A Few Thoughts On Writer’s Block

I’ve been dealing off and on with a semi-serious case of writer’s block for several months now.  This is primarily effecting my fiction efforts, but it occasionally interferes with my work, too.  In culling the files for something, anything, that could help, I came across this article clipped from one of the royalty-free databases online a few years ago.

It helped me in two ways:

One, it’s basic message was a refreshing reminder of some basic block-breaking techniques I was already aware of.  And two, some poor author apparently sent this article out into cyberspace without a resource box!  So as much as I’d like to tell you who wrote it, I can’t.  That’s poor marketing!

Enjoy:

Writer's block is the patron demon of the blank page.
You may think you know EXACTLY what you're going to
write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears
before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.
I'm not talking about Zen meditation
stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of
blank. I'm talking about sweat trickling down the back of
your neck, anguish and panic and suffering kind of
blank. The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish
of writer's block gets. Having said that, let me say it again. "The tighter
the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer's block
gets." Now, can you figure out what might possibly be
causing this horrible plunge into speechlessness? The answer is obvious: FEAR! You are terrified of that
blank page. You are terrified you have absolutely
nothing of value to say. You are afraid of the fear of
writer's block itself! It doesn?t necessarily matter if you've done a decade
of research and all you have to do is string sentences
you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent
paragraphs. Writer's block can strike anyone at any
time. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our
own self-worth, but it's sneaky. It's writer's block,
after all, so it doesn't just come and let you know
that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had
your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses. If
you dared to put forth words into the greater world,
they would surely come out as gibberish! Let's try and be rational with this irrational demon.
Let's make a list of what might possibly be beneath
this terrible and terrifying condition. 1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a
masterpiece of literature straight off in the first
draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure. 2. Editing instead of composing. There's your
monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder, yelling as soon
as you type "I was born?," no, not that, that's wrong!
That's stupid! Correct correct correct correct? 3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone
write, when all you can manage to do is pry the
fingers of writer's block away from your throat enough
so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You're not
focusing on what you're trying to write, your focusing
on those gnarly fingers around your windpipe. 4. Can't get started. It's always the first sentence
that's the hardest. As writers, we all know how
EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be
brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your
reader's from the start! There's no way we can get
into writing the piece until we get past this
impossible first sentence. 5. Shattered concentration. You're cat is sick. You
suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity
might be turned off any second. You have a crush on
the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party
planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more.
How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental
clutter? 6. Procrastination. It's your favorite hobby. It's
your soul mate. It?s the reason you've knitted 60
argyle sweaters or made 300 bookcases in your garage
workshop. It's the reason you never run out of Brie. FACE IT ? IT?S ONE OF THE REASONS YOU HAVE WRITER'S
BLOCK! How to Overcome Writer's Block Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from
this article as fast as you can. Absurd! you huff.
Never in a million years, you fume. Writer's block is
absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be
impossible to overcome. Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it's not that
easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and
listen. All you have to do is listen ? you don't have
to actually write a single word. Ah, there you all are again. I am beginning to make
you out now that the cloud of dust is settling. I am here to tell you that WRITER'S BLOCK CAN BE
OVERCOME. Please, remain seated. There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one,
pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you
even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate,
guess what? You're writing. Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming
writer's block: 1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself.
(I know, that's a clich?but as soon as you start
writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend
some time mulling over your project before you
actually sit down to write, you may be able to
circumvent the worst of the crippling panic. 2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a
masterpiece in the first draft. Don't put any
expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell
yourself you're going to write absolute garbage, and
then give yourself permission to happily stink up your
writing room. 3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your
first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your
shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is
a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by
galaxies. It's even incomprehensible to the conscious,
editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down
at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and
blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over
your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a
fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but
instead, using your thumb and index finger of your
dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey
back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jump
in ? quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, let
everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or
your computer keyboard. 4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that
all-important one-liner when you've finished your
piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end.
Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it
over, the first line will be blinking its little neon
lights right at you from the depths of your
composition. 5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us
so many curve balls. How about thinking about your
writing time as a little vacation from all those
annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps
even a physical one, where nothing exists except the
single present moment. If one of those irritating
worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an
ugly bug! 6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your
research notes within sight. Use someone else's
writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or
on the computer if you have to. Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from
somewhere?). Tack up anything that could possibly help
you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your
grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat
when you finish your first draft within sight ? but
out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing
that you need to write, and read it. Then read it
again. Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away.
As soon as it does, grab your keyboard ? and get
writing!

