Beat the Blank Page of Doom FOR GOOD

Writing is Hard… Getting Started is Harder

If you're reading this, you probably have a book in your head that you can't dig out. Or perhaps you started your book... but it's been withering on your hard drive for a year (or more).

You'll definitely be as familiar as I am with the struggle to sit down and do the damn work. You know how it feels to constantly have your plans and intentions to write derailed... and you're all too well acquainted with the feelings of guilt and anxiety and overwhelm that follow.

I know I am.

I've worked with dozens of writers and authors, and they all tell me the same thing over and over again: they want to write more, but something's getting in the way. Their good intentions seem to dissolve and they're left feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

They know they can write more, and better—but somehow, they don't.

There’s always something less painful to do instead.

As I sat down to write this message to you, I had to physically restrain myself from abandoning my writing and going to clean out the chicken coop instead.

The Blank Page of Doom used to scupper me every single time I sat down to write.

I know, from talking to oodles of would-be writers over the years, that those first few words probably scupper you too. We all struggle to get started. We all struggle to find time to write.

I write for a living and I still struggled to get started—not only that, but I often struggled to complete the projects I started.

WHY?

The reason is simple: I didn't have a habit and I didn't have accountability. So instead, I got swept away and into something irrelevant.

Is the Blank Page of Doom your nemesis, too? You'll know you're stuck if any of this sounds familiar:

• As soon as you sit down to write, you reach for some digital candy—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—and get sucked into social media.
• You have no idea how or where to start—so you don’t start at all.
• You promise yourself you'll write your book "one day", but we all know "one day" never comes.
  
• You think you need big blocks of time booked out to make any real progress on your writing, so you never write anything.
• You keep finding other shit to do—like tiling the bathroom, rearranging your kitchen cupboards, and colour-coding your wardrobe—rather than actually sitting down to write.
• You struggle to make progress because you seem to have a pathological need to edit while you write—over and over and over again.
• You’re so busy and your schedule is so full that you can’t seem to fit writing in anywhere.
• You self-sabotage like a champ: lost files, sleepless nights, and inviting in distractions.
• You’re paralysed by the fear that your writing won’t be any good—that people will mock you—and the belief that it has to be perfect first time.
• You feel guilty and anxious because you need to write those emails, articles, or sales pieces—not to mention that book you’ve been desperate to write for years.
• Stress and overwhelm are taking over because you keep putting off writing until the last minute—so you’re always scrambling to catch up and you never feel like you’re ahead of the game.
• Research takes over: it’s easy to convince ourselves that research is crucial (and it is) but over-researching is a classic procrastination activity that stops us from actually writing.
• You spend a lot of time making timetables and schedules… but little time writing (remember the days of exams and beautifully decorated revision timetables? I do…)

I’m gonna let you into a secret: I do all of this stuff too—and so do many, many other writers. You’re not alone.

But you don’t have to let these obstacles destroy your writing plans. You can overcome all of this nonsense and make real progress with your writing.

How?

With two simple changes to your day: a proven strategy that I know works—not just because it works for me and my clients, but because it’s backed up by neuroscience and psychology.

Write Consistently Faster and Better

Start writing regularly, consistently, faster, more confidently, and better—and enjoy yourself at the same time!

You don’t have to get up at 4 am, or eat raw kale, or give up any of the things you enjoy, or sacrifice precious time with your family and friends.

No more guilt-filled conscience-wrangling as you stare at the blank page in terror, knowing you should have started this days ago.

No more 18-hour days as you scramble to meet deadlines and write the stuff you need to write in a panic.

No more telling yourself you “don’t have time” or “you can’t” or “you have all these other important things to do”.

The only 2 things we need to write regularly, consistently, faster, and better are: a habit, and accountability.

We need to make writing feel like brushing our teeth: we feel icky and wrong if we don't do it.

And we need a group of like-minded people to keep on us on track, motivated, confident, and enjoying our writing.

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

I know habits and accountability are the keys to making sure I write every day. But you don’t need to take my word for it: I have some science in my back pocket to share with you.

Almost everything we do every day is unconscious or semi-conscious: it's habit. Which is kind of scary when you think about it—but also exciting. Because it means we can turn regular writing into something that feels almost effortless.

Working out, eating healthily, stopping smoking, driving a car... all these things are powered by habits. Understanding how our brains work and then taking advantage of it is all you need to become the person you want to be: a writer.

Because writers write. Every day.

You can do that too.

