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How To Think Through Writer S Block
In his book, On Writing, Stephen King says, "We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and styleÂ…but as we move along, youÂ’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic." When something is really well-written we tend to think it was effortless for the writer, that it seems magical. We wonder, "Did that author ever have to deal with writer's block?" Yes, he or she probably did. Pretty much every writer does. But how do you work through a block when the inside of your brain feels so foggy? These tips will show you how to clear things up.
1.) Work Consistently
When I started my first novel I joined a class to help get me going. After it was over, I took a few more workshop sessions with the instructor, but when those ended all my work ground to a complete halt. Why? Because from then I was only working on the book a day or two a week, mostly on weekends. If I got stuck that meant I wouldn't write for two or even three weeks. Then I went out and got a place to write. I committed myself to going there 3-4 times a week to work on my book. Suddenly the writing got easier! I thought it was because I was putting in more time--and that's partly true--working consistently helps to build momentum. But that wasn't the whole answer. Here's the rest: I was thinking about the book all the time! Which means...
2.) Don't Leave Your Book on the Desk
When I started working consistently I found that I was still thinking about my character and plot issues when I went home at night on the subway. That thinking continued in the shower the next day and on the streets as I walked to work. Once I was flying to Cleveland to visit my family and during the flight I figured out the answer to the problem I was having with a flashboack in my novel.
So write at your desk and do your figuring out everywhere else throughout your day. Ideally you are thinking about your book while you drive, while you shower, while you watch a baseball game. In fact, Stephen King has said he has worked through a chapter or two in his head while at Fenway Park watching the Boston Red Sox. When you think about your book away from the desk, it ensures you'll have something to write when you get back to your desk.
3.) Ask Yourself Lots of Questions
Okay, you might be asking, "What am I supposed to be thinking about?" Your book, of course, but I understand how difficult it is to just have generalities floating around in your head competing with all the media we're flooded with already. To focus your thinking, ask yourself a series of questions related to the issues you're stuck on.
For instance, "What story or incident can I create to best highlight my character's strength and/or weakness?" Possible answer: a party where most of the guests snubbed my character's party which took place few weeks earlier. "How would my character be responsible for that situation?" Maybe she told a secret and everyone is upset with her because of it. "What behavior will my character display that will reveal her true essence to the reader?" Maybe she quietly vandalizes people's belongings throughout the evening, ripping coats in the closet, "accidentally" breaking glasses, spilling drinks on someone's designer dress. You can keep going that way, with each question leading you further down the path until you complete a picture in your head of what you want to write when you sit down again. No more writer's block!
4.) Remember Why You're Writing
When you do get stuck, it helps to remember why you're working on the project in the first place. As I mentioned before, I got stalled many times working on my first novel. But I was motivated by several things including my sincere desire to be a published author and my devotion and commitment to my characters. (Once, when going through a period of non-writing, I had a dream where the main character of my book was screaming at me--I knew it was time to get back to work!)
So, why are you writing? And is the reason powerful enough to make you do what it takes to get through the difficult times of the writing process? If it's not, perhaps you need to re-think your reasons and your project. But if your motivation is strong, go with it and allow that sheer force to help you break down the