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Overcome Your Fear of Writing

Overcome Your Fear of Writing

I recently visited a Web site promoting leadership training. Curious about what skills were taught, I typed “writing” in the search box. The search engine sputtered for a moment and posted: “Did you mean ‘working’?” No, I meant writing. I tried again with “writing skills.” This time I got: “no results.” And without writing skills, that’s exactly what we get: no results.

Firm foundation
Writing skills are essential—the mortar that sets the foundation for good communications in the business world. And the number of written communications is increasing. Last year, American workers sent 1.4 trillion e-mails, 80 percent of them reporting that they’d rather do business on the Internet. With no tone of voice or facial expressions, no gestures or inflections, e-mail, letters, reports or any business documents rely solely on words to communicate our message. Words help us influence, sell, encourage, promote, persuade, explain and change. But only if we choose the right words.

Victory or TKO?
Writing today is like Ali vs. Frazier in the last round. It takes a jab from computers and e-mail, a hook from school systems that can’t figure out how to teach it, and a knockout punch from fear, perhaps writing’s most formidable opponent.

Fear confuses us. It makes us think we have no interest in writing. It makes us freeze, procrastinate, even clean our offices before we write. But when that fear is lifted, when people understand how important writing is to their careers and that everyone can learn to write, incredible things happen.

The 1-2-3 punch
How do we get there? Try three quick tips for overcoming your fear of writing:

1. Brain dump. When you have a complex subject to write about—or just something you’re dreading—set a timer for 10 minutes, type without stopping, and let both your left and right brains help you. Your left brain gets all those jumbled facts down on screen; your right brain sweeps in (somehow triggered by the timer and not stopping) with clever ideas you didn’t know you had. Now you’ve got the makings for your…

2. Dreadful first drafts. Don’t beat up on yourself about a crummy beginning. The first draft isn’t even about writing—it’s about concept. It’s rough and ugly. We all write them. Join the club. Now, you’re ready for…

3. Good writing is really good editing. Take that first draft and do something fine with it. Organize it, make it more conversational, change boring verbs to vivid verbs, and most of all, tell stories. People love to read stories—so why not use them to explain and instruct?

Used together, these three ideas help eliminate fear, foster great ideas and yield professional—and persuasive—results.
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Overcome Your Fear of Writing - To learn more about this author, visit Lynda McDaniel's Website.

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Lynda McDaniel
(Visit Lynda's Website) Powerful Business Writing – Faster, Stronger, Better. When we work together, you’ll get fired up about writing like never before. First, we’ll quiet any lingering fears of writing. We’ll run off those prissy teachers or bully bosses who made you worry about every word you wrote. Right away, you’ll write a lot better when they’re not breathing down your neck. You’ll quickly learn that I’m not that kind of teacher. I’m a compassionate sidekick who understands what it’s like to look at a blank screen—and what it takes to fill that screen with outstanding words. Then we’ll get you going with jumpstart techniques that end procrastination and increase your confidence. And creativity. You’ve got all kinds of good ideas tucked away in that brain of yours, and these techniques help you access them. I spent years learning how to write and tell great stories, and I can show you the same methods I used to foster my career as a national journalist for magazines and newspapers and author of four books. I bring all this to our work together with an added dollop of whimsy and fun. Let me help you discover your voice, your talent, and your natural writing rhythm.

Lynda McDaniel is a Silver author on EvanCarmichael.com
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