"I just don't know where to start!" "I've drawn a blank!" "I've blocked!" "How do I begin writing this stupid proposal anyway?" "I know what I want to say, but I just can't think of how to say it!"

Lives there a writer who, faced with putting words on that massive blank sheet of paper lying on the desk in front of her/him, has not at some time uttered such plaintive words of woe? Probably not. Most likely everybody who has ever done any extended writing can readily identify with this predicament. We all blank. We all feel inadequate at times, particularly at the beginning of a big writing job. Writing can be a scary business.

Don't despair. There is help. That there is a long line of writers in general, and successful proposal writers in particular, proves that the job can be done. Take heart. You can do it. You will do it.

Be encouraged, first of all, from knowing that a lot of people have told you they think your idea for a proposal is great, your colleagues in and outside the University, your department head, the officers at ORD. They aren't just "Whistling Dixie" to give you positive feedback because they like you (though of course they do like you).

But, ah, there's the rub, isn't it? You have no trouble telling people about your idea. You can do that with great fluency. Words tumble out. Orally, you're absolutely eloquent. But when faced with that blank page, you clutch, you block, you simply can't hack it. Oh where, oh where has your eloquence gone?

So, what do you (and most people in the same fix) do? You make excuses for not getting started. You think things like this:

• The job is too big/too hard. (So, what job isn't, if you don't start to do it?)
• I don't have time for this. (What do you mean? Are you saying, "I don't have time to fail?" Think about it. If every prospective innovator had offered fear of failure as a reason for not embarking on a project, we would all still be living in caves. Or do you mean this excuse more literally? If so, last heard, there were still 24 hours in every day, except on those days we enter daylight savings time. What's the deal? There's always enough time to do the important things, if we set our minds to them. But, whichever way you intend this excuse, forget it. Get on with the job.)
• The rewards are inadequate; the University doesn't provide enough support. (What's sufficient? What's enough? By whose standards? The rewards will never be sufficient; there will never be enough support. Make do with what you have; make what you have be enough.)
• Writing was never my strong point. (Every writer says that. You know the English language, probably grew up with it. Use it.)
• I don't have any good ideas for beginning, or, I had one but it slipped away, or, My plan seemed like good one, but now I'm not so sure. (Rehearse in your head what you said when you took your idea to the department head, or to ORD. It was great then; give it another playback. Maybe talk it into your tape recorder. Anyway, run it past yourself again. Look for its virtues. Elaborate on those.)
• I can never think of a good first sentence. (There is no great rule posted in the sky or embedded in concrete that says you have to start writing at the beginning. Start anywhere you're comfortable, anywhere that interests you. Leave the beginning until later. It'll wait.)

So much for the excuses. The real reasons for not writing are:

• Perfectionism (But nothing on earth is ever perfect.)
• Fear of failure (Is there a person who has not at some time not lived up the standards he/she set? Why should you be different? Come on now, just do your best. Have confidence in yourself.)
• Fear of rejection (Don't make mounds into mountains. "The boy who tries is better than the boy who...." You most likely will be rejected, the first time. Look forward to that eventuality as a learning opportunity. Think positive. Make the most of rejection, if it comes.)

Such notions, such excuses, are all in your head. Admit that, and understand that others have felt the same fears. Recognize that you're only human, too, and that you're procrastinating, and then--get going.

So you sit down, pen in hand, paper in front of you, and you think thoughts like:

• I just can't handle this today, absolutely no inspiration. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel more like doing it.
• I have to walk the dogs.
• I have to clean the refrigerator.
• I have to change the blade on the lawn mower.
• I can't work at home--too many distractions, or, I can't work in the office--too many distractions.
• There's something I need to check first.
• I write best under pressure.
• Two sentences done--o.k., time for a break!

Excuses, excuses. Recognize them as such; face them as such. Then you can deal with them.

Once you're writing --

STAY ON TRACK!

