Getting stuck
Getting stuck used to mean an involuntary pause in the writing process, a temporary inability to put words on the page. Getting stuck was a routine experience for many writers – especially academic ones whose words are meant to flow from years of reading and research. The pressure! Sometimes getting stuck was called ‘writer’s block’, although that phrase told only half the story. After all, we still managed to write emails and shopping lists in abundance. Getting stuck was more a state of mind, a realization that the swirling thoughts in your head could no longer be tamed and laid out neatly into coherent lines of prose. The only thing you could do was sit in front of a computer with your hands resting on the keyboard and wait until something happened. And it always did, eventually. Today, it’s impossible to get stuck in quite the same way. Generative AI has made the act of writing quick and painless. Can’t think of anything to say? No problem: just enter a half-formed idea,...