Why This is THE Most Important Time of Year For Writers

It's now November.

Boy has this year flown.

As far as writing goes I haven't achieved everything I hoped this year, but I came pretty darn close.

And since it's now less than 2 months to the end of the year, this is the most important time to plan what I'll be doing next year.

Starting my plan early will give me plenty of time to think things through.

It also is a brilliant time to look at everything I want to finish by the end of this year too.

If you never map out a writing and publishing plan for the following year, I can highly recommend doing so.

I find that I work much more efficiently if I have a plan and a timeline for everything I need to do. It frees up my thinking time so that I can concentrate more on my writing.

I don't have a set plan for  2016 yet, but I do know at least one thing that I'll be doing for the rest of 2015 and that's promoting my book, How to Quit Smoking - Without Giving Up Cigarettes, because thanks to New Years resolutions, this book is always an end of year best seller.

And it's available as a paperback book, as well as a Kindle and PDF, so it also makes a great Christmas gift too.

Another good reason to start promoting it early.

What will you be doing next year?

No Time To Write? Liar!

"I have so much going on in my life right now that I don't have time to even think about writing."

That's what someone said to me recently. Can you believe that?

It's a ridiculous statement.

And a lie.

We all have time to write.

And there's nothing more annoying to those of us who are writing and making a living out of it, than to hear someone who never writes at all claiming that they would write, but they just don't have the time.

Every successful writer began as a busy person who made a habit of prioritising their writing instead of putting it off with excuse after excuse.

An excuse isn't a reason for not writing, it's a way of trying to say that it's not your fault that you're not writing.

But it is your fault.

Just take a look at this article by successful and prolific writer, Emma Darwin, who explains quite succinctly how to get some writing done every day AND get your novel written, even if you believe you don't have time.

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2015/01/ring-fencing-writing-time.html

Or how about the article called "Just Write the Damned Book Already" by Joseph Finder who also gets annoyed with people who claim they don't have time to write and counters it with "And if only I had the time to run for President, I’d be in the White House."

http://www.josephfinder.com/writers/tips/just-write-the-damned-book-already/

Or if you want to be truly inspired by seeing just how much another author does write every day, take a look at Dean Wesley Smith's blog post series called "Writing in Public" where he publicly details how many words he writes every day.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/category/challenge-2/page/4/

And he doesn't just tell you how much he writes, but tells you what he does all day so you can see his day unfolding from start to finish.  His blog posts can really give you motivation.

So if you tell people that you don't have time to write, stop talking, apply backside to chair and get writing.

You'll be surprised at just how much you can write in a short time.

I can do half a page of writing in just 5 minutes which means by doing that every day, I could write a novel in a year.

How about you?

The Easy Way to Deal With Email and Keep Your Inbox Empty

It's surprising (to me, anyway) how many people suffer from over-stuffed inboxes and don't know what to do about it.

So I thought it's about time I shared with you what you can do. So here is an easy solution.

First of all, open your inbox and view the messages as "from" instead of "date" which is the default way messages are displayed in your inbox. This will group together all the messages from each sender.

Then go through them all and delete all the messages you don't need. This is easy because you can simply highlight all the messages from each sender and deleted them all at once.

Next go through the messages you chose not to delete and do one of the following four things with each one:

• Deal with it
• File it
• Pass it on
• Trash

Deal with it: If you have an email that requires a response from you, deal with it. It will probably only take you a couple of minutes.

File it: You probably have several different email folders where you store messages. I have a different one for each hosting company, friends, companies I deal with, etc. So if it's a message you want to keep, move it to the appropriate email folder or a folder on your hard drive.

Pass it on: If it's an email that someone else needs to deal with, forward it on to them and then move the email to trash. For example, I pass on emails that my book keeper or accountant needs to deal with.

Trash: This is where you place all the emails you don't need. Even if at first you thought you needed to keep it and if, on reflection, you don't need it, then move it to the trash folder.

One caveat I will mention is that once you've dealt with everything in your inbox, keep the emails you sent to trash for at least a month or two before you empty your trash folder, just in case you've trashed something by mistake.

And then every day when you check your emails, make the four choices immediately of how to deal with them.

I have my email set for manual checking and I don't check emails on my phone. That way I'm not distracted my unexpected emails popping up all the time. I dedicate certain times of the day for checking email and deal with them at that time.

