All writing comes from a single idea, expanded into various branches.  And that process is exactly what you need to embrace the moment you start.

As soon as you get your writing assignment, write down the single idea you will try to get across using it.  For most types of writing, this will be a one-line description that encapsulates what the piece will be about.

If you’re writing the sales letter, that single idea will be “to get prospect to call, so we can sell them on the merits of the product.”  For a book summary, it might be “to outline the key ideas discussed in the book.”  For an office memo, it might be “to announce the new night shift schedule.”

Doing things with a one-line synopsis as a starting point helps you drill down the core message of a document, allowing you to have a clear starting point.  As you have probably experienced in the past, there’s nothing worse than writing a piece with only a hazy idea of what it’s going to be about.

As you write with your favorite writing software, keep that one-line reminder on hand.  It will help keep you grounded and focused on the actual task at hand.  Any time you stray from the target, a quick glance at it should show you where you should be focusing your energies on.

It’s tough to begin writing.  That’s why we recommend a slew of pre-writing activities before the fact – it lays the foundation (making writing easier) and gets you mentally ready.  Once you’ve got the preparation steps done, how should you proceed to fill up all those rows on that blank page staring right at you (sorry, even the most powerful writing software won’t pull words out of thin air for you yet)?

1. Think of your audience.  Your introduction should speak directly with your audience.  If they can’t get the gist of your topic right from your first paragraph, you’ll run the risk of immediately losing them.  Make sure you put yourself in their shoes and put down what they need to hear.

2. Do you have an outline?  If you do, then start writing paragraphs based on it.  Remember: you don’t have to do the topics in order.   You can write whichever comes easiest and rearrange them based on how you imagined presenting them in your outline.

3. You can start out on topics by writing the first sentence for each one.  That way, you don’t have to worry about producing complete paragraphs at the onset.  Once you get that done, that lone sentence could spur the production of the rest of the piece.

4. Are you looking to inspire action in your readers?  Try to incorporate AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) concepts into your work, apart from establishing your authority right at the onset.

Want to start every writing project the right way?  Here’s as simple as it gets: have a clear, focused point.  Forget about everything else when you’re starting out.  If you don’t have a well-defined main thesis, you’re going to struggle through the rest of the job.

Many people start out work on an essay or a report without a definite point in mind.  “I’ll see how it turns out,” they tell themselves, letting the work define itself throughout its course.  While that attitude can work out positively (tons of people do it all the time), it usually leads to a slower pace, with plenty of potential for mistakes.

When you write in that manner, it becomes easy to get lost in your ideas.  Because you’re making critical decisions on the fly, there’s a greater likelihood for your ideas to be poorly-formulated, inadequately expressed or insufficiently supported.  In many ways, this is tantamount to turning in work without having it checked with a writing correction software.

Working without a clear point at the onset is difficult because most subjects you will write about have no definite, black-and-white answer.  This is especially true for essays and opinion pieces, where your arguments may be equally as valid as a dissenting point of view.  Having a definite direction from the start lets you build your ideas towards a single goal without having to question yourself throughout.

Writing isn’t easy.  Even people who do it for a living say so.  Tasked to write something, most people end up spending hours  staring into a blank page, unable to type even a single intelligible word.

If you’re the same way, you can take solace in the fact that writing does get easier over time.  If you develop the right habits that make it less of an exercise in shotgun hunting and into a disciplined activity of organized presentation, you can learn to organize your ideas and write them in a way that makes people take notice.

Focus

The first thing you need is a clear focus for your written piece.  If you’re writing about the health benefits of a bidet, for instance, it doesn’t help to turn your attention to product installation or details of its construction.  Keep your head on the subject and start writing with only that in mind.

Outline

If you find your head a mess of ideas, creating an outline for the piece you’ll be writing will greatly help in completing it.  Think about someone presenting the ideas to you and imagine how you would like it to be structured.

For the bidet example, you may want a short introduction about bidets, leading into their various health benefits and concluding with an emphatic argument about how they may improve one’s life.  You can outline this as such:

• Intro Bidets
• Intro Health Benefits
• Detailed Benefits
  - For senior citizens
  - For preventing infections
  - For the sick
• Closing Health Benefits

Essentially, an outline small chunks your writing task into clear topics.  Instead of one big task ahead of you, you’ll be looking at smaller pieces of copy with no more than a few sentences each.  With a goal less daunting and the help of grammar software to ensure your words shine flawlessly, writing can really be much easier.