You’ve probably heard that writing is a community affair.

Well, it is, and it isn’t.

Sure, if you want people to read your work, you’ve got to know what they want. So you visit the blogs on your topic and start snooping around. You might even look at the comments and see what questions people are asking. Who knows? You could be first with the answer nobody has given.

Then you run your idea by a few of your closest friends to see what they think. It’s kind of like getting pre-approved for a loan at the bank. It seems like a waste of time to go fill out papers for a whole afternoon if they’re just going to say no, isn’t it?

So you seek permission to write what’s on your mind.

At least you do if metrics matter more than free expression.

What if you go and hide to write?

The obvious way to hide is to sit at your desk and cut off all contact with the outside world.

No social media.

No email.

No notifications of any kind.

Can you do it?

Sure, you can. Just turn it all off. Besides, it will still be there when you get back.

But what if you have an appointment?

Work around it.

Set office hours. Let people know when you’ll be available so you can devote your full attention to them. And let them know when you can’t by making yourself unavailable.

Trust me, they’ll thank you for it.

There’s something else you’ll turn off while you’re writing. It’s so important it’s easy to overlook. But if you do, it will ruin your work.

What is this poison?

Opinions.

Ask other people what they think before you put words on paper. Ask them in conversations beforehand. But once you enter the writing chamber, no one else matters.

Writing time is your time

When you’re in your writing space, it’s sacred. It’s not to be interrupted by second thoughts, the phone, or anything that can wait.

Especially other people’s opinions.

You’ve already floated the idea by a few people. They had their chance to agree or object then. Don’t leave the door to criticism open when you’re creating. Just open the spigot and let it flow.

Besides, you’ll edit later.

But not until you’ve had time for your draft to simmer.

Some use the term “free writing” for vomit drafts of all types. Why? Because you’re ignoring all the rules. Spelling. Grammar. Typos. Whatever.

You’re giving your voice free rein to say whatever it will.

Don’t worry about being offensive, wrong, or sloppy. Your prime concern is to get your deepest, most unreserved thoughts out so you can mine them for the gold inside.

That may mean you move a little dirt later. But so what? You’ve got to put the dirt there to move it. It’s just part of the process.

Keep the door closed while you edit

When it comes to startups, business expert Seth Godin says you should thrash early.

What this means for you as a writer is you get all the input you need on the front end. You research, then you write. You take a break, then you edit. Find the changes you need to make on the first swipe if you can. After that, go with it.

Too many changes dilute your writing’s power.

Don’t smooth off all the edges. You don’t want dull words competing with edgier ones. Your edges will help you stand out and will show your genius in all its imperfect glory.

Worried you’ll be criticized? Good. That means you’ve made an impact. No criticism means no one cares. And who wants that?

Keep the door closed to other eyes until you publish. The only exception to this is if you hire an outside editor specifically to make your piece the best it can be. Otherwise, use your best judgment. Set a time limit that fits the work you’re doing. Then share it with the world.

Open the door when you launch

You do this by allowing comments on your work.

If comments bother you, just turn them off. Seth Godin does this. And he’s still as popular as ever. You won’t go to writer’s hell if you cut off comments.

But if you’re growing, you might want to have a chance to talk with your readers.

Answer their questions. Respond to their observations. Ask them about what they’re working on, and offer advice if you can (and you sense that they might want it).

Generosity is a great community builder.

You might pick up new readers, customers, or even a client or two.

Here’s something not many talk about. When you talk about a finished work, rather than one that is still in progress, you’ll gain more confidence. Why? It takes guts to finish something. Every time you do, you get a little stronger. You learn more. And your writing time becomes more and more effective at bringing out the genius inside you.

Create your own writing sanctuary

You know your space needs to be quiet and free from distractions.

Now let’s take it to the next level.

Do you thrive with background noise? Or do you prefer total silence? Will you listen to music or binaural beats?

Will you have anything to drink? Water is good. I like coffee also. Stay hydrated and you won’t be distracted by hunger or undue weariness.

You also need a timer.

When you’re sitting at your desk for what might be hours, you’ll wear your eyes out if you don’t get up and move around every 25 minutes or so. Take a 5 minute break then get back to work. After 4 sessions like this, take a longer break (at least 15 minutes).

Make sure you don’t cheat and sneak some work in while you’re resting. The only work you can’t get out of is being alone with your thoughts. The forced breaks might just fill in gaps that would remain if you pressed on full steam ahead.

You might know this as the Pomodoro Technique. I’ve used it faithfully for years. I thought at first the frequent breaks would mess with my flow. But they actually made me more productive. When you rest before you get tired, you’re more eager to get back at it.