I currently only have 4 email in my inbox and they're only there because the time to deal with them hasn't arrived yet, but it will soon and then I can delete them for good.

And my inbox will be empty once more.

Happy sigh...

How's That For Fast Writing?

So often I've talked (wrote?) about how important it is to write quickly.

I'm not saying that you have to write as fast as you can, but if you write daily, your writing speed will increase with practice without you even knowing it.

And when you get quicker at writing, you'll also find you can write more in less time, or write more than ever in the usual time that you write every day.

And how much my writing speed has increased was brought home to me recently.

The other day I was pottering around doing a few chores before I sat down to write.

One of the things I did was to set up my bread machine to make some dough because I wanted to make bread rolls for dinner to go with the soup that I'd made.

The bread machine takes one hour and 30 minutes to mix the dough, warm it, let it prove (rise) and knock it back ready for me to take it out and shape it into bread rolls. And all I have to do first is put in the ingredients (gotta love bread making machines).

I'd put the bread machine out on the deck because it was a hot day and I didn't want it to heat up the kitchen.

It was right beside the outside table where I sat down to write. So as soon as I sat down I looked at the timer on the bread machine to see how much longer it had left. 35 minutes.

Just before I sat down I'd had a cup of coffee while I outlined a marketing article and a blog post.

So I took out my scribbled outlines and set to work writing the marketing article,  proof read it and submitted it to EzineArticles.com.

Then I wrote the blog post, proof read it and published it to this blog.

Just before I finished I looked down at the bread machine timer. 4 minutes remaining.

How good was that?

So I quickly added a category to the blog post, previewed it and hit 'publish' just as the beeper sounded on the timer.

I thought to myself "That was pretty amazing."

I'd written and uploaded 2 articles in exactly 35 minutes.

And that's what I mean about writing daily improving your writing speed.

I've always said that it's possible to write an article in 15 minutes.

And you can write and publish two of them in just 35 minutes.

I just proved it can be done.

How Much Writing Is Too Much?

How much writing do you do every day? Have you ever thought of what your daily writing output is?

I recently received an email from a subscriber telling me that they had downloaded my 12 Month Writing Challenge but felt that the first month of sending out 30 submissions in 30 days was "beyond" them.

And that got me to wondering how much do writers write every day?

I know that horror author Stephen King only writes for one and a half hours a day. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov averaged one huge novel a month during his writing life. And novelist Dean Wesley Smith writes over 100,000 words every single month - and blogs about it daily.

So is submitting 30 pieces of work in 30 days too much to achieve?

I don't think so.

Magazines usually only want to see an article outline to begin with although if it's fiction, they want to see the whole story.

But even if you had to write the article first, is writing one article a day too much to do?

Are you actually writing less than that?

If you're not writing enough (meaning you know you're capable of much more than you're doing) or you're not writing at all, then maybe it's time you upped your writing output.

And if you're writing every day but not earning as much money from your writing as you'd like to, then you need to start writing more too.

If you're a writer, then there really is no excuse not to be writing.

And if you're not sure what to write or where to start, then perhaps you need to do The 12 Month Writing Challenge too.

:)

5 Rituals and Routines That Changed My Writing Life

I recently read an online article called "5 Rituals and Routines That Changed My Writing Life" and it was fascinating and thought-provoking, so I thought I'd share it with you.

The reason why this article was inspiring for me is because I've spent the last couple of weeks working on a new responsive layout for my Cheriton House Publishing website. And because I'm not really up to date with webpage design (it's incredibly complicated these days) the whole process is taking me a lot longer than I thought. It's also been holding me back from getting my writing done.

I keep telling myself that this is only a temporary set back and once the website is finished, I can get back to my usual writing.

And I think that's why this article struck a cord with me, because I've been letting my writing slide quite a bit lately and that doesn't make me happy at all. But this article prompted me to start writing again every day AND gave me a way to do it.

One of the first things it said is that it's no good wanting to make money from your writing and then deciding that you can only write when you "feel inspired" (or in my case, have the time to write). That will just keep you doing nothing and being broke.

Instead it said "Finding success as a writer requires you to be intentional about your writing. To do things with purpose."

What this means is that you need to get serious about being a writer and use rituals and routines that get you writing every day and taking your writing seriously instead of treating it like a hobby.

