as a society, we truly struggle with like,, individualism. i feel like writers today often try to insert themselves into others' writing simply because they aren't the same as theirs. the concept of "overcorrecting" someone's paper is very much a real thing, so just stick to helpful comments that can be fixed "in the now" rather than a "maybe fix this" kind of comment,, #stoptryingtomakepeopleassimilatetoyourwriting

i think something that causes a lot of people to struggle with writing is worrying about the critique afterwards. it's not always constructive and one instance of a bad editor can ruin someone's writing game for forever. these are not our own writings, therefore it would be really rude of us to try and diminish someone else's work simply because it doesn't fit our standards, all we can do is provide some insightful notes and go from there; not all writing is for all people.

sort of irrelevant to the actual content of the text, but I found it super silly how the example of "crappy writer who needs their super nice friend/roommate/peer to nicely edit their paper" is automatically a female, and I think sort of says a lot about how a lot of men view women as writers

I think this is basically saying that the idea of plans or rules should definitely be kept in mind when writing or completing any task in order to understand it properly. In writing, the task is to write eloquently, so knowing basic writing skills and tactics assist with this along the way, and the more you know, the easier it should be. However, this doesn't negate the need to write something fresh, or the need to write something about a new topic, or a multitude of other separate issues from the initial "how do I write?" A rigidly written paper that follows every single rule and guideline is likely never going to be as good as a paper that was written with the same knowledge in mind, but deviating from the set norm. I think weird papers are kinda fun.

I can relate with the latter group; I don't experience blocks often but when I do it's usually due to the fact that I have to write in an exact formatting. Things like research papers sometimes are harder than creative writing or rhetorical analysis due to their very "rigid rules." It's a lot easier (in my opinion) to write with some planning or a general sense of direction than to try and plot it out, line by line, start to finish.

some people might view writing as a skill that select people have, and the rest attempt to recreate, but its never truly the case. even "good" writers are terrible writers, and sometimes "terrible" writers can make really good pieces. not every piece is perfect, and its good to remember that it's okay to write some blurb about nothing because writing is not permanent and can always be altered and made better, in some way.

SFD would have been so helpful back in high school, i feel that writing/english classes often make it seem like you should start with a beautiful first draft and then keep polishing from there, as if writing a random blurb or not knowing how to start your paper but knowing how to end it somehow could not be rectified, or that an ugly essay can't be transformed with more work, editing, etc. i often find myself struggling with what to write, but reading SFD has made things feel a lot less intimidating. yes! write your silly little words! they will make sense when they need to!