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Many of us have always wanted to write. We have all gotten writer’s block. What happens when we are stuck? Can we go to a doctor for having writer’s block? Are there any “writing doctors” that prescribe medication to overcome what to write about or how to stress our premise?

Having writer’s block is normal and can occur in many different fashions:

* Having a lack of focus (Lacking a clear topic and premise to write about)

* Trying to do too many things while writing, such as talking on the phone and doing the laundry

* Being distracted by others while trying to write

* Lacking time allocation to writing

Don’t worry. Writer’s block can be overcome. What are some exercises to help overcome writer’s block?

One way is to get outside of your head and interrupt your dormant pattern. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Take a leave from your present writing environment

Taking a leave does not have to be measured in days. Sometimes only hours or even minutes are necessary to shift your mode into creating what you want to write. Here are some methods that have worked for me.

a. Write while watching television

There are always many images and thoughts that come on TV. I wanted to write a nonfiction book about historical inspirational people. I was tired of just looking at a computer screen and opted to watch TV to interrupt my dormant pattern. I took a notebook and pen with me, turned on the television and began to surf the channels.

I wrote one of my chapters from my book, “Inspired to Achieve,” while watching television. I was watching a biography on Abe Lincoln. There were so many great things that I did not know about him that I was inspired to write about his many accomplishments. I took many notes on Lincoln’s accomplishments and incorporated many points that I wanted to parlay to the readers.

b. Write while surfing the web

I wrote a chapter about Charles Lindbergh from “Inspired to Achieve” while surfing the web. I knew even less about Lindbergh than I did about Lincoln. After finding out about all that Lindbergh did to make his historical flight, I was inspired to write the entire chapter that night.

Of course, there are many ways that you can take a leave from your present writing environment. Other ways to generate great ideas and overcome writer’s block can be while you’re doing one of your hobbies, exercising, on vacation, eating lunch, talking on the phone, listening to music, etc.

c. Write while finding “your” quiet place.

Find a space with just you where your thoughts can flourish. That place can be found in numerous places.

* A part of your home devoted to your writing focus and privacy

* A library

* A restaurant or caf

It may be the hope of all who have ever put pen to paper that they might be able to write on a full-time basis. The romantic notion of a writer’s life is compelling enough to many to find them seeking ways to make a living by crafting the written word.

David Boles is the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Go Inside Magazine. Boles indicates his day starts at 8:00 a.m. and he rarely finishes writing until midnight. Boles has additional words of wisdom for new writers.

1. You will not get rich overnight

Some of Boles’ advice runs counter to the idealistic notion of what a writer’s life is supposed to be, “The best thing you can do to prepare yourself for the life of a writer is to make certain you have a steady form of income that will cover your monthly nut.”

2. Creativity may be overrated

Boles also indicates creativity is less about devising something altogether new and more about a willingness to find new ingredients for an old recipe, “There’s nothing new in the world and good writing is simply reinventing what has come before you in a new and delightful way.”

3. Muse cooperation is not optional

While many writers feel that creative inspiration is required if you are to write anything of meaning, Boles has a more pragmatic approach to writing, “Making yourself sit down and create is more important than the desire to write.”

4. An understanding spouse is worth their weight in gold

When you sit in front of your word processor for hours on end it may be difficult for others to see how what you are doing has much meaning, but Boles indicates if you are called to write you should, “Find someone who understands your need to write — for writing is a lonesome life and sharing that isolation with someone who unconditionally accepts your Calling is paramount to protecting your sanity and career.”

5. Writer’s Block

Boles has some very straightforward advice for those who may feel they are experiencing a season of writer’s block, “Write. Just write. There is nothing else.”

It should be clear that the life of a writer is not a pristine existence where creative thoughts are ever-present and publishers are always willing to publish your material. A writer’s life is hard work and rarely filled with instant gratification. However, for those who have experienced the call to write it is difficult to imagine a life lived any other way.

If you want to learn how to write so that people will not only read what you write…but also be compelled to take action based on your words, then take these steps.

You need to identify persuasive writings and examine the writing style. Think of the last time you read something which made you take action. It can be a simple headline for an ad which caught your attention or an inspiring story in the local paper.

When you identify the persuasive writings, you can can then examine it by reading actively.

It’s natural for most people to read passively. You see some text which catches your eyes and before you know it, 30 minutes have passed. At most, you get a good feeling if you’ve learned something from the text. Reading passively doesn’t build your writing skills.

Start browsing and reading things that catch and keep your attention. Study and anaylyze the text. What words are being used? What length are the sentences and paragraphs? What is the tone of the message? How does the author transition from one paragraph to the next?

What is the main point the author is trying to convey? Who is the author writing to? These are just some of the things you want to study in depth.

You want to read text from many different authors so you get a variety to examples to follow. When you approach reading actively for a while, you’ll naturally begin to write in a way which is more attractive to others but more importantly, it’s attractive to you.

If writing becomes easier for you, you will be apt to write more. As they say, the more you practice, the better you get. So the biggest stepping stone for you is to get more comfortable just writing. Once you’re comfortable then you’ll start writing more without hesitation.