And that entails acting "as if" which means acting as though you already have a best selling book.

What would you do every day if you were already a best selling author? Would you spend your time on social media or playing computer games all day, or would you be busy promoting your book?

See the difference in those two mindsets?

My two best takes from this article were:

Write before you do anything else every day

and

Write 5 days a week.

So even if I only sit and write for an hour and then get on with other things, no matter what else I do, my writing is done.

And if I do this every day (5 days a week) then that's a lot of writing. Although I usually only write for 4 days a week and have a long weekend. But even 4 days of writing can create a huge output.

So that is what I'm going to do from now on.

No matter what other projects I have to do (book cover design, webpage design, formatting, editing, etc) I won't do it until I've done my writing. Even if it means only spending an hour or two writing every morning.

How about you?

What are you going to do to write more every day?

--------------

Writing Rituals

Write faster and make
more money by learning the productivity skills
of professional writers.
How much of your "writing time"
is lost to writer's block and procrastination?

How many hours do you lose simply
because you are not staying tightly
focused on your writing?

And how much more would you earn if
your writing productivity increased by
25%, 50% or even 100%?

Is It Just Me Or Is This A Great Blogging Opportunity Missed?

I - Yi - Yi!

Sometimes I feel like I want to tear my hair out in frustration.

And this was one of those times.

It began when someone emailed me to say that they were really inspired to start blogging after attending one of my recent talks.

So you'd think that's great, wouldn't you?

But then they went on to say that they were about to embark on a year-long, low-budget trip around Australia and wanted to start a blog about it AFTER they get back.

AFTER?

AFTER...????

"No, no, no," I told them. "You need to set up a blog now and write in it as you go."

But no. They wanted to write a private journal as they travelled and blog about it in a year or two.

I tried to tell them that if they're going to write about their trip as they travel, they might as well write it on their blog and and make money at the same time.

Low-budget travelling is a popular subject so they'd probably get thousands of subscribers.

But sadly (heavy sigh...)  my protests fell on deaf ears so it is a great blogging opportunity missed.

I thought about it afterwards, wondering why the hesitation? why say no to all that potential income and blogging experience?

Then it came to me...

Fear.

Fear of starting.

I see this so often.

People tell me they want to write a book SOME DAY.

Want to start a blog SOME DAY.

Want to work from home making money online SOME DAY.

But because they haven't tried it before, they're scared to start.

Everything looks hard until you try it.

And you can only learn about blogging as you go along, not matter how much you try and learn first.

As the saying goes, no matter how much you learn about Egypt, you won't know Egypt unless you go to Egypt.

So if you've been putting off starting something, remember, you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

So get it going.

Go to Egypt.

Start Living the Laptop Lifestyle Now.

Always Feeling Like I Should Be Doing Something Else

Do you ever get that feeling that no matter what you're doing you should be doing something else?

I suffer from that continually all day long. Week after week.  Month after  month.

When I'm doing other things I feel like I should be writing.

When I'm writing I feel like I should be doing all those other things that I haven't gotten around to yet.

Years ago I was studying for a degree and doing it though the Open University so that I studied from home.

All through the year I felt that I should be studying, until I was studying and then I felt that I should be doing something else.

It felt like unstoppable pressure. I was always glad of the 3 month break at the end of every year so that I didn't feel so guilty any more.

But now that I work from home as a writer I still have that "should be doing something else" feeling, no matter what I'm doing.

It's just guilt, guilt, guilt all day long.

Even if I spend all day writing and produce an epic amount of work, I feel guilty about the weeds still  growing in the garden or the pile of ironing waiting to be done.

But now I seem to have reduced the pressure somewhat and so far it's working okay for me.

First I bought an extra computer, one that I can take out with me so that I can work away from the house. It's a Mac Book Air and I find that when I'm not at home I feel no pressure to do anything but the work right in front of me. And I get plenty done because I have nothing else to do while I sit in the park or in the library.

Secondly, I discovered iTunes podcasts about writing, productivity and making money online. And I've also (just last week) subscribed to downloading digital books from the local library.

Subscribing to both was easy.  iTunes takes just a click to subscribe to any series of podcasts I want to hear and if I don't like them, I can unsubscribe in just one click as well.

