6:30am. 3 coffees deep. Zero words written.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

6:30am.

3rd coffee of the day already nuked. 

Sat there at my dining room table, staring blankly at an untitled Google Doc with a few sprawled out notes, wondering why the fuck I got up so early when I couldn’t even think of anything to write about.

Complete waste of time, lol.

If you’ve never experienced writer’s block, then count yourself lucky.

However, if you have (like most of us), then you know it fucking sucks.

It’s a hard feeling to describe.

It’s like you have all these scattered, half-baked ideas in your head.

You can almost touch one.

You can almost reach out and grab it.

But every time you do, it slips through your fingers and disappears into the fog that clouds your mind.

It used to make me want to boot a hole through the wall, lol.

Fortunately, I have since found a cure for this problem.

It took me 4-5 months of trial-and-error.

It caused a lot of headaches.

And it required a lot of scheming.

But I’ve now built a simple, easy-to-follow system that has made writer’s block a thing of the past (for me at least).

And it’s this system which allows me to churn out 5+ newsletters, 28 tweets, multiple YouTube videos and 3+ Twitter long forms, all on fresh (hopefully interesting) topics week after week without ever running out of shit to talk about.

And that’s what this email is all about.

This, my friend, is the cure for writer’s block you’ve been searching for.

And I’m going to illustrate how it works by doing something quite “meta”.

I’m going to show you the exact process I followed to write this email. For you. To help you cure yourself of writer’s block. By writing about how I cured myself of writer’s block.

(The software devs in my audience are currently having a mental breakdown about circular dependencies, lol).

Right.

Without further ado - let’s dive in with the first stage of the process.

Step 1: Get crystal clear on WHO you are writing for

This was the biggest cause of writer’s block for me.

I used to think I knew who I wanted to write for.

I’d convinced myself I understood my target audience.

Lulled myself into a false sense of confidence.

But in reality the image in my mind of my target reader was foggy at best.

The result?

A foggy mind. Full of half-baked ideas. Zero clarity. And zero fucking words on the page.

So, before you do anything else, ask yourself the following question:

Who am I writing for?

(Not “What am I writing about?”)

Don’t conflate the two.

We’ll get to the what in a minute.

But for now, just decide on a very specific individual you want to write for.

Easiest way to do this?

Target the people who are trying to do exactly the same thing as you, lol.

Take this email, for example.

I’m a (copy)writer. So I’ve written an email targeted towards other writers.

If I was a productivity guy, I’d write an email targeted at people trying to make their lives more productive.

If I was a YouTuber (getting there…), I’d write an email targeted at YouTubers.

Once you’ve picked your target, we need to get inside their head.

To understand what they’re struggling with.

To understand what they want out of life.

And to target these desires with such accuracy that every word they read literally feels like we’ve tunneled inside their mind, connected with their soul and hypnotised them into a trance they simply can’t shake themselves free from.

This is how you’re going to come up with an infinite number of ideas to write about.

And we’ll begin by listing out all their surface level problems.

Step 2: List out their surface level problems

Continuing on with this “meta” example:

I’m now going to write down all the surface level problems writers are struggling with:

1. Can’t get anyone to follow them

2. No one’s reading their posts

3. Can’t think of what to write about

4. Don’t have enough time to write

5. Not making any money from their writing

The list goes on and on.

I wrote these all down.

I thought about all your pains.

I listed out all the problems aspiring writers are struggling with.

And then I did the most important thing of all:

Step 3: Commit to your idea

Listing out all your readers’ problems is a good start.

But, for me at least, it still didn’t cure my writer’s block.

I’d listed out all the problems my target reader was struggling with.

I had them all there in front of me.

But there was a problem:

I couldn’t decide which one to pick.

I was caught in limbo.

Flip-flopping between ideas.

Constantly searching for the “best” one that would really land with my readers.

And that’s when it hit me:

My writer’s block isn’t an ideation problem.

It’s a commitment problem.

I’ve got tons of ideas I could write about.

I just need to fucking pick one and roll with it.

Because I’m going to let you in on a little secret right now:

There is no “best” idea.