• Be alert to avoidance strategies like sharpening pencils, getting a yellow pad instead of white one, finding just the right yellow pad, adjusting the light, deciding the car needs washing.
• Find yourself a comfortable spot to write in, where everything you need for writing is handy, and where there are no major distractions, like TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, that set of bluebooks, the dog, and that book you've been eager to read. Don't worry about that detail that needs checking; that's the kind of thing you can take care of tomorrow.
• Set yourself a challenging yet reasonable writing schedule. Establish a time for working--every Tuesday and Thursday morning, or every Wednesday afternoon--and stick to it. Then establish a set number of words or paragraphs or pages for each session. Be reasonable about this. Try to make each session's work a unit in itself. You need to remember, too, that writing generates more writing. So what you have already written will affect what you will write next, and what you write next will affect what you have already written. You will probably have to adjust your writing schedule accordingly. However things go, you need to use common sense in planning.
• If that blank page (or empty screen) seems too big and intimidating, make it smaller, quite literally. Fold the page in half, or in quarters, and start putting words down. It's easier to fill a quarter page than a whole one. At first, if you're really unsure of yourself, don't even bother with sentences. Phrases will do. After you've got something down on paper, then go to the computer. Some people can compose at the keyboard; others need paper first. But if you've really blocked, paper is probably your best bet.
• Keep track of, or log, what you have completed, or feel at the time has been completed. That means you need to have a kind of outline of the sections of the whole, the pieces of which you can check off or cross out as you go along. Keep track, too, maybe with big red-ink stars, of those you haven't yet thought through sufficiently, or that you know have details that need to be checked (or the other way around--red-ink stars for completed portions--if that feels better to you).
• Reward yourself at the end of a writing session and when you've completed a unit. Do something nice for number one. Read a chapter in that book you've longed for. Throw the ball for the dog. Kiss somebody you love. Make it up to the kids for having grumped at them. If you absolutely have to have food as your reward, then let your reward be food, maybe nonfat yogurt, maybe even those french fries you've got in the freezer. However you do it, pat yourself on the back. You deserve it. You'll be more eager to begin the next writing stint, and the next and the next. In other words, dangle carrots in front of yourself.
• When you can't think of a word, use ________ or ******** as a placeholder. Very often as you continue to write, the word you wanted comes to you as a matter of course. If you can't think of a transitional phrase, do the same thing. Jot down ideas in the margin or even in the text. The important thing, obviously, is to keep the words flowing. You can always fix the piece later.
• Stop writing only when you've completed a unit and have in mind what you are going to say next. Jot down keywords so that you can more easily pick up where you left off.
• If you do block and can't figure out what to say next or even what angle to tackle next, get away from the yellow pad or computer and talk the ideas through to yourself or to your tape recorder. You'll probably have a lot excess words, but that doesn't matter at this point. What you want is to get the language flowing. If that doesn't work, try running your problem past a trusted colleague or friend. Above all, don't panic. Maybe all you need to do to solve that particular problem is to start tackling another section of your proposal. As you're thinking about the next one, the first one may pull you back. That's letting your subconscious work for you.
• Maintain a sense of audience. As you write, imagine, perhaps, that you are writing for the agency review board or a certain professional group. If you keep a particular audience in mind, it is easier to choose the language that can persuade them to your point of view. That's the plus side. On the negative side, it is easier to fall into jargon and use "in language" when you think you are addressing an audience of peers. You need to remember that, while the reviewers will indeed most likely be your peers, they may not all be in your specialty.

ONCE YOU HAVE A ROUGH DRAFT --

First, congratulate yourself. Celebrate! It may not seem like it, but the hardest part of your task of writing is finished. Once you have words on paper, you can play with them, work them over, move them around, delete them, add to them, find synonyms for them--refine and refine until they say what you want them to say. Once you have a rough draft, you have climbed the mountain and are beginning to descend the other side. Journey's end is in sight.

Some suggestions may help you at this point.