For the library, all I had to do was download an app for my iPhone and I can download any ebook or audio book in just a click or two, and they're easy to browse because they're categorised really well. The ebooks, if I ever want to borrow one, are available in different formats including Kindle.

The books I download are audio books so that I can listen to them on the go while I'm doing all those other non-writing related tasks that I always "should" be doing when I'm not writing.

And, if you've been following along with me for a while, you'll know that I have a part-time evening cleaning job (in lieu of a gym membership) for extra exercise, and I listen to all my podcasts and ebooks while I clean. I work alone so it's easy for me to escape into whatever I'm listening to while I get my work done.

And what this does is help me to catch up learning what I need to know as well as getting physical jobs done, the ones that require busy hands but empty mind. I also listen to things while I'm doing the dishes or the ironing or mending clothes.

This makes it easier to sit for a long time and get my writing done without feeling as guilty because I'm not doing all the other things I need to do.

And speaking of other things, the dogs are whining for their afternoon walk so I'll have to leave now. Sadly I can't listen to anything while I walk them because they take all my concentration as they continually swap sides, try and quickly follow interesting scent trails like a couple of blood hounds, dragging me along in the process, and meet and greet all dogs and their owners coming the opposite way. Sigh.

But at least at other times, listening to all these informational audios helps me to feel less guilty about doing other things and I feel less time pressured when I'm writing.

I also signed up for a webinar about blogging last week but I didn't have time to listen to it at the time  it was on, so I used my audio recorder to record it while I was busy doing other things. I just switched on the recorder and laid in against the speaker on my laptop. Sneaky, I know, but I listened to it later while I was out doing my cleaning job and to be honest, being a video didn't add anything to the learning experience because it was just someone talking to the camera the whole time. I didn't need to see them to hear what they had to say.

So if you suffer from the "should be doing something else" guilt trip, try using audio to help relieve the pressure and kill two proverbial birds with one stone.

It's working for me.

:)

How to Write Viral Content Every Time

If you run an online business, you'll know that there are things that can hurt your business and things that can kill it.

You'll also know that getting visitors is the lifeblood of any website because without visitors there is no business.

That's why lack of visitors is the number one killer of any online business.

Working online is a numbers game.

Only a certain percentage of visitors to your site will buy from you.

So the more visitors you get, the bigger the percentage will be.

So if only 1% of visitors are buying from you and you want to make 100 sales a day, then you need to attract 10,000 daily visitors.

But how can you do that?

The answer is by using SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation.

But you need to do it correctly.

SEO means finding the most searched-for keywords and using them on your website to attract targeted visitors in droves.

And the emphasis is on TARGETED.

You need to use SEO to attract those people who are already searching for a site like yours.
And you don't have to be good at it.

You just need to find the correct keywords.

And there is a website that can help you and it's called SEOPressor.

It has software that can not only help you choose the best keywords but it teaches you how to use them for maximum effect. It's a plugin that works silently as you write and it also has a smart linking tool and can link your content across your whole blog.

It's a plugin for WordPress so you simply install it and let it work for you.

And for a limited time you can grab a free copy of their special edition ebook on how to make your content go viral in 2 minutes.

While you're on their webpage you can scroll down and read their 10 steps to writing ultra-targeted SEO content for your website or blog.

Go the website now and sign up to receive exclusive insider tips and tricks on SEO. Delivered to you right from the industry’s best SEO team, which works as you write to make sure that your articles and blog posts get more targeted traffic and rank in the search engines faster and more accurately.

This is a smart tool that does all the work for you while you get on with your writing.

https://ruthiswriting.com/links/seopressor.html

How to Get Things Done

It’s easy to have a long list of things you should be doing, but actually starting is often hard.

If you want to get started and get things done, here is a system to follow:

Decide > Action > Results

It’s THAT easy…in theory.

But the reality may seem more complicated so you need to expand the Action step like this:

Pick a project you want to work on. It may be a writing project or it may even be simple like washing your car.

Once you’ve decided what you want to do break down the action steps into 2 parts like this:

Tasks > Order

This means you first need to list the tasks you need to do and then put them in the right order.

So if you’re washing your car your list might include, vacuum inside, clean inside of the windows, clean outside of the car, take everything out of the car.

If it’s a writing project your list might include, find a topic, research, write a 1,000 word article, outline article, proof, upload.