Gotta Give a Plug to One of My Heros: Bob Bly

Just a quick shout out to one of my heros, a man who has shown us all what it takes to become an ultra-successful freelance copywriter, and what’s available out there for us if we put our minds and efforts into the job!

www.bly.com

I spent a long evening at my other job working on some mindless reports while listening to a few of Bob’s audio seminars, which I have purchased in the past.  Every time I listen to them, it helps remind me why I want to write for a living, and gives me the motivation I need to keep plugging away.

It’s not that Bob’s a motivational speaker, because he’s not.  And it’s not even that he has a ton of out-of-this-world ideas that I’ve never heard before or couldn’t come up with on my own, because he really doesn’t. 

He’s just a really down-to-earth guy who’s made a huge success of himself in a field that I would like to one day call my only career, and he’s had the good grace to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort offering his experience and know-how to others for a reasonable fee (i.e. a few bucks for a soft-cover masterpiece like The Copywriter’s Handbook or Secrets of a Freelance Writer.)

This guy is really living the life I want to live, and he’s been doing it for decades.  He’s earned my respect, but more importantly, he’s earned my gratitude.

Thanks, Bob!

Coming Out of Hibernation for a Great 2008!

Just a quick note to say I’m back and better than ever, coming out of my winter sleep with a renewed vigor and an ambitious new marketing plan that should finally create the impetus CopyGhost needs to succeed! In short, here’s the plan:

ONLINE
~ The new and improved copyghost.com should be online and running by the end of this month.
~ A brand new Special Report focusing on the ghostwriting aspects of the business will be unveiled and ready to give away by this time next week.
~ A series of 30 short articles will be completed over the next 90 days to submit to all major online article banks, each linking back to one of my two landing pages (where I give away my two free special reports).
~ A new blog post at least every three days, including more of my continuing PSU series.

OFFLINE
~ Printing and compiling of 10 “canvassing packages” to experiment with super-fast face-to-face sales calls on potential clients. (More on this in the blog as I discover whether or not this method has any legs. I love the idea, but have not yet tried it out in the real world!)
~ Preparations for a potential move to North Carolina! (That’s right, the CopyGhost may be pulling up stakes and heading south!!)

I’m looking forward to the next few months as a real burst of exciting activity after a long, cold season of nothing!

Public Speaking University – Class Two – Telling ‘em a Story

Here is the second installment of the PSU articles.  More to come!

****

In Class One – Starting Off With a Bang – I began an overview discussion of presentation introductions by telling a story, and cutting it off just at the point where you NEEDED to know what was going to happen next.

Maybe you hated me for it.

But you read the whole article.

And that’s exactly the point of this technique! When you stand up in front of a group of people, especially strangers, you need to grab their attention first and foremost. They need a reason to listen to you, and a reason to keep listening even if the topic itself is less than engaging.

Class One briefly mentioned three methods of creating an introduction that does just that, and Telling a Story is one of those methods.

Why does this method work? Put simply, we have all grown up with an inborn desire to hear a storyteller spin his yarn. As children, we loved to have our parents read to us from exciting picture books that brought a simple story to life in vivid color and word. As we got older, we slowly traded that in for more complex storylines and our own imaginations, or the faster-paced sensory assault of the television and movies.

Either way, our desire to experience – and become absorbed in – stories has always been nurtured. Not only do we enjoy the act of putting our own “story” on hold for a while to experience another’s, once we do so, we NEED to know how it turns out. We need to feel some sort of closure at the end, so that we can put the story to rest.

Think for a moment about the last time you were watching a television episode, and just as the story struck a vital crossroads, those fateful words “To Be Continued” flashed across the screen? Did you sigh in frustration? Probably. Did you watch it the next week. Almost definitely.

You needed to know how it turned out. A lot of modern series depend on that element without even notifying you that the story is continuing. Consider the hit show “Lost.” If you miss a week or two, you’re the one that’s lost! They have manufactured a viciously loyal fan base by exploiting every human being’s inborn desire to see how it all turns out.

So, spiraling back to the subject at hand, how can YOU exploit this same desire and use it to grab your audience’s attention and keep it through the end of your talk?

