Writer's Block? No Try Perfectionism!

Writer's block the bane of all creative people. Yes we have all experienced it and wondered why it is happening to us at such a critical time in our project?

Of course I am a writer so I am talking about "Writer's Block", but I have noticed my wife who quilts and paints also suffers from the same malady, so I am using it as a generic term that can be applied to any and all artists who seem to have hit a roadblock in their creative project.

But does "Writer's Block" really exist or is it a symptom of something bigger and more ominous?

What exactly happens during these periods? Well as for me, it seems that I just can't seem to get anything down on paper (er I mean computer screen) and I have this vast feeling of inadequacy. It is as if I feel that I have lost the will to write. Also it seems that everyone else in the world is doing fine, but I just can't seem to please anyone, and what's the use anyway. I am sure all of you sometime or another has felt this way, but we all overcome it sooner or later, or we give up all together.

But what, if anything, is the root cause? Are we really inadequate? Can we ever write (paint, sculpt etc) again? What can we do to overcome this problem?

Well the answer to the second question is a definite NO. The answer to the third question is depends upon how we deal with the problem and if we really want to create again. The first and fourth questions deserve more scrutiny.

What is the root cause of "Writer's Block"? Simple it's just plain old "Perfectionism". Yes we try so hard to please others and we don't really stay true to ourselves. We try to come up with that "perfect" phrase, word, idea that will wow the public that we forget why we are writing in the first place. For when we try too hard, we tend to force things and that is when the quality of our work suffers. The public knows it, and so do we. In fact because of the drive to perfectionism, we start to feel that we don't measure up. We get the feelings of inadequacy, and then we just stop. We are frozen in our terror of self-doubt and over-thinking ourselves. You see this all the time in the world of sports or other competitions. A competitor or player who definitely has talent all of a sudden appears to have forgotten what they are doing and "chokes". Does that ring a bell? Of course it does because that is what happens to us when we are overcome by "Writer's Block". Just as the competitor tries to compete in a "perfect" manner, we try to write in a perfect way.

Ah great you say, but what can be one about it? Is there a cure? Yes to both questions. There is a simple and easy answer. Easy in the sense that it is obvious, but difficult to put into operation if you can't get your mind around it.

Write, create, "just do it", "git 'r dun", whatever phrase you want to use, just get out there and write (paint, sculpt, etc). Sure you may not write a masterpiece, but the action you are doing will give you confidence you need to continue on. You might even surprise yourself at what you have created. Taking action is what overcomes this fear, and after all that is what perfectionism is, just a fear of not being good enough. But guess what, nobody is perfect and one can't be perfect all the time. Let yourself be "almost good enough", and you will find that what you produce is fantastic.

I have more to say, but I just can't think of it at the moment....

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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Need a Killer Plot? Try This!

It is said that there are just three basic plots you have to work with in your writing. These plots can be multiplied to create another 10, 20, 30 but these are only variations on the basic ones. But actually there is just one real killer plot. master this and you will on your way to success in writing your novel.

If you look on the shelves at bookstores (or online databases) the basic plots are man/woman vs. a machine, or man/woman vs. mother nature, or man/woman vs. himself/herself and so on. Of course there are a lot of books that offer variations on those themes and that’s where you get into the large numbers of variations of plots.

But no matter how many plots the publishers say they love, it often always boils down to one killer plot: The Quest.

No matter what genre of fiction you’re publishing, readers and publishers love The Quest. The entire story should be devoted, directly or indirectly, to the protagonist achieving their goal by going on a quest. That’s where all the interesting stuff should take place.

The quest could be anything. It doesn't have to be traveling to far off lands to slay dragons, (though it could). It could be a psychological thriller where the hero/heroine is trying to fight off their inner demons.

Of course it does need to be an interesting quest, and a worthwhile goal. Just running down to the corner fast food joint to get a hamburger, fries and a pop might be a quest, but there is no real interest here as it is accomplished without true conflict.

However if you add a bit of conflict or obstacles that our protagonist has to overcome, say a band of gypsies come and kidnap him/her and take him to another country and now he/she has to make it back home before dinner time. Now you have a story, okay a bit far fetched, but still there is a quest here.

The idea is to present the character, the goal and the obstacles early to build interest. But don't give too much away, just enough.

Ideally, the goal should grow into something so important that the future of the world hinges on its achievement and there is the risking of life and limb in the exchange. But again not always when we are dealing with our inner quests.

