Overcoming Writer’s Phobia

So you find yourself in charge of writing copy for the website, or maybe writing a proposal or a report. You’ve answered all your emails, emptied the Inbox and even sorted your paperclips. The desk is immaculate. You can’t put it off any longer.

You sit there staring at a blank screen, waiting for inspiration. You check your phone every 30 seconds, hoping for something—anything—to call your attention away from that scary white page that you’re supposed to fill with words.

Don’t worry. You can do this. Take a deep breath and get the ball rolling. Once you start typing, from there it just gets easier.

1. Jot down your main points (quickly).

Don’t get caught up in the complexities. Begin by quickly jotting down your main points in no particular order. Don’t worry about word choices, organization, grammar, etc. You can always delete stuff later. Just get the thoughts down before you forget them. This brain dump will help you feel that you’ve accomplished something, and your screen won’t be blank anymore!

2. Create a logical order (a.k.a. outline).

Arrange these thoughts into a logical order that tells your story or makes your point. Some people call this an outline, but if that gives you bad flashbacks to that diabolical 7th-grade writing project, you can call it whatever you want.

3. Make a rough draft.

Add some details to flesh out the items in your outline. Voilà! Now you have a rough draft. This is the time to choose some specific words, and form complete sentences and paragraphs. Check to make sure the order is still working; does the text flow logically from one paragraph to the next? This is a good time to have a colleague read over your work and make suggestions about the content…before you fall in love with your final draft.

4. Make a final draft.

Time to edit and refine the text. Read the entire document through the eyes of your intended audience. What issues or questions does each sentence or paragraph raise? Is each question answered in the subsequent sentence or paragraph? Are there any potentially confusing sentences? Did you have to reread any sections to understand them? If so, re-word them or rearrange them. Are your sentences primarily active (rather than passive)? Is the document convincing and interesting?

Rearrange, reword and reformat your text until you’re satisfied that your document accomplishes its goal. Remember to use headings and bullets to help ease the reader through your text, and always do a final check for spelling and grammar!

5. Have someone else do a test read.

Before you send off the final document, get a second pair of eyes to check for things you might have overlooked.

—by Eve Wyatt: web, writing and design for small businesses

Also check out the articles Writing with Impact and Business Writing that Works