Here’s a bonus from Julia Cameron. Celebrate your wins by going on an Artist Date with yourself. It can be whatever you want. A walk in the woods. A bowl of ice cream. A trip to the coffee shop. Or maybe you just buy (or make) a trinket to mark the occasion.

When you cheer yourself on like this, you’ll find the will to press on when it counts.

How does isolation help you write better? Share your stories and strategies in the comments. I’d love to hear what works for you! Have questions? Feel free to ask. We’re here to help you make your writing dreams reality.

The biggest enemy any writer faces is one’s self and often appears as writer’s block.

If left untreated, it can be devastating to your output and your writing career. Nobody wants that, so let’s solve this problem!

 

This post is by Positive Writer contributor Frank McKinley.

Maybe you’ve heard of writers who get up every morning and put paws to the keyboard for an hour or two before breakfast. These are the people who churn out three or four novels a year like it was nothing (it’s not, of course). If you’re not doing the same, your gut reaction is likely to be jealous – crazy jealous.

How do they do that anyway? Do they add a magic potion to their morning coffee? Do the writing gods live in the spare bedroom of these high producers? Are they directly related to King Midas so every book they publish turns to gold?

It’s an entertaining notion to think successful people are born with innate talent that you don’t have. That lets you off the hook and justifies your complaining.

But it doesn’t get your book written.

If you suffer from any kind of writer’s block, you know all too well it’s a real thing. Sometimes it feels like a writer’s wall that is so high all the ideas on the other side are trapped there, forever out of your reach.

Unleash the genius one block at a time

Writer’s block doesn’t have to be forever.

Seth Godin makes the bold assertion that he never has writer’s block. To him, writing is another form of talking, and he is never at a loss for words.

If you’re an introvert, that might not comfort you much.

The truth is, words are readily available. You just have to reach out and grab them. The Muse loves the chase, and you can’t catch her by complaining about not being able to catch her.

In this post, you’ll learn how to hunt her down and make her do your bidding.

First, let’s identify the common blocks we writers face every time we sit at our desks.

Perfectionism. “If it’s not perfect, it’s not worth doing,” you might say to yourself.

Really? What is “perfect” anyway? Compared to what?

Everybody’s definition of perfect is different.

Aim to be effective instead.

Procrastination. “I’ll get started writing the moment this episode of Game of Thrones is over.” Or right after you unload the dryer. Or as soon as you wake up tomorrow.

The longer you wait, the easier it is not to start at all.

When you finish reading this post, you’ll face every blank page with confidence.

Fear. Someone might criticize you. Someone else might leave a nasty comment. Or worse, nobody will read your work at all.

Fear makes you freeze. Breathing is hard, and thinking becomes impossible. Except for worst case scenarios. Amazingly, you can come up with an endless supply of those.

What if you could blast past all your fears and tap into the writing genius inside you? What would that do for your production? Your confidence? How would the quality of your writing improve?

Forget about fear for 30 minutes a day

When we don’t want to do something, we do something else.

The dishes are piled up in the sink. But it’s been a long day and you’re tired. So you watch an episode or two of Black Mirror on Netflix. After that, you’ll feel more like dealing with the dirty dishes.

But you fall asleep on the couch instead.

What if you just went into the kitchen right after dinner and loaded the dishwasher before you plop onto the couch? Sure, it’s not fun dealing with the dishes. But it won’t be later either. Just get it over with.

When you’re done, you can rest in peace.

Dorothea Brande taught writers to get up and spend the first 30 minutes of the day writing “as fast as you can.” She gave that advice in 1934 and it as sound today as it was then.

Why did she recommend writers do this?

Because for those 30 minutes, you’re focusing on writing and nothing else. You’re ignoring everything in the universe besides putting words on paper. Call it freewriting, a stream of consciousness, a brain dump, or whatever you want.

How to make freewriting work for you today

It might sound crazy to have rules for “free” writing. But there are a few important ones.

And don’t worry, they won’t hamper your creativity at all.

First, set a timer. It can be for 5 minutes or 5 hours. You choose. If you’re just starting out, 5-10 minutes is plenty of time.

You might want to use the first 5 minutes to warm up your writing muscles. You can write about anything you want:

• What you dreamed about last night.
• The weather yesterday, today, or tomorrow.
• How sleepy you still feel.
• How stupid this seems.
• How much you enjoyed watching Black Mirror last night.

The point is you’ll be putting words on paper. Set the timer again for 10 or 20 minutes and you can get more focused. Start with a prompt and write whatever comes to mind about it.

