Writer’s Block

I recently sat in on a San Diego Ad Club Copywriting Workshop, a session I was more than willing to wake up early on a Friday morning to attend. Sharpened pencils and new notebook in hand, I walked in full of first-day-of-school excitement, ready to glean wisdom from other professional writers in my field.

Sadly, I was rather disappointed to find that so few people have the passion for words that I do.

It seems that most of the people at this workshop were various marketing personnel who are forced to write their company or client copy because said company lacks an actual staff member with any writing skills (or desire).

We went around the room and gave introductions, including what we hoped to get out of today’s session. Most asked to learn how to ‘make copywriting less painful.’ Ouch.

My personal goal for the workshop was to ‘get my press release and email blasts opened, read, and acted on.’ Unfortunately, I think I may have to research this on my own, do a case study, and then teach my own Copywriting for Copywriters seminar in the near future…

In the meantime, I would like to offer advice for you struggling writers out there, or rather, those just struggling to write—anything.

Writing should not be a difficult task if you are writing about a subject you know. So the easiest advice I can give is this: Do your research. Glean as much background information as you can before ever typing one word. Once you have a general—or better yet, a very specific—knowledge of the company, client, product, or subject, the easier it will be to form full sentences and paragraphs.

I find that so many people (including myself) get writer’s block because they are spending all of their time worrying about writer’s block. So once you’ve done your research, stop thinking and just start typing. Get something down. Anything. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be legible! Just get it out of you and onto paper (or rather, your Word doc). Then, breathe. The hard part is over.

You now have a ‘rough draft.’ It’s rough for that very reason, because you still need time to polish, and process, and pass it around, then polish it again before you post it (how is that for alliteration?).

So, dear struggling writer, do your research first. Then attack your word processor with reckless abandon. Then pass it onto a coworker, but don’t be afraid if they like to use a red pen.

Happy writing!