It is important to identify the motivation, he why of the goal. What is the reason for this quest? Bettering oneself? Finding out where the gypsies keep their gold? The best hamburgers in the world? It can start out simple enough, like doing someone a favor, etc. But the motivation better grow, become important and all consuming and fast. Remember, the world hinges on the achievement. The motivation, the goal and the quest all grow in size as the story progresses.

Next of course comes the quest itself, whether it is scaling mountains to capture the evil scientist and rescue the world, or to overcome drug abuse make it as detailed as possible so we feel the protagonist's pain, frustration, elation and joy during the struggle.

So when writing fiction, follow the quest strategy for plot development. It’s almost always a sure-fire winner.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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Using Time As Your Will Writing Ally

When you sit down to write there are two powerful time tools you can call upon: the obsession and the deadline. Both are useful and if used right they will help you get the kind of results you want. However each should be used at different times and for different occasions. If you do use them, you’re almost guaranteed you’ll never have any problem writing that book of yours and more than likely in record time. But if you're new to writing and you’re just learning how to write a book you may not be as familiar with them as you’d like, and not know how or when to use them correctly and to your advantage. Here’s some tips on how using them and the amazing results you can expect to get with each.

First there's “The Obsession”. This has nothing to do with some muse sitting on your shoulder or the mythical wonder of inspiration. Let's say that several months ago, just for a fleeting second or two, a thought popped into your head that you’d decided to write a book about it someday. Perhaps you had the topic or story idea all fleshed out in your mind and you knew exactly what you wanted to say.

And then, POOF, the moment was gone. Just like that.

Then a few weeks later, out of the blue, the thought to write a book came back but this time it lingered for a minute or so. A month after that, it was a 15- 20-minute daydream. Now it has become all you can think of. You’re driven by who knows what, but when you wake in the morning, it’s on your mind, and it stays there even after you fall asleep, haunting your dreams. This is the obsession of writing your book you need.

The result of this process is almost magical. One day you’ll sit down and you’ll arise, refreshed, a few days later, with your entire book completed.

How do you bring this obsession about? It’s not difficult. After you’ve finished reading this article, just think about the book you want to write, if only for a few seconds. Write it down on a scrap of paper or even better a “to-do list”. Tomorrow, remind yourself to do the same. As well as the day after that, and the day after that.

Each time, think about your book for a longer and longer period. After just a few days, you’ll start to see that the thoughts are coming by themselves, now. And you’re giving them more and more time.

Don’t write, just think. Watch as the thoughts become an interest, the interest into a passion and the passion into an obsession.

This is the kind of technique I hear about when other writers tell me they couldn’t believe it but they just sat down and before they knew it, the book was writing itself and without thinking about it, it was nearly half done, or even completely done.

Now on to the deadline for writing your book. Here’s the logic behind this strategy. If you give someone all the time in the world to do something, how long does it usually take them? That’s right, all the time in the world.

Giving yourself until next week to accomplish something is a good start, but I’ve learned that the shorter the deadline, the more impending the goal, the easier it will be to accomplish that goal.

So, instead of saying that you’ve got to finish your book in a few weeks, or this chapter in three days, I tell myself that I have an immediate deadline of five minutes to produce 200 words. I’ll be able to master that only if I have a substantial blueprint for my book, and if I write (er.. type) as quickly as I physically can. If you write 200 words in five minutes, you’ve got a 10-page chapter in just 75 minutes of writing. That’s progress.

Start using time as you’re ally, rather than your enemy. If you can master either of these techniques, you can write your book faster than you ever thought possible. If you get control of the time factor you will make it happen if you let yourself.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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Writing Historical Fiction - George Washington Slept Where?

Ah as fiction readers and writers we all dream of far off exotic lands, interesting places and scenarios to explore, and fascinating people who live more exciting lives than we do (I am not sure but I don't think I ever read about James Bond sitting in his PJ's eating pizza at his computer, er.. not that I ever do...). Some even dream of far away times, whether as a science fiction writer one thinks of the future, or one thinks of past times. I know my wife loves reading about the middle ages. Me, I prefer the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Whatever time period, past, present or future, is your favorite or preference, you find many stories written about each period.

Of the three time periods, writing historical fiction is probably the hardest . For present day issues you can just write about the world around you. For futuristic science fiction and fantasy, well you make up the world and its rules. But when writing about the past, one has to be very careful and make sure you do your research.