• Let the draft cool. Stand away from it for a while. You'll come back with fresh ideas, and the next writing you do will be the better for your having been away. During this down time, you might want to share the draft with a colleague or run it past the ORD officer. If you do ask some people to read the draft at this stage, be sure you ask them beforehand if they are willing and have the time. First drafts are usually hard to read, simply because they are first drafts and thus inchoate and highly unrefined. So respect your readers' time and energy accordingly.
• Take the readers' suggestions seriously. That may be harder to do than you think. You have invested a lot of time and emotional and intellectual energy in your writing. You think your ideas are splendid and beautifully expressed. They may not be so enthusiastic. You owe it to them, and to yourself, to swallow your pride and think carefully about what they say.
• Rethink your outline. Reorganize it, if that seems advisable. Compare it to the draft. Do the parts fit? Are they where they should be? Have you kept to your topics and subtopics? Have you kept them in order? Is the draft complete in substance? Have you neglected portions? Have some sections received more emphasis than they need? Is there balance? Are they arranged for effectiveness?
• Good writing comes from rewriting. This means that you must read over what you have written, review the ideas, revise, and rewrite, incorporating those revisions. Theoretically, rewriting can go on forever, because as you write, new ideas come to you. So there is a point at which you must fish or cut bait, as it were. But edit and rewrite you must. Produce draft after draft in whole or in part until you know that the writing says what you want it to say in the way you want it said.

  Writing is really thinking and learning, and then putting the new knowledge thus gained down on paper in order to communicate it effectively to others. When we say that we know what we want to say but just can't think of how to say it, if we're really honest with ourselves, we realize that we simply haven't thought the idea through. Thus we don't really know what we think and can't formulate the appropriate words. When we've thought the ideas through, and know what we think, the words will come. They will probably come with great fluency. We may even have to cut some away, there are so many of them, all vying for attention and clamoring for their niche in the spotlight.

• As you go along, read what you've written out loud to yourself. Problems with wording, continuity, coherence, and logic may pop right out when the material is verbalized. You may suddenly see that a certain paragraph is out of place because its ideas do not flow naturally out of the previous one. A word you've been struggling for may simply come to your pen, unbidden, with seemingly no effort on your part. When you've done the very best you can, and you feel the proposal is finished, put it aside for a time, then pull it out, and read it aloud one more time. You may be surprised at how many rough spots you find even at this stage but can now deal with quite easily.
• Good writing is really leading the reader, drawing the reader from one thought to another and from one conclusion to another. Don't assume your reader's minds will make leaps and get what you want them to get. It is your responsibility as the writer to make sure that your readers take from the reading what you want them to. Put your message across.
• Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Think things through, and then go back and think them through again. Don't let your enthusiasm and familiarity with what you're doing lead you into making dumb mistakes. You may be surprised what the heat of professional passion will impel you to say. One applicant "shot away" his whole proposal (fortunately, not his foot!), when, as justification for funds for a proposed book, he asserted that the book was needed because, whenever he took up that topic in his teaching, he had to set aside 15 or 20 minutes to explain the things he intended to put in the book. A quarter of an hour of lecture time is hardly sufficient to justify an entire book.

  In a similar vein, avoid such phrases as " I hope to..." or "I expect to...." Be firm and self-assured. Say, " I intend to..." or " I shall..." or "The project will...." If it turns out later that you must alter your methodology, it will be circumstances that force you to change your plans, not your lack of foresight and planning.

• Pretend you're reading your proposal to an agency board of reviewers. As you read your draft aloud, imagine their faces. Visualize their reactions to particular sections. Sometimes, when you imagine an audience of peers in this way, you instinctively sense where your writing is strong and where it's weak, where you need to flesh out with more detail or another example, where you've belabored your points, where you've jumped ideas and left your logic flawed, where you've left assumptions unsupported, or where your tone rings false. Read with your pencil in hand, and put little checks in the margins where you feel there may be problems. Don't stop reading to fix the passages; do that later. Later, you may have to do a little oral rereading in order to recapture the idea that came to you at the time, but, never fear, it will come back into your head, and your manuscript will be the better for it.
• Don't underestimate the importance of diction, grammar, and mechanics with respect to influencing reviewers. Avoid fancy and overblown language and big words. Employ the active voice instead of the passive. Eliminate adjectives and adverbs in favor of nouns and verbs, because they're more forceful. Keep your sentences short and declarative, but still try to vary length and constructions. Avoid jargon and buzzwords, and always be positive. Check the grammar. Run your manuscript through the spell checker. Make it right!
• When you've got everything perfect, ask your toughest critic to read your manuscript. And pay attention to the response. What is said may hurt at first (we all get emotionally involved in projects and in writing about them), but this may be the most valuable feedback you're received. Take every suggestion seriously, and (after you've licked your wounds) incorporate their ideas into your proposal.

