Writing Tip 6 is about getting in motion. A lot of the time, people run into writer’s block, especially kids and young students. They don’t know what to write about. I’m going to tell you it’s so easy to overcome writer’s block, especially when you’re practicing writing.
What you want to do is practice. Practice doesn’t count. You can throw your paper away. It’s just practice. The more you practice writing, the better you’ll get. The more you practice, over time you will master the thing that you need to master: the sentence. Once you start mastering sentences, then things like paragraphs and papers and books, sort of work themselves out.
Think about Tip #6. You can always write, because everything reminds you of something.
Everything reminds you of something. Here on my desk is a little brass spinning top. So what does “top” remind you of? Top might remind you of the top of a mountain. A mountain could remind you of an old man sitting on it. An old man who knows a lot. He has a long beard. This could remind you of someone holding a staff. A staff could remind you of an infection like a staph infection. Infection could remind you of a microscope. A microscope could remind you of Louis Pasteur, which might remind you of pasteurized milk. Milk could remind you of cheese. Cheese could remind you of mice. Mice could remind you of clocks, like in the nursery rhyme, “Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock.”
If you understand that everything reminds you of something, you can always sit down and write. If you’re following our principles, you’re starting with writing something okay to begin with—you just want to write to practice. To see what comes to mind, to experiment and play around with your writing. It doesn’t need to be great writing; you’re not trying to write something great, you’re trying to practice and do okay. That’s where you start in this process.
It’s not hard to think of things to write, because everything reminds you of something. Get a few objects out—knickknacks, toys, etc.—and make up a little story based on them. See what they remind you of. Just start writing and watch what happens. Some of our later writing tips will help you further, but this is where you start. You can always write about something, because everything reminds you of something.
-Dr. Fred Ray Lybrand
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