Knock the writer’s block

Author : Barbara Wilson

Posted : 03 / 06 / 09

Most people have felt the curse of the dreaded writer’s block: that plummeting feeling of panic that takes hold as you stare hopelessly at a blank page, or at that accursed flashing cursor.

If you’re afflicted with this condition, you’re in good company. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Ellison and F. Scott Fitzgerald are all said to have been fellow sufferers.

So don’t despair – just read on to help release the report (or proposal, letter, webpage…) within.

The block explained

The main reason for writer’s block is anxiety. And our worries may stem from several causes – for example, we:

• don’t understand the brief
• want our document to be just too perfect
• have too much information
• have too little information
• have too little time.

A second reason for not being able to get going is boredom – we may feel totally uninspired by the piece we have to write.

Finally, and quite understandably, we might just have too much going on in our lives outside work and can’t concentrate on the task in hand.

The block strikes

Wherever it comes from, that horrible state of blankness can be utterly debilitating. The times we’re most likely to have difficulty are right at the beginning and around the conclusion of our piece of work.

Breaking the block

Luckily, there are many ways to solve this problem. And here are some that will save your document – and your sanity.

Plan properly

You can reduce your anxiety enormously by planning properly. To do this well, make sure you ask your line manager or reader enough questions about the brief before you begin. You may start off feeling quite confident, but this can quickly evaporate if you’re not entirely sure where you’re headed and why.

Try drawing a spidergram: put the topic or title at the centre and make each ‘leg’ an important aspect you need to cover. Ask yourself what you need to say about each of these aspects: asking yourself the who-what-why-how-where questions will help to make sure you’ve got it all down.

Leave off the hair shirt

Don’t beat yourself up, it’ll only add to the feeling of frustration. Instead, put it in perspective and consider the reader’s point of view. This will take your focus away from your own fears, as well as producing a document that will be best for your intended audience.

If you’re just feeling a bit fed up with it all, try to remember what made you enthusiastic about your subject in the first place or why it is a worthy topic. After all, if you’re bored with what you write, why should anyone else want to read it?

Manage your time

If your problem is procrastination, then set a time to start and stick to it. If the whole task seems huge and overwhelming, tell yourself you will just do fifteen minutes then have a break. Chopping assignments into chunks makes the whole process feel more manageable.

Find out more on a writing skills course

You can boost your business-writing confidence still further by attending one of our High-impact business writing courses. You can learn a surprising amount from our expert trainers in as little as one day, and become much more able and enthusiastic about your writing.