To read more actively, write down what you’re reading. Yes, copy the words you read onto a blank sheet of paper or legal pad. This will force you to read slower and actually examine the words and sentence structure.

Persuasive writing is a skill that any marketer should perfect. Even if you outsource your copywriting, you will find that having the ability to write persuasively can win you more friends in the right places.

One of the most powerful tools in my creative arsenal is what I call unconscious creativity.

No, I do not ask someone to brain me with a hammer and I don’t even need to be actually unconscious. This is when I simply allow my unconscious to do all the heavy lifting for me creatively. It is the use of this method that has allowed me to write quickly when working as a newspaper reporter and to generate several books while also working a demanding full-time job and going to school.

This method falls back on the age-old advice to “sleep on a problem”. Have you ever been worried about a decision or struggled to remember something important before bedtime only to wake up the next morning with the answer sharp and clear in your mind as if it was a gift from the gods? It is a gift of sort, but no outside agency delivered it to you. The answer was supplied to you by your greatest creative ally-your subconscious.

Unconscious creativity uses the power of the unconscious mind. The simplest technique is incubation, where after thinking about the challenge consciously for some time, it is put to one side and left for a while. Often a solution will pop into your mind unbidden, as your mind continues to work on the problem below your level of awareness.

The human brain is a beautiful, highly-functional instrument and yet we utilize so little of its power. Our unconscious does amazing things for us. It helps with our daily coordination needed for useful tasks such as walking, eating, breathing, driving. It stores memories for us, it keeps a check on those things that are truly important to us (our values), it reminds us what we believe. Most of the time it does these things (and a myriad more) without us even having to consciously think about it - that’s why it’s called the unconscious, by the way!

However, it does something even more wonderful: it is able to sift and sort vast quantities of data (things we have seen, heard, said, felt, smelt, tasted) and recognize patterns and generate ways of responding. It sometimes does this in wonderfully creative ways. We often overlook the potential of our unconscious mind and instead let it worry about such trivia as our dental hygienist’s name and whether or not we remembered to buy peanut butter. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Using the unconscious as a creative tool is very simple.

Spend some time consciously thinking about your writing task or challenge. What are the parameters of the project? What are the special requirements? What ideas do you have already? What specific questions do you need to work on further? Sometimes even spending some time jotting down the ideas you have is a good idea. Don’t work on shaping or organizing them. Just record them on paper or computer file. You may not even need them later, but the process of recording them can be a helpful way to prepare your subconscious for its task.

Then forget about it! That’s right. Move on with your life and consciously think about something else. Revise another project. Read something for education or pleasure.

The incubation time varies according to your creative personality and of course the size of the project at hand. I’ve found a few days usually works best although even giving myself a few hours can be beneficial. Doing something physical is often helpful during the incubation period and sometimes this is the only time I really get my gardening or housework accomplished!

When I am working on a novel I allow my subconscious to work scene by scene through the book and often when I sit down at the computer I find the words just flow throw me as the scene plays itself in my head almost like a movie. I have heard of several authors who are able to program their dreams so they are literally writing in their sleep. Dreams can be as vivid as a painting, as resonant as music, and as symbolic as poetry. Using this method I can often write a scene a day (sometimes in less than an hour) which is fairly decent progress while simultaneously working full-time and maintaining a life.

While it is often frightening to think about trusting something as important as the writing project of your heart to your subconscious, it might help to remember that your brain is a muscle of sorts. Your unconscious mind controls many muscle functions for you all the time (try thinking about the way that you walk while you actually walk. I always trip when I think too much about the action of walking and yet I don’t trip when I’m not thinking about it.)

The same is true for great athletes. They talk about being in the zone. The zone is simply the place where they can act and react without consciously thinking about what needs to be done. The body and unconscious mind handle all the details. Thinking too hard can actually interfere with the zone and this is true of writing as well. Interestingly, a recent study of professional and amateur golfers showed that the amateur golfers had significantly more conscious activity when playing a shot than did the professionals. I would bet something similar would result if experienced and novice writers were studied.

So give unconscious creativity a try and see how far it takes you. Simply program your subconscious and then leave it alone to incubate for a while. It may take some time to find the method of tapping into your subconscious after your incubation period. For some freewriting or journaling serve to unlock the fruits of your unconscious labor. Usually, I sit myself down and begin the task at hand. It is often slow-going at first but I force myself forward and at some point my subconscious kicks in and the words start flowing and the keyboard starts clicking away.

Best of luck with your writing!

Anxious to get started writing your sales letter? Good. I strongly urge you to begin with a plan. With a simple plan or outline in place, you’ll be armed with all the essentials you need to create a powerful and persuasive piece.

It doesn’t matter what your writing project is &ndash book, report, or sales letter. Planning makes life easier. It organizes your thoughts. It gives you a roadmap to follow so you’re never stuck at a dead end. A sales letter plan forces you to think things through up front — before you write — making the actual writing much easier and giving it a smoother flow.