Second, don’t edit as you go. Please. You’ll be using both sides of your brain at once. That’s like drawing a picture, and erasing it at the same time.

The main reason you don’t want to edit while you write is that you risk wiping the flavor out of it. Try this instead. Write for 30 minutes or an hour. Take a break. Go walk. Load the dishwasher. Watch an episode of Breaking Bad. After you’ve put some space between you and your writing, then come back with a less critical eye.

Maybe you can even pretend your best friend wrote it.

Third, make sure you’re totally isolated when you write. Turn off the internet. Don’t answer the phone. Turn off the TV. Let your loved ones know not to bother you because it’s “writing time.”

If you need noise, listen to your favorite music. Just make sure it puts you into a peak state so you write something awesome.

When the timer stops, you have to stop, too.

If you can’t, I say keep going until you exhaust your idea mill.

If there’s one rule you can break, this is it.

Fourth, set a time limit for editing, too. Why edit forever? The more you slice away, the blander your writing becomes. Decide what you want to achieve and edit for that. Leave the spice in.

Proofreading doesn’t count as editing. Of course, you should do that, too. Fix the typos and read your work aloud. Does it sound human and conversational?

Perfect.

And I mean perfect by anyone’s standard.

Especially the reader’s.

In the end, the reader’s opinion is the most important one.

Now go pour out your soul on paper

We don’t want another “me, too” writer. We want you at your gloriously imperfect best. Entertain us with your wit. Dazzle us with your insights. Be bold in your creativity and share the story only you can tell.

If you’re not freewriting already, today is the day to begin.

If you are, share your experience in the comments. Pass this post to your friends who struggle with writer’s block. Let’s start a movement of creative geniuses changing the world with their words!

One of the things that surprised me the most when I started Positive Writer was that a lot of my content was going viral. I didn’t expect that to happen and, if I am being honest, I didn’t start writing articles with going-viral in mind. I created my blog to share my thoughts about writing and since I felt what I wanted to express wasn’t really being talked about at the time, I might as well give it a shot and see if anyone cared. They did, and how!

At first, when my posts started taking off, I thought it was just luck. And, to a degree it was, but after a while, I noticed a trend. I had stumbled on to one of the most important aspects of being a writer online – at least, a writer who writes stuff that gets not only noticed but also passionately shared.

Before we get into what the secret is and how you can do it too, let me tell you another little truth, you’re probably a much better writer than I was when I started out, and if we’re really being open and sincere about what it takes to get your work noticed, shared and, well, going viral, it has very little to do with being a “great writer.” If you don’t consider your writing skills to be as good as you want them to be, welcome to the club.

With that said, being a great writer doesn’t hurt, but it’s not the key to success online. Writers with something to say will always get noticed more than great writers just writing for the sake of writing.

The #1 rule to creating content online that goes viral is:

Write What People May Be Thinking But Aren’t Saying

You’ve heard the saying that “The first draft of anything is shit.” Right? Well, my first article on Positive Writer was an argument against this declaration. It was titled “The First Draft is Not Crap!” It was short and, what I considered, a simple post.

“The First Draft is Not Crap!” went on to become my first viral phenomenon. I’m still a bit stunned at how well received the post was and the life it took on for itself. I’d love to tell you, I knew it! But that was hardly the case.

Hemingway allegedly said the famous quote, “The first draft of anything is shit.” as claimed in a postmortem book, “With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba.”

Thousands, if not millions, of authors and aspiring authors (especially the aspiring ones), have repeated the quote with conviction, even going so far as to post it on vision boards and bathroom mirrors. However, I imagined many actually disagreed with it or felt it went too far. In fact, psychologically it IS a self-defeating statement, which has led more people to let-downs than to publishing contracts.

I’m not going to go into the debate about the quote itself in this article. I’ve already done that. We’re going to talk about how a topic, especially something people may be thinking about, but aren’t really talking about, can get people to react in some way, positive, or negative, in agreement or disagreement, thus sharing your articles.

The result to share and discuss the content is there because it’s different, it’s taboo, and at the same time, it’s meaningful and important.

How dare you contradict the great one! Hemingway was a master.

Or:

It’s about time someone said it! No one can prove Hemingway ever uttered those words.

And it’s not always so cut and dry, some may agree to a point, but not entirely, which opens up more debate, discussions, and ultimately, sharing of your content!

Now here’s the thing, I wasn’t merely trying to stir up the bees. Quite the contrary, I set out to help fellow writers with positive and motivational content. Part of that was to get writers to think more positively about their initial work and give it the credit it deserves. Calling your work crap isn’t exactly all that motivational. And, reverse psychology doesn’t usually work the way a lot of people think it does.

