This blog post was co-written by Caroline Livesay, WFU Writing Center Academic Coordinator, and Nina Clayton, ZSR Ambassador.

Whether you’re polishing a final paper, starting your first research project, or exploring creative writing, there are amazing resources available to you on campus! This being the start of November, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight library and campus resources designed to help you at every stage of the writing process.

Writing Resources on Campus

The WFU Writing Center (ZSR 426)

The WFU Writing Center is your one-stop shop for any and all of your writing needs! No matter what kind of writing you are working on or where you are in the writing process, our peer tutors are here to help. The Writing Center is open six days a week, offers both in-person and online appointments, can work with students one-on-one or in small groups, and even has a “focused writing time” option to help you get some writing done or work through your writer’s block in a space that was intentionally designed around the needs of writers. For more information and to book appointments online, please visit the WFU Writing Center’s website here, or drop by the center in-person during open hours for a walk-in appointment!

ZSR Library Resources on Writing

Check out Books & Audiobooks on writing and authorship from the library’s collection! Additionally, the library has a collection of magazines that focus on writers, publishing, and writing craft. Such as:

Campus Spaces Conducive to Writing

Tired of working in your dorm room? Try writing in some of these great study spaces on campus, instead!

Spaces with Background Noise

  • 3rd Floor of Benson
  • 2nd Floor of Smith’s Cafe
  • ZSR’s Atrium
  • Campus Grounds
  • Wellbeing Center

Outdoor Spaces

  • Tables in Tribble Courtyard
  • Tents on Manchester Plaza
  • Benson Patio
  • Firepits outside Farrell Hall
  • Tables outside Zick’s
  • Patio above The Pit

Quiet Spaces

  • ZSR 401
  • ZSR 5th Floor
  • ZSR 7th & 8th Floors
  • ZSR Study Carrels
  • Basement of Kirby Hall
  • Carswell Hall 212

Ways to Engage with Writing Outside of Class

If you are looking for more opportunities to write outside of class assignments, there are a bunch of ways to engage! For writers looking for more formal projects, writing-focused organizations on campus can be a great way to start. Some organizations with writing opportunities you might look into are the Old Gold & Black, 3 to 4 Ounces, The Magnolia, Spoon University at WFU, and HerCampus.

Interested in doing some creative writing but don’t know where to start? Here are some fun creative writing prompts developed by the tutors in the WFU Writing Center to get you started!

Pro Tip: The WFU Writing Center is also a great resource for students working on personal and creative writing! Our peer tutors would be delighted to be a test audience for your work and give you feedback on your poetry, creative writing, works of fiction, personal statements, cover letters, and more! You can even book appointments to have some focused writing and brainstorming time with a tutor there to help you set goals, talk through ideas, and answer questions.

Writing Tips from the WFU Writing Center

The writing process looks different for every writer, but there are aspects of the process that we all share. As we head into the last few weeks of the semester and you start working on those final writing projects, here are some tips to keep in mind:

Feeling stuck? Talk it out!

When working through writer’s block, one of the most effective ways to get the words flowing is to talk about your ideas with another person. So, if you’re feeling blocked, try grabbing a cup of coffee with a friend or scheduling an appointment with the Writing Center. Explaining your thoughts out loud to someone else can be a great way to figure out what you really want to say and to get a starting point for how you might say it. Recording yourself speaking or having someone to jot down notes while you focus on the thinking aspect of the writing process can also help you keep track of great ideas! And you don’t even have to have anything written down yet for this to be an effective strategy. If you’d like to chat with a peer writing tutor, just bring in the prompt and we’ll help you brainstorm to start getting words on the page!

Ideas getting lost? Mix it up!

Sometimes the organization we start with when writing a paper isn’t the most effective for presenting our ideas. If you’re starting to feel like the outline of your paper is working against you, try printing your paper out, cutting it up into smaller sections, and reorganizing it like a puzzle. You can also do this on your computer using highlighting, different fonts, or multiple document drafts. Sometimes just changing the perspective on where our thoughts might fit within a larger piece of writing can make all the difference!

Feeling tired? Take a walk!

Writing takes quite a lot of brain power, so a good rule of thumb is to take at least a 5-10 minute break for every hour of writing. Get up from where you’re working to stretch, grab some water or a snack, or go on a short walk. If you’re working in ZSR, you can even walk laps around the 6th floor if you don’t want to leave the building! Little breaks like this can help give your mind a break, let your ideas marinate, and give you a little energy boost to get through your paper. Just be sure to avoid getting distracted on your phone or the internet during your breaks so you don’t lose track of time and can stay on task!

When in doubt, read aloud!

Anyone who has had an appointment in the Writing Center will know that we are big fans of reading our writing aloud. Reading your own writing out loud when revising can help you hear places that don’t quite say what you want them to, as well as areas that are redundant or don’t flow well. For even more benefit, try reading your paper aloud sentence by sentence starting at the end of your paper and working backwards to catch grammar and punctuation errors.

Pro Tip: You can practice all of these writing strategies in the WFU Writing Center, too! Make an appointment with a peer writing tutor today to get some help with any kind of writing at any stage of your writing process.