I often struggle with the blank page.

I fight to get started. I worry about what people will think. I fret over the number of “likes” and social shares that my posts will earn.

And, I sometimes give up before I even get started, relegating the few words I can squeeze out of my head to yet another unpublished draft in a long and growing collection.

I try a number of ruses to break out of my impasse.

I read to get inspired and loosen up my gears. I fire up my iPhone and listen to music to awaken my muse. I take a walk around the block. I drink coffee. I consume a bunch of useless calories (salt and vinegar potato chips are my kryptonite).

I put fingers to keyboard and let gravity take over and pray something will animate them and produce the right words. Any words.

Sometimes I start writing, finish a piece, hit publish, and declare victory. More often, I don’t.

“Have you written 1,000 words today”? my iPhone app annoyingly prods me every day at 8:00 pm (word count target and time both set by me, of course).

“Hey, you’re just a stupid piece of computer code! Have you written 1,000 words today?”

And then I see my nine year-old daughter, pencil in hand, notebook open, pages filled from top to bottom with her words.

I wonder, “How the heck does she do it? How does she sit down, write, erase and rewrite a little, and then declare herself done and move on?”

This deserves a closer look, of course. So I sit on the couch, a couple feet away from her, and watch as she writes.

What’s her secret?

Here’s what I’ve observed:

1. She gets a lot of words down on the page before trying to edit her work.
She doesn’t let mistakes slow her down. She corrects them and moves on. Her words fill the page, down to the very last space at the bottom, where she usually inserts a “go to next page” remark with an arrow. Her sentences leave no margin, neither to the left nor the right, at the top or the bottom. She fills every bit of white space on the page. The page can’t breathe after she’s done with it.

2. She writes as if she’s talking.
Sure, she writes in run-on sentences. Okay, she lacks transitions and pauses. No, she doesn’t break up her paragraphs. But she gets it all down on the page, and it does flow, and it does tell a story. Her story. And isn’t that what matters?

3. She’s opinionated and isn’t afraid to take a position.
My daughter is in the third grade this year. She is therefore not subject to corporate communications policies that dictate what she can or cannot write about. She hasn’t yet had to face negative reviews on Amazon that throw cold water on her confidence. My daughter writes what she thinks, expresses her feelings, and says whatever comes to mind. She’s fearless.

4. She guesses the spelling of words she doesn’t know.
My daughter is generally a good speller. But there are, inevitably, words that she hasn’t written before, even if she’s come across them in her readings. She shoves aside the unyielding but often illogical spelling rules of English in favor of phonetic transliterations. One point for my daughter, zero for the English language.

5. She recalls scenes as if they happened just a few minutes ago.
And then she writes them all down as if she’s painting a picture. The time I took her for an X-ray to find out why her chest was hurting? The terrifying moments before she stepped into the car on the Space Mountain roller-coaster at Disney World? Branded on her memory, seared there forever. Now memories that she can call up at will and replay with photographic precision in her writing.

6. She writes by hand.
Is that what enables her to be so productive? I wonder. New research by a pair of Princeton profs has shown that students recall information much better when they take notes by hand instead of using a computer. Her brother’s unused middle school laptop is, technically, now hers. But I’m trying every trick in the book to keep her from using it. I want her to write by hand.

7. She reads a lot.
Not technically part of the writing process, I still like to think that reading for her is an integral step in her writing process, for I know she builds her vocabulary and syntax and style through what she reads. She derives no greater pleasure than from reading (although gymnastics ranks high up on her list of favorite things to do these days). When she’s done something well or we want to celebrate a special occasion, I take her to the book store and let her choose whatever she wants. She carries a tall stack of new books and plops them down on the counter, with a huge grin on her face: “Thanks dad!”

8. She’s always asking what words mean.
She often tests my linguistic prowess. I have to pause and think a moment before I craft an answer, because an answer doesn’t always come to mind so quickly. Sometimes I realize I need to explain how the same word can have multiple meanings. Such is the nuance of English (which I love by the way). She takes in my explanations with hunger and enthusiasm, then adds them to her toolbox for future use.

9. She’s not afraid to hit “publish.”
No matter how much I encourage her to review her work and edit it—and even if I offer to read through and edit it—if she thinks she’s done, then she’s done.

10. She moves on to the next piece.
Once she’s handed in her work to her teacher, or closed the cover of her private diary, she doesn’t fret over number of views, “likes”, social shares or comments. She just moves on to the next piece. She just keeps writing.

***

Perhaps my daughter will someday become a writer and publish reams of books that will earn her 5-star reviews from raving fans around the world (and, perhaps, a steady income). Maybe she’ll be a gymnast. Or a singing sensation on Youtube.

Whatever career she ends up pursuing, I hope she continues to be as productive at writing as she is today.

And me? How can I overcome the bouts of writer’s block that plague me so often?

I think I’m going to try writing like I’m nine years old.

How do you conquer writer’s block? I’d like to hear about it in the comments below!

Image: Eduard Kreis / Flickr