The first step is in your preparation or writing of the speech. (If you have a professional speechwriter writing for you, you may want to mention this concept to them so they know this is the direction you want to take.)

You will want to give some thought to the general themes you will be developing in your talk, and consider what sort of mental images appear when you consider those themes. For example, in Class One, the general themes I was considering involved either succeeding or failing at quickly grabbing your audience’s attention, and how important the introduction was to your success.

The analogy of a batter in the tension-filled last moments of a baseball game popped into my mind because the success or failure of his team rested on what happened in the course of the few seconds he was swinging the bat.

The story you choose may be a direct retelling of an actual event, a reworking of a standard story everyone may recognize (such as a fairy tale or fable), or a work of fiction you create solely for this purpose.

The decision is yours, and if handled correctly, will not change the effectiveness of this method.

The focus in all cases must be on three qualities of the story:

Brevity – Don’t make this a long, drawn out tome. You can lose your audience just as quickly as you grab them. The best introductory stories take less than a minute to establish, reach a crux, then apply to your talk’s general themes.

Relevance – Don’t choose a story and try to shoehorn it into your talk with questionable connections or application. Start with your themes, and allow your mind to make the most logical connections. Then, build your story from there.

Engagement – You want to build your story in such a way that your audience cares about the outcome. Don’t focus on a character no one can relate to or an event that will bore them. Try to infuse some sort of tension, excitement, even mystery into the story so that your audience NEEDS to know what happens next!

To effectively use this powerful story, you should begin your talk with it directly, not watering it down with other unnecessary introductory comments or apologies. Get right into the story.

But don’t finish it!

Bring the story to a crux, then stop!

Now, of course, you’re going to need to give some serious thought to the transition, but the basic technique is to reach a point in the story where a decision needs to be made or the character is “hanging from a cliff”, then swing your audience back into your themes with a series of questions or a powerful statement of comparison.

Make sure you let them know that you’ll be coming back to the story later in the talk, but don’t tell them where, and don’t let them know how it’s going to turn out.

This hooks them into listening to what you have to say, making the same mental connections you made when you came up with the story yourself.

In other words, they are listening intently what you have to say, following your lead.

A captive audience.

If you can successfully develop a story that contains the three vital qualities of brevity, relevance and engagement, and you can incorporate the cliff-hanger into your presentation, you have created an attention-grabbing introduction that will hook your listeners and make them listen closely to your presentation so they don’t miss a word of it!

Public Speaking University — Class One — Starting Off With a Bang!

I have completed the first of many articles that will be shot out to the Internet in hopes of people likling them enough to investigate where they came from.  I will be posting each article here as well as they are completed so I can keep a permanant record of who wrote it when and where. 

The first set of articles I will be focusing on are under the heading of Public Speaking University, which I hope generates some interest among those who could stand to learn a few things in the arena of public speaking.  However, I also intend to compile an e-book under the same name and sell it through Clickbank.  So, keep track of these blog posts, because if you’re faithful, you’ll essentially have a free book on your system! 

He stepped to the plate, watching his team mate shuffling dejectedly toward the dugout. He had hit into a lightening-fast double play, and the team now stood one out away from defeat. The pitcher nodded, lifted his leg, and fired a blistering fastball into the catcher’s glove.

Strike one.

He adjusted his cap, gripped the bat again and waited, eyeing the pitcher intently. The wind-up started again and he swung hard at the hurtling ball. There was a crack. . . But the ball flew foul.

Strike two.

The pitcher grinned slightly as he nodded and started his wind up. He hurled the ball with every ounce of energy he had left, and it shot toward the strike zone at 98 mph. The crowd seemed to fade away, and the ball seemed to grow very large. Not hearing a sound, he swung his bat and. . .

And you’re hooked.

You need to know what happens, and you’re probably disappointed that I’ve switched gears so quickly! Why?

Because that was an example of a truly effective introduction.

Whether you are writing a speech for someone else or speaking yourself, professionally or casually, a powerful introduction that captures your audience’s attention is vital to reaching your objective. If you fail to grab their attention within the first few seconds, the chances of their being fully engaged in the message you’re presenting are slim to none.

To keep the analogy alive, you could strike out before you even get to the plate!

So what goes into creating an attention-grabbing introduction?

The answer to that question depends to a large extent on two factors:

Your audience — who are you speaking to? What connection do they have to your message? What do they already know about the subject? What do they stand to gain by hearing you out?

