Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
Ninety percent of the time, I have set times for my daily tasks. I get along fine with near everything in my schedule, I can start and finish tasks without hesitation.
…Apart from writing. Writing is utterly different. It requires a part of our brain to suddenly activate when it hasn’t been used for sometimes days. The creative side. Not only that, in order to produce high quality writing – we need:
- Creativity
- Focus
- Fast Thinking
- Patience
I used to really struggle with my writing, in fact as soon as I started writing I would become extremely restless. Writing good content whether it be a novel, article, column or blog post requires patience and focus. Patience and focus are the two key factors to producing high quality content.
In the beginning you always feel the need to get up or do another job; but if you work past those initial restless moments you’ll get into the zone of non-stop output. So here are 8 ways to get in the mood for writing.
1. Find A Writing Spot
You know how they advise people to separate business from home life? Well, the same thing applies to writing. If you’re writing in the same place you do other work or even eat breakfast; you generally feel the need to do other work or eat breakfast whilst in those same places. The brain associates certain places with doing certain things.
The best thing you can do is have a designated writing spot in your home or even workplace. As your brain gradually learns to associate the writing spot with actively writing and being creative; it will. You’ll find it much easier to slip into the writing state of mind and almost instantaneously produce good content.
2. Get Out The House
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try; you just need to get outside. You need to escape the office/writing spot shackles and burn some energy. If you find yourself needing to run or simply exercise; it’s because you’re not burning off enough steam.
The best way to burn off annoying energy is to go for a 10-minute run, lift some weights, hit the gym once a day or for some writers; smoke a cigarette (for some reason it works). Otherwise, just step outside for a few minutes or take the dog for a walk. Going outside opens and clears the mind. The idea is to burn energy and take your mind off writing.
3. Plan Your Writing
This is the first thing teachers taught us back in middle school. How to plan your writing before you begin. Any great novelist will know how extraordinarily powerful a plan is.
By mapping out what you’re going to write before you write it; the brain easily fills in the gaps and is surprisingly faster at being creative.
4. Write Anything… Quickly
This is a strategy that I don’t really practice because once I get in the zone (which I do quickly), I can write for hours. One of the ways I first got over writer’s block was by writing anything, quickly. Literally just write whatever comes to mind.
It doesn’t even have to be anything to do with the subject you’re supposed to be writing about. The idea is to write about anything that comes to mind so your brain gets used to writing down your thoughts as they come to you.
5. Learn About The Subject
Back when I had a plan to write a blog post every day, I struggled the most. I had to write an article every single day about something new and completely different. A lot of the time my problem was that I just didn’t know enough about what I was writing about.
As soon as I started writing by reading a few similar articles by reputable writers or bloggers; the daily task became a whole lot easier. So that’s what you need to do. Before you write an article, blog post or whatever else; read a few similar articles. Most of the time you won’t need to do that much research. But even if you’re an expert on a subject, reading other writers’ opinions helps clarify things and really helps you structure your content a whole lot more effectively.
6. Read Past Work
You were never meant to do this alone
Reading this changes nothing. Doing it with people who show up changes everything. That is the whole difference between the people who transform and the people who keep starting over.
Start free →This is a great way to get back into the writing zone. Simply by reading some of your past work. If you’re writing a novel or a really long article; always do this. Read the past few pages to jog your memory a little. Reading past work always helps you get in the mood for writing – especially when your writing is good.
7. Eliminate Distractions
This is a no-brainer for obvious reasons. Eliminate all distractions.
- Young kids running around the house? Lock them outside.
- Aggressive dog barking? Throw the kids & the dog in a room and lock it (rid them both).
- Television? Destroy it!
All jokes aside, get rid of all distractions and your head will feel a lot clearer.
8. Music
For some reason, music activates the pleasure center of our brains and makes us happy to some extent. And for some reason; music helps many of us write. It helps us concentrate and boosts productivity. As long as it’s not too loud, it generally helps us get in the mood for writing.
The trick is to make listening to music in your writing spot with all distractions off and everything else part of your writing process. All things you do when you write. The more you repeat the process, the more swiftly your brain will start being creative and write good content!
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions in the form below.
Comments
Mike, June 11 2012, 12:30
When I do my writing, I like to set aside a whole week with writing as my primary focus. I’ll put on some relaxing music (as you mentioned). I also write down ideas all the time so that when I get to a week where I just write, I’ll have a whole bunch of topics and ideas. Then I pick a topic and do any research if I haven’t already done so and then cut loose. I’ll write for 60 to 90 minutes max, then maybe go for a walk outside or something for a while, then come in for another 60 to 90-minute session.
Often, I can do three or four of these sessions every day for about four days leaving me with almost a full month’s worth of posts that I just schedule on my blog and then submit anything 500 or more words long to article directories and link them back to the blog post. I’m then free for the rest of the month to do videos and other stuff. It seems to work for me!
It also helps to set goals and deadlines such as 100 posts within the next 90 days. Obviously, doing three or four per day would exceed this, but the idea is really to put out 100 posts in 90 days doing four-day writing blitzes once a month. When I first created my blog, I used this tactic and was able to have one post per day out every day for 100 days. It’s not for everyone, but I’ve found that if I’m going to go into a creative state of mind, it’s better to go for a few days than a few hours or try to get into creativity when it’s just not there. 😉
Julia, June 12 2012, 14:45
Great tips! I especially like the idea of having a designated writing spot. It really helps me focus.
Sasuke12, June 13 2012, 09:15
Getting out of the house always works for me. A short walk can do wonders for creativity.
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The designated writing spot idea is fine if you’ve got a spot that stays yours for more than twenty minutes at a stretch. Mine’s the front seat of the car in the school pickup line, and it changes most weeks.
Cass’s version sounds a lot like mine near the end, except I had a team depending on my calendar too, which made the fragmented time worse, not better, since there was always something urgent trying to eat it. The one tip on this list I still use is reading the last page before starting — it’s the only one that doesn’t need a block of time, just the few minutes already sitting in front of the fragment.
What Samir’s calling the one surviving tip is also the cheapest input on the list — rereading the last page costs two minutes and re-primes the next twenty. Planning the piece or reading around the subject first both need a block nobody gets in forty-five minutes.
Cass’s forty-five minutes is the more typical case, not the exception, and worth saying next to a plan built around uninterrupted four-day blocks. Rare doesn’t mean impossible — someone clearly made that schedule work for them. But most people reading this have her version of a day, not that one, and advice aimed at the long version will just make the short version feel like it’s failing by comparison.
Sorry if this is a silly question, but under ‘eliminate distractions,’ is anyone actually able to write in total silence with no one else in the house, because that’s basically never happening for me, and I wondered if there’s a version of this tip for people who can’t lock the door on everyone.
Lock the dog outside, sure. Try locking the toddler outside and report back.
Bonnie’s question is the practical one underneath all eight of these. I think what’s being missed is that ‘eliminate distractions’ doesn’t require silence, just removing what you can actually control — phone in another room, one browser tab, door closed if you’ve got one. Nobody’s real setup looks like the joke version with the dog and the television gone entirely.
Tried a version of total silence for about three weeks when my youngest started school, Bonnie, thinking finally, quiet. Turned out I wrote worse in dead silence than I used to with the radio on low back at the dental office — some kind of ambient noise habit from years of work I never noticed I had. Switched to a fan running plus headphones playing nothing, which got me back to something close to my old output within about a week. Point being, the tip assumes silence is the goal for everyone, and for some of us it’s actually the removal of a background hum we didn’t know we needed. Worth testing before assuming you need the fully empty house.