Nothing is more frustrating than looking at a blank sheet of paper and not knowing what to write. With its March 1 deadline fast approaching, writing may be especially stressful for students participating in the University’s annual poetry contest,

The University’s poetry contest is the largest free poetry contest in North Carolina. Even though the contest is open to all residents of North Carolina, N.C. State undergraduates are also eligible to win a prize for the best student-submitted poem.

The prize money – $500 for the state competition – is enough to make anyone give poetry the old college try. Unfortunately, there isn’t one way to go about writing a poem. In fact, one of the big things the judges will be looking for in the contestants’ poetry is originality, according to Wilton Barnhardt , instructor of the Master’s in fine arts program.

“Originality is key,” Barnhardt said. “We like to be captivated and surprised, right from the first words.”

Barnhardt also recalled the winning poems always made the very best use of words and syntax. In poetry especially, every word should be perfectly suited to the writer’s meaning.

“There should never be a word out of place,” Barnhardt said.

Sometimes, however, it’s hard to achieve perfection – and that’s when writers are very vulnerable to writer’s block. John Kessel , published author and English professor, said expecting too much from a first draft of writing is like a death-trap for writers. According to Kessel , a few of his own cases of writer’s block have been caused by worrying that his writing isn’t “good enough” for a first draft.

 ”You can’t write perfectly the first time, but even people who’ve been writing for years sometimes have trouble with that concept,” Kessel said.

One way to break free of writer’s block is to completely let go of expectations, according to Kessel .

“You have to tell yourself your first draft is going to be crap, but that it’s not going to look anything like the real, finished work.”

Writer’s block might also be the result of a writer being stuck at a certain point. In those cases, Kessel advises to “write what you can,” and then move on to another part of the work.

 Davis Harrell, a freshman in First Year College, is no stranger to poetry, nor writer’s block. Though he doesn’t have Kessel’s experience, he has similar sentiments.

“Sometimes you get stuck on a part of a poem that’s just hard to let go of, but you have to ignore it and move on if you want to get things done,” Harrell said.

New inspiration may also be just the thing to jolt a writer out of a particularly maddening slump; and according to all three writers, the world is never lacking inspiration.

“I can always look to the greats for inspiration,” Barnhardt said.

In fact, masters of the writing craft have been sources of inspiration for all three writers. For Harrell, reading other writers’ works can be a palate-cleansing experience.

“Sometimes you just need to get away from your own writing for a while,” Harrell said.

While great writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway have been sources of inspiration for Kessel , he sometimes even looks to bad writing for inspiration.

“Sometimes you see something wrong, and it just makes you want to write it better.”

According to Kessel , some of the best inspiration comes from the world itself.

“Certain things that bother you about life—that make you angry, sad or make you wonder—there’s always a story in that.”