It’s mid-morning and you’ve been asked to hand in final copy of a department wide memo into your supervisor by lunch… Where do you start when you feel an hour late and a dollar short …
Have you ever looked at a blank page and then drawn an equally blank screen in your mind? There is both a reason and a solution for this conundrum. The truth is that the brain looks for meaning or a familiar hook on which to hang your innovative ideas. Think of it as a hook in a hallway waiting to receive your coat. That mental hook waits to receive your ideas … When the brain finds no hook, you experience writer’s block …. 
Actually you can use this mental hook requirement to your advantage as a writer, mentor or speaker. Simply set the hook in place first, and that alone prepares your brain to take off in the direction of laying out your ideas.
Here is one tip that will trick your brain past its mental blocks and put words on your page:
Armed with your question, now imagine a rather clever good friend or colleague … somebody you trust… sitting in an easy chair opposite you. Ok tell this person about your ideas on that topic in a way that would motivate the person’s own investigative curiosity. Simply respond to the question you raised about your topic. You might even talk into a tape recorder, play it back, and then write what you say. Or you can imagine the person listening intently and write what would benefit that person most to hear about your topic.
That imaginary conversation should launch a brain breakthrough for your words and dig you of any mental block for another day. What do you do when you stumble into blank spaces?
Ellen, to answer your question, I do not generally have a passion for writing, but I do love art. I find it helpful if I have to write a piece to step away from my writing for awhile to select an icon such as, a picture or clip art selection, to represent the idea I want to express. Then I ask: How can I write so well that my readers will see this idea without the picture? Then I easily go back to the writing. Maybe just the break of going into a different realm gives me the inspiration I need.
Posted by: Robyn McMaster | April 19, 2006 8:33 AM | Permalink to Comment