by Joe Wallace

I’m not a big believer in writer’s block. I personally have found that I can always write about SOMETHING…maybe I’m just a loudmouth. But there are times when you feel at a loose end, like you don’t really know what to do next. You’re paralyzed by indecision, worry or some other trouble nagging at you. You know you need to do SOMETHING. Send a query, do a follow up, look for some new ways to earn money from your writing…but you can’t shake that feeling of not being able to start.

Sound familiar?

When I get into that sort of rut, I fall back on one of my oldest rules. “When in doubt, promote yourself.”

That could be as simple as posting a comment on someone else’s blog with a link back to your own (in a non-spammy way, naturally) or as elaborate as dropping a fellow blogger a line to ask about doing a guest blog post. My motivation for this is to spend as much time moving forward as possible, and no time standing still even in times of doubt, worry or indecision.

If you get stuck, just drop what you’re trying to do for a bit and work on some shameless self-promotion. You can always think of a new way to push your personal brand a bit further out into the marketplace, even if it’s just a quick update and tweak of your resume page or an e-mail to a potential client to say “I’m here.”