A guest post by Simon Townley of WriteMindset

As a writer, having ideas is one of the most important parts of your craft. But often it seems like one of the most difficult and challenging parts of the whole process.

How do you keep ideas flowing? How do you create a wealth of ideas to choose from? How do you make sure you get to the one killer idea that will make your advert, novel, article or blog post really stand out from the rest?

Some people like to wait for inspiration to strike. Most professional writers, however, don’t have that luxury. You need ideas every working day, not just every now and then.

Luckily, there is a formula for producing ideas on a consistent basis. Of course, like all formulas, it has its limits. You can’t constrain creativity, and to only ever use one method for coming up with ideas would be utter madness.

But if you need to produce strong and creative ideas regularly as part of your writing career, then it pays to know the formula, and how to use it.

First of all, what is an idea? Well, according to James Webb Young in his book ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas’, first published in the 1940s:

“An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.”

So how do you combine old elements into new? Luckily, Young tells us:

“The capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships.”

Young says the ability to see relationships between facts is the most important factor in coming up with ideas. This, he says, is a habit of mind “which can be cultivated.”

How do you cultivate it? By reading widely, taking an active interest in life, the world, people around you, a wide variety of subjects and areas of study.

There is also a formula, however, a five step plan which Young outlined in his book. By adding two more steps, you can complete a virtuous circle with a feedback loop that refines and extends your creativity.

So, the seven steps to having ideas are:

Step 1 – Gather your information

Information is the raw material from which ideas are born. There are two types of relevant information, specific and general.

General information includes just about anything and everything, and gathering it is a lifelong exercise. It basically comes down to general knowledge and education, and can be cultivated through the usual channels: reading widely and having an active interest in life and the world around you, and in particular in people, how they live, what they think and how they behave.

Specific information is directly relevant to the topic in hand. You clearly need to get all the specific information you can lay your hands on. If you’re writing an advert for a product or service, you would expect the client to come up with most of it, although you’ll probably want to do some of you own research as well. If you’re writing a blog post on a topic, you’ll need to gather your information from far and wide.

These days, gathering information is a much faster process thanks to the internet. The down side to that is you’ll need to be judicious, and discard that which isn’t really relevant. Otherwise, you’re likely to get overwhelmed during step 2, where you have to sift the information.

Step 2 – Sift the information

Work over the information, turning it over and around until you see how it all fits together. A direct pursuit of ‘meaning’ might be counterproductive. You may need to try a subtle approach, and sneak up on the topic, looking at things from various angles.

If small snippets of ideas start coming to you at this stage, write them down, even if they seem crazy.

The more you turn and sift the information, the better you understand it, the easier it will be to see and really understand the relationships. And the more ideas you will have.

Step 3 – Let the information bubble

The next stage is to let the information bubble away for a while, keep it on simmer in your mind. You need to let your unconscious mind work on it for a time. It’s a good idea to do something else for a while, to stimulate your imagination and emotions. Try reading, listening to music, meditate, go for a walk, while your mind digests the facts.

Or you could try the traditional approach – take a warm bath and wait for the eureka moment.

Step 4 – Eureka! Let the ideas flow

It’s at this stage that ideas should start to appear, as if from ‘nowhere’. This is where you hope for a ‘Eureka’ moment. The answer to your problem may appear to leap into your mind for no apparent reason.

But what if it doesn’t come? You keep going, writing down the best ideas you can come up with. If your ideas aren’t strong enough yet, don’t panic, because you’ll get to have another go at this part of the process. So take the very best ideas you can come up with, and move on to step five.

Step 5 – Shape and develop your idea

Now your idea needs to be shaped and moulded, turned into something real. This where your writing skills come to the fore.

Step 6 – Share your idea

Now show your idea to others and see what they think. They may be able to add to it and make it better. That may spark new ideas, and so the process becomes ever more creative.

Step 7 – Rinse and repeat

If necessary, use the feedback you got in step 6, and add that to the information you gathered in step 1. Now repeat step 2, sifting the new information with the existing facts. Then repeat steps 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Keep it going, until you have the best idea you can come up with, or you hit the deadline, and have to go with what you have developed so far.