And the best thing is: you don't have to do it alone.

In 2014, the psychology department at the Dominican University of California conducted a 4-week study into achieving goals at work. 272 participants were asked to set goals. At the end of the study period, researchers recorded how many participants had accomplished their goals—or were making good progress. 

Results were:

• 43% of participants who thought about their goals were successful.
• 62% of participants who wrote their goals down and shared them with a friend were successful.
• 76% of participants who wrote goals down, shared them, and had weekly progress reports with a friend were successful.

Writing your goals down helps, but the biggest indicator someone would achieve their goals was accountability: regularly sharing progress with a friend.

It’s not just success at work that’s improved by accountability, though.

A Michigan State University study found that research participants performed 90% better when they had a virtual workout partner then when they worked out alone.

Participants were put into partnerships to work out, or asked to work out alone. The study found that  people who worked out with a partner outperformed individuals by 200%.

This works for fitness, health improvements, sports achievements—and writing.

Imagine how much you could write and how quickly you could improve if you wrote twice as much as you do now—without sacrificing huge amounts of time to do so.

What Could You Achieve in an Hour?

There may be many reasons why you procrastinate and struggle to write regularly—there are for me—from lack of confidence to lack of ideas to being easily distracted.

But the main reason is lack of accountability. Fix that, and the other problems fix themselves.

If you want to build a healthy writing habit, increase your confidence, and start writing faster and better, I’d like to invite you to join me three times a week for one-hour live writing sessions.

The Moxie Power Hour is ideal for professional writers, aspiring professional writers, and business owners who want to write a book or simply want to write more and better.

Consider this: the average typing speed is around 36 words per minute — 2,160 words per hour.

Let’s say you can write 1,000 wph. If you join this group and attend each of the sessions, you’ll write a minimum of 3,000 words per week, or 12,000 words per month.

In 5 months, you’ll have written 60,000 words—which is the length of a reasonably sized book.

Now let’s say you build a fantastic writing habit and you write for 5 days per week consistently.

You’ll write 75,000 words in just 3 months. That’s very definitely a book. Or 75 meaty articles. Or 150 marketing emails. Or a whole bunch of sales pages and marketing copy.

All in Tiny Beetle Steps—no massive commitments of time required.

But that’s all theory. How about a real-life story from one of the Team?

Meet Louise. She “wasn’t a writer”. (She “wasn’t a reader” either.) Then she joined Team Moxie’s Power Hour in July 2020.

Fast forward to September 29, 2020 and she'd written 51,326 words of the Shitty First Draft of her book.

Something she thought she'd never, ever do.

All from writing during our daily Power Hours (and doing a few sessions on her own in between).

How would you like to:

• Overcome the Blank Page of Doom consistently and confidently—never get stuck again.
• Write faster, better, and easier than ever before.
• Ditch perfectionism and embrace the Shitty First Draft—so you can start and finish your writing projects, even if you don’t feel quite ready.
• Navigate writer’s block and motivational speed bumps and release high-quality writing into the world in vast quantities (without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and precious family time).
• Benefit from a new writing tip or tool every session: there’s no writing problem a group can’t solve.
• Set realistic goals each writing session—and share them with the group, so you can celebrate together when you hit your goal.
• Leave stress, guilt, and overwhelm behind: know you can write consistently well regularly, so your deadlines will never bowl you over.
• Build a strong, healthy, productive writing habit using tools and techniques backed by research and testing.
• Beat the procrastination demons for good: no more delays and no more fear of beginning—we’ve got your back.
• Write with a group of like-minded, motivated, cheerleading writers just like you: we’ve all had the same struggles and we all want to overcome them together.
• Get access to simple writing prompts so even if you come to a session stuck, you’ll still be able to start writing immediately.
• Write regularly even when you don’t feel like it and can’t get motivated.
• Make consistent progress every day in Tiny Beetle Steps—so that in a few months time you can look back and be astonished at what you achieve.

If the answer is YES, the Team Moxie Power Hour is exactly what you need to succeed in your writing.

The Team Moxie Power Hour is designed to:

The biggest obstacle to writing anything well is a lack of confidence. Can you write? Do you know enough? Will anyone read it — or care?

That lack of confidence leads to procrastination and woe. Building a consistent writing habit, and practising regularly, will build your confidence as well as increasing your skills.

Beat the Blank Page of Doom for good: you'll always be motivated to get started, and getting started is all you need to achieve to write.

I use a simple system to achieve this.