Learn to beat 'writers' block'

Free-writing is one of the easiest and quickest ways to warm up your writing brain and beat ‘writers’ block’. Put pen to paper and let your ideas flow. Don’t worry about the quality of your thoughts, or about clarity or idea organisation. Pay no attention to spelling, grammar or punctuation. Just write as quickly you can, by hand, and don’t stop. Do this for five minutes.

Free-writing helps you to access the big picture, without being sidetracked by details. It’s a non-linear activity, using the side of the brain (right) that deals in concepts and abstractions. As soon as you begin to organise or edit your ideas, you’ve moved to the left side, where linear thinking happens. And that’s where thoughts can get blocked. Good luck.

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