What Was YOUR Best Piece of Writing in 2009?

on-the-summit

By Mary Jaksch

If we’re to improve as writers, we need to catch a glimpse of our writing at its best. I suggest that you look through what you wrote in 2009 and pick out the best piece. It might not be a complete post, article, or chapter. It might only be one paragraph, or even just one sentence.

Read it as if it was written by someone else.

Are you surprised?

Did you know you could write so well?

Here is your chance to celebrate with everyone at WTD: please give us a link to your best stuff, or just cut and paste your best sentence or paragraph into the comments. Let’s cheer each other on!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with…

Mary Jaksch is a Zen Master and the Chief Editor of Write to Done. Read more on her blog Goodlife Zen and book a place on her upcoming FREE Virtual Zen Retreat The Miracle of Kindness

Categories: Craft

How to Destroy Writer’s Block and Unleash Your Creativity

release-writers-blog

A Guest Post by Henri Junttila of Wake Up Cloud

Writing has always come easily for me. I remember back in first grade when I learned how to write. I had a small notebook where I would write stories about a teddy bear that always killed his other animal friends. I know, I know, I was a twisted child, what can you do?

Letting your writing flow is not always easy. A slow flow is something that plagues a lot of people. It most likely stops you from creating more content and progressing at a much higher rate. What if you could write just one more article per day? You could start another blog. You could send it in as a guest post. Imagine the extra exposure.

4 Restrictive Reasons for Writer’s Block

There are many reasons we sit and stare at a blank sheet of virtual paper. In my own life the biggest reasons are:

1. Perfectionism. We all have to start somewhere. One of my biggest obstacles is perfectionism, which haunts me all the time. Itís constantly in the back of my mind. I see it as a friend who needs a couch to sleep on. Keep on writing and make mistakes with confidence, there’s nothing more to be done.

2. Fear. This is a huge topic, because it covers so many fears. Fear of rejection. Fear of the unknown. Fear of fear. The list goes on. The thoughts running through your mind have their place, but you do not have to listen to them all the time. Allow them to move on and release your fears.

3. Trust. Do you think you can provide value? Do you trust yourself? When youíre writing about something youíre passionate about and you know you can provide value, trust usually comes naturally. If not, write enough and trust will follow.

4. State. Your emotional state is more important than you think. If you’re tense and anxious, you are essentially blocking the flow of energy in your body. This will have a significant impact on your writing.

Being Aware

Just taking a deep breath, looking around and thinking about the things you are grateful for can dramatically alter your emotional state. Itís easy to get bogged down on what is bothering us, so we have to remind ourselves about the good things in life.

I have noticed that when I go through or even write down a list of things I am grateful for, my energy shifts, things start to flow and everything comes together. If you have a lot going on in your head, write things down, clarify your goals and release them all by taking a few deep breaths.

8 Ways to Destroy Writer’s Block

Completely eliminating writer’s block can be done in many ways, but I’ve come up with a few tricks of my own. I’ve written close to one million words this year. I’m an article marketer, so I’ve written several thousand articles. Here are a few of my own personal ways to eliminate writer’s block from the inside out:

1. Gratitude. As I said above, gratitude is a powerful tool to raise your state and get your ideas flowing again. When we are in a positive mental state, we get more done, we have a greater impact on others and our writing kicks ass.

2. Meditation. Many are afraid of meditation. It is nothing more than focusing on one thing at a time. You can meditate while doing the dishes. You can also meditate while sitting down and focusing on your breath. It allows you to reset your brain. It is also a great tool for inspiration and healing.

3. Walking. If you haven’t tried walking when you’re stuck, you have to! Walking in nature grounds you and brings you back to your roots. Just walk, breathe and relax. It’s a kind of walking meditation. Let your mind rest and focus on your body as you walk. When you come back, you will be refreshed and you most likely will have one or several ideas waiting to come out.

4. Kindness. Do something nice to someone. Hug your mother. Tell your loved ones that you love them. Be with your pet. Help an old person. Give a homeless person food. Smile at everyone you meet. Say hi to everyone. Kindness opens your heart and unleashes your creativity.

