This guest post is by Sarah Wilson

I can get disproportionately excited about new online devices that help me write more efficiently. Like, a while back, I was frothing about Instapaper, a 2.0 equivalent of the Post It note. Here’s how Instapaper works:

You’re wasting time online and stumble on an interesting blog post or New York Times article. You can’t read it now; you’re meant to be finalizing a spreadsheet or something. Printing it out is just wrong. After all, you have one of those Please Consider the Environment email signatures. And you offset your Virgin Atlantic flights. Perhaps you could email it to yourself and flag it. But that seems way too clunky and cluttery.
What to do?

• Install Instapaper (go to instapaper.com) in three easy online steps, or thereabouts.
• Drag the “Read Later” button to your Bookmarks menu.
• Next time you’re reading something you want to go back to, simply click the “Read Later” button and your article is filed in a special folder in cyberspace. For perusal at a more languid juncture.
• Finally, head to instapaper.com every now and then and read what you’ve stored. You can also file the clippings into folders. I’ve divided mine according to the three different magazine columns I write, plus one for my blog, and another for general interest.

More recently I’ve come across Readability, which can then convert my saved reading into a more readable format. Here’s how Readability works:

Again, it’s a new FREE! button that changes stuff you’re reading online into clear, simple, old-school text, getting rid of pop-up ads and annoying eyeball clutter.

• Install the Readability button. Seriously it’s one step.
• Actually it’s two. Once installed, you then adjust your preferences. You can choose between “newspaper”, “novel”, “ebook” and “terminal”. And change the font size and column width. Journalists will love that you can convert to a newspaper format. I read mine like this. Newspapers and magazines were designed to have the best type of font (serif) and column width (narrow enough such that your eye can flick quickly from one line to the next) to make for simple, elegant, fast reading. Just so you know.
• When you’re reading something online, just press the readability bookmarklet on your toolbar and it converts the text into a far happier format. A treat for sore eyes!

Is it just the Capricorn in me, or are these really nifty?

Well, I certainly used to think so. But this week I had a look in my special cyber folder and the sheer volume of tagged URLs sent me into a spiraling fug. It resembled the stack of books piled next to my bed that I’ve “been meaning to read”. And the folders of saved emails that-might-come-in-useful-down-the-track. And the basket next to my couch bulging with newspaper clippings and back issues of Vanity Fair with cornered pages, marking Christopher Hitchins essays I might need to refer back to one day.

And it suddenly occurred to me – my entire life is flagged-for-follow-up. I’m one big backlog of informative material waiting to be attended to. If only there were a rainy Sunday long enough to get through it all, I might finally … get on top of myself.

I hang onto articles because I’m scared of what will happen if I need them one day, and they’re not there. This fear binds me to my stuff. Like many people, I buffer myself with my just-in-cases, instead of flying naked, instead of seeing what will happen if I head out into the clamber armed with just my inner-resourcefulness.

I’ve flown naked before. I hitchhiked through Greece when I was 18 with just the clothes on my back (so, not literally naked); I lived in Paris for a fortnight with no money, no passport, not a single possession to my name (I’d been robbed). Lately, I’ve been thinking I’d like to fly naked again.

I hate making sweeping generational generalizations, but it must be said that those Y kids can teach the rest of us a bit about flying naked. They don’t get excited about Instapaper. This is because they don’t hang onto things. They skim read at the time of receipt, delete and move on. (And they don’t really need Readability. They’ve grown up accustomed to blocking out pop-up ads and scanning different formats.)

The under-30 crew were schooled during a time when you could look up references online in 2 seconds, instead of via the Duwey system when the librarian got back from lunch. They’re au fait with flying naked. Back when I was studying law, some time after the last ice age, if you lost a case note, you were stuffed. Little wonder we hang onto every scribble.

But, let me be the one to break it: times have changed. Information can be Googled or Binged instantly, emails retrieved from servers. Further, ideas move around so fast. There’s no point hanging onto today’s idea because it’s bound to be RT’d or Digg’d to death by tomorrow anyway.

My 20-something brother doesn’t save anything. Why would you, he says. That’s just looking backwards. Where’s the flow of information? Roll forward and gather no moss, is his adage.

I still love my Instapaper and Readability discoveries. But what I loved more this week was going in to my special folder, selecting all and hitting delete. Then hauling my Vanity Fairs and New Yorkers into the communal foyer of my apartment for the neighbors to take. Information shouldn’t be held on to; it should be passed on, like a hot potato. Information in, information out. Sweetly, it’s left more room in my life and my special folder for fresh ideas.

Sarah Wilson is an Australian TV and print journalist (and former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine) who writes about how to make life better. Follow her adventures at sarahwilson.com.au or on twitter.

A heads-up for WTD readers
Leo and Mary will run the next A-list Blogging Bootcamp, How to Create a Blog that Rocks from 13-17 February. Everyone had a blast last time! We’ll be emailing some great articles on blogging. Get yourself on the mailing list by clicking on Leo’s report in the sidebar.

By Mary Jaksch

The soul of creativity arises from an undivided mind. ~ Stephen Nachmanovitch

At times each one of us suffers from creative fatigue. Writing can become a joyless activity – if we forget to touch our creative soul. More about that in a moment, but first let’s take a look at what obscures creativity. Nothing can actually block creativity. It’s like a wellspring that never ceases to gush. But any wellspring can become obscured by debris, and we may need to dig down to find the pure water of inspiration. Here is a list of laudable writing skills – each of which obscures creativity.