There is only the one you commit to.

Which is easy to say, but hard to do, of course.

So here’s a stupid simple trick I’ve found to make committing to an idea unbelievably easy for you:

Type in the following into your Google search bar: wheelofnames.com

Input all the problems you listed out in Step 2 above.

Spin the wheel.

And whatever idea the wheel lands on, that’s what you’re writing about today.

No questions.

No second spins.

What the wheel decides is gospel.

You’re committed.

And that’s what you’re about to spend 60 minutes rambling on about to the poor sods that decided to open their laptop today.

I can’t explain the mental relief this simple exercise provides.

It’s kind of similar to the clarity people describe after they’ve hired a coach / mentor.

It’s often not the coach or mentor’s advice per se that helps them out. It’s simply the ability to outsource all the thinking to someone else. To have their mind made up. To force them to commit. So that you can just focus on the doing.

Because once you’re committed to your idea, the stress goes away.

The fog in your mind dissipates.

And now you can focus on the next stage of the process without second-guessing yourself the entire time.

Step 4: Why do they want to solve this problem? (surface level)

Why do people (you) want to solve writer’s block?

So they can write more content.

So they can gain more followers.

So they can grow faster on social media.

Which is all well and good.

It’s a nice place to start.

But it’s surface level shit.

We need to dig a little deeper.

To get to the real reason you’re here.

Step 5: Why do they REALLY want to solve this problem? (one layer deep)

Writers don’t want to solve writer’s block.

And they don’t want to grow on social media.

They want what growing on social media will give them:

Income.

Revenue.

To make money.

We're getting closer now.

But we aren’t done yet.

We need to go deeper still.

We need to get to the root of the root.

Square root analysis, I call it (still haven’t quite managed to kill the maths student within me).

Step 6: Why do they really, REALLY want to solve the problem (root squared)

Writers don’t want to solve writer’s block.

Writers don’t want to grow on social media.

Writers don’t even want to make money online.

They want to do all of these things SO THAT they can have more free time, travel the world, spend more time with their kids and do all of the shit that they enjoy in life.

Freedom.

Autonomy.

To spend life doing what they love.

Ahh.

Now we’re at the root.

The real reason they’re here.

The reason they embarked upon this journey.

And the reason you’re sat there reading this email today.

And now we need to think about things from the reverse angle:

What happens when we solve this problem?

Step 7: List out the downstream effects of solving this problem

Think about the downstream effects of solving writer’s block.

Solve writer’s block → Less time wasted writing → More time to spend doing what you want

Solve writer’s block → Less frustration and stress sat at your laptop → Happier mood

Solve writer’s block → Write more content → Gain more followers → Earn more money online → Have more money to spend doing stuff you like (traveling the world, holidays with the kids etc.)

Suddenly, you’ve got a whole bunch of tangible benefits you can target with your writing.

Which brings us onto the final stage.

Step 8: Pick your writing angle (ONE downstream benefit)

Pick ONE of these downstream effects.

Maybe it’s more time to spend with the family.

Maybe it’s less stress about what content to write.

Maybe it’s having more money to travel the world.

Just pick one and roll with it (use the spinny wheel trick again if you need to).

Because this is your angle.

This is how you’re going to hook people in.

And this is the carrot on the stick you’re going to continually tease your readers with throughout your writing to keep them hanging on your every word.

I mean, look back at the intro to this email.

Within 2-3 lines I’d already appealed to your desire to stop wasting time sitting at your laptop, feeling like a failure and not knowing what to write about.

And that’s what you’re going to do with your writing.

You’re going to pick one angle.

One core desire of your reader.

The real reason they’re here reading your content today.

And you’re going to hammer that into every word you write like a fucken maniac.

And this stupidly simple system.

This common sense framework.

This 8-step process that, in characteristic fashion, I’ve just spent far too long describing.

This is how you solve writer’s block.

And this, my friends, is how you free yourself from your desire to get up from your desk, punch a hole through your laptop screen and yeet it straight out the fucking window because, yet again, you can’t think of a damn thing to write about.

Talk soon,

Harry

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