Some questions you need to answer are:

• What and how did people eat back in your period?
• What did they wear?
• How did they get their goods?
• How long does it take to travel 5, 10, 100 miles?
• What were the social customs?
• What were the trends of the day?
• What were the major news stories of the day?
• What kind of houses, how did they heat them and how many to a room?
• What were the houses made of?
• And so on and so forth.

You see you have to be careful not to imbue your characters with modern day values or thoughts. True most of human nature hasn't changed over the last few million years, but our attitudes and how we believed the world to be was different even 25 years ago compared to today (Inter what? World Wide What?, yes I remember time before the internet PC's and GUIs, how did we ever survive back then?). People who read historical fiction know about and are interested in the period you will be writing about. And they tend to be very knowledgeable and if you try and pull a fast one, well they will suss you out and throw your book away, very fast. So do your research.

Be very careful when writing abut historical figures as well. You can't be making up new stories about them as you might end up being sued for libel (yes it seems even the dead have rights these days) by their heirs or historical societies. The best thing to do is create your own character who might have known the person, or served with them etc. They can have some interaction with the historical character, but no new made up deep dark secrets should be invented. Events can be used, but again be sure to stick to the facts, just stretch the behind the scenes, you just add thoughts of your character who was there, but not necessarily a major player in the history books.

What genre works with historical fiction? Well just about any if you really think about it. You can have a detective investigating the Boston Tea Party, or maybe a romance aboard the Lusitania, or maybe an adventure with the Crusaders, or a student of Leonardo Da Vinci's. Maybe even write a story, and go back and change a few tidbits here and there, and all of a sudden you are in the 18th Century court of the Czar of Russia! The ideas are endless, and only hampered by your imagination. Just get your facts right and you can do anything.

All in all writing historical fiction is a fun escape to a bygone era, one where you can wonder what it was like to be in a simpler time. Get it right and you can find unbridled success. Just be sure to take care and do your research or the readers will skewer your work.

Mahalo.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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Recycling Your Content For Profit

The information age is wonderful in that it is easy to create information to share with others. But once you create all this wonderful information what can you do to make a profit with it? Well if the content you develop is of good quality you can always sell your content for profit. Here are a few ways to increase profits by selling your content

1. Repackage your web site content in to different products to sell. You could create speeches, audio books, classes, and video tapes with your content.

2. Divide your content up and use it for promotional articles. You could submit them to other web sites or ezines for publicity. Just add your resource box.

3. Allow people to link to your web site's content. This is a fast way to get hundreds of people linking to your web site.

4. Add to your content and create an ebook to sell. You don't want to sell your free content, but if you add to it you can. It's an extra profit stream.

5. Compile it into a free ebook. You could submit it to free ebook directories. Use it as a bonus for when people subscribe to your ezine.

6. Use your free content as a lead in product for your fee based content or private site. Just allow them the option of up grading to the paid version.

7. Place it on follow-up autoresponders from your web site. This is a great way to remind people to come back and revisit your web site.

8. Create a free bonus out of your content for your main product. When you add new content, remove the old content and create a bonus product with it.

9. Use the content to create a press release. This works well if you need extra information for your press release announcement.

10. Trade content with other web sites. It will give you the chance to get new content and promote your web site at the same time.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your marketing and sales efforts as you learn to live the champagne life on a beer budget. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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For environmentally smart resources to help you with your Online Business check out

http://www.renspubhouse.netii.net/products.html

Fast easy resources to help you with your marketing, save a tree by not wasting paper, be environmentally correct and have some fun and learn something to boot!

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How To Profit From Twitter Without Really Trying

Do you want to know how to obtain joint ventures, meet people you can produce products with, get people to promote your products and jump start your business for low to no cost to you? Well how about Twitter? And you can do all of this now, even if you don't know anyone to start, even if you don't have any sort of list to begin with, even if you're a newbie, even if you're a Mac or Linux user, even if you can't attend seminars, even if ...., well you get the drift, anyone can do this.

 You're hearing about it everywhere these days, but do you really know how to get started using it? If you use twitter properly, you can:

 * Meet people who have lists and can promote your product.
 * Meet people who have the know how to move your business forward.
 * Connect with people like you, so you don't have that feeling you're in this all alone.
 * Avoid the bickering, arguing junk that goes on in forums.

