THE MYTH OF WRITER'S BLOCK
For years I taught my students that there was no such thing as “writer's block”. I explained how writing is more like sculpting. An apocryphal story has it that Michaelangelo, on unveiling his David, was asked how he could create such a marvelous work, to which he replied that sculpting is easy: one simply removes all the marble that isn't David. The story has been attributed to others, and probably never actually occurred, but then, it's still a good story, and it exemplifies exactly my approach to writing, and to teaching it to others. It's an approach that I think you might want to at least try, especially as whatever deadline brought you here looms over you.
I cut my teeth as a writer and editor in the previous century, and have held the view that there's no such thing as “writer's block” since I began writing all those decades ago. The real problem, as I see it, is that you may, right now, be unable to write what it is you actually need to write. That doesn't mean you can't write, it just means that you can't write what you need to be writing right now. Now, I'm the first to admit that this might sound a bit nit-picky, and maybe even a bit pedantic, but it really isn't. Not if you understand the moral of the Michaelangelo story: A sculptor is really just a kind of editor.
You might be thinking of yourself as just a writer, but I hate to break it to you: if you're a writer of any kind, even if you never intend to write a novel, or even if you're not trained to be a writer at all, then you also have to acknowledge that you must also engage in the part of writing that you may have been told absolutely must be done by someone else: editing.
You must realize that if you're a writer, you're an editor. A sculptor, if you will. The only difference is this: a sculptor gets a block of marble from the quarry and removes whatever it is they don't need from the piece. As a writer, you've got to build your own block of marble. That means, you have to write. And write. And write. You may end up writing ten pages for a five page paper. You keep writing until your brain gets around to whatever it is you're supposed to be writing about. Once you've got your block of marble, so to speak, then you start chipping away at everything that isn't your David.
A WORD ABOUT EDITING
When I say you have to be an editor as well as a writer, I'm not really talking about blacklining or redlining (a kind of editing among legal writers, with its own rules, symbols, and etiquette). I don't mean correcting every spelling mistake (though at some point you need to do that, as well). What I mean, really, is that once you have your meandering block of marble, you make a copy, and work on that, leaving the original alone, in case you have to go back for some reason. Once you're working on the copy, you need to think of it as a kind of jigsaw puzzle. One that might have some missing pieces. So delete this, rewrite that, drag that paragraph up, split that run on sentence that looks like a paragraph but isn't, keep whatever is responsive to your assignment, delete the rest, and take stock of what you've got. You might need to write a helluva lot more. You might need to clarify some point you made in paragraph 7. You think you should add an example to your point in paragraph 4? The point here is to chip away at that block of marble. Delete anything that isn't David.
THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE
By this point you might be thinking “Yeah, that's all well and good, but you've been doing this for a long time, and I've been staring at a blank screen for the past umpteen nights.” To which, if I was your composition professor, I'd say: So the F**k what?! I don't care what you write, just put it down. I don't care if it's a list of groceries you're planning on getting for tomorrow night's big date. I don't care if it's all the reasons you might think I'm a smug, arrogant, POS, and not the GOAT you were hoping for. Whatever it is, write it down, type it out, record it on your phone, whatever.
If you give yourself excuses for not writing, you won't write. So if you have to type out “I don't know what the f**k to write.” for three pages, so be it. You can delete it later. Right now, the important thing isn't to write your paper on Homer's Iliad. The important thing is to write down something. Anything. At. All. To which you might say “Great, give me a prompt.”, and I'd say: You're missing the point. Your assignment is your prompt, but still... you want a prompt that isn't your assignment. OK. Fine. Here's a few prompts that might help to get you writing:
Make a list of your five favorite video games and why they're your favorites.
Tell me about the worst date you've ever been on, and why it was the worst.
Make a list of things you love about your significant other.
Make a list of things you hate about your significant other.
Which is better: Apple products or PC (Windows/Intel) products?
Do you prefer typing on your phone, or typing at a keyboard?
What, if anything, have you ever binge watched? Why?
What's your favorite comic book film adaptation? Which one is your least favorite?
What YouTube channels do you watch? Why?
Star Trek or Star Wars?
Make a list of five things you love/hate about your job, and why.
The list here is just off the top of my head, but it really is endless. You can write about whatever comes into your head. In fact, you actually have to. You have to because you can't complete your assignment without something to chip away at. You need your block of marble.