So, the good news is that you can learn to be more creative and have stronger ideas. You:

• Gather the information
• Sift it
• Let it percolate
• Let the ideas flow
• Shape and mould the ideas
• Share them with others
• Put the feedback into the loop; and repeat the process to strengthen your ideas.

That’s the good news. The bad news is, despite what I said at the start about the importance of ideas – and don’t get me wrong they are important – despite that, the truth is that having ideas is the easy part of writing.

Yes, ideas are easy. It’s the execution that is truly difficult, that’s where the real genius lies. And you can only master the craft of writing through hard work and long, steady perseverance.

Simon Townley blogs about all aspects of writing at WriteMindset, and provides professional writing services through his company Simon Townley Copywriting Limited.

Photo: Paranoia by katiew

A Guest Post by Cori Padgett of Big Girl Branding

‘Freelance writer’ is a pretty hard hat to wear at times.

Not only are you the sole – well everything - when it comes to your business, you are also easily susceptible to distractions. Much more easily susceptible than say Writer Jonah that lives up the street and works for that big swanky office.

See, Writer Jonah has a schedule and an office he has to commute to at certain times each day. Heís got responsibilities that he has to leave at home to focus on the job at hand. Not to mention things like strictly enforced deadlines and such. Writer Jonah has a J.O.B.

That means his day and your day as a freelancer likely looks vastly different.

And let’s face it, we like that it looks different. As freelancers, that’s why we set up shop for ourselves to begin with. The allure of freedom, the promise of lazy days, a steady influx of cash, and ahh… “The Writer’s Life”.

Only the “Freelance Writer’s Life” is in all reality a landmine of potential distractions, derailed plans, and a constant niggling feeling that there was something you were supposed to do today and itís still not done, whatever it was.

Sound familiar?

That said there are 6 ways to royally distract yourself and waste some time if you’re so inclined. Although I suggest that if you have deadlines to meet, clients clamoring for your attention, and potential money to be made…

Perhaps skip these 6 time wasters and jump right into the being productive part. You’ll thank me later! And I bet as a bonus, your clients will thank you.

