So you write advertising copy for your company? You poor soul.

For there's nothing more intimidating than looking at a blank piece of paper. That field of white might as well trail endlessly into the distance, so impossible is it to write anything when you don't have an idea.

Perhaps you do have an idea. It's trying to get the Clever First Line (or headline) that puts your train on a siding, with a full head of steam, but with nowhere to go. Here's the answer. It's so simple, yet, as you'll see, magically effective, you'll wonder why I don't sell or at least patent it instead of offering it for free. The trouble is, someone thought of it before I did, so there goes all those royalties.

Here it is: Get a pencil and a legal pad and just start writing. Write in stream of conscious, paying no attention to style, just putting down the points you want, as fast as you can. Most importantly, don't care in the least about it. If you do, it will restrict the flow, slow you down, trip you up. Just go with it.

What you're doing is panning for gold. Write about a half page, then look back for nice word combinations, nice flow. It will happen all by itself. If it doesn't happen in the first half-page, write another half page.

I'm going to demonstrate the technique and its results right as I'm writing this article. First, a topic. Let's see — Pet Smart is having a sale on all its dog and cat toys. After this sentence I'll be in Streaming Mode—ready, go.

Pet Smart loves your dog or cat the same way you do. They can't stand the idea of your pet getting bored for even a second, so they're putting every last one of their toys on sale through this Saturday for one third off. Yep, a third off whatever's marked on the sticker. Don't tell me you can possibly resist. If you can, you have a heart of stone and you don't love your mother. So give your pet a hug, get in the car, and get down there right now, because everyone else listening to this is walking out his front door this minute, and you're going to feel really dumb getting to the store late and finding that the wonderful toy Fido could have been enjoying within maybe two minutes of your return home has been snapped up by some intrepid buyer who had the good sense to roll on down to Pet Smart before you did.

I wrote that in the amount of time it took to type it. I didn't give a rip about what was usable. I just had fun. Now, do you think you could take the above and write a thirty-second ad from it? I think you could.