Next you need to put all your tasks in the right order.

In this case your writing project tasks are already nearly in the right order, but your car washing needs re-arranging from interior jobs (starting with taking everything out of the car) to washing the outside of the car.

Just begin by deciding what you want to do, then work out the steps required to achieve the results you want.

Then forget the results and work through your plan of how to get it done.

It’s OK to keep your eye on the results to help with motivation, but stick to your plan if you want to get there.

And don’t get distracted by any BSOs (bright shiny objects) while you’re working.

Just keep moving forward because you need to keep working if you want to achieve your desired results.

But nothing happens without action.

You won’t get anything done if you sit around all day doing nothing, with an over-developed sense of entitlement.

Decide > Action > Results

That’s the only way to get things done.

Learning to Type The Easy Way

Typing is a lost art form these days.

At school I learned what they called Touch Typing which is a really useful skill to have now that we all own computers.

At school children were taught to type at up to 100 words per minute (wpm). But we didn’t learn to type that fast by typing as fast as we could.

We were taught to NEVER try and type fast.

Instead we had to learn to keep a rhythm as we typed, and it was something that we all did in unison in class.

We learned to never look at the keyboard because that’s the worst habit to get into.

Instead we had to place our hands on the ‘home row’ keys by placing our index fingers on the f and j keys and our other fingers fell into place automatically on the a, s, d and k, l, ; keys.

Finding the f and j keys without looking is easy because they each have a raised little bump on them so that you always know which they are.

We then spent week after week typing fff jjj fff jjj ff jj ff jj f j f j while the teacher said it out loud as we typed - “f f f space, j j j space, f f f space, j j j space…”

But it did help us keep a good rhythm as we practiced all the home row keys, even eventually typing sentences with our limited range of letters on that row “a sad lad had a glad gal” which is creepy now that I look it it. Our index fingers also typed the g and h keys on that row and moved immediately back to the f and j keys.

And now all these years later, I can still touch type without ever looking at the keyboard and my speed quickly increased once I managed to keep a rhythm with my typing.

 So if you want to be able to type faster, begin by keeping a rhythm and never look at your keyboard.

And before you know it you’ll be typing quickly too.

If you want to know your typing speed you can take the free online test at http://www.typingtest.com.

Get Ready. Get Set. Write!

Lately I've been experimenting with different ways to increase my writing output.

I read an ebook about a writer who went from writing 2,000 words a day to 10,000 words a day just by going out to write every day instead of trying to do it at home.

She found that even though sitting in a cafe was noisy, there were no distractions and no demands on her time which freed her up to just write.

The reason I want to increase how much I write every day, is so that I'm more focused and more productive while I work.

I find that when I can sit down and get plenty of writing done in a short space of time, I'm far more creative and it feels like I'm working in a giant window of inspiration.

If I don't sit down and focus on what I'm doing, I get easily distracted and end up wasting time so it takes me twice as long to get anything done and my writing isn't as good.

So now I've gone as far as giving myself set writing times every day so that I have to sit down and write, even if I don't feel like it.

And I find that no matter how reluctant I am before I begin, once I actually start writing it's easy to carry on.

It was the famous horror writer Stephen King who said, in his book On Writing, that it's important to sit and write at the same time every day and always sit in the same place so that you know that you should be working. And preferably make that place a room with a door you can close.

Focus and self discipline are the two most important things if you want to be a productive and prolific writer.

Yet these two things IMH(yet accurate)O, are the hardest to conquer.

It takes practise and determination.

How I'm Becoming The Organised Writer

For me, self discipline is the hardest thing about being a writer.

The writing part is easy.

Actually sitting down to do the work in the first place is hard.

It's too easy to be distracted by other things when you're working from home, all alone, with no boss looking over your shoulder telling you what to do.

It's even harder on days when I'm tired or feeling unwell or if I have a project in the garden that I'm dying to get started on.

The way that I've gotten around this problem is by being a highly organised writer.

I have set times every day when I must work, whether I feel like it or not.

That keeps me working to deadlines.

I also have certain writing jobs that need to be done on certain days so I have to keep working during my set times to fit it all in.

I work well this way because if there's no pressure, then I have no motivation to keep going.

Being completely organised also makes it easier to work because I don't have to think of what I have to write because I already know. It's written in my diary.

