From classroom to boardroom......do we ever really lose our fear of a blank page?

If you cast your mind back to your school days I'm sure you can remember an occasion where you were sat in front of a blank piece of paper after being told by your teacher to 'write a story' or possibly an even more horrifying prospect, a poem! Do you remember that feeling? You sat there looking at the blank page in front of you and literally had no clue where to start and no matter how many times you put your hand up and asked to go to the toilet when you got back to your desk that same piece of blank paper was still sat there starting back at you. I mean it 'sounds' as though it's an easy enough task doesn't it? Just write something? However for lots of us it really isn't as straightforward and easy as that at all.

Thankfully things in the classroom have moved on since I was a primary school child in the 80s and I don't think teachers out there today would set pupils such a task without providing lots of teaching input, brain storming, writing frames, sentence starters and word banks to support their writing but that wasn't really the case when I was at school (wow I'm making myself sound ancient here and I'm really not - honest). I was lucky though as I was the kind of child who could imagine nothing better than being given a blank page and being told to 'get writing'. I literally remember making my own little books of stories that I'd invented and forcing my family to listen to them over and over again. I was definitely in the minority though as for most children this kind of writing task was met with a groan and comments such as 'but we thought it was PE next sir'.

For the majority of us I don't think that feeling of apprehension when it comes to writing changes much as we get older. Yes we may be sitting in front of a laptop rather than at a school desk, we may also be writing in our stylishly decorated office instead of a classroom lit by migraine inducing fluorescent tubes and with the faint whiff of cabbage wafting it's way down from the school dinner hall. There might not be a teacher looming over you about to ask why you haven't written anything yet but in lots of ways writing as an adult can be even more terrifying than writing at school.

For starters we've lost the security of knowing we can just put our hand up and say 'miss I'm stuck, I need help' and an adult will instantly appear with a plethora of ideas to get us started. We're also not surrounded by our best friends who we can call on for idea 'swapsies' and there's certainly no bell that is about to sound for break, lunch, or home time that will magically save us from the horror of the task at hand. Unfortunately writing as an adult can sometimes be a pretty lonely business. It's just us, our laptops and our own brains (gosh what a truly terrifying thought that is).

In my time spent as a teacher I think I've seen pretty much every avoidance strategy out there in action when it comes to writing. Whether it's constant pencil sharpening, trips to the toilet, the search for a ruler or a new exercise book...…….the list is literally endless and often pretty inventive too. As adults we still employ those same kind of avoidance strategies when we're trying to get started with our writing, only now we're more likely to run to the coffee machine, make that 'urgent' phone call that really can't wait, or linger a bit longer to chat at the water machine. Are any of those strategies sounding vaguely familiar to you? Yes? Which one? When was the last time you can remember doing that? Last week? Yesterday? Maybe even today?

We're all guilty of it to some extent and that definitely includes me. My favourite avoidance tactic is conveniently remembering that I definitely haven't had any caffeine for at least 10 minutes, a situation which clearly must be rectified instantly, before there's any chance of me putting pen to paper or switching the laptop on!

Getting started with a new piece of writing can be tough. Whether you're writing content for your company's website, starting on a new presentation or proposal, writing a blog post or content for social media, or even just composing an important email. That feeling of looking at a blank page can be overwhelming. But it really doesn't need to be.

I absolutely love helping companies that need some help and support when it comes to writing copy for their brand. If your business is looking for a copywriter who can take the burden off you by writing content for your entire website, a social media campaign or by creating your blog on a regular basis then drop me an email.

I'm also always happy to cast an editorial eye over content that you have written yourself and may just need a final tweak and polish. Literally no project is too big or too small. Check out my Services page for more information or drop me an email.