On his personal blog, Writing Boots, sister website editor David Murray complains about a university that advertised for a writer who can “crank out exciting ad copy, then turn around and ink an article for the alumni magazine.”

David’s objection to the characterization of professional writers is well taken.

Yet, on the other hand, we writers often find ourselves backed up against a deadline with few words committed to paper (or the screen) and even less inspiration to fix that problem. Sometimes we just get stuck and we can’t construct a compelling story, much less “crank out” the necessary copy.

This reminded me of a time when I was editor of a company employee magazine, facing a deadline and lacking the ability to make the words flow from my fingers. I’d write a lead, then rewrite it, delete it and try again. I just couldn’t get past the first paragraph, after which I was sure the words would begin to come more easily.

The vice president of corporate communications noticed I was having trouble and made a suggestion that was so simple and made so much sense that I was embarrassed by the narrowness of my focus.

“Why don’t you start in the middle of the story?” she asked. “Don’t worry about the lead right now. It will write itself once you get the rest of the story underway.”

Such an obvious solution, yet I had completely overlooked it.

What tricks do you have that get you past the roadblocks in your writing?

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