What obscures creativity

1. Utilitarian writing When the focus is completely on the usefulness of what we write, we become like a tailor who churns out suit after suit, similar in cut but different in texture. Usefulness is great, but too much of it can obscure creativity.
2. Strategic writing In order to churn out piece after piece, we learn to use shortcuts and strategies for fast completion. Like mapping out the main section heads and then filling in the detail. Or adding an intro and extro just before hitting the ‘publish’ button. Strategic skills are great, but they can obscure creativity.
3. Expert writing Those of us who are non-fiction writers aspire to be experts in our field. In order to cultivate our expert status, we try to write what we know about. Knowledge is great, but it can obscure creativity.
4. Safe writing Most of us play it safe when writing. We don’t want to shock or upset our readers or cause a mass exodus from our website. Safety is a great thing and will help your blog grow, but it can obscure creativity.
5. Predictable writing Most of our writing is predictable and, well, maybe boring. Writers and readers like to remain in their comfort zone, but predictability can obscure creativity.

Is your brand a prison?

As bloggers we are encouraged to play it safe, and not rock the blog, or bust our brand. I think we have to take care not to become a victim of success. Because once we actually have established a successful brand, we tend to foster and maintain it – at the expense of adventure and risk. And at the expense of creativity.

How to touch the soul of creativity

Right. Here now is the nub of this post. The place where I tell you exactly how to grab hold of creativity – and put it to good use. There’s just one small problem: creativity isn’t like that. At all. We can’t grab hold of creativity. It’s not an accessory, or something we can possess or horde. It doesn’t belong to anyone. It doesn’t belong – full stop.

TS Eliot says,

If the word ‘inspiration’ is to have any meaning, it must mean … that the speaker … is uttering something that he does not wholly understand.

In other words, when we are in the grip of inspiration we are somehow unintelligible and unrecognizable to ourselves. Not only do we not know ourselves. Knowing itself stops.

The more we grasp for it, the more creativity seems to evaporate. The more tricks we use to get our creativity under control, the more it seems to vanish – and we are left with a dreary laundry list of laudable writing skills. That’s because creativity isn’t something that can be manipulated or coerced. Creativity only comes into play when we forget about ‘getting’ or ‘having’ it.

We all want to be inspired. More precisely, we want to have inspiration. We want to be the master of inspiration and control it. But, do we really want to give ourselves over to inspiration and let it have us?

Quite simply…

The soul of creativity arises from an undivided mind.

Sounds good, doesn’t it – but what does it actually mean? If you look through the list of five laudable writing skills, they all force us to write with a divided mind. When we use such a mindset, part of our attention is on writing, and – at the same time – part of our attention is on how the reader might react, how we can shape the post to perform well in social media, and so on.

Our mind is cut into two.

The poet Peter Levitt had something to say about this in the following poem:

Already at birth

I was parted,

not just from my mother -

but body from mind,

mind from its source -

that’s why I take up

this soft blade

of breathe

to cut me back into one

How to cut yourself back into one

‘The soft blade of breath’ helps us to become whole, and touch the source of creativity. Mindful breathing is a great way to return to yourself. To reconnect with the moment as it is. But this is not yet the doorway to creativity. It’s just the preparation.

The doorway to creativity

To enter creativity is uncomfortable. Because the doorway to creativity is dark. The doorway leads to nothing, nada, nichts. What I mean is this: creativity happens when we embrace darkness and give up knowing. Not knowing means that we need to feel our way in the darkness. Sensing outlines and shapes, but seeing only dimly.

It’s uncomfortable, because when we don’t know, there is nothing to hold on to. There is no knowledge to support us, and no known outcome of our work. It’s like a mute having a dream – but not able to express it.  Isadora Duncan said, “If I could say it I wouldn’t have to dance it.” It’s uncomfortable. But it’s also pure adventure. It’s a path into the Unknown. As medieval mapmakers said about terra incognita, unexplored areas: ‘There be dragons here’.

How to open the door

Here are seven tips that will help you open the door of creativity:

1. Write about a question that is too big and far beyond you.
2. Embrace not-knowing.
3. Allow time to muse and let thoughts and words take shape in the darkness.
4. Write down any stray bits that come to you.
5. Allow the final shape to emerge at its own pace.
6. Let your writing invade your dreams.
7. Let yourself be derailed.

That last point is the most important one. Because we tend to ride on the rail of who we think we are, and who we want to appear as. If we want to touch and reveal our creative soul, we need to allow creativity to derail us. Yes, we’ll be faced with something of a crash site with passengers wandering around aimlessly wondering who the hell they are and how they got there. But touching the soul of creativity is worth the chaos and the pain.

If you walk through this dark doorway,  you’ll renew your love affair with writing. You’ll find that you never lost your creativity – it’s right there, just waiting for you to let go of knowing, productivity, and usefulness.

Ok, so it’s not the kind of writing that productivity gurus talk about. If you’re a blogger who has to produce stuff regularly, it may  not be a technique for everyday writing, but you may want to use it at least once a month to keep on developing as a writer. It’s slow, laborious, heart-rending, and exhilarating – and will remind you why you wanted to become a writer in the first place.

The truth does not ride on a clever response, but on something immediate, irrational, torn directly from the soul. ~ Stephen Nachmanovitch

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

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.

• Alex@Unleash Reality started to go off the beaten path a bit when he wrote a really interesting article titled Buddhist Butchers and Adventures of Change
  
• Kelly Diels found her voice in this post on More On Mommy Blogging (or: Moron Mommy-Blogging)

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.

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.

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.