Here I am, playing with the wax from a Mini-Babybell cheese ball.
I can’t write.
I have a paper due on Monday.
I can’t write.
I’m stuck.
The topic is simple: religiopolitical implications of the Philippine-American relationship post-independence.
And I still can’t write.
sigh… SHOOT ME NOOOOW!
E.
Heh. I’m having the same problem. My paper is due Tuesday. Subject: I’m supposed to find something about immigrants that have come to the US in the last 10 years, or talk to someone and ask questions, and discuss it in a paper. Unfortunately, I don’t know anybody and can’t find crap on the Net.
: sigh :
I find when I can’t write I’m trying too hard. If this is the case, try deliberately writing badly. Or saying the outrageous stuff you really feel but can’t say in a serious work. This exercise will usually get the juices flowing again, and it’s surprising how often you come up with something that just needs a little editing.
Hell, I would be [i[constipated.* Never mind blocked. I am sooooo glad all my schooling is behind me. 
Stay away from the cheese wrapper, shut down SDMB, & get to work!
the method that i use that has enabled me to become a professor and write many articles and now a book is a piecemeal method.
Write a paragraph or two that comes easy and gradually piece together the whole paper.
Take breaks after you have started a new section. Then when you come back to the project, youll have energy to get into it again.
The three times in a project that are a hurdle to overcome:
starting, continuing after the initial momentum has run down, finishing and perfecting.
hopes this helps
get stuff down, worry about grammar and spelling later
rewrite a few times.
At least you’ve got an academic topic to write about. At least you can stuff it with lots of factual bullshit to fill up paper. I’ve got a 10 page creative essay due on Wednesday. I’ve got to dream up some subject and emote on command. And because I’ve made the mistake of writing well for this professor in the past I’ve got the expectaion of writing well now hanging over me.
::sigh:: Anyone have an epiphany in Nature recently? Wanna write 10 pages about it for me?
I would so much rather do an academic/research paper. Oh, wait, I’ve got three of them due, too, Tuesday and Wednesday. ::sigh:: :
: motherlovin’ finals week…
Much ink has been spilled about [insert subject here], but few if any academics have realized the full implications of this topic. No less reputable a scholar than [insert really famous person here, with a footnote] has, in my view, has utterly failed to take into account the larger sociocultural context of [topic]. We cannot, of course, blame [mega-famous person]; he was, after all, a product of an older generation. More recently, [insert Young Turk’s name here, footnote] has presented a contrasting view, which, in my opinion, is a much-needed corrective yet overly simplistic. My own interpretation lies somewhere in the middle.
Due to the complexity of this subject, a short review of the salient points seems in order. [Insert random facts here. Footnote heavily.] This much is well known, but the full implications of these facts are yet to be explored. Moreover, we must consider the possibility that some of what we think we know about [topic] is merely error magnified by the transcendent force of received wisdom. In our postmodern era, we must feel free to transgress the boundaries of long-established custom, and indeed the very notion of knowledge itself.
[Continue in this vein for some time. Footnote articles that may or may not exist.]
Thus, in conclusion, the ramifications of [topic] are infinitely more extensive and complex than has been previously thought. This study has been a preliminary effort to define their parameters; further research, however, is clearly warranted. [Insert thinly disguised plea for funding.]
Nothin’ to it.
berdollos is right on. (I’m a professor too.)
Taking breaks is absolutely essential. By all means, go do something physical and fairly mindless. It may open up some channels for you. I’m serious.
Good luck to Elenfair and Lunatic 13!!
I got a kick out of Fretful Porpentine’s creation. 
:::leaps to feet to lead crowd in standing ovation:::
Fretful Porpentine a magnificent piece of academic dazzle! I may just need this, having recently started my first college class in 30 years (Where does theat time go?) and at a graduate level, no less.
Note to self: bookmark this thread
Hometownboy
This pilot car driver’s sources tell her that Hometownboy has a BS in Academic Dazzle and is seeking his Masters’ at the Jedi Mind Tricks School of Writing.
Can I carry your books, mon petit ecolier?
Thanks guys…
Took the dawgs out for a walk.
Aired out the brain.
Made a rose out of the babybell wax.
Drew a giraffe in overalls.
And I wrote! LOTS!
I might get this damned thing done after all…
A screenwriter friend of mine told me something about writers block that I thought was genius. It may help you:
“Whenever you get stuck on your screenplay you are stuck for a reason. 99% of the time it is going to be because somewhere in the pages earlier something is wrong. Re-read what you have wrote and find the problem.”
Of course this is with a screenplay and no a term paper, so it may or may not work for you. It helped me through quite a bit.