It’s easy to get lost in your writing. In order to maintain focus, I always try to outline my articles. Sometimes I outline in more detail, and sometimes I just jot down a few sub-headings that will guide me through it all.
Once in a blue moon, I may write without having an outline, but that’s for shorter articles. I live and die by the outline, and it works beautifully for me.
Once you’ve got your outline in place, throw the editors hat on the shelf and just start writing. Don’t censor yourself; let it all come out. It doesn’t matter if what comes out is rubbish. Write, and write some more until you have more than you need.
Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or flow.
Once you’ve got your lump of text in front of you, it’s time to rewrite what you’ve got. Now you take off your creative writing hat, and grab your editor’s hat. Rewrite your article once as best as you can, then sleep on it, and come back in 24 hours. This simple rule works wonders.
Now, for the insightful part; observe what you think about and what happens during the day. There are a lot of things that happen to you that you take for granted. Many of those things are nuggets of gold for your readers, because not everyone is you.
You may have the solution to a pesky problem many have, but it’s second nature to you that you don’t even think about it.
I love reading books. Books are a great place for inspiration and new ideas. You see, books are carefully researched and written, which means you can borrow a lot of ideas, and you can improve your writing by leaps and bounds if you pay attention.
We all want to be comfortable, safe, and secure, but the truth of the matter is that the more we go out of our comfort zone, the more ideas we have. The more you break through your fear, the more inspiring and interesting you become.
Break your patterns, do something new, and inspiration will hit you like a brick wall. You can’t miss it.
Last, but definitely not least, give yourself permission to be you, with quirks and all. The more you try to hold back, the harder it is to write, because you’re trying to be someone you’re not.
Think of it like this: the more you can be you, the more of the people you really want to hang out with you will attract.
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