5 Prompts to Banish Writer’s Block When Addressing Your Members

As the president or executive director of an association, your agenda might be packed with Board meetings and conferences, and the minutiae of running a successful organization. Yet one email request has the potential to rocket your stress to new heights: “Innovative needs your leadership letter for the magazine.”

We understand that looking at a blank page and a deadline can feel challenging. But you didn’t get to where you are because you fear challenges. That blank page is another tool to connect with your members and advance your life’s work. It’s an opportunity to say something meaningful and motivational. You don’t need to delegate it, postpone it, or hand it over to an AI chatbot that will just recycle clichés.

All you need is a starting point. Here are five.

1. Write about the last great conversation you had with someone in your industry.

One of the benefits of associations is access to the expertise of other people in your industry. Even when we’re in leadership positions, we are constantly learning from others. Think about the last time you visited with someone to talk shop and left with new insights or a shift in perspective. Why did the conversation stick with you? What are you doing differently as a result of that talk? You can check with that person to see if they’re OK with you writing about the conversation, or if they would prefer to be kept anonymous.

2. Write about a time you failed and what you learned from it, and follow that with a call-to-action for members to share their current challenges.

We’ve all made the wrong call or had an unexpected outcome from what we thought was a calculated risk. We’ve even been knocked down by circumstances out of our control. It’s just part of life, and part of business. Knowing how others learned resilience and what steps they took to bounce back from failure empowers us to bounce back from our own failures. After opening up about your own experiences, ask members to share theirs, either in a letter to the editor or at lunch with their peers. You could even ask people to submit their resilience stories for possible publication in an upcoming issue. You might be delighted by what smart lessons everyone shares.

3. Write a letter “from the future” to people who are new to the industry.

This prompt is part creative writing exercise, part motivational speech. Today’s novices are tomorrow’s experts and leaders, but they might need a pep talk once in a while. Give them an optimistic vision of their future by writing to them from 10, 20 or 30 years in the future. What will they have accomplished? What challenges will they have faced? What advice would you give them now to get them where they are in this hypothetical future? And — do we have flying cars yet?

4. Write about a funny thing that happened to you in a professional setting.

You don’t always have to come up with something profound. Sometimes just sharing a funny anecdote to give your readers a chuckle is enough. Humor, as long as it’s aware of its audience and not poking fun at anyone other than yourself, emphasizes your relatability and helps you bond. It’s a great way to communicate a bigger idea as well.

Not sure how to write your story in a funny way? Start by telling the story. Fire up your Voice Memos app on your phone and tell the story as if you were telling it to a friend. Then you just need to write it the same way! Transcription apps like Otter.ai can help with this. You can also tell the story to a friend over Zoom and use their transcription feature to save the text. Just remember to get permission first when you’re recording a conversation.

5. Write about the biggest changes you’ve noticed in your industry over the past decade, and what you predict for the next.

We tend to resist change, then forget how much we resisted it once we’ve adapted. The only constant is change. Reflect on any new technology, regulations or trends that have shaped your industry in the past 10 years. Do you remember how people reacted when these changes were introduced? Was there anything that was predicted to radically change everything but ended up inconsequential? Or were there changes people were initially against that are now integral to your work?

Seeing how far you’ve come provides a blueprint for how an industry could continue to evolve and respond to changing circumstances. You can also pair your predictions with raising awareness of policies that will impact your industry.

Liz Herrera Lauer is managing editor at Innovative Publishing. She can be reached at liz@innovativepublishing.com.