I've never heard of "truck drivers block," have you?
Or Pub landlord's block for that matter.
Does that mean writer's block a myth?
That depends on who you talk to.
My take on it is – if you believe in it – then it's true.
So how do you fix it?
With these five words...
But first a warning.
Almost all sufferers of that horrible affliction have it because they don't do any or enough research.
Or they don't read much.
Learn to read until you love to read.
If could be sci-fi, action novels, superhero stories.
Anything that stimulates your mind.
All great writers are also avid readers.
They love to consume and devour books.
You know you've cracked the art of reading when you can walk into a library and not fear any book.
Then you'll have plenty to write about.
I digress.
Those five words to kick writer's block to the curb are…
"It seems to me that…"
Whenever you get stuck begin writing these five words.They "only work."
Enough about that.
Let's switch gears for a moment or three.
And talk about spicing up your writing with similes.
You know, those short pithy sentences that speak volumes.
You may have noticed one or two sprinkled into these messages.
If you want to describe something that moves rapidly you could use…
"Faster than a cheetah on Red Bull."
Or you might want a quirky way of getting agreement about a hard to grasp concept.
And it helps if you use humour.
Like this…
"If you're not confused, then you must be thoroughly misinformed."
Or if you want a way of insulting someone (please choose a generic someone) you could say…
"He's as ignorant as an egg."
Or
"She's all retch and no vomit."
Phrases like these I give a 'double thumbs up' because they make you different.
It's better to be different than it is to be the best.
Another gear change…
Ever heard of Rudolph Flesch?
He wrote a book in the '50's about simple writing.
In other words, keeping your writing so simple a child of ten could understand you.
All newspapers pander to the intelligence of a 10 year old.
And if it works for them it will work for you.
Back to Rudolph Flesch.
In Microsoft Word there's a feature that shows you how easy it is to understand your writing.
It's called "the Flesch-Kincaid score.
Yes, you guessed it.
Microsoft knew about our Mr. Flesch.
And added in Mr. Kincaid.
If you want to get good (and you should) at writing so a child of ten can understand you, do this…
Get rid of all three syllable words.
Or as many as you can.
Yes, you can get away with words like, "Microsoft" and "intelligence," because they don't ask you to strain your brain.
But these two words to.
"Eschew obfuscation."
Okay, I could have said, "avoid confusion" but that's not as much fun. 😊
About my next email...
Before we go there, I want to give you a helping hand in word choices.
Run this next section by Microsoft's "readability statistics."
Or as it's now called, Editor.
You'll discover something you never expected.
Here are the words…
There is strength and force in short words.
- Words that blast and boom.
- Throb and thump.
- Clank and chime.
- Hiss and buzz and zoom.
There is grace and charm in short word.
Words like lull and hush and purr.
There are short, lush words like…
Dank, muck and dench.
And short dry ones like…
Crisp, parch and husk.
There are words that work hard at their job that pry and push, slash and hack, cut and clip, chip and saw.
Words that tease the taste.
Make glad the eye.
Whet the nose.
And please the ear.
There's nip, twang, bite, and tang.
There's sweet, sour, tart, or dry as they need be.
There are words you can hear like the swish of silk.
Soft words with a feel of swan's down.
Words with a smell like musk.
Smoke, cheese, mint and rose.
You can't tell me that reading those words was boring.
Because I wouldn't believe you.
Back to my next email...
Do you like surprises?
Good ones I mean.
Great.
Then let's meet back here around 24 hours from now.
Barry (writers block "myth buster") Dunlop.
IncomeDiary.com
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