Freelance Writer - Leslie J. Thompson

There are times when you need to write something yourself, and it’s just not clicking. You’re looking at the blank page on the screen and…nothing. Nada. White noise.

Writer’s block can strike at any time, whether you need to draft a simple letter or a more complex report or proposal. It’s that uncomfortable feeling of having nothing to say. You know in broad, vague terms what you want to communicate, but the words just aren’t coming together in a cohesive fashion, and you’re getting frustrated. Frustration leads to procrastination, and procrastination leads to Starbucks®. Now, you’re frustrated and hopped up on caffeine, which only aggravates the situation.

The secret to overcoming writer’s block—or procrastination, in general—is to get busy. Take action. Do something, anything, and use that momentum to keep moving forward. Eventually, you will build up steam and reach that blissful state of flow, where everything just seems to come together naturally. Here, then, are five quick tips to help you get the ball rolling:

1. Remove all distractions. The little pop-up on your screen that indicates you have mail? Turn it off. Put your cell phone on silent, and close your office door. Minimize the possibility that something will pull your attention away from the task at hand, and you’re more likely to finish quickly.
2. Brainstorm. You already have a general idea of what you want to say, so start scribbling thoughts down on a piece of paper. You can jot individual words or bullet-point a few phrases. Don’t censor yourself or worry about grammar and spelling—write whatever comes to mind. The goal is to spray a little mental WD-40 in your head to loosen up the gears.
3. Start typing. Take the ideas you noted on your scratch pad and begin to flesh them out on the screen. Again, we’re not looking for perfection, just “fuller” thoughts—sentences, or even a couple of paragraphs—that express what you want to communicate. If you are writing a white paper, you might simply list some of the facts that relate to the topic. If your project is creative, like a short story, don’t worry about structure so much as concepts. We’re not looking for a well-rounded plot at this point, just bits of dialogue, exposition or descriptions.
4. Speak up. Many writers find it helpful to speak out loud the thoughts they are trying to communicate and then capture them in writing. Pick up a micro-cassette recorder, or one of those nifty MP3 recorders, and rattle off your thoughts verbally. Then, transcribe your recording and start to organize the content in your document. Go light on the editing—we’re still just spreading puzzle pieces out on the table.
5. Pull it together. At this point, things should start humming along. You have a notepad full of ideas and some rough material on the computer screen. Plenty of clay to work with. Take your time, and start molding the material into the shape you want, moving pieces around, filling out certain parts and paring back others, until you have a completed rough draft. Depending on your project, this could take minutes or hours. Stick with it until the end. If you stop, it will be hard to regain momentum, and you may have to backtrack a few steps. But, if you can knock out a thorough draft, you can enjoy the immense satisfaction that comes from conquering writer’s block and realizing your goal.

Throughout this whole process, remember that the feeling of being blocked is just that—a feeling. We have the ability to change our feelings and our attitudes simply by changing our mindset. Sometimes, you will need to take action first, and your feelings will catch up with you. But, with the willingness to take that first small step, you can finish your project quickly—at which point that mocha Frappuccino® is well-deserved.

[Read more →]

Recently, I received an inquiry from a company in Dallas about writing a marketing brochure to illustrate how the firm’s services can benefit Human Resources professionals. I called the company president to discuss the project, and he in turn offered to email me PDFs of the firm’s existing marketing collateral as background material.

I read through the sell sheets with despair. The writing was riddled with grammatical errors, and the formatting was woefully inconsistent. These types of mistakes are bad no matter what business you’re in, but this company was promoting its expertise in the area of regulatory compliance, where attention to detail is essential. Were I a prospective client, I would have had a pretty poor impression of the vendor.

Such is the risk of writing your own marketing materials. Sure, you could find someone in-house to take ownership of the project, but that doesn’t mean they’re qualified to do the job well.

As a freelance consultant, I was in a predicament. Should I tell the client about the typos and bad grammar in the firm’s collateral, or just provide the proposal he had requested? If I didn’t raise a flag and then didn’t get the assignment, the client would never know that his sell sheets, well…suck. But, if I brought it to his attention, I ran the risk of offending the company president–essentially shooting myself in the foot. For all I knew, he wrote the brochures himself. At the very least, he had read them.

I decided to send the proposal first and, once it was accepted, I would offer to copyedit the text in the firm’s existing marketing materials to ensure consistency. I have learned that unsolicited advice generally comes off as criticism. My goal is to first build a relationship with the client, not build a wall between us.

But, my point is that if you want to save money by creating your collateral in-house, you would be wise to at least hire a proofreader to bring the text up to par. The finished product may not be as spiffy as if you had engaged a freelance writer, but at least you will save yourself the embarrassment of airing your grammatical dirty laundry for your prospects to see.

As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

[Read more →]

It is one of life’s great ironies that God paired me – a meticulous grammarian – with my husband, whose spelling is, shall we say, creative.

A talented singer and musician, my spouse is an auditory thinker. He is a gifted writer and types at lightning speed, but often, he instinctually spells words based on the way they sound. The approach works well for locutions like “market” or “record”, but is less effective with a word like, well, “locution”.

I try not to tease him about his creative constructs, but he gladly kids me about my anal-retentive approach to text. (Admittedly, I have been known to gripe about typos on menus and instruction manuals with dangling participles.) So, I was both relieved and comforted when I recently discovered a group of like-minded wordsmiths at The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG, for short).

The following excerpt from the SPOGG Website captures the humor and vision of its creators, and offers a warm welcome to those with a punctilious personality like mine:

There are huge problems in this world, and then there are problems that can be solved by everyday people with red pens and a little moxie.

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar is for pen-toters appalled by wanton displays of Bad English. (And we’re not talking about Bad English, the band, although their song “Heaven is a 4 letter word” needs a hyphen.)

SPOGG is for people who crave good, clean English — sentences cast well and punctuated correctly. It’s about clarity. And who knows how many of the world’s huge problems could be solved if we had a little more of that?

Ah, at last a refuge from this crazy, mixed-up world of text messages and linguistic short-hand! A safe haven from the jargon of Fortune 500 companies and verbosity of new media ventures! A place where people appreciate crisp, uncluttered writing, and members are lauded for their use of proper punctuation. I can find solace in the blog posts, and vicariously vent my frustration at the lack of good grammar usage in modern society.

Plus, they have really cute T-shirts.

[Read more →]