Singer/Songwriter Tom Waits was once asked why he used different instruments when he composed music.  Early in his career his music was mainly written with piano and guitar, but as his music progressed it became an eclectic blend of may different, and sometimes obscure, instruments (singing into a bullhorn, playing a saw).  He said that he stopped using the guitar and piano as much as he had in the past because he felt his hands were like old dogs - they wanted to keep hunting at the same old places.

It can be the same as a writer.

This violates one of the rules of being a writer - find a location that is your “writing spot.”   While that is great advice for building consistency in your writing, sometimes you need to find a new hunting ground.  The problem with too much consistency is that we are in a business that asks for creativity.  Even as an SEO writer there is a certain amount of creativity needed to craft an article.  I find that when I go to the same spot every time, and I look at the same surroundings every time, it tends to trigger the same thoughts and ideas.

Occasionally it is helpful to find a new spot to write from.  Pack up your laptop or your notebooks and head for the local coffee shop.  Go to the public library.  Find a nice picnic table in the park.  You’re not looking for a new home here; you will still return to your writing spot, but sometimes it’s good to chnge your surroundings even for a little while.  It’s amazing how a little change in locations can bring a big change to your creativity.

I have a few problems as a blogger.  First, I’m not necessarily patient.  I look at the work I put into a blog, and I want to see better results as far as ranking, traffic, and most importantly, income.  When results aren’t happening quickly enough I get frustrated.  That frustration can get in the way of writing.  It can become a chore to get past the “Why bother” stages, and force myself to crank out more posts.  Then something will happen to show that I’ve been on the right track, and everything gets back on track.

An example of that is my working to improve my blogs Page Rank.  I’ve written about building links as a way to improve your blogs position in the search engines, but I wasn’t seeing any results for my own link building efforts.  Over the past several days Google has been doing updates of Page Rankings, and this blog went from PR-0 to PR-3.

Another of my problems is that I am not a marathon runner, I’m more of a sprinter.  I tend to write in batches.  There is a lot of activity, then I slow way down while I try to catch my breath and get ready for the next sprint.  It makes it much harder to post with any kind of consistency when my writing habits are so inconsistent.  So my blogs tend to show a lot of posts in a relatively short period of time, then long stretches with very few posts.

I’ve written about setting up a writing schedule, but I’ve not made it an important enough priority to actually stay with it.  Well, I’m trying a gain.  You’ll be able to see the results for yourself.

I’d love to hear what it is you do to stay on track.

Too often it seems we tend to forget the past when we move on to something new.  Big mistake.

Yesterday I wrote a post at PureBlogging titled “Throwing the Baby Out with the Bath Water.”  The main gist was that we tend to abandon things that have worked in the past because something new comes along Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written in the past that traditional outlines don’t really work all that well for me. Even back when I was forced to use them in school, I found myself writing the paper, then going back and recreating the outline. So I don’t typically use outlines for the majority of my blog posts. I do, however, find that I need to at least get some thoughts down on paper before I begin writing. I’ve also found that I need to capture those thoughts when they first hit me, or chances are they will be gone forever. Read the rest of this entry »

The more I read about writing, the more I see that I’ve been doing it all wrong. Not that I’m thinking of changing. I’ve learned to embrace my wrong-ness.

Apparently, the way I’m supposed to write is to stat with an outline, compose a first draft, edit the draft, re-write, rinse and repeat as often as necessary. It seems I’ve managed to skip several steps in my attempt to charge toward a finished paper. My process is to jot down a few rough ideas, think about what I want to say related to my notes, then write my paper. I make a few corrections, run spell check, then out the door it goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes life seems to get in the way. Most bloggers aren’t fortunate enough to be able to do this for a living. For most of us, it is something we do after spending a full day making a living. The difficulty is, sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day to fit it all in.

A lot of jobs have seasons that are more busy than others. For instance, anyone working in the accounting industry is rapidly charging full speed ahead into tax preparation season. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I wrote about the importance of writing often in order to develop your voice, and to be able to write more naturally. However, there’s more to writing well that just writing a lot. There’s a saying that practice makes perfect, but practicing the wrong thing can make you perfectly wrong. Part of developing your writing skills is studying writing.

I’m always amazed when I read the job boards, how poorly some people to claim to be freelance writers actually write. Read the rest of this entry »