This Month's Column:
THE BLANK PAGE (OR SCREEN) IS NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF

"Blank page syndrome" is that sinking feeling that you get when you sit down in front of the computer knowing that you have to write a letter, report or some other business document-and you don't have the first idea of how to start! You just sit there, knowing that you're the stupidest thing that ever drew breath. Finally, you remind yourself that if you don't write something, you won't get to go home, so you say what you have to say in the greatest possible number of words, in the hopes that all those words will convince your readers that you know what you're talking about, even if they don't.

It's blank page syndrome that makes a lot of people so scared of writing. Just keep two things in mind, though. First, everyone suffers from it. Even Shakespeare probably had it sometimes. Second, it's easy to overcome, no matter how hopeless you're feeling.

The surest way to beat blank page syndrome is this:

Don't begin at the beginning.

If you start your letter or report with the introductory passage, you'll sit there staring at the screen all day. The first paragraphs should usually be the last thing you write. (It's a lot easier, nowadays, to write the beginning last, since you're likely to be working with a computer, which will let you cut and paste blocks of copy as you work.)

Where and how should you start, if not at the beginning? Every writer has several ideas about that. How you get started depends a lot on how clear an idea you already have of what you want to say, how complicated the job is, and how thoroughly you understand the issue you're writing about. I have four methods, each of which has been very effective in different circumstances:

• Start in the middle. Just write. Start anywhere, but write down as much as you can write. If you have a sentence or paragraph in your mind, but you're not sure where it should go in the document, write it anyway, and work around it.

  If you're really stumped for something to say, start by writing down whatever you know about the issue you're addressing. Suppose, for instance, that you're writing a brief report on a conference you attended. You remember what you did at the conference, so start by stating the plain facts: "On Monday morning I attended the general session, where the keynote speaker was..." From that, you'll get into a description of the main points of the speech. Following that, you'll describe the seminars you attended, the exhibits you saw, and so on. Before you know it, you'll have written a huge percentage of your report.

  Now that you've done the purely descriptive writing, go over it and identify the most important points. For example, maybe a new product was introduced at this conference, a product that you think will revolutionize your industry. In that case, it's that new product, more than the conference, that you'll want to write about.

  Once you've determined the central point, you can write the beginning of the report:

  "The highlight of last week's Gadgets Unlimited conference was the introduction of a left-handed hoozenhaffer, which is likely to cut our labor costs by about 40 percent within the next two years."

• Write an informal outline. Nobody enjoys writing outlines: They're not interesting, and you usually end up ignoring them anyway. But sometimes they do help. You don't have to write a fancy one, with lots of Roman numerals and sub-headings. Just jot down the points you want to cover, then figure out which points are the most important and-very generally-what you want to say about each point. Keep on jotting down ideas, jumping from point to point as you think of something else to say about each one.

  Before too long, you'll have written most of what you needed to write: Now it's just a matter of putting those ideas into complete sentences, and putting the ideas into their proper order. When that's done, you'll be ready to write your introduction and your conclusion.

• Work backwards. If you already know what your conclusion is going to be, but don't know how you're going to bring the reader to it, start by writing the conclusion:

  "Therefore, all rules against smoking should be abolished."

  You have just written your whole story in one sentence. All you have to do now is supply the "why" and the "how." Just write down your reasons for wanting the anti-smoking rules abolished, as they come to you. Later, you can worry about putting them in the right order. For now, just get them onto the screen, along with whatever arguments or evidence you might have to back them up.

  You've now written the middle and the end of the document. From this, it's easy to figure out what the beginning should be: something like, "Doctors at the Edward R. Murrow Research Center have concluded that, contrary to popular belief, smoking is good for you!"

• Why am I doing this? One good way to get your motor running is to start before the beginning. In other words, write an explanation (to yourself) of why you have to write this document. For instance:

  "I need to write a letter to the Mayor's office applying for permission to build an addition to our factory in violation of city zoning codes. The problem is that the land we want to build on is zoned as a street, even though it's actually just a big field of gravel-so, technically, we'd be building in the middle of a street!"

  Before you know it, you'll have written out most of the information that will have to go into the letter. Now it's just a matter of reorganizing and editing that material into a clearer, more concise form:

  Dear Mayor Daley: I am writing this letter to request an exemption from Rule 6.12 of the Chicago zoning code. Our firm intends to build an addition on lot 5683, which the zoning commission has zoned as a street. However, as the enclosed photographs illustrate, this lot is actually a field of gravel.

  There you are: You're rolling.

copyright 2000 by Joseph Dobrian