marisa
Well, my strategy (recently) has been kind of cheesy: freewriting. I turn off the monitor, and write for 10 minutes without stopping. If possible, I give myself a topic before I start. I usually pose it as a question, which is then the first thing I write. For instance, "What do I want to say in this paper?" Often, that's enough to get the ball rolling, so to speak. The freewriting itself generally ends up being in the form of a dialogue:
"What am I trying to say in this paper??" "Well, I guess I'm trying to argue XXX, but I don't really know how to put it..." "I could just say YYYY, but that seems silly." "Maybe just simplifying it a bit to ZZZZ would help." Etc.