Insanity and Topic Block

I have the hardest time deciding what to write papers on. I used to get writer’s block all the time, but now it’s topic block. Over the years I’ve developed a few strategies for getting around a case of writer’s block, and really don’t worry much about it anymore. But topics are something else. I’m still in an anti-topic-block strategy development phase.

The problem is not really about lack of interest—as I read I always find things that interest me for further study. It’s not really about too many topics, either. I can usually narrow it down to a small handful, and I can certainly tell you what I’m not going to write about. But what if I get halfway through a paper and decide I would rather do something else? What if it turns out to be complete garbage? Would something else have been more interesting? Will the professor laugh when he sees the topic? Will my paper be the exemplar of what NOT to write on? It’s insanity. Or avoidance, as Dr. Thomas termed it. And so it goes…

I can’t ask my husband for help deciding on a topic anymore. He officially quit when I graduated with my Bachelor’s (notice my proper use of capitalization here), stating irreconcilable differences. My children came next—I would place a few topic ideas in a bowl and have someone draw one out. Apparently it’s not much fun when mom doesn’t write on the topic you drew out for her. Same goes for my professors—maybe it’s insulting to recommend a topic only to see something completely different show up in the final paper. Forget reverse psychology…I’ve tried that, too. I’m much too convincing.

So here’s my topic for the bibliographic essay: Contact Zones and English Studies. Whoo! I plan to start with Mary Louise Pratt’s essay on contact zones, tracing the idea through the works of others such as Patricia Bizzell, Richard Miller, and Min-Zhan Lu. It’s a start, anyway.

I decided on this topic by using my latest anti-topic-block method, the authoritarian mandate. This consists of a direct order, with no room for possibilities or choice. Basically I told Tamar to tell me what I was writing on, and she did. (Thanks, girl.) So far, it’s working.

Now if someone could just tell me the topic for my master’s thesis, I’d get to work.