Writing is at times difficult, whether it be you're free-writing or working on a school assignment. Both are incredibly different yet so similar if you truly look at them. To help you start your paper, here are some easy and painless tips to help get your creativity running.

1. If it's an assignment, read the guidelines

By doing this, you will gain insight on what the assignment is about and its restrictions. While reading through the guidelines, be thinking about what you want your paper to be about and start a mental outline.

2. Write down all your ideas on your topic

Once you're finished with reading the guidelines, start a bare minimum outline. A bare minimum outline is just one or two sentences of each section of the paper. For example, if I was writing a paper about dolphins, my first body paragraph would be something like, "They are mammals that breathe air using their lungs."

My second would be something like, "There are 44 different species of dolphins," then I would go into detail about a select few. By doing this first, you can then select what you want to focus on specifically and state it in the introduction and conclusion. After this, formulate your thesis with what you have written down in your outline.

3. Start an outline or flowchart

This is where the research truly starts and you expand on your bare minimum outline. In this section, make sure to expand on each topic you bring up and connect it with the next one. Make sure to cite your sources.

4. Give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm and write

Procrastination is the worst thing you can do with writing ,and it's easy to fall into. Therefore, start slowly. Just read the guidelines first and think about it for the rest of the day. The next day, start your bare minimum outline and then possibly start to research. Finally, after all the research is done and your thesis sentence is chosen, start writing.

5. If it's a paper that requires quotes, find the quotes first

Papers that require quotes can be extremely difficult to write because you're forming your ideas around said quote. So, instead of making the process so much more difficult, just pick your quotes out first then form the paper around them.

6. When you have writer's block, bounce ideas off someone else

It's always easier to talk to someone about ideas and concepts and hear their ideas or suggestion instead of going about it alone.

7. Take breaks

Writing can be a long and strenuous process, especially the longer the paper is. So make sure to take short breaks, whether it's just to eat or watching a episode of your favorite Netflix show.

8. Make sure someone helps you edit your work

I know I'm terrible at punctuation and grammar, so I always give my work to someone else to read through and edit. This could also help you come up with other ideas on how to expand concepts of the paper.

9. Do multiple drafts. The first few will always be rough around the edges

Each draft you do, the better the paper will be because you will catch all the misspellings and the confusing areas of your paper. Eventually, the paper will read through smoothly with only minor errors in it.

10. Always ask yourself if you are answering possible questions readers will have in your work

Sometimes when we write, we the writers understand what we are trying to explain to the readers, but then the readers don't end up actually getting it. Make sure when you read through the paper yourself, you put yourself in the mindset of not knowing the topic and find areas that need work in your paper.

11. Need to cite sources? EasyBib.com will save your life

In some instances, you will need to cite sources in your paper. This can be a long, difficult process. Personally, I use EasyBib.com to help me with my citations in papers.

12. Have fun! It's your time to express yourself

Writing is about expressing yourself, writing down your ideas, and presenting them to a wider audience. It may be difficult, but just remember, there are many people out there that will help you become a better writer. Just find your niche, and keep working at it, because you will not be a expert right off the bat.

I hope this helped a little bit with starting to write a paper or even just free-writing. Personally, I struggled with writing before I started utilizing this process, and it's worked wonders on my papers. Hopefully, you will become less stressed and start enjoying writing as much as I do.