1. Denial
Today is a new day, which probably means that there's a new paper due soon. Throughout class, thousands of thoughts and ideas swim around in your brain as you plan out the best essay your professor will ever read. You've all but written down the body of your paper by the time you get home, but once you sit down in front of the computer...nothing. You have ideas, tons of them in fact, but in this time of need they are nowhere to be found. They'll come to you eventually, you're sure of it. Right now just take some time to reflect on the assignment, and try not to panic.
2. Anger
Where did all the ideas go? They were right there on the tip of your tongue, ready to be written, and they just left. It's all your fault. It's all the professor's fault for even assigning this stupid paper. Why are you even bothering with this anymore? Oh yeah, because essays determine your grade, and grades determine the rest of your life. Great job forgetting, idiot.
3. Bargaining
Okay, if you can write just one paragraph you can take a break and relax. No, just one sentence. You can look up ideas on Google if you can just find your own sources to cite. Text your classmates to see what they're writing, but you have to write your own thesis. Just get started on formatting the pages and you can get some sleep. Just look at the syllabus to see if this needs to be MLA or APA. Come on, at least write your name.
4. Depression
How are you supposed to ace this class if you can't even write a paragraph? You may as well drop out of college now and work at McDonald's for the rest of your life. How did you even get into college? You can't even think of one idea for one little assignment. Everyone else in the class is probably done by now, and here you are with your head in your hands at your lonely little desk. Congratulations for failing at life.
5. Acceptance
Hours have passed and the only thing written on the Google Doc is your name and the date. At least it's been formatted into MLA. Now all you need is something to write. Instead of wasting your time sitting in front of a blank screen, you might as well waste it doing something a little more fun. Those ideas you had will probably come back to you at 3 a.m. anyways.