Kia ora,
Yesterday I spent the morning staring at a blank doc trying to figure out how to get a blog idea out. I had the topic, and I knew what I wanted to say, but … the thoughts were not connecting with the fingers on the keyboard.
Feel familiar? I’m sure you’ve had your own writer’s block moments. It sucks!
There’s heaps of advice out there for how to get out of writing ruts. A lot of it is great – switch your environment, make a bullet point list of the ideas, write with pen on paper. I’ve done all of those and found they work.
But I came up with another idea while stuck on this blog post. I doubt it’s original, and actually, now that I think about it, it sounds similar to the rubberduck method that programmers use to debug code.
Here’s what I did: I went to my inbox and wrote to my friend. Just wrote the blog post as an email, complete with dodgy punctuation and in-jokes that make no sense to anyone but us. And then I sent it to myself.
That was enough to get out a rough draft. The revision comes later.
I got out the bones of the idea, and just as important: I wrote naturally. Sometimes when we write, even about our own experiences and adventures, we get stuck with a faux formal tone that sounds like a cover letter or corporate email. But by writing to my friend, I sounded like myself.
If you’re stuck in a writing rut, give this idea a try. And if you have any tried and true methods, let me know! I’m always up for trying new ideas.
Cheers,
Deborah
PS. The finalists for the NZMFF Mountain Book competition have been announced! I’m keen to check out Whales, Snails and Lobster Tales by Andrew Penniket. See the full finalist list here.
📚 What I’m reading
Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis.
Final Destination: Riding Britain’s Trains to the End of the Line, by Nige Tassell.
📅 Availability
I have spaces available from June.
Get in touch if you want a sample edit so you can see what editing can do for your story.
✍️ Ways to work with me
Read the Base Camp Writing blog
Check out my self-publishing guides
Discover more from Deborah Shaw Adventure Editing
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Deborah Shaw Adventure Editing 