1. Sleep late. Like – every day or something.Seriously, I know it feels great to sleep past 10am on a lazy Sunday morning but letís be real. Everyday isn’t Sunday, and you shouldn’t treat it as such. While you’re happily ensconced in your bed snoring like a freight train, the rest of the working world is up with the birds, and banging out results like there’s no tomorrow.If I start my day at 7am and you get up at 11am… I’ve now got 4 hours of work on you. And unfortunately the later the day runs, the less productive we tend to get. So do yourself a favor and make like the birds. Rise early and start your day off right.Or not, but don’t complain and wonder where all your time went when suddenly itís 8pm and you’re exhausted…and still not done.
2. Keep irregular hours. Break for movies … and brunch … and a haircut while you’re at it.Yes, I know that one of the biggest draws of being a freelancer is setting your own hours, and having the ability to catch a mid-day movie if you feel like it. However thatís not conducive to a productive day, and there is a reason businesses have ‘office hours’.Put simply, having set hours works. It keeps you on track, it keeps your business thriving, and it keeps your cash flow in the black. So keep crazy hours if you want, maybe just to prove you can. But if you’re serious about your success, set yourself a schedule and stick to it.Does that mean you can’t be flexible sometimes?Of course not.You are your own boss after all. Just don’t make it habit if you’re in it to win it with this whole freelancing gig.
3. Forget to hang your ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign when you begin working.OK, so really – if you allow yourself to be sidetracked then what are you accomplishing for the day? When you’re working, make it clear to all that youíre working. That means close your door and hang a sign or take off to the library if you must to get some blessed peace and quiet.Peace and quiet means you can think straight which means you can write. If you leave your door wide open, it’s like inviting your kids or your spouse to come inside and interrupt you. And guess what? They’ve got no clue if youíre on a roll and more often than not what happens next?That interruption totally ruined your writing mojo and itís going to take time for you to get back into the ‘flow’. Interruptions = Time wasters.So do yourself a favor and discourage distractions, don’t invite them.
4. On the topic of distractions – go ahead and let technology have its merry way with you.We live in an age of technological wonder. Everything is there, right at our fingertips. Unfortunately for you as a freelancer this means you’re vulnerable to massive amounts of time wasted on a daily basis.And the sad thing is that the time is often gone before you even realize it’s gone!Things like email, web surfing, Twitter and Facebook are all great tools for inspiration. As a writer you need things that can trigger a bit of inspiration sometimes. But beware that these tools don’t end up eating you for breakfast and leaving you wondering where the heck your day went.Not to mention other technology like phone chats, instant messenger, television, video games and the like – all massive time wasters when you allow them to get between you and your goals. So have fun and enjoy technology, but I highly recommend you don’t allow it to rule your life.
5. Think about writing, talk about writing, dream about writing – do everything but…Actually write. Thinking, dreaming, and talking about writing doesnít get it done. Anything youíre doing along those lines, while it may ‘feel’ good, or make you ‘feel’ like a writer – doesnít make you one. It’s a time waster.The only thing that makes you a writer is writing already. And then writing some more.And some more after that.Until literally your poor little brain is so drained not another word can be eeked from within its murky depths. Then you might be a writer. But by all means, if you’ve got time to spare go right ahead and think, talk, and dream of writing. Just don’t expect to get very far, please your clients, or meet your goals. Just sayin’.
6. And finally? Scoff at being organized.Really do you know how much time is wasted each day when you’re less than organized, and less than efficient?OK, so I haven’t exactly timed it, but I know it’s a lot!I know this because I am notoriously disorganized. But Iíve forced myself to become a semi-organized freelancer simply because…stuff gets done.If you can’t even implement a simple system to keep track of your projects, your client projects, your notes and ideas, and your commitments- you can bet that a huge chunk of your time is out the window.It’s gone while you hunt around for that quote you gave that client that time – or you dig furiously looking for that little scrap of paper you wrote that book idea on – or you sit and ponder about that appointment you ‘think’ you made for tomorrow (but in reality it was for yesterday).In that last particular situation, not only have you wasted your time youíve also wasted your potential client’s time who booked the appointment in the first place.Great way to impress folks with your freelancing prowess I might add! (That was sarcasm in its nicest possible form by the way.)

Moral of this little story?

Do all of the above if your goals are to waste time and not actually write. However if you really want to be a writer -

• Rise early.
• Set a schedule.
• Discourage distractions.
• Ban technology.
• Get organized.
• And write already!

Now.

How about you?

Got any tricks to keep your time wasting to a minimum? I’d love to hear them.

Cori is a wildly hire-able freelance ‘ghost’ as well as the creative brains and dubious brawn behind her blog Big Girl Branding. You can also stalk her on Twitter if you really want to.

A Guest Post by Zoey Martin of Good Goog

I am a reformed perfectionist. Not completely. I’m not perfect at it. See? I’m reformed.

Perfectionism is a nice idea, alluring even. ‘Do your best’, ‘aim for the stars’, ‘give it your all’. The problem is that these goals are completely unquantifiable. How will I know if it was my absolute best? Is this the stars or the moon? Maybe I could have done a little bit better. And that’s the insidious nature of perfectionism, you could always have done better.

Perfectionism is a black hole of neediness.

Your best is never good enough. Because ‘good enough’ isn’t in perfectionism’s vocabulary. Unlike ‘die trying’ which I’m pretty sure is. And perfectionists are always disappointed, always. And speaking from experience, they also tend to be paralyzed by fear most of the time.

Example: In my former life, I re-wrote a prologue more than 100 times. That’s not an exaggeration, I’m being conservative. Imagine that, over 100 times, on a manual typewriter. All for two pages of text, at best. Perfectionism sells itself as the ideal, the apex, what you could be if all the stars aligned. But it’s a silver-tongued enemy, holding you back, and down, and out.

