A Powerful Cure to Writer’s Block
Dear Legal Writer, We all get writer’s block. Try this powerful cure—It helps Warren Buffett, Jasmin Alić, and me, and I bet it will work for you, too.
❤️ Put your 1st draft in a letter to a loved one.
▪️ Billionaire investor Warren Buffett authors a report to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway every year. His annual letter has become a highly anticipated event in the investment world that’s been widely celebrated for its wisdom, clarity, and insight.
Well, guess what? He drafts it as a letter to his sisters, Doris & Bertie.
—By doing that, he explains, he ensures that his letter is clear and simple so it can be understood by every shareholder.
(He swaps out “Dear Doris & Bertie” with “Dear Shareholders” before publishing.)
▪️ LinkedIn top voice and beloved writer, Jasmin Alić, drafts his LinkedIn posts as letters to his son.
Alić has become a LinkedIn sensation, amassing a large following and gaining recognition for his engaging, insightful content.
His posts consistently receive high engagement, with readers praising his unique approach and valuable advice on personal branding, writing, and positioning.
(He removes “Dear son,” before hitting “post.”)
▪️ I, too, draft all my posts as letters.
I initially got over my fears and found the right tone on LinkedIn by writing letters to law students.
I wrote from my heart seeking to help just ONE individual student.
Today, I often leave off the opening salutation before posting. But the tone still rings true.
It’s helped me grow from less than 500 connections to nearly 50,000 followers in a little over 3 yrs.
⬇️
Here’s why this write-it-in-a-letter hack can work for you:
🔹 Writer’s block stems from formal writing rules and our internal fears of receiving negative judgment.
And in legal writing, we don’t just have to worry about things like proper grammar and punctuation, but also about our
-analytical structure,
-Bluebook form, and
-court typography rules.
The stakes are high, too. Real clients’ lives and fortunes often hinge in the balance.
And the fear of judgment is REAL in our industry!
These forces put our brains under stress, causing physiological changes that block our creative flow and make it harder for us to get our ideas out of our heads and into clear prose.
🔹 When we write a personal letter to a loved one, a friend, or a student, by contrast, we forget formal writing rules, and we write free from fear with an eye to getting our thoughts across.
—We feel close to our reader and instinctively know the right tone and style to use.
—Because our goal is not to impress, but to communicate, we tend to write clearly and directly, as if we were speaking to our reader in person.
⬇️
So next time you’re struggling to get a draft done, try writing it in a letter to a loved one.
Why not try it today?
💌 Amanda
#DearLegalWriter