I went for a run last night through thick fog. It was quite beautiful to watch the oncoming headlights diffuse through filaments of white; but it was also quite eerie when the light disappeared and I was wrapped in a blanket of nothing.

That’s sometimes how my brain feels when I’m tackling a new piece of creative copywriting. Moments of brilliance; then nothing.

Otherwise known as writer’s block, I guess. So what are my top five tactics for overcoming this most pernicious writing ailment?

1. Step outside the job. Say I’m working on an eDM for a financial institution and am stuck for a hook. Instead of sitting there staring at a blank screen for half an hour, I’ll be productive with my time and flick through a recent issue of Money, or trawl a couple of news sites, to further brush up on the topic.

2. Jump into something easier. Often, the hardest part of a piece is the heading/subject line/opening para. Generally, I leave this until last. By tackling the meatier sections first, I become so immersed in the topic I’m writing about that it’s relatively easy to come back and nail the opener.

3. Talk to myself. Sounds crazy, but I can often work my way through the problem by having a conversation with myself about the topic. “So, Bec, why do you need this financial product?” “Well, Bec, I’ve been thinking about my future a lot more lately, wondering how on earth I’m going to save enough for a deposit on a house…” And so it goes on. It might stem from my multimedia/scriptwriting days when I always had to read my work back to myself to ensure it sounded OK when spoken.

4. Re-read my notes. I will close my laptop and pull out my briefing notes, armed with a highlighter and a pen. I’ll go over these and pull out all the key points, and jot down some words/phrases which support these key points. It’s a good chance to go back to an old-fashioned brainstorm.

5. Admit defeat. I always acknowledge when I’m really stuck, and will leave the job for the rest of the day and complete another (less creative) job instead. There’s no point in trying to force creativity when it’s just not there.

Of course, there’s always coffee. That seems to get the creative juices flowing nicely.

So what are your tactics to beat writer’s block?