Just Do It!

Anyone recognize this recently coined phrase? It's a campaign slogan coined in recent years by the sports company "Nike".

Now, I'm no great sports fan. I have nothing against sports, but I'm no great sport authority myself. Nor am I necessarily a "Nike" fan.

But, to get back to my usage of their advertising slogan, I have taken on to coining it for the writing industry and us writers. Quite applicable indeed.

You see, many writers (and anyone who does anything which involves any creativity) complain of suffering from that terrifying complex called 'writer's block'. It can even develop into something terrifyingly debilitating sometimes. For some more than others, it is merely a feeble excuse for their own laziness about simply getting round to the actual act of writing. And yet, for others, it is a true and scary mindset which, when it does actually begin, can catch on and cause terrible and sometimes irreparable mental block. Kind of like a snowball which begins at the top of a high mountain, only gaining in size, density and speed as it rolls down the hill, collecting more and more snow packing on as it rolls down by force of gravity to the bottom of the valley bellow.

After having dealt with my own intermittent bouts of writer's block, as well as reading other writers (and other professionals in various aspects of the field), I have come up with my own mind set to try to combat this problem. A sort of therapy, if you will. And in the process, I have opted to coin the Nike campaign slogan: "Just do it!"

Always keep a small notepad with you wherever you go. Sometimes an idea pops into your mind of something interesting to write about. Or perhaps an angle by which to approach a particular subject you have already had an idea to write about. Or perhaps an additional idea to incorporate into a work already in progress. But those ideas can many times be rather fleeting. They tend to go as quickly and fleeting as which they came; unless you do something in particular to 'save' them.

Our minds can be compared to a computer memory bank. On your PC or laptop, if you write something in any document or file, if you don't click the option 'save', then once you click out of the program, whatever it is that you have typed in is lost forever. Same thing goes for working on internet. If you don't click the 'save' or 'send' option for what you are trying to communicate to others, it is lost forever in that effervescent "cyber world". Never to be seen again. Unless you have remembered what it is that you typed, and you can do it again, and save it or send it properly this time.

Same thing goes, more or less, for our own human minds. We have thoughts. We even have brainstorms at times. Really good ideas. But if we don't do something to ensure that we will remember them, many times when we get side-tracked with something else, those thoughts or ideas get easily lost never to be retrieved again. Unless something happens or is said or is read to jog our memory. But if you are anything like a vast majority of the population of mankind, that is something that rarely happens. And it seems even less unlikely when you try conscientiously to recall that memory. Seems to be, for some odd reason, that the harder we try to retrieve an idea or a memory, the more difficult it gets to retrieve it. Only when we put it off from our intentions to retrieve it, and something happens to jog the memory, does it blessedly come back to us. But even then, it is for only a fleeting moment once again.

This is why I have learned to carry a small notepad and pen with me in my purse wherever I go. "But I'm a man" you say? "I don't carry a purse like you women". Well, then, do what you can to carry some sort of a notepad with you, and use it when you need it. When an idea pops in your head, jot down merely the main points which will later on jog your memory enough that you can sit down at your computer or your desk and write out longhand whatever it is that you want to write about. If you carry a cell phone with you, then use the 'notepad' option under the 'organizer' section of your phone. Most cell phones nowadays have this option already programmed into the phone's memory bank. And if you don't have such a section, then it is easy to install it. Install it today, and learn to use it. Or perhaps carry a small notepad in your wallet, along with a miniature pen or pencil in the fold of the wallet. Do whatever you have to do to ensure that when you have than brainstorm, it is not merely blown away by the winds of forgetfulness.

Jerry B. Jenkins, a prolific American writer, has written and published many books of Inspirational Writing. In his book "Writing for the Soul", he has stated his own opinion or view on the ideal of 'writer's block'. He claims that there is no such thing. In other words, as long as you sit down somewhere at some time with the intention and desire to write, you will eventually get to doing just that, hence rendering 'writer's block' virtually obsolete. He has given that proverbial advice that to write, you need to have "seat in chair". Quite profound in its utter simplicity, yet a hard truth. I like to add my own spin on to it, trying to make it my inspirational motto: "Want to write? Get seat in chair, turn off internet connection and the television, and don't answer the phone. Turn computer on, have a new (or ongoing) word document on the screen, or pad on the desk, and write."

In other words, as the Nike campaign has already so succinctly put it: "Just do it!"