Writer's block, an owner's guide: Start with an email

Chanpory Rith over at lifeclever.com suggests If writing stirs a panic attack in you, try this: start with an email. Instead of launching an imposing behemoth like Microsoft Word, call up your humble email program and begin your next writing piece as a simple email.

Read the article: Chanpory has a lot to say on the subject. And I like the idea. I routinely email myself notes of things I want to write, and notes on things I am writing. Including my draft of what you’re reading right now. The problem I find with that is that when you email yourself, Gmail assumes you’ve read it and doesn’t bother putting it in the inbox. So you have to put it there by hand. An annoyingly slow process that you can easily overlook, and which I haven’t found a way to automate with filters or anything else. I suppose I could just not hit Send, and let it lie in the drafts box forever (better ideas please?). (Afternote 2/2/08: that’s what I’ve been doing since I wrote this, and it works well, if you don’t leave too many things lying in there. Which we unblocked people don’t, right?)

Published on December 29, 2007 at 8:34 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/start-with-an-email.html