I have never, ever had writer's block in 11 years of writing a weekly relationship column for a major newspaper chain. And I don't expect to ever have writer's block either.

Now that may seem like a fairly bold, perhaps even arrogant statement. It's really not, for two reasons.

One, I'm not saying it to impress you but to impress upon you how you can never have writer's block either.

Two, it's really not that difficult to avoid writer's block.

I think many folks get writer's block becaues they expect to get writer's block. "Since I'm a writer, I'm gonna get writer's block because writer's get writer's block."

Sorry, I just don't buy it.

2 sure-fire ways to avoid writer's block

1. Pay attention

I am often asked how I come up with an idea for a column every week. Believe it or not, that is the wrong question.

The right question is how do I narrow down all the different ideas out there into just one idea?

When you pay attention, you will find that the ideas are everywhere. Mine come from something a client said, a line from a movie or TV, something happening in the news, sometimes something my kids said.

Pay attention and you will be bombarded with ideas.

2. Keep lots of planes on the runway

Say what?

I rarely, if ever, work on one article at a time. I'm usually got several in various stages of development.

I like to think of the articles on which I am working as little plans lined up on the runway ready to take off. In this way, if one article is not ready to fly, and just go to another article and get it ready to take off.

In other words, when you have several articles in various stages of development, if you are getting stuck in one, or if one is just not going anywhere, just move on to others that you can sail through.

"But I'm just not very creatiiiiiiive" you might be saying.

Well, quit your whining and read the quote below:

"Creativity is simply looking at something that has always been there and seeing something that has never been seen before."

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