What is Currently Inspiring and Influencing Me to Write More

Raining in on the deck

At the moment I have to say that writing  more every day isn't that hard.

Why?

Because the weather is terrible and it's been pouring heaving rain for days. I can't even sit out on the deck and write like I usually do because it's so windy it keeps blowing the rain in and everything just feels damp at the moment.

And I have more free time because I now can't do any gardening (I usually like to get in an hour or 2 every day) and the dogs are laying on my bed every day, looking worried that I might want to walk them. Fat chance of that. Their 2 walks a day are currently down to zero (or a fast 15 minute walk like we had yesterday when the rain eased for a short while in the afternoon).

Today, however, the rain shows no sign of easing up at all, not even to light showers. It's just lashing down continually, the drains in the road are gushing like fountains and the road itself is a river.

But none the less, I have been writing more, and thinking about it a lot, not because it's raining so much, but because I've found two things that are really spurring me on.

Feeling Like I'm 'Not Enough'

Image Courtesy freedigitalphotos.net-Craftyjoe

I write a lot about how much I do and how much I write and to some it may sound like I think  I'm perfect.

Yet how strange that the opposite is true.

It seems to me that no matter  how much I do I always feel like I'm 'not enough.' I don't write enough, I'm not kind enough, I'm not self-disciplined enough, and on and on the list goes.

I used to think it was only me that felt this way because so many others write about how much they do, how well they're doing, how self-disciplined they are and I sit and wonder why I'm not as good as they are.

But lately the subject of being authentic has sprung up in a big way. It's making people be honest about who they are and all their personal flaws.

Writing Resources to Help Increase Your Creativity and Productivity

This week I wrote an article for my Writeaholics.net website about how to write an ebook in 2 days.

The inspiration for the article was from some products created by Jason Fladlien that I downloaded last week.

 All his products are about writing quickly, creating more products and making more money online. Jason himself is a prolific writer and he can create information products almost on the fly because he has spent the last few years perfecting his technique for fast writing, better time management, high productivity and working to deadlines to improve his speed and performance.

Short Writers' Sale and New Email

First I quickly wanted to tell you about a huge sale of books and magazines for writers going on at the Writers Digest Store.

They have a limited number of products on offer for a huge 65% discount.

But the sale ends of 19th March AND the products are limited because it's a clearance sale of books and magazines for writers that they will no longer be printing so if you don't get in now you'll miss out.

They have an agents search book, a book for children's writers, poets, song writers and more.

My Article Writing Experiment

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan
Freedigitalphtos.net

This week I downloaded an ebook about article writing that I've wanted to download for a while but wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile.

Thankfully, my skepticism was unfounded and the ebook turned out to be a gem. It's all about writing articles quickly. In fact it promises to teach you how to write an article in just a few minutes. Less than 10 minutes.

So I read through the ebook (it wasn't very long) and then sat down and gave it a try.

And do you know what I discovered?

1 Free Contest, 1 New Writing Market & 2 Amazing Offers

Today I have 4 great offers for you. One is a free contest, one is a new writing market, and two are deeply discounted offers for writers which may never be repeated.

The free contest is a chance to win 3 premium WordPress themes for your blog.

Reading, Learning and Writing

Image courtesy of Master / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I use DreamWeaver software to create my websites (except this blog, of course) and this week I upgraded from DreamWeaver 5.5 to DreamWeaver 6. It was quite a learning curve to understand how to use the upgraded software and I had to sit and watch videos and read articles of how to use all the new features.

So I took an afternoon off from doing writing tasks and household chores to sit down and learn what I needed to know.

And this pretty much sums up being a writer because we read and learn as well as write, which all works to make us better writers.

How to Write 1,000 Words Quickly

There has been a lot of interest in a short post a wrote last week called "How to Write 1,000 Words". This was a time-lapsed video of a writer creating a 1,000-word blog post.

So I thought I'd expand on this because I often receive comments about how much I write, I how much I do in a day and how I do it all.

But it's really not that hard. I mean, yes I'm busy, but I'm enjoying it so it doesn't always feel like work.

And I think it all comes down to mindset, or to put it another way, knowing how much you're capable of doing in a day so that you don't overwhelm yourself or your daily 'to do' list.

Now I'm a pretty consistent writer. I write every day, and usually only week days unless I have a pressing deadline.

But I don't write all day. I work for a few hours a day and then stop.

I'm not one of those hype-merchants who brags on and on about how much money I earn for doing very little. Instead I'm a bit of a plodder. I work, I write, I earn money, I repeat it all.

I have a great work-life balance and I love it. And yes, I could work more and earn more, but I enjoy my life just how it is.

So now to get down to writing quickly, which is really what you're probably doing already but you just don't know it.