All I have to do is look in my diary every day to see what needs doing and then I get straight to work.

I also find that the more I write the easier and faster it gets.

Try it for yourself.

You've got nothing to lose.

How to Have More Ideas For Your Writing Than You'll Ever Need

It's one thing to say that you want to earn all your income from your writing, but how do you know what to write about?

And how do you come up with enough ideas?

You might think that you need to constantly sit and deeply ponder possible writing topics, but the opposite is true.

Rarely does anyone have great ideas while they're writing.

It's more likely for great ideas to occur when you're away from the keyboard.

It's at these other times when you're not writing that you'll have "eureka" moments.

That's because it's our subconscious mind, not our conscious mind, where great ideas are born.

But you need to be ready, because ideas can disappear as quickly they appear in the first place.

So when a great idea comes to mind, write it down.

Don't think that you'll remember it.

You won't.

An idea is a gift. Don't lose it. Write it down so that you can keep it.

If you do this every time an idea comes to you, even if it's only an incomplete idea, write it down and you'll soon discover that you've got more ideas than you can ever write about in your lifetime.

Why Do Writers Procrastinate?

Look around anywhere on the internet and you’ll come across articles about procrastination, especially when you're reading about writing.

All writers complain about procrastination. It’s like a resistance to sitting down and starting.

We all say we’re writers, but the resistance we feel every time we want to start writing is always there.

If you love to write then why is it so difficult to sit down and do it?

Some say it’s because of a fear of failure, fear that your writing won’t be good enough.

Others say it’s because of a fear of success, of how much your life will change if your writing is popular.

I say “Get over it.”

It’s just laziness.

I feel procrastination and resistance to anything that feels like hard work.

And writing is work, no matter how much of a romantic idea is conjured up about being a writer. It takes work.

But all you have to do is start.

Sit down and start writing.

Tell yourself that for the next 30 minutes you cannot do anything else.

Sit at your computer (or with a pad and pen) and tell yourself that you can only write or sit and do nothing. But you cannot do anything else.

Before you know it, once you start writing, it’s easy to keep going and you’ll soon get plenty of writing done.

You just have to start.

So what are you waiting for?

I’m K.I.S.S.ing Everything

One of the best known acronyms for business, or for anything really, is KISS which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.

I recently realised that I wasn't enjoying what I do and everything seemed like a chore.

So I’ve been KISSing everything.

One of the major changes I'm making to my online businesses is to get rid of most of my websites, especially my writing sties, and send all my visitors to just one writing site instead.

I’ve also set out a weekly article writing and online marketing schedule that is easy and quick to do and leaves plenty of time for book writing which is really what I want to do more of.

If you’re struggling to get enough writing done, try applying KISS to every area of life.

Look at everything you do and find a way to make it faster and simpler.

It leaves much more time for the things you’d rather be doing.

Finish Your Sh*t

The other day I read a really amusing - yet straightforward and honest - article by writer, Chuck Wendig.

He was talking about how aspiring writers are not really writers at all and was listing reasons why.

One of the things he listed was the bad habit that most writers suffer from, and that is not finishing things we start.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else for doing this and I have half-written manuscripts and short stories waiting to be proofed and edited, stashed away all over the place.

Chuck’s article was called “25 THINGS I WANT TO SAY TO SO-CALLED “ASPIRING” WRITERS” which I thought was funny to start with because of the way he called them “so-called”.

The part of it that made me laugh the most was this:

“I’m just going to type this out a dozen times so it’s clear: finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit! FINISH YOUR SHIT. Finish. Your. Shit. Fiiiiniiiish yooooour shiiiiit. COMPLETO EL POOPO. Vervollständigen Sie Ihre Fäkalien! Finish your shit.”

I especially liked “COMPLETEO EL POOPO”. Hilarious!

So if you’re a writer with things left unfinished, now would be a good time to Competeo El Poopo.

But seriously though, how much money are we leaving on the table through all our unfinished work?

I even have a series of 7 novels that have been left in the outline stage. Crazy, isn’t it?

Take a good look through all the writing projects you started but never finished and see what you can do to get them completed.

And I’ll do the same.

You can read the rest of Chuck’s article at:

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/02/21/25-things-i-want-to-say-to-so-called-aspiring-writers/

Just Write, Damn You!

