carried out in the way of changes, even though you may be fully aware of the obvious faults in what you have written and ashamed of your inadequacy. Keep on writing, make a complete first draft, which will then be corrected all the way through by means of a second and third version, whereby, as a rule, some passages will be totally re-written, some altered and others included as they are.

Should your dissatisfaction with the opening sentences give rise to an insuperable barrier that prevents you from continuing, then try taking a new sheet of paper and making a completely fresh start optically. The discarded first attempts often cover many sheets - but do not be afraid of being extravagant in this respect.

Writing utensils and equipment are chosen to suit the habits of the individual writer and one should be vigilant when switching to new technologies (PC). The more professional your work as a writer, the easier such changes will be, of course.
The handwriting stage in the production process offers major advantages when compared to all the other writing techniques:

It enables you to have direct, tactile contact to your text. Alterations and deletions remain visible, the various layers of a text are not covered over by the next one. A pen or pencil is less likely to cause distractions or place obstacles in your way – in contrast to apparatus with a tendency to break down or develop peculiarities.”
(All quotations: Gert Ueding: Rhetorik des Schreibens (The Rhetoric of Writing):Weinheim 1996. 4th edition, pp. 20-23)