A Blank Page, A Busy Mind
From Thoughts to Paper: Why Working Memory Matters in Writing
I’ll never forget sitting at the kitchen table years ago with a bright young student. At the time, I was still going into homes for coaching, and he had just been assigned a paper.
This was a student with plenty of potential—so much so that a year later, he was taking multiple AP classes. But on that night, the task in front of him felt impossible. We came up with a plan: he would draft a few paragraphs that evening, and I’d check back the next day.
When I returned, nothing was written. Not a single sentence, not even a single letter.
Despite having strong ideas, he couldn’t get the thoughts from his head onto the page.
So, we started smaller. I asked him to come up with just one sentence. That was his assignment for the next day. And that’s how we began—sentence by sentence, thought by thought.
The Executive Function Connection
What many people don’t realize is that executive functions—and especially working memory—are deeply tied to writing.
Working memory is like a mental workbench: it holds all the pieces of information you need in the moment so you can use them. In writing, that means the assignment prompt, your main idea, sentence structure, and even spelling patterns. When the bench is too small or overloaded, ideas tumble off. That’s why a student can have great thoughts in their head but nothing on the page.
And writing isn’t just one skill. It’s a complex blend of:
Brainstorming: generating ideas
Composing ideas – brainstorming and making connections
Planning: figuring out which ideas to use
Building sentences – shaping words into meaning
Organizing paragraphs – deciding what goes where
Working memory: holding those thoughts while writing them down
Physically writing or typing – getting those ideas onto paper or screen
Flexibility & regulation: adjusting when things don’t fit, and managing the overwhelm
All of this happens while the brain is juggling grammar, planning, flexibility, and regulation. When executive functions are strained, even the brightest students can feel paralyzed by the blank page.
Why This Matters for September
That moment at the table still shapes how I support students with writing today. Overwhelm can shut down the process before it even begins. Sometimes the most powerful support we can give is to shrink the task to a doable starting point, like one sentence.
Here’s what’s happening this month at Connected Pathways Coaching:
Working Memory & Writing – our September theme, exploring how working memory impacts every stage of the writing process.
New Training – details coming next week about our end-of-month training designed for coaches and educators.
Mastering EF Module – for our graduates and Certified EF Strategists, a brand-new module on writing (with insights on executive functions, developmental coordination disorder, and dysgraphia) will be released by the end of the month as part of Year 2 recertification.
New Cohort Starts Monday, Sept. 8 – Our next Mastering Executive Function course begins next week. This round will be held in the evening at 7pm EST, making it easier for educators and coaches to join after the workday.
Wrapping Up the Story…
That student eventually did complete his paper—one sentence at a time. Along the way, we worked together to figure out which strategies and tools supported him best. (Hint: speech-to-text quickly became his best friend.)
He went on to succeed in his advanced classes, but the breakthrough wasn’t about content knowledge. It was about understanding his brain, supporting his executive functions, and giving him the structure—and strategies—he needed to get started.
This month, we’ll explore how to help more students cross that same bridge—from overwhelm to expression.
