Articles about Overcoming Writer's Block!

• A Block Vaporizer!

Speak your writing and record it.

Stuck? Often just talking about what it is that you have in mind, can bring a lot more ideas and developments to mind. So record what you want to communicate, then transcribe it and edit it later.

When you speak, you are spending very little conscious attention to what it is you are saying - it just comes out! This is an easy and brilliant way to defeat your "squelcher" and get you started expressing. You can get on a roll immediately!

Use transcription software (Express Scribe, Transcriber) to make it easier to control the playback for your typing. Or use an internet service like idictate.com, or Fantastic Transcripts, etc.

Remember, the biggest block to your writing freely is trying to rethink, revise and rewrite at the same time as you are creating. But, this is how you've been taught to write, and it has become the natural way you write. Bust that habit by speaking your ideas.

Many non-fiction authors and reporters are now taking this to another level by just talking their books and articles, having that output transcribed and then -- editing to the finished product. But this method is equally valuable for any kind of writing.

You can experiment with letting the computer transcribe it on the fly by using software like “Dragon Naturally Speaking” or “iListen”.

You can use this if you have a long journey in a car. Record your book while you drive. Your unconscious is driving anyway, let it write at the same time. It easily can and will!

This can be a great technique to build the chapter outline and/or to describe the setting and vision for the detailed writing to come.

Or even better, just riff on all the ideas that you have had bouncing around in your mind. Creating brilliance is hampered by criticism at this first step point, so if you can let yourself just talk about all the ideas that you have and then edit and expand on them in writing later, you will find that your writing will just flow and the blocks vaporize.

I know numerous people who have roughed out their entire book this way. If you have it setup in your head already, this can be a quick way to produce. Even if you have no idea on where to go, this can be a turbocharger for your productivity. Just talk it out.

Also many more people have taken their teleseminar or live seminar transcripts and edited those into the meat of a book.

If you are more able to talk over the phone there are numerous recording systems that will both record the call and transcribe it for you. See above or search for telephone transcription.