Your inner perfectionist will tell you that anything less than full, unbridled perfectionism is lazy, unacceptable and just plain wrong. Don’t listen! Let your passion be unbridled, allow yourself to actually jump into a project rather than agonizing over it and make mistakes fearlessly. People boast about being perfectionists, but deep down, they all know that perfectionism isn’t a friend, or even a frenemy, it’s an albatross around their neck. Because guess what? You could write a prologue 100 times or you could write a whole novel in half the time.

But even reformed perfectionists need a plan. Here’s how I battled perfectionism and won:

1) Realize that perfectionism is the antithesis to happiness This takes time. But whenever you feel perfectionism rise within you, take a moment. Remind yourself of why you have chosen not to see your life and your efforts in this way. Know that if you throw everything at a project, invest your heart and your passion and your mind, you will be entirely secure in the outcome no matter what.

2) Indulge in guilty pleasures Sometimes, us reformed perfectionists need to indulge in certain behavior. I used to alphabetize. It’s therapeutic. All our books, DVDs in a happy perfect order. Because thankfully books and DVDs are not human and they really are that simple. Unleash all that perfectionism in bursts of activity if need be. You’ll be pleased to know that I no longer alphabetize. My bursts of perfectionism are limited to the occasional spring clean.

3) Keep Your Eye on the Prize Perfectionists of have a nasty habit of not getting anything done. If everything is so perfect, why are they so ineffectual? Because a perfectionist starts with the goal of folding the laundry and ends up re-organizing the entire wardrobe, re-folding everything and possibly even moving the aforementioned wardrobe into a better position. Don’t fall in to the trap. Develop a finite goal and stick to it. Trust me, it’s a lot quicker too.

4) Make Mistakes and Like It Mistakes aren’t the problem, being paralyzed into inaction is. Re-frame in your own mind how you relate to mistakes. Don’t think of them as something to be avoided. Mistakes are opportunities. And not in the unrealistic, fake I-am-in-prison-but-it’s-a-good-thing-because-I-get-all-this-free-time kind of way. In the way that anything worth doing risks a mistake (or several). You cannot truly be passionate about something unless you’re wiling to get something wrong. You don’t learn anything by standing back on the sidelines. You learn by knowing that when you fall down, you’ll find a way to get back up again.

5) Perfectionism Isn’t a Personality Trait Seriously. It’s not. Perfectionism is a coping mechanism for unpredictability. It introduces all kind of comforting control. You are not changing yourself by renouncing perfectionism, you’re taking the first step to discovering who you are without armor.

Taking the Plunge

Perfectionism is a habit. A bad one. And change doesn’t always come easy, or overnight. It’s a choice that will be made a million times over. But it is liberating, and it is worthwhile. Start small, set goals and stick to them. Don’t allow relapses into perfectionism dissuade you from your chosen course. Alphabetize at will. Allow yourself to make mistakes – you might finish a book, you might uncover a hidden talent or you might stumble upon something even better – the ability to surprise yourself and others. Reform yourself. Go ahead. I dare you.

The ideal of writing is to be thoughtful, memorable, meaningful and evocative. Perfectionism is an epic deception – promising the pinnacle of achievement and offering only self doubt, procrastination and inaction. The secret to changing it is simple. Don’t stop being a perfectionist. Start being passionate. Start taking risks. Start discovering who you are. Do you want to be great? Then stop being perfect.

Zoey Martin writes about parenting, general neurosis and toddler mayhem at Good Goog. She also blogs about books for little people and their admirers at Little People Books. She takes too many photos and tweets far more than is healthy @zoeyspeak.

A Guest Post by Bamboo Forest of Pun Intended

What’s the ultimate hack for writing productivity?

Set a timer… folks.

There’s no better way to plug into your writing and destroy distractions than by setting a timer and telling your mind youíll write for the allotted time you’ve chosen. It works like Jedi magic.

And come to think of it… Magic is what you need in an online world where you’re distracted every couple seconds.

When you set a timer and seriously commit yourself to writing for a duration of time you’ve chosen, you’ve just single handedly put yourself in a bubble of kick-ass. It’s actually the place I feel most at home.