 One thing I hate about forums is a few people post all the time and become power brokers, even if they're obnoxious, don't have any clue what they're doing and so forth. Forums also attract a lot of negativity. Twitter is a totally different and refreshing experience.

 So what are some the best tips on getting the most out of Twitter?
 1. Sign up at Twitter.com
 2. Keep the negative junk off Twitter - Don't use Twitter to try to get that refund or resolve disputes. The purpose is marketing. Use it to bring positive energy and meet people.
 3. Follow people who are in your niche.- Go to Twitter.com. Click on "find people." Type in names of people who write blogs in your niche, who have affiliate products and who are influencers.
 4. Make friends - Do NOT go onto Twitter pitching people. Make friends. Be a sociable person.
 5. Learn the art of the RT - RT stands for "retweet". There's a little icon that says RT. When you retweet someone's message, you're passing it on so the people on your list can see it. This is the ultimate form of sharing.
6. Observe for a week - Spend a week or so just watching others and learning what happens on Twitter before you jump in head over heels.
7. Share your positive energy -I said this before. But I'm going to repeat. Positive energy attracts other positive people.
8. Give first - Do NOT ask people to promote you or your product. GIVE first. Offer to promote THEM!
9. If someone really annoys you, you can go to twitter.com, find their name and on the right side is link where you can block them.
10. Offer viral ebooks and reports on Twitter. - Instead of blatantly promoting your product, it's better to offer a little report or ebook with a decent chance of others retweeting it.
11. When you run across a cool web site or resource tweet it to your list.
12. Go out of your way to promote others to your Twitter list. They'll reciprocate some time in some way.
13. When you find a good blog post on someone's blog, pass it along to your Twitter list.
14. Learn to Twitter on your iPhone or cell. Yes, you can do that too.
15. Understand that in the big picture your goal is to find people who have lists and can promote your products then make friends with 'em.
16. Inspire others to go for it and pursue what they know they should pursue but don't have the courage to do it. Be a cheerleader for people's highest and best interests.
17. Use Twitter strategically to meet and network with list owners.

 Do NOT end up twittering away time you really should be using to create products or do other promotions. No one really cares what you eat, when you have to go to the bathroom, etc.

 Use Twitter. Don't let it use you.

 Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your marketing and sales efforts as you learn to live the champagne life on a beer budget. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you. 

Mahalo.

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For environmentally smart resources to help you with your Online Business check out http://www.renspubhouse.netii.net/products.html Fast easy resources to help you with your marketing, save a tree by not wasting paper, be environmentally correct and have some fun and learn something to boot!
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What Should I Write?

What should I write? That is a question all new writers ask themselves. In fact this is one of the most difficult questions to answer.

The quick and dirty answer is of course "Whatever I Darn Well Please!" (I try to keep it on a PG level ;^D). But the real answer is a bit more complicated and needs to be looked at on various levels.

First of all it depends whether you are writing for yourself or for others. That is are you writing for yourself or are you writing on spec for others (i.e. an assigned article, book, SOP or manual for a business or product). If you are writing on spec for others then, well it is spelled out what and how you need to write. However if you are writing for yourself, then this is the article for you.

Then you need to determine what you like to read. As you read, ask yourself:

What is it about those books that you like?
Is there anything you feel you could do better?
Did you wish it ended differently?
How would you have liked the characters to interact?

These are just examples of the questions that should be going through your mind. If they do, congratulations you have found your forte, the almighty genre you've been looking for.

But wait, what if you find yourself doing this to two different genres? Well you are in luck, because having a choice is always a good option to have. The trick here is to write out stories in each one. Whichever one you find yourself writing more, and interesting stories, well that's where your true interest lies.

The thing is there is no "right answer" to the main question, you just need to follow your heart and see where it leads. Never write something just because it seems to be the current fad. If you do this and you aren't really interested in the subject, your writing will be dry, uninteresting and flat. Its like the bad book you read, the bad movie or play you see where the actors just seem to be going through the motions. Yes a lot of these do make it out to the public, but you don't have to contribute to the flotsam and jetsam of the art world.

Follow your heart, readers will know.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.



Mahalo.



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For environmentally smart resources to help you with your Online Business check out

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Fast easy resources to help you with your marketing, save a tree by not wasting paper, be environmentally correct and have some fun and learn something to boot!

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