I rarely suffer from what writers complain about the most and that is: writer’s block. Oh, sure, if I must write on a subject that I am not familiar with, then a certain amount of trepidation and the occasional blankness will set in. Still, if I accept a project I do so believing that I know enough about the topic to produce a compelling piece. Writing isn’t difficult for most accomplished writers, but you must get started. Here are some things that help get me going:

If I am stuck, I write some sort of outline. Okay, maybe not a formal outline but something containing a topic sentence; 2, 3, or 4 main points; followed by a conclusion. As you can read there are three parts to any article: an introduction, the body, and a conclusion. Sometimes certain parts of the article I have more to write about than others. For example, I may have my main points for the body, but I don’t have the introductory part down just yet. No matter, I keep working on my outline until I get something solid.

Once I have all three pieces together, I start to write. Okay, I start to “type” as almost all of my writings are created from scratch via Microsoft Word. There was a time when I had to write on legal-sized lined paper and then move it over to a word processor. No more. Today, I rarely “write” anything as I have gotten so accustomed to my laptop computer. Thanks, Dell!

When I am done writing, I check my work to see if it makes sense. Sometimes nothing I write is all that sensible, so I delete what I write and start over again. This is a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

After I come up with a reasonable draft, I scour it to check for misspellings, grammar usage, prose, etc. Many times I have the “bones” of the article, but it lacks “meat” or substance. In these particular cases I “flesh out” the article which usually involves refining sentence structure, clarifying a thought, swapping out words, or inserting or deleting entire sentences or paragraphs.

If I feel reasonably certain about what I wrote, I will do a final run through of it to make sure it sits well with me. Occasionally, I put an article to the side and go do something else or I “sleep on it” and take a fresh look at the article the next day.

So, if you are having difficulty writing, simply get started. At least if you start your writing assignment you will have less to do later and you will no longer feel as if your undone article is some sort of albatross around your neck.

Now get started.