Studies have shown direct requests and suggestions work better than reverse suggestions, in fact, reverse suggestions often work as direct suggestions. So, if you’re one of those who is wired for direct and not “reverse psychology,” then guess what calling your work worthless means. Exactly, your efforts and your work are very likely F**k’d. If that’s you, now you know why you’re always stuck and borderline depressed. Stop that!

Since I hadn’t found any blogs out there expressing things the way I thought about them, I only had an inclination more people thought the way I did. It was a big risk and I figured there would be some push back because, frankly, a lot of the most common and repeated writing advice out there is capital BULLSHIT. I wanted to talk about that and provide other ways of thinking about said bull advice.

To create viral content you have to be willing to discuss topics your readers might not agree with and at the same time do your best to help them see your point of view.

It’s not enough just to write about that which should not be said, there also has to be a point to it – or rather, a point you’re trying to make. If you’re successful at making your point, whether your readers agree or disagree, they will share your content, and if you’re lucky, it will go viral.

I noticed many new writers and bloggers like to rewrite old advice and popular content. Sure, they give a little of their own twist in the rewriting of it, but really, it’s the same we’ve all already read before. Great for a moment, but ultimately forgettable. Don’t be forgettable. I made that mistake with the first few blogs I started. I hadn’t found my own voice yet, or really, I wasn’t brave enough to let it sing freely. With that said…

Pro-tip: Don’t write content with the sole purpose of pissing people off. Because, rest assured, if you try that you WILL succeed and it won’t be pretty. If you’ve got a point to make – be sure it’s something you believe in and you feel needs to be said.

Your content needs to be valuable. Make your words make a difference. Because they can.

If you leave this article having gained something that will help you in some way, then I feel I have succeeded. I don’t need you to agree with me or disagree with me – I just want to get you thinking, considering, and coming up with your own solutions with what may be a new or fresh perspective. To me that is valuable. To me, that is a win.

You’ve got something you want to say. I know you do. It might not be mainstream, it might be a little edgy, and I am quite sure, whatever it is, it’s pretty damn scary. That’s the type of stuff people care about. Viral content goes viral because people care about it. You would never share anything you don’t care about.

Writing articles to give your opinion is the primary reason to create a blog so that you can share those opinions with the world. However, – this is going to hurt – your opinion doesn’t count for much. And frankly, neither does mine.

It’s the thoughts, the discussions, and the sharing of views that we generate which matters the most. If I could get one person to rethink the draft she’s about to throw in the trash because she thought it was “shit.” Then I’ve done my job. And if that draft becomes a second draft, then a third draft, and eventually turns into a published book – oh my!

And THAT is why I wrote the article without ever considering it would eventually be viewed and read over 2 million times, or that thousands of people around the world would share it with each other.

I’ve written many other articles which have had a similar effect, some have been shared far more, and some much-much less, and some have caused even greater ripples in the blogosphere. But get this, you’re a better writer than you realize and you have things to say you know are important too, so what are you waiting for?

Say what others are thinking, but aren’t saying. The scarier this idea is to you, the more likely you’re on to something.

Go create some ripples. I dare you.

Do you have a favorite blog about the craft? Great! Nominate it for the Best Writing Blogs Award for 2019.

The Annual Best Writing Blogs Award is my favorite event of the year and your involvement is paramount. The annual award post has reached millions of writers who have discovered fantastic new writing blogs to explore, bookmark, and subscribe to, so please do take a moment and nominate your personal favorite because it deserves to be recognized!

Here’s how to nominate your favorite writing blog:

• 1) Post a link to your favorite blog in the comments with a brief explanation as to why you’re nominating it.
• 2) You can nominate up to two blogs; however, please do not nominate any specific blog more than once yourself.

The more nominations a particular blog receives will give it the best chances of making the final list.

Bloggers can nominate their own blog; however, it will only count if at least one other person seconds the nomination.

Nominated blogs can be by multiple authors and can be about other topics, as long as writing is the main topic.

The final date for nominations is 31 Jan 2019.

Nominate your favorite, go!

What if you could make a living online? Would that interest you? It interested me, and that’s why I connected with Matt McWilliams, who is the go-to expert. Matt shared something with me that I want to share with you (with his permission, of course).

Are you a writer who yearns for a shot at the big time?

Do you dream of being in the spotlight – adored by a crowd of raving fans?

Are you looking for that one magic bullet that will make these dreams come true?

Friend, you’ve come to the right place.

Today’s post is by Positive Writer contributor, Frank  McKinley.