OK, so this is going to be a mini-therapy session for me while I sit and whine to you about all the would-be writers (who like to call themselves aspiring writers) who never write a damn thing.

And then they ask me how to get started or how they can make money from their writing (that they never do).

So first I think I need to get one thing straight.

If you never write anything then you’re not a writer.

You see, you don’t need a college degree or any type of formal education to be a writer. And you can’t get a diploma or a certificate to show that you’re a writer the way doctors and lawyers do.

In fact, the only way that you can prove that you’re a writer is if you write every day.

And you don’t even have to write a lot. Many novelists only write for one or two hours day.

But the important thing is that they do it daily.

And what’s great about being a writer is that you’re no paid by the hour so your writing can go on earning money for years.

And it all begins with writing.

Every day!

So sit down and write, damn you.

Quick Cash Writing

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Write Faster And Better

If you’re like me you dream of being able to write more every day and have a huge library of published books and a slew of websites with hundreds of pages of useful articles and other information and millions of visitors a month.

Ahh… wouldn’t it be nice?

I’m not there yet but I am getting there.

How about you?

Do you dream of the same writing goals?

If so, what’s holding you back?

It’s probably the same thing that’s held me back too.

Practice.

That is the ‘secret’.

If you want to write more you need to write faster so that you can tackle more large writing projects such as books.

Writing faster means writing more and it also means writing better.

In other words, practice will help you write faster and improve the way you write at the same time.

If you want to write faster and write and publish more, do what I always do and get a course or an ebook that you can follow that will get you started and keep you writing.

Some courses I’ve used are:

Quick Cash Writing. Great for writing all kinds of smaller projects such as filler articles, short stories and greeting card verse.

http://writeaholics.net/links/quickcash.html

Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less. Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction. Just follow the advice as you go through the course and by the end you’ll have your manuscript written.

http://writeaholics.net/links/writequickly.html

12 Month Writing Challenge. A course that gives you monthly assignments that build on top of each other so that by this time next year you’ll not only have earned over $30K from the course, but you’ll have multiple streams of passive income to keep you going.
http://12mthchallenge.com

7 Day Ebook Writing and Publishing System. If you want to write ebook fast, this course will get you there. Short how-to ebooks can help you to earn a steady, passive income. When you download this course, you’ll also receive the bonus ebook 2 Hour Short Report Writing: How to write a short report or ebook in just 2 hours. 

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/7day.html

Can you imagine how much writing you’d be able to do and how much money you’d earn if your downloaded and worked on writing courses such as these?

There are many more writing courses available to download online so there really is no excuse for not getting started today, even if you don’t have an idea of what you want to write.

All you need is a goal of what you want to achieve then get to work and do it.

Some people never get started with their writing because they’re afraid they’ll fail. While others are afraid they’ll succeed.

If you don’t make a determined start now, what will you achieve in one week’s time, in a month or in a year?

Nothing.

Ask yourself this:

• What is your goal with your writing?
• How are you going to achieve it?
• Why haven’t you started?

Now would be a great time to begin.

Writing Articles Quickly: 4 Steps That Can Really Turbo-Charge your Article Writing Speed

As an online writer, I find that time is money. I can waste 15 minutes idly surfing the internet or use that time to write another marketing article or short blog post.

If you can write an article in 15 minutes you can write 4 in an hour which is 32 articles a day if you work an 8-hour day.

Even if you’re a bit slower and only manage 3 articles an hour, that’s still 24 articles a day.

Can you imagine how much you could increase your online income if you could write that quickly?

How do you write articles fast?

1. Research. This needs to only take one minute or less to search online for 3 or more points to cover in an article.

2. Outline. You can’t write an article quickly if you don’t have an outline to follow. It would be like trying to make a cake without a recipe to follow.

3. Write Quickly. Don’t get distracted. If you have an article to write, write it. You already have your outline so start writing and don’t stop until you’ve finished.

4. Edit and Proof Read. This should be quick to do. If you write often you work will be good because you’ve  had plenty of practice so your articles won’t need much editing. And a final quick proof read will pick up any typos and spelling errors.

And that’s all there is to it.

Just don’t let the Writing Nazies tell you that writing quickly will produce bad writing. It won’t, unless you’re a bad writer to start with.

Writing fast will make you quick AND efficient.