Nothing can touch you here. Twitter? It’s got nothing on you. Nothing. Instant messenger? Sorry! You ain’t welcome around here, kid. The phone? If you put it on silence for the duration of time your timer’s ticking, I can assure that when your writing time ends, you’ll be looking sharper than ever and no harm will come. You’ll have accomplished something great. You can check your phone when you’re done, OK?

Nothing Grows Our Blog Like Great Writing

There’s a lot of  little ways to tweak your blog. Lots of little tidbits, nuggets and sprinkles you can glean from blogs on blogging that may help you…†a little.

But let’s get real, shall we? None of that, absolutely none of it is really going to grab the attention of prospective readers like prose that grabs them by the throats and keeps them there until the last line has been read. Great writing is the number one ingredient that gets our blogs out there and admired.

Let’s do this.

So my advice if you’re strapped for time as many of us surely are: Use the time you have almost exclusively on creating awesome content.

Here’s what Leo Babauta, who knows a little bit about this, has to say about what worked for him while he was working full time and doing freelance writing on top of it:

“What’s the most important thing a blogger can do to grow his blog and readership? Write great content. Not add links or widgets to the sidebar, not check stats, not reading or commenting other blogs, not even responding to comments or email. Writing great content. That’s by far the most important thing you can do.” [Bold emphasis mine]

And it’s not like you have to complete a full post in one sitting. Nonsense. You could set a timer for 15 minutes a day of hard, focused writing and by the end of the week finish a†solid post or two. Using a timer for our writing sessions forces us to put everything aside and write like maniacs until it sounds. It makes the little time we do have, laser focused. And even if we do have a fair amount of time on our hands, it helps us stay miles away from the distractions that bombard us, keeping us honest.

So yeah… We can say we’ll write five minutes from now and we just might. We can say we’ll write after we’ve eaten supper and… well… maybe we will.

Or…

We can be real. We can be writers. We can do this. We can set a timer, commit ourselves to working non-stop until it sounds and feel proud at what we’ve accomplished. That’s what I’m talking about. You with me on this?

After all this talk about using a timer to generate focused, timely writing, you’d think I’d offer you a resource to use right about now? Wouldn’t ya? Of course I will, child.

Online Timer for Writers

I’ve recently given birth to a little, humble site with a timer you can freely use 7 days a week, 365 days a year (Even during all major holidays). This site was spawned by me, one of your fellow and very, very obsessed writers. Setting a timer has worked wonders for getting me to write and to increase my general productivity and it’ll probably help you enormously as well.

So if you want to kill procrastination and plug into a time frame where you do nothing but write, I recommend you head on over to my little site, Tick Tock Timer.

Oh… and when you hear the gongs going off… after you’ve just finished writing a kick-ass blog post that’ll put massive smiles on the faces of many… I want you to party like it’s 1999.

Bamboo Forest writes for Pun Intended. He’s created an online timer that makes bloggers ridiculously productive.

A guest Post by Annabel Candy of Get in the Hotspot

Have you noticed how easy non-writers think writing is? When you’re a writer that can be frustrating.

There are three main things about writing that make it lack the social proof people expect of professional activities.

• It’s intangible – Many people don’t seem to consider writing a proper job, maybe because often writers type away for days with apparently little to show for it. Yes, there may be the occasional article in a newspaper, possibly even a published book you can actually show people. But even then that small book, an object you can hold in one hand, isn’t a good indication of the many hours, months or possibly years of work that went in to actually writing it.
• It’s unpaid - This is true even of successful, established and published writers, people like Zen Habits and Write to Done founder Leo Babauta who still regularly give away his writing on his own blogs and elsewhere. Many writers have blogs they write unpaid and if you’re not paid for something then other people tend to see it as a hobby and an unnecessary indulgence when for most writers creating a blog is a carefully planned career move.
• It’s intellectual – People see hard work as being physical like laboring, or stressful like being a fighter pilot. They don’t realize the kind of mental determination that writing calls for, the inner motivation that’s required to get you writing and keep you going until you actually finish the work.

No wonder writers often struggle with motivation.

Writing is a common dream for people. Yet most people who dream about writing don’t actually do it. Some of them hardly even read. Meanwhile writers who do actually earn a living from their work still struggle to stay motivated and keep writing.