SUPPOSE TWO OR MORE ARE WRITING A PROPOSAL --

Often two or more people get together to collaborate on proposals. Two minds are better than one, right? Sometimes collaborative proposals can indeed be effective at persuading agencies to underwrite projects. But big ideas, good ideas, many ideas are not all that is necessary for winning awards. Some cautions are in order if you are contemplating collective writing, whether as a duo, threesome, or in committee.

Two people may come up with a forcefully written proposal. It depends upon how well they know each other and whether they have worked compatibly before and have been able to write well together even on small matters, like reports or memos.

Committee writing, that is, when three or more people write together, seldom results in a good product. That's because the narrative voice is usually fractured. No single point of view governs the writing. The tone varies, because tone reflects a writer's attitude. Then, too, in committee writing, personality frictions can develop, people may start riding hobby horses or grinding axes, and a lot of time can be wasted in frivolous talk.

In both situations, it may be better to talk through the proposal carefully and at some length to decide clearly on what is to be accomplished and how best to do it. Then assign the task of writing to one person, or divide up the task of writing by assigning sections to individuals, the result later to be incorporated into a whole by one person. The draft can then be reviewed by a partner or by the whole committee, and the resulting suggestions added.

The process of writing, critiquing, and sharing should go on until everyone is satisfied (within reason, of course). In any event, the person doing the writing, or combining the writing, needs a thick skin, and colleagues need always to remember to respect and affirm his/her intellectual and emotional contribution. No proposal is worth making enemies over.

HANDLING REJECTION

Woe is you. You've been turned down. Now what? Here are some suggestions, practical and otherwise, for proceeding, for soothing your wounds.

• Rejection is more common than acceptance. It happens a lot, simply because more proposals are submitted than can possibly be funded. Expect rejection. Being turned down doesn't mean your proposal is no good, and it certainly doesn't mean that you yourself are lacking in some way. It's simply that the odds are that you will be rejected. All is not lost, however.
• Keep a thick skin. Don't expect happy-face stickers. Funding agencies, like publishers, are not in the business of building self-esteem. Friends are. If you get turned down, find a friend who will commiserate with you. Once you've vented your disappointment, put it aside. Make the best of the situation. Life goes on.
• Insist on critical feedback. Think of it as free consulting service. Ask the agency for the reviewers' comments. Examine them carefully. Think about them seriously. Incorporate the suggestions and resubmit the proposal. In your cover letter, point out what you have changed. Your chances of being funded are much higher the second time around. The work of preparing a second submission is far less in proportion to the effort that you put into the first one. In fact, you may be able to whip it out in almost no time.
• It's important to submit your work for public scrutiny. That's adding to the body of knowledge, and it's what faculties and those associated with universities are supposed to do. When you submit a proposal, you are on the way to contributing to the universal knowledge base. Keep that in mind as an additional, more idealistic reason for resubmitting.
• Above all, keep writing. Writing improves with experience. The more you use the written word, the better it will behave for you. In fact, you may well discover that words will enjoy doing your bidding, as they do for Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass." Humpty says they "come round... [every]Saturday night...for to get their wages, you know." Words will be as eager to work for you as they are for him.

PUBLISHING YOUR WRITING

Once your project is finished and you've submitted the final report, you need to get the results out to the professional community. Quite simply, just reorganize the information you've gained into an article or monograph, and select a likely home for it. Examine your target publication to get ideas on how to submit your material. Familiarize yourself with different articles published in that journal at various times, and format yours accordingly. If you get turned down, try another journal, using the same process. Be patient. Be persistent.

If you didn't get funded and you still feel uncomfortable about the writing process or about exposing your ideas to the world, try gaining experience in other ways. In Hints for Publishing Scholarly Writing in the appendix to this handbook, Robert Lucas of the Institute for Scholarly Productivity provides hints for getting your ideas out and into print.

You will discover that you will become more sure of your writing the more that you do it, and once people see that you have good ideas, the more likely your work will continue to be accepted. The old saw still applies: Perseverance pays.