Your objective — are you looking to simply inform or entertain them, or do you need to persuade, perhaps even overturn erroneous or contradictory beliefs?

Your answers to these questions will go a long way in determining what kind of introduction will be most effective in your circumstance.

By giving serious thought to these questions, you can choose one or more of the following basic introductions to grab the attention of your audience and keep it throughout your presentation.

Interestingly, although this article is written with public speaking in mind, the same principles apply to writing as well, although the effects may need to be honed a little differently.

The Story — Like the beginning of this article demonstrated, we all love a good story. The more absorbing, the better. By telling a compelling story at the start of your talk, you hook your audience’s innate need to know what happens next! They continue to listen to find out!

The Problem — You lay out a clearly-defined problem at the audience’s feet. Preferably one that involves them personally. Then, you go on to explain how you are going to solve it. If the problem is serious enough, and if the audience realizes the solution will benefit them, they’re hooked!

Q & A — Starting with a series of well-planned questions that peak your audience’s curiosity, you then lay out exactly how you plan to answer those questions, and what the answers will mean to those in attendance. By skillfully seeding the rest of your talk with answers to these questions, you keep your audience holding on to the satisfying end!

Each of these tried and true methods will be broken down in further detail in a future article!

So what happened to our nervous batter?

Of course, he hit the ball out of the park, and his team went on to win the game! And you can do the same from the public-speaking standpoint, if you learn how to start your presentations off with a bang!

Taking a Look Back at My Marketing of Late. . .

A look back to my previous blog will show you an ambitious three-part marketing plan that I intend to implement as soon as the new copyghost.com website is up and running.  I also committed myself to a pretty aggressive creative schedule to the whole thing up and running by the end of September.

I’ll admit I’m a bit behind schedule, but not nearly as much as I would have been if I hadn’t set the goal out there for the world to see.

The plan consisted of both active and passive marketing elements, both online and offline. 

To date, I have completed my “Canvassing Folder”, which will be used for one-on-one contact with business leaders in my local area.  I have also completed over a dozen short articles that I will eventually be submitting to online databases for inclusion in e-zines, with links back to my new site.  I have a total of 30 article ideas planned out at this point, and hope to have them all written by the end of October.

Left to do are my direct mail campaigns (three different campaigns which will run simultaneously to different local markets) and my online SEO and pay-per-click  campaigns, which depend completely on my new site going up.

I will be working on the direct mail pieces in daily spurts throughout this month and hope to have the site up and be ready to start mailing them by the end of the month.

Why I’m Giving Up on MySpace

Being a nube on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, I jumped into MySpace thinking to myself, “Look at all these people constantly spending time on MySpace, reading and commenting on blogs, sending messages, talking, talking, talking… here’s an opportunity!  Here’s an audience and a potential client base to bounce ideas and potential assignments off of!”

Well, frankly, it’s not.

As far as I can tell, it’s a bunch of teenagers virtually groping eachother and a bunch of spam-happy biz-opp pushers who couldn’t tell quality writing if they choked on it.

 I consider it a waste of time for any legitimate business people who may have thought the way I did before my three month experiment started.

I am posting this on my MySpace blog for any one of the 20 “friends” I picked up along the way to take a look at, and I want to extend my apologies to any of them who may be perfectly pleasant people with quality reasons to spend time on MySpace, as I’m not trying to lump them in with the crud.  But, the fact is, no one of benefit has ever contacted me on MySpace. 

Just the crud.

By the way, as a “fair warning” for any considering opening a MySpace account, if you get a friend request from “Chrissy” or “Stella” or “Cherrie” or any other single-female-name, don’t click on their links with children in the room.  They’re apparently looking to get REALLY friendly REALLY fast, and that doesn’t go well in my space.

Welcome to the NEW and IMPROVED Musings of the CopyGhost Blog!

To all three of my loyal blog readers, welcome!

 As announced in my blogger blog, I have decided to switch over to the wordpress.com format and will be discontinuing posts on the blogger account immediately. 

 To all who care to view previous archives from blogger, go to justinlambert-copyghost.blogspot.com for the last six months of CopyGhost’s Musings.

For those more interested in the future, you will soon be able to view this blog permanantly at www.copyghostblog.com. 

Thank you again, and I look forward to picking back up with daily posts in the very new future as the new site at www.copyghost.com goes live!

 See you then!