Carol’s Writer’s Block Buster: Tip #4 for Coaches

It happened to me this weekend. I had complete and total writer’s block about something.

Why?

Because the writing gods like to keep me humble.

Oh, you want to know the real reason?

Because I allowed a bad mood to invade my Writing Space. And that bad mood rained on my writing parade like a thunderstorm on a 4th of July parade.

So what did I do about my writer’s block?

After I had dried myself off, I actually took my own advice. I applied my Writer’s Block Buster Tip #4 for Coaches.

I started stealing. And it worked!

Yes, you read that right. Stealing.

A time-honored tradition whereby writers stash away other people’s writing they think might inspire their own writing in the future. They even have a name for where they stash their purloined treasures – the swipe file.

Dreading the day you have to write the sales letter for your group coaching program? Start saving sales letters other coaches have written that you think are particularly well done (especially if you know they got good results). Your stolen stash will be a terrific way to prime your writing pump.

Wondering where and how on earth to begin writing your website copy? Start cruising other coaching websites for inspiration. Swipe files are particularly effective in busting through the kind of writer’s block that comes from contemplating a large writing project like a website.

Here’s a variation on the swipe file theme that I thought was positively brilliant. A coach hired a PR business to write her first press release. She then stashed a copy of it in her swipe file to mimic each time she needed to send out a press release.

Talk about getting your money’s worth! This technique is particularly effective for something like a press release with a universal format. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

Now I would like to make myself completely clear. I’m not suggesting you copy word-for-word what someone else has written. They have laws against that. You probably broke them the first time you wrote a term paper. I know I did.

I’m talking about using someone else’s writing to inspire you, to serve as a model to get you started, to be a springboard from which you jump (hopefully forward and not down).

Please use your own words, your own voice, your own particular style. Not only is it how you guarantee your writing is consistent and effective, it is also the surefire way of keeping on the right side of the plagiarism laws.

Well, I guess I better get back to my writing project. Hey, guess what? My little trip into my swipe files busted through my writer’s block, and it gave me a topic to write about. Now that is what I call a good heist!