Tweet

Overcoming Writer's Block. How to unleash the writer inside of you.

Guest post by: Mark Satterfield

Article Overview: A simple formula you can use to quickly and easily write an article in less than 90 minutes.

Overcoming Writer's Block. How to unleash the writer inside of you.

We've all experienced that sinking feeling you get when you look at an empty computer screen or a blank sheet of paper. Starting to write is the most difficult part of the process, and this is where formulas can help get you over that initial speed bump.

The first and easiest one is the interview. You can interview colleagues, clients, prospects or even yourself, if you're so inclined. Here's a clever idea you might want to consider.

Todd Black who's in charge of business development for a large software firm in Silicon Valley, proposed writing a regular column entitled "The Winner's Profile". It consisted of a short 300-word profile of leading executives in his industry. The benefits to Todd are numerous. It enables him to contact high profile prospects under a non-sales guise, which increases the likelihood of his call being returned. Who wouldn't want to receive free publicity and ego fulfillment by being profiled in an article like this?

It was a great way to initiate a conversation, which ultimately turned into many productive business relationships. If the trade publication in your industry isn't publishing such a "winner's profile", suggest it. Smaller publications are often starving for articles and your suggestion is likely to be received extremely positively.

If you don't have a prior endorsement from the trade publication, don't let that stop you. You can write the article on "spec". That is you write the article first, and then seek places to get it published. This is how I typically work. You can pitch it this way when you call a high profile person in your industry that you want to interview.

"Hi. This Mark Satterfield and I'm in the process of preparing an article for submission to Our Industry Trade Journal on emerging trends and was hoping I could get 20 minutes of your time to interview you for the article."

I ask for 20 minutes because it's less demanding than asking for a half-hour but since hardly anyone actually schedules his or her time in 20-minute increments, you wind up getting at least a half-hour with the person.

Of course there is etiquette involved in this process. For example, you don't want to conduct the interview and then never actually write the article. That will come back to haunt you. On the couple of occasions where I've written an article but haven't found a place to publish it, I send a draft copy to the person I interviewed asking for their comments. Not only does this satisfy the individual's curiosity about what you wrote, but it's also another great excuse or reason to get back in contact with the person.

When the article does get published, I send everyone I interviewed a copy. This is a good idea to do even if you're sure that they received a copy of the publication through other sources. It's a nice professional touch, shows your consideration, and again it's a great excuse to stay in contact!

The interview format is the easiest to write because you're writing in the same style as you speak. Most people communicate just fine when they're speaking. This conversational style also works very well when communicating on paper.

A test that one of my editors told me early in my writing career, is to read out loud what you've written. If it sounds like you speaking, it's probably fine. Remember that in order to get published you've got to write. It's been my experience that the interview format is the quickest way to get your next article produced.

Related Articles
  Overcome Writer's Block: How to Cure this Common Ailment
  "How to Be Creative" by Hugh Macleod
  How to Find a Writing Process that Works For You
  Five Worst Myths--and Best Truths--About Good Writers
  Overcoming Objections

Article Tags: blank sheet of paper, business development, clever idea, computer screen, ego, free publicity, guise, half hour, initial speed, large software, likelihood, mark satterfield, productive business relationships, profile person, prospects, silicon valley, sinking feeling, software firm, trade publication, word profile



Related Forum Posts
Consult your customers before you change your procedures.... - Not sure where this topic should go, but... I just finished reading a rather funny series of posts on MySpace. I belong to a group called WritersCafe. This group also has a webpage, where people post their stories and poems for other people to critique. Apparently, today, the Writers Cafe website has undergone a complete makeover...and its users were taken completely by surprise - apparently no one in charge at Writers Cafe bothered to tell anyone that the format would be changing, or asked for any input on what the changes should be. So there's over 2 pages of complaints on the Writers Cafe group message board, with people saying they can't log in, they dont' like the new design (it looks too "girly" - whatever the heck that means!), and other complaints. And while this only happened today, I have seen other instances of this. Every once in a while yahoo.mail or google groups implements a change in design - and it is never as good as it used to be. Then of course there's the IMDB (internet movie database) which also recently changed its design without telling anyone first or solicting input - and the new design stinks. Fortunately there's a button so you can use the old design, which is what I do... But in all these experiences, the main point of irritation is that no one in "charge" ever asks the people who use their site, if they want changes made and what they should be. It's like they've got all these programmers on staff and have to justify their salaries, so they have them work up "improvements" - but these are techheads who probably don't use the site, so they just do what they like, rather than what users like. The fact that it happens continually, across various businesses, is a rather disturbing trend.
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - Writers are my biggest OS cost, but also have software developers and a marketing team.
Let expert write for you - The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there. With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site. So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages. But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles. There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you. Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings. Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite. Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client’s need. Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper. There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are doubly checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth. Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services. The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you.
Hello friends - Hi Folks, I am new to this forum and just wanted to say hi. As a freelance content writer and how-to PLR writer, I am confident I can gain from and contribute to this forum. Good wishes to all.
Learning from other people's mistakes (Books) - Most business books are written by people who tell of success stories, and how they were achieved. I'm wondering if people learn more by reading about the stories of failure? Or about how people achieved success...and then frittered it away through bad business practice. I checked two books out of the library yesterday. Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders, by Jim Carlton (started as a startup in 1976, sales peaked in 1995, and even then they were a "troubled" company, and now they've only got a 3% market share. (And I must admit I used to love Macs, but don't anymore...) and Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft, by David Bank. "Breaking Windows" tells the story of the battle for the soul of Microsoft that raged inside the company from 1997 to 2000 and continues to reverbrate today." The book "breaks new ground in its analysis of Microsoft's past and future business strategies. As Microsoft faces the waning importance of Windows, rallies behind XML, and confronts the open-source insurgency, the past Bank reveals is vital to understanding the future of this company and the still unfinished digital revolution it helped unleash.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to choose your executive coach -1

The new marketing question. Will they follow?

African Technology Development

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.