Beagle - 2:10 am on Feb 8, 2007 (gmt 0)

Great thread, engine - and everyone who's added to it.

My usual process serves more to stave off writer's block than attacking it when it occurs -- I use kind of a combination of engine's bullet points and paragraph writing, and grandpa's "It doesn't have to be right the first time." When I get an idea for an article, I make enough notes that reading them a few weeks later will remind me what I was thinking. But if the notes get me going into a paragraph or two, I go ahead and write them. If the paragraphs get me going farther, I go with it until I reach a place where I have to think about it more or do more research. Then I pull up a page of notes/paragraphs/etc. that I might have reached that point on a few weeks or a few days earlier and see if I can wrap it up as a full article. I probably have about a dozen of these partial articles going at any one time. And if I come across something (a thought, a quote, etc.) that fits with one of the partially written pieces, I just open that page and add it to the notes so it'll be there when I come back.

The process lets me not obsess on writing it perfectly the first time, because I know I'll be back to it a few times before it gets published. Some of the pieces, of course, end up being dead ends, but then there's always another one to work on.

This next idea might be weird, but I'm very visually oriented and I like to put even unfinished articles on a (not live!) mock-up of what they'll look like on the web page. Seeing them that way helps energize me, for some reason.

And, markd, let me add that one of my oft-used lines is "I'm totally confused - time to go to the bathroom!" It often works wonders - maybe because it lets me gather my thoughts for a few minutes without totally breaking off my train of thought.