Faced with all this opposition, both external and internal, how can we motivate ourselves to get writing and keep at it?

Here are six ideas that work :

1. Get motivated
   Accept responsibility for you own actions. Acknowledge that you’re the only person who can do this. That if you don’t glue your backside to the chair and first start, then finish writing your article or book, no one else is going to do it for you.
2. Create tight imaginary deadlines for yourself to spur you on.
   Try pretending you only have one hour to write today and that can be a good incentive to get on with it. Or ask yourself what you’d start or finish writing if you only had a month to live.I motivated myself to write a 70,000 word manuscript by telling myself that if I didn’t write it that year I never would. These scare tactics do work and best of all no one has to die in the process.
3. Commit to your writing.
   Work out how much time you can give to your writing and when. Schedule it in your diary it. Make it a part of your routine and keep at it until it becomes a true habit.Now stay focused. If it’s a book you need to be able to maintain your focus for months. For a shorter piece like a blog post or an article you need to focus for one or two hours.
4. Remove all distractions.
   You know what they are. Unplug the phone, turn off your router, find a place where you can write away oblivious to the household duties which are being neglected.Try using a kitchen timer to keep you seated and writing. Set the timer for an hour and write away. When the time’s up have a five minute break then repeat until the piece is finished.
5. Use motivational tools.
   Don’t dismiss Twitter as a waste of time waster or, at best, a simple networking tool. I’ve found it a powerful way to motivate myself and other people. It surprised me too but here’s how it happened.I followed a well known novelist and journalist called John Birmingham @johnbirmingham on Twitter.I noticed that he constantly tweeted how many words he’d written on a project and how many he was about to write. He’s prolific and his word count put me to shame so I decided to try his tactic and see if it helped me.First thing in the morning, I’d tweet:”Three jobs: edit chap two of fiction manuscript, finish short story for the competition, write blog post for Get In the Hot Spot.”Then I made updates on my progress via Twitter, as the day went on, such as:”Chapter two edited and looking good. About to update my blog now. Hope you’ve had a productive morning too.”

   I know this sounds ridiculously simple and unnecessary too, but if it works as a motivational tool, that has to be a good thing.

6. Try co-motivation
   Sometimes on Twitter I’ve challenge other writers or bloggers to a word race if I know they’re in the same boat as me. As we both write more than we would have otherwise, we both end up winning. I’ve found that innocent bystanders who’ve seen my word count tweets are motivated and inspired by that just as I was by John Birmingham.This type of motivation even has a proper name. Appropriately enough for writers it’s called “bookmarking”.

   Basically, you tell someone your goal and then update them regularly on your progress. It may be a friend, but it can be anyone, and it can also be done on the phone, with a text message, face to face, or on Twitter where you don’t even need anyone specific to report too.One brilliant side-effect of this is that as well as John Birmingham motivating himself and me, my progress reports have motivated other people too.

   One man told me that my tweets about writing and my word count have inspired him to start writing again. Another Australian writer Peter Moore @travdude who’s published six travel books, emailed me saying”I’m impressed that you’re knocking out those kind of numbers in a family environment.”

Final word on motivation

Who cares if writing’s intangible, unpaid and misunderstood? We mark our progress in words written and don’t worry that most of them will be removed in the end. We pay ourselves a favor each time we put pen to paper and practice our craft. We wage a war against lassitude and writer’s block on a daily basis and we win.

We just sit down to write no matter how hard it is, because no one else can write it like us.

How do you start writing and stick to it even though it’s easier not to? Please share your tips in the comments.

On the Internet it’s just the same as in real life ~ if you spend time with positive, inspiring people, you’ll be motivated to improve yourself and work harder.

Brrng, Brrng! Got to go now, the timer’s ringing. Have a super duper and highly productive day everyone.

Annabel Candy writes about self improvement at Get In the Hot Spot. She runs a web design company with her husband and manages to stay mostly focused on her writing despite the general mayhem created by their three children. To have as word count race or boast about how much you’ve written, tweet her @inthehotspot

Image credit: Photo by CarbonNY