Tips from the trenches

by Deb Lockwood

Since this is a new column, I think it would be appropriate for me to introduce myself to you. I am Deb Lockwood, a senior member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of STC, and a senior writer with CSG Systems, Inc. in Westminster, Colorado.

I volunteered to write a column for our Technicalities newsletter, and my proposal was accepted.  Each issue's column will contain information about a specific topic—a different topic for each issue. To garner tips, I will send a query to the Rocky Mountain Chapter's e-mail list. I'll compile those responses and publish them in this column. This month, I posed the following question to the list: "How do you get over writer's block?" I received many wonderful replies. Following is a compilation:

• Get away from everything and let the mind relax.
• Exercise or take a walk.
• Read something unrelated: the newspaper, a magazine, a novel.
• Research the topic.
• Ask the following journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
• Brainstorm with another person.
• Divorce yourself from the topic and regain a more objective stance. Once the head is clear, retrace any steps in a process, starting with step #1. Revisit the overall project goals and objectives and rethink the audience and purpose.
• Write the easy parts first. The easiest part is the one that is clearest in your mind.
• If you hate putting your fingers on the keyboard, try a dictation program. One contributor uses Dragon Naturally Speaking. 
• One contributor found that, after years of using a typewriter, when he purchased his first PC, his writer's block was actually "typist's block." Once typing became easier, the block disappeared.
• Learn more about the subject matter. One contributor says that going back over the research, talking to another SME, and working with the subject matter usually does the trick.
• Don't try to write the finished product in the first draft. Instead, using a word processor, jot down key ideas, in no particular order. Next, organize those ideas into a logical order and expand them into complete sentences. Try to resist editing until you've written at least one sentence for each key idea.
• Do the following:
  • Schmooze with a developer or two. If necessary, resort to having lunch with them.
  • Slip in a relevant question.
  • Go back to your desk and write down what they said.
• Don't get bogged down in self-editing as you write. Here's a suggestion from a wise English professor: turn off the computer monitor (so that you can't read the text) and type. Type now, edit later.
• One contributor's writer's block usually occurs when pertinent information is missing or when she is writing about a topic before completely assimilating the information. Therefore, she tries to get away from the computer and think about the topic, assessing whether she has all of the information she really needs. 
• Leave early and grab a big margarita.
• Talk to the SMEs, telling them what you are trying to say and letting them free-flow their thoughts while you take notes.
• Look in STC publications to see how other authors have handled a similar subject.
• Give what you have written to another writer or editor, a potential end-user, or a SME, and ask for comments. Ask the reviewer to talk you through his or her comments.
• Change the medium in which you are writing. If you normally write using a computer, pick up a pen or pencil.
• Brainstorm topics using Post-it Notes. Rearrange the notes in different orders.
• Verbally explain the concepts to another writer, asking for feedback and suggestions.
• Organize. Break the piece into a logical writing structure and complete one piece at a time.
• One contributor said he jumps in and writes almost anything that pertains to the subject matter. Once he constructs the draft, however rough, the editing process from that point renders the block issue moot.
• Propose a workflow showing how you will chunk topics and organize chapters. Discuss the workflow with another writer or with the SMEs.
• Hand a marker to a SME and ask him or her to explain the technical concepts on a white board.
• When all else fails, one contributor wrote, remember that writer's block is just a failure of will. That can be a powerful motivator in getting over blocks.
• Go to the following Internet documents, which are published by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan1.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan2.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan3.html

Finally, get a copy of the following book: The Writer's Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination, by Jason Rekulak. And whatever method works for you, keep at it. One good thing about writer's block—it almost always ends, sometime. 

Don't worry—you'll get it written!

(Thank you to the following contributors: Emily Armstrong-Cole, Nancy Emmerson, Alida Franco, Ray Harlan, Mary Headley, Debbie Matuskevich, Lisa Metzgar, Diane Plampin, Roy Sargent, Martha Sippel, Elizabeth Staton, Susan Steen, Tammy VanBoening, and Rodger Ward.)