5. Video. Youtube has thousands upon thousands of inspirational and funny videos that will lift your spirit and give you inspiration for new ideas. Sometimes looking at something that has already been done will allow you to fill in the gaps.

6. Reading. Do you have a favorite book that always seems to improve your mood? Or just something that inspires you? One of my favorites is the Power of Now. It has had a profound impact on my life and how I write.

7. Being present. Being in the now, breathing and enjoying what is will improve and energize your writing. It is as if youíve put lightning into your prose. It jumps out of the page and comes to life. It energizes the souls reading it and enlightens those that least expect it.

8. Being you. In the end, it all comes down to being you. It takes a lot of energy to try and emulate someone else, even in your writing. Write from your heart and just let your fingers flow across your keyboard. You’ll be surprised at the results if you keep at it.

Henri Junttila is a lifestyle superhero and the father of the Wake Up Cloud, a blog about small ideas that produce big results. Subscribe now and follow him on twitter.



Categories: Craft, Habits, Productivity

How to Find Your Voice as a Blogger

A guest post by Srinivas Rao

One of the things I’ve noticed between somebody who has been blogging for 6 months versus 6 weeks is the distinct difference in the way they write. I even noticed this with my own blog posts as a I looked back at many posts that I had written when I started my blog.

During the early days of my blog, I was trying really hard to fit the mold of what makes a good blog post. I did things like use bold titles, bullet points, and italics. I still do all of those things, but in those days I filtered my writing and I held back on what I was thinking. As I got further away from that I noticed a dramatic difference in the way my content was being received by my audience. They started to become much more engaged with my content. I started to write about all the things that might be a bit questionable or viewed as violating the “too much information rule.”

The moment you find your voice

Finding your voice is something that takes time. It really comes down to writing every single day. While you don’t have to post every day, if you write every day, you will eventually get better at it, and it will flow naturally. The other thing that happens by doing it every single day is that you will continually stimulate your creative thinking. I often will read somebody’s blog a handful of times before I decide to start commenting on their posts. Then, I will find them doing something really unique or interesting and that ends up making me want to read their blog more.

A Few examples of finding a voice:

  • Steven@Human Explosion started to draw caricatures of all the bloggers he knew. I loved that and now I actually will be reading his blog much more. He found his voice.

It’s not uncommon for bloggers to tell you that there was one special post that catapulted them stardom, and in that moment I think they have truly found their voice.

Authenticity and Removing Filters

When I wrote about the importance of authenticity at the World’s Strongest Librarian, one of the tips I included was that people should write as if nobody was ever going to read what they wrote. If you approach your writing that way you’ll find that there are no limits to how off the wall you can get with your ideas. If your post seems like you’ve really lost your damn mind, then I’m willing to bet, that’s one where you want to push publish. It’s those posts where I’m thinking “I can’t believe I’m going to publish this” where I get a ton of comments and engagement from my reader base.

Ask for Help

Our egos often prevent us from getting feedback from people. Having your masterpiece torn to shreds by another blogger is not exactly what you are hoping for. But what’s amazing is that getting it torn to shreds and having it reassembled sometimes completely changes the post for the better. The other thing that is amazing is how much people are willing to help. The more help you ask for, the more quickly you’ll be able to find your voice.

Once you find your voice you’ll start to see a whole different level of engagement from your reader base.

Srinivas Rao is a personal development blogger at The Skool of Life, where he explores self improvement, spirituality and navigating through the waters of life by spending as much time as possible surfing.

Categories: Blogwriting, Craft

The Golden Rule of Writing

woman writer

A guest post by Eric Cummings of On Violence

I learned what I consider the “Golden Rule of Writing” – the only rule that can help every writer – in the first creative writing class I ever took. Of course, I didn’t learn the rule immediately, or even in the first class. My classmates and I first had to learn how different we were from one another as writers.

Our teacher, an old bald Caribbean man with missing front teeth and a stoop, began by asking the class, “How do you write?”

Some students wrote on computers, others in journals; I wrote long hand on legal pads. Some wrote in the morning at their home, others at night with friends; I wrote by myself at the library in the afternoon. Our professor wrote memoir fiction about his sexual escapades in the Caribbean standing at a lectern a la Hemingway. We wrote literary fiction, memoirs, and detective stories; newspaper articles, editorials, and e-mails. We were men and women, young and old, lazy and prolific, borderline illiterate and consummate professionals. Some of us needed two drafts, others needed dozens. We were a microcosm of the rest of the writing universe: no two writers write the same way.

