Beating Writer's Block in Scientific Writing
Created on May 12, 2025
Writer's block isn't unique to creative writing. Writers of any discipline can face writer's block–the feeling of being stuck, out of ideas and unable to finish your idea. Writer's block can be especially challenging for scientific writing, where it often feels like you have less freedom for creativity. Scientific writing is technical, dense, and often under a tight deadline. However, like any form of writing, there are ways to push through the writer's block.
Whether it's for a lab report, thesis, research paper, or something else, we've got a few tips to beat writer's block!
1. Freewrite
Freewriting is one of the most commonly used methods for beating writer's block, and it isn't unique to creative writing! It's one of the most effective ways to get back into a writing mood. The idea is simple: write what comes to mind without going back to edit or fixing a structure. It doesn't need to sound academic or formal, or be completely on topic. In fact, you don't have to even write full sentences!
Freewriting is often done with traditional pen and paper since it'd be harder to go back and edit things. However, many people are more comfortable with typing than handwriting these days, so they also freewrite using typed tools. In either case it's worth a try!
For example, if you're struggling to start your introduction, try typing out what you want to say in casual terms:
"Okay, this paper is about how this protein affects cell behavior... we tested X and saw that Y happened…"
You can refine it later, but getting your thoughts on the page makes the next steps easier.
2. Set smaller writing goals
Don't sit down and tell yourself, "I'm going to write the entire discussion section today." That's a recipe for stress and procrastination. Instead, give yourself small, achievable goals like:
- Summarize Figure 2's findings in 3 sentences
- Write one paragraph explaining the methodology
- Draft 100 words
- Write for 15 minutes
Find some way to break the writing into smaller pieces. Consider basing these small goals around a specific time, number of words, or section that you have to write. This will shift your mindset from feeling stuck on the paper as a whole to only having to think about a small portion.
3. Look at other scientific pieces
Like with any art, sometimes it helps to get some outside inspiration. In the case of scientific writing, reading similar published work can help you adapt to the necessary writing style of your piece. Seeing how other scientists structure their abstracts, explain results, or layout graphs might give you the clarification you need to finish your piece.
As long as you're not directly copying from them, reading other scientific pieces can help you better understand the patterns of scientific writing. Try searching for papers in your field or even asking peers for examples. A quick scan through similar articles can offer ideas and language to help guide your own.
4. Revisit your notes!
Even though you might feel stuck right now, you're more than qualified to finish your scientific piece. You've done the research and taken the notes to put your piece together, but you might have an overwhelming amount of information to actually go through.
Your notes might also be scattered in different places because of the varying formats, like numerical data, text analysis, links and citations, graphs, and more. When it comes to scientific writing, you'll need a tool that can handle this variety of notes. Stempad is designed for this. You can write paragraphs, add equations, create graphs, and insert visual diagrams, all in one clean, structured document. It's not just a notepad—it's a science workspace.
Stempad is built around blocks that you can use to separate distinct ideas and note types within the same document. No need to switch between apps or lose track of context! Everything stays organized, and your mind stays focused.
Conclusion
Writer's block doesn't mean you don't know your material—it just means you need a better process to get the words flowing. Whether it's loosening up with freewriting, setting smaller goals, drawing inspiration from published work, or going back through your notes and ideas, there are ways to make scientific writing smoother and less stressful.
The more you write, the more confident you'll become. And with the right tools, that blank page won't seem so intimidating anymore.
Improve your workflow and break your writer's block–start using Stempad today!
