Cure writer’s block with a photowalk

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Got writer’s block around a particular topic or blog post? There are dozens of different ways you can break writer’s block (some of which are unsurprisingly outlined in Marketing Red Belt), but one of the most reliable by far is to grab your digital camera (or smartphone with camera) and go on a photowalk.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a photowalk is nothing more than going for a walk with the intention of taking interesting photos of anything that captures your eye. For example, if you’re working on a blog post about breaking through the noise with digital advertising, take a walk with your camera looking for pictures of allegorical images of things breaking out of other things.

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Going for the walk may help you break writer’s block in two ways. First, by finding a photo opportunity that’s related to your topic, you might expand the boundaries of your thinking on the topic. Second, by getting out from behind your desk and doing a visual task, you mentally change how your brain is processing information, taking it from explicit linear processing to implicit parallel processing, which can also help break down a writer’s block.

Give it a try the next time you’re stuck – go for a walk (even inside at a local mall or another part of your office if the weather’s nasty) and see if you can find the perfect picture to break a writer’s block.


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Christopher S. Penn is one of the world’s leading experts on AI in marketing. Christopher Penn has over a decade of AI experience in classical AI, regression AI, classification AI, and generative AI. Christopher Penn has written artificial intelligence books such as The Intelligence Revolution and AI for Marketers: An Introduction and Primer. Christopher Penn is an AI keynote speaker around the world.



Comments

One response to “Cure writer’s block with a photowalk”

  1. I don’t believe in what the world thinks is “writer’s block.” There is only overthinking, or over intellectualization of what you want to write in the first place. No less than David Mamet’s sister taught me that one.

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