Three Steps to Overcome Writers’ Block

The screen or paper is blank, you have an important document to write, and you have no inspired way to begin. Our advice? Follow communication skills training best practices and forget waiting for the perfect words or divine inspiration. Just begin.

1. Simply write whatever words come to mind. Don’t even try to revise…just capture your thoughts as they occur to you. You are likely to find that ideas come faster and faster simply because you have overcome the paralysis of the proverbial writers’ block.
2. Once you have scribbled your initial ideas, go back and put them in logical order. With this crude “outline,” you can begin to write a true first draft. Again, don’t write with the mechanics of spelling and grammar in mind. The point is to create the beginnings of the document. If you find yourself in a section that slows you down because you need more information, move on and return to the tough part later.
3. The last step is to edit. As you revise for clarity, delete unnecessary words. The best documents are those that are expressed simply.

Finally turn on your spell-check, correct and re-read at least twice before you hit “send.”