It doesn’t matter what your writing project is &ndash book, report, or sales letter. Planning makes life easier. It organizes your thoughts. It gives you a roadmap to follow so you’re never stuck at a dead end. A sales letter plan forces you to think things through up front — before you write — making the actual writing much easier and giving it a smoother flow.

When you get right down to it, a sales letter plan helps you:

• Gather Important Information

• Organize and Assess All Available Data

• Assemble Key Sales Letter Components

• Prioritize Benefits Based On Their Appeal To Prospects

• Confirm That The Important Ingredients Are All Present Before You Begin

A sales letter plan simplifies the actual writing. It gives you concrete material from which to work. It naturally dictates the direction you take, and it enables you to follow along a roadmap to the successful completion of your sales letter.

The more detailed your plan, the easier it is to write compelling sales copy. With a plan, you’re never left wondering what to write next. All the essential information is right before your eyes — making it quicker and easier to form interesting and persuasive copy.

“When it comes to writing copy, far too much attention is paid to the actual writing and far too little is paid to ferreting out facts about that which the copywriter is trying to sell.”

Gary Halbert

Planning isn’t just a means to an end, however. Yes, having a completed sales letter plan in front of you is very important. But the hidden value of your plan lies in the thinking processes that go into completing it. As even the most basic of plans takes shape, you’ll discover valuable ideas, key points, and concepts to employ. A plan literally forces you to think things through ahead of time.

After you’ve used this method to write a few sales letters, you’ll see how getting it all recorded on paper helps you tremendously.

Crafting a sales letter plan does take time — perhaps this is why so few do it. But the time and effort expended always pays a worthwhile dividend. A plan gives you direction, power, and focus. It puts you on a straight path towards your goal.

When Warner Books, one of the world’s largest publishing companies, published my first book, The Angry Clam, back in 1998, the most common question I was asked was, “What were you smoking when you wrote this book?” This was quickly followed by the second most common question, “How in the world did a 40-page, hand-written book with bad drawings of a clam get published?”

The answer to the first question was easy - pure Turkish Hashish - just kidding. (Actually, I awoke in the middle of the night with the idea of a ticked off clam running through my head, then feverishly spent the wee hours putting a frantic pencil to paper.) The answer to the second question takes a little bit more explaining but I believe it contains one of the essential keys (and secrets) to getting published.

The story of how I got The Angry Clam published is a brief one so I will share it with you now:

After I awoke from my long morning nap after having spent the previous night beginning and completing my first ever attempt at literature, I reviewed what I wrote, kind of liked it, and then decided to show it to a few friends. To my amazement, they all thought it was hysterically funny - but in a good way. (They were actually laughing WITH the book not at it!)

Inspired by this, I purchased the supplies necessary to create a more presentable copy of the book - like giving it a cover and hand-writing and drawing each page in pen - and then went to my local Kinko’s to get 50 copies printed up. The following day, with my 50 copies in hand, I decided to go to the owner of a neighborhood bookstore to see if he would be interested in selling The Angry Clam on consignment. To my delight, he looked at the book, laughed, and then said sure, why not, he would take 5 copies. (I believe he was half taking pity on me.)

Unbelievably, within 24 hours, I received a call from the owner asking me for 10 more copies. He then explained how the staff of the bookstore had bought the books and they were now passing them around for everyone to read. I brought over the 10 copies and they were immediately placed in the “Staff Favorite” section near the front register. Incredibly, I began receiving weekly orders for the books.

Encouraged by this, I then went to the owner of another neighborhood bookstore, described the tale of what was happening down the street, and he too agreed to take a few copies. Astonishingly, a very similar phenomenon happened. So this was great - I now had 2 local bookstores consistently selling and promoting The Angry Clam. It was at this point that I stumbled upon the very simple idea that would eventually get big New York literary agents and then several major publishing houses to pay The Angry Clam notice.

Placing a call to the owners of the 2 bookstores, I very politely asked them if they would each write a brief letter describing the “phenomenon” of the The Angry Clam at their store. Thankfully, they both agreed and within a day I had my two letters.

Armed with these testaments of The Angry Clam’s selling prowess, I was ready to see just how far my little book could go. So I purchased a copy of the Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents, picked about a dozen agents, and then mailed out a copy of the book and the 2 letters to each one of them.

What happened next has made me a legend in my own mind. Within 2 weeks I received calls from 5 of the agents - each wanting to represent The Angry Clam. After carefully selecting one of them, it took less than a month to get my first of several publishing offers.

What happened after the book was bought by Warner Books is a tale for another day. (The Angry Clam eventually hit the shelves of bookstores all over the United States and even rose into the Hot 100 on Amazon.

But the moral of The Angry Clam story is this - in the publishing world, a book’s perceived ability to sell is king. Prove to the publishing companies that your books can sell on a small scale and they just might take a chance that your books will sell on a large scale. What have they got to lose? Unknown authors rarely get more than a tiny advance and the cost to print up the first 2,000 books is nothing to a large company.

After all, Publishing is just a business.