Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Breaking Writer’s Block, Part 12: List

I conclude this 6-week, 12-part series on breaking writer’s block with a favorite tip for any kind of business, technical, or academic writer: List ideas by brainstorming and organizing.
Suppose you want to recommend subleasing your conference room for after-business-hour meetings. Here’s how listing works:

Step 1: BrainstormList every idea related to your topic.
Sublease the conference room
Income potential of $25,000 per year
Hours 5:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
Post ads in office and meeting space rentals section of Craig’s List and The Tribune.
No effect on our daily operation

Step 2: Organize – Move, add, and delete ideas based on their relevance and degree of importance to your topic. (Note the idea changes below since step 1.)

¶ 1: Propose subleasing the conference room to offset overhead costs

¶ 2: Proven income potential
  • Other building tenants in our city sublease successfully according to The Tribune
  • We would be the first to sublease in our commercial park, so we can beat the competition
  • Income potential of $25,000 per year

¶ 3: No effect on our daily operation

  • Hours 5:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
  • The conference room has a separate entrance to the hallway to maintain office security
  • A tenant deposit would help defray possible damages

¶ 4: Means of getting started:

  • Post ads in office and meeting space rentals section of Craig’s List and The Tribune.

Would you have all the ideas you need to write the draft? Probably not. But nothing is as intimidating to a writer who can’t get started as staring at a vast, blank monitor. At least you can now start writing your draft. I hear it all the time from participants in my writing-process courses: This technique works—use it!




Here are links to books on writing by Philip Vassallo: