Welcome Wednesday: how do you beat writer's block?

[#1]

Happy Wednesday, Atlassian Community family!

We've all have had writer's block before - how do you beat it?

If you want to create - whether it's for a job, a personal project, or volunteer assignment - what do you do when you're stuck? How do you fill that blank Confluence page with magic? 🪄

I've a few strategies, depending on the situation:

• When I think of an idea I'd like to write about, or an interesting quote, I jot it down. (For me, that's usually on my phone.) I've got notes full of ideas and quotes that sometimes can spark my imagination.
• When writing an article and stuck on the format, I look for templates - or if the situation is niche, I make my own! (Search the web for templates related to what you're writing. Or ask Rovo?)
• Sometimes I just start writing. Even if you end up throwing out most of what you've written, getting ideas out of your head and onto paper (or the screen) lets you then refine those ideas.

This Welcome Wednesday is late, but it IS still Wednesday somewhere in the world... 😉

[Amanda Barber]

I definitely use all three of your ideas in some capacity! To get over the blank page, I've been relying on Rovo a bit more in recent weeks, too! While I try not to overuse AI, I really do think it helps to get the basic format of what you might want to write and then you can go from there!

One more idea I use often - getting in some activity or fresh air (or both!) I swear, a walk always gets me back on track. Sometimes, if I can happen to sneak in a walk with my husband, I can talk out my ideas which is even better!

[Anahit Sukiasyan]

Writer’s block is real. 🙄

What helps me most is lowering the bar at the start: I don’t aim for “good”, I aim for something. A rough sentence, bullet points, even a messy brain dump in Confluence is enough to get momentum. Editing is always easier than starting from a blank page.

Also +1 to templates, they’re lifesavers. Even creating a quick “temporary” structure gives my brain something to react to instead of freezing. 😄

Thanks for the reminder that magic doesn’t always start polished! ✨

[Peter Rossum_ van]

Rovo is of great help here. Just put your thoughs in Rovo and ask to write a piece on it, and voilá there a good start of a new page!

[Stephen_Lugton]

I've been using ChatGPT (well actually our internal version of ChatGPT that protects our data) to give me a starter which I could then modify to my needs.

For example I wanted to update a Confluence page last year that we used to introduce teams to the concept of Psychological safety, I used a very simple prompt:

You are an Agile Coach. You are assisting a team in putting together a Psychological Safety page in Confluence. Prepare a page that includes at the start a description of Psychological safety as given by Amy Edmondson.

This gave me a starting page but it felt like something was missing, so I asked for a change:

That's a good basis for expansion, can you expand on this and include the Prime Directive for Agile by Norm Kerth.

I continued asking for improvements and changes until I got a template that included everything I wanted, and I was then able to rewrite it to match our existing styles.

[Dave Liao]

Funny, when I mentioned Rovo originally, didn't think AI would be mentioned in every reply (so far)! 🤣

@Amanda Barber - yesssss! We all have toolbox for handling writer's block whether we know it or not! Depends on the situation, right? I'm actually taking a walk right now to clear the cobwebs of sleep from my mind.

@Anahit Sukiasyan - "perfect is the enemy of good/done" I think is floated about! If I just shipped everything in my backlog, I'd probably be more relaxed. ☺️ (Everything where critical infrastructure isn't involved, I mean...)

@Peter Rossum_ van - glad I'm not the only one using Rovo in this way!

@Stephen_Lugton - love this! And I've never heard of the Prime Directive for Agile, adding this to my reading list. Hoping that's a good idea, anyway. 😉

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I've been a technical writer for about 35 years, so I understand writer's block. 

Some tricks I use:

• Outline first: add the "chapters," then the pages, then the headings on the pages. You may need to combine some topics or add some topics later, but you won't forget a topic completely.
• Don't try to write the introduction first (whether on a page or the parent page of a "chapter" or the whole "book")—once you write the guts, it's easier to summarize it for the intro.
• Sometimes it's easier to write the steps or create a process flow diagram first and then fill in the extraneous information around them. At least you have the steps down, which is what many people are looking for most.
• Get all the information down on the page (perhaps covering the same idea in a couple of places) and worry about organizing it later.

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Barbara, glad to see you call out those ideas, because they match what I was going to say! Using an outline is crucial for me. And if the outline doesn't come, I don't continue until something does emerge. This has been good for three technical books and a PhD thesis :) 

[Dave Liao]

@Barbara Szczesniak - yessss, outlines all the way. Reminds me of what I learned in fourth grade elementary school... fundamentals!

I love the call out of possibly covering the same idea multiple times. Don't be afraid to be redundant, repeating the idea might be a Good Idea(tm) once you look at the big picture.

@Matt Doar _Adaptavist_ - I only know of one of your books, time to go down a Matt Doar rabbit hole! 🤣

[Stephen_Lugton]

@Dave Liao 

Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review

Norm Kerth

[Dave Liao]

Thanks! I'm sad my library doesn't have it, but found it on paperback online 🙌🏻