The problem with learning the “rules” for writing is that none of them apply to everyone.

How can any rule possibly apply to everyone? I co-write my blog with my twin brother, and we don’t write the same way. What rule can cover journalism and blogging, poetry and prose; authors like James Joyce, who struggled to write seven words a day, or Nora Roberts, who writes multiple books a year? If a golden rule exists, it needs to unite all writers.

I learned the Golden Rule of Writing on my second day in class, as my story about a farmer and a mule was read aloud. I had spent some time writing it, one day rewriting it, and another afternoon editing it. I was nervous but confident. It was a good story.

The story began, “Light barely flooded into the room.”

“Wait.” Less than a sentence in, the Professor stopped the student reading my story. He turned to me, “Eric, what do you mean, ‘Light barely flooded into the room.’?”

“Well, it is sunrise, and the sun is coming up.” I said.

“But how can light ‘barely flood’ in? Do you mean the word flood?”

Light could either barely trickle in, or flood in, but it couldn’t do both. The lesson wasn’t that I needed to be clearer and more precise with my language–though I did–it was that I didn’t know what my words meant. I didn’t own the words on the page. The questions the professor asked us over the course of the quarter were always the same, “What do you mean?” “What did you intend here?” or “Why did you use this word?”

What is my Golden Rule of Writing? It’s this:

Intend every word you write.

Be aware of what your words mean, and make sure that the meaning aligns with what you are trying to say. Writing is communication; don’t we all want to communicate as accurately as possible?

(I hear the guy in the back saying, what if I want my writing to be confusing? Then be confusing, but do it intentionally.)

Notice how my professor coached me on my writing. He didn’t tell me what words to use, he didn’t tell me my mistake. He asked questions. Perhaps I meant to put the words together, as a poetic statement. Or perhaps the idea or the image I meant to convey wasn’t being conveyed. He made me aware of what my words meant. The lesson was clear: these were my words, dammit, and I needed to own them.

As my above example shows, the Golden Rule of Writing is not an easy one, especially when you write for readers. Your intention needs to jibe with what you want them take away from you work. (Perhaps you write only in your journal. You follow the Golden Rule every time you write, because you express what you mean every time you write, because you are writing for yourself.)

Below, I have seven tips for implementing intentionality behind your writing, to better convey what you want to say.

1. When you revise your work ask yourself, “Does this convey what I want to convey?” Ask yourself this question after every line, especially when writing fiction.

2. Think about your reader. Who is your intended audience? If you’re writing your church newsletter, then you probably aren’t going to want to include any swear words. Think about your reader, and write to them, being aware of how they will react to your words.

3. Think about the meaning of every word you write. James Joyce spent whole days writing just a handful of words, spending hours thinking about them and their meaning. Now, I hear you saying, “Whoa, I don’t have that much time.” True. But you can ask yourself, “Do I really know what this word means?” “Am I using it correctly?” “Will my intended audience get what I am trying to say?” Spend more time on longer sentences and bigger words.

4. Look out for especially “arty writing” The best writing is unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. But I’m not F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce or Cormac McCarthy, and neither are you. So when you write something especially clever, unique or “arty,” double check it to make sure it makes sense. I learned this rule from personal experience.

5. Use a dictionary. Check it to see if that word means what you think it means.

6. Listen to podcasts about grammar, and read books and blogs about it. Did you know that non-plussed means confused, or bewildered? Do you know what a gerund is? Neither did I, until I started educating myself. I recommend the podcasts Grammar Grater and Grammar Girl, the books Writing With Style By Trimble and The Writer’s Reference. If you are revising your work and something strikes you as strange, look it up. It will add to your overall knowledge of grammar, usage and the written word.

7. Read. This is the single best way to add to your vocabulary and your knowledge of language and writing.

Ultimately, the Golden Rule of Writing is not about conformity, but freedom. Do you dislike semi-colons? Don’t use them. Do you want to start sentences with “and,” “but,” or “because?” Then go ahead, it’s your writing. If you want to use a word incorrectly, go ahead. But use it incorrectly on purpose, knowing the implications of that misuse.

With the Golden Rule of Writing, you are free to convey whatever idea, thought or image you want. You are free to tell whatever story, write whatever essay, or compose any poem you want. But write it with intention.

Eric Cummings writes for On Violence, a blog on counter-insurgency warfare, military and foreign affairs, art, and violence, written by two brothers–one a soldier and the other a pacifist.

Categories: Blogwriting, Craft, Fiction

How To Find Time To Write While Traveling

Bus stop

A guest post by Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary

If you’re anything like me, you have a hard time breaking away from the fun of travel to actually sit down and write. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a 3 day holiday or living a nomadic lifestyle like I currently am, there never seems to be enough time to get all the writing done.

If you’ve already developed strict writing habits then this advice might not pertain to you. If you write no matter what, no matter where you are, then you’re on another level and you probably already use the tips I’ve learned.

Personally, I’ve set up my lifestyle to where I need to work 2-4 hours/day (in addition to writing for my blog) while I’m on the road or at home (which is currently nowhere since I sold all my belongings and rented out my house). Approximately half of that work time is devoted to writing and editing.

If you’re not traveling, just having trouble finding the time to write, these tips will work for you too.

1) Schedule Writing Time Like You Schedule Other Activities

You schedule time to visit the sites in whatever city you’re visiting, right? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do the same for your writing.

I’ve found it’s easier for me to schedule in 1-2 hour blocks. The best time for me has been after lunch and before bed.

Immediately after eating lunch I will head to a cafe, library, or park, and work for 1-2 hours on my laptop. If I haven’t scheduled anything for after that block of writing, I will take a short break, and then work some more.

If I have scheduled an activity after that 1-2 block of work time I will then schedule another 1-2 hour block of writing time before I go to bed. Sometimes that means less sleep, but the work gets done.

If you’re an early morning get-started-right-away type of worker, then scheduling your writing time immediately upon waking or after breakfast might work better for you.

2) Write During Dead Time

Even if you’re in the middle of a fantastic holiday you’ll find lots of dead time.

Examples of dead time:
- Waiting for a table at a restaurant.
- Waiting for your food at said restaurant.
- Taking a bus or train to your next stop.
- Waiting for said bus or train.

In an average day I probably have to wait 60 minutes for buses, trains, and food. During that time I pull out my small notepad or my netbook and write. If writing by hand I transfer it to my computer during my next scheduled writing session.

3) Schedule Full Work Days

This mostly pertains to you if you’re on a long, slow, trip. You don’t have to rush around seeing all the sites and packing it all in at once so you have some luxurious leeway. That’s my preferred way of living and traveling.

And because of that style of travel I schedule full days where my only goal is to work. I still enjoy the city I’m in because I schedule some of that work time in local parks, restaurants, or cafes, but I can relax and write without feeling rushed.

A friend I met in Sydney, Australia actually schedules full weekends in the Blue Mountains (~2 hours from Sydney) where he does nothing but write. He loves the mountains, and he loves to write, so it’s a double whammy.

I’m currently in Adelaide, South Australia for a few days longer than expected because I didn’t make a train. I’m using this “found time” to mostly work.

As a blogger I have myself on a set posting schedule. It’s one blog post per week, every Tuesday. I know that’s not as often as a lot of other bloggers, but it’s important that I meet that deadline. It allows me the time to craft well thought-out blog posts.

I don’t believe in “writing it in.” That is, I don’t believe in free-writing a blog post and then immediately posting it to the blog. That works for a lot of successful bloggers, but it doesn’t work for me.

I have to schedule a lot of time to write and edit my blog posts. I’m still learning and would love your tips for finding time to write when it might not be the most convenient. Leave them in the comments. With your help we can turn this simple blog post into WriteToDone’s Ultimate Writing While Traveling resource. :)

Karol Gajda writes about Freedom, Health, Travel, and Life at Ridiculously Extraordinary. To learn how to live a Ridiculously Extraordinary Life subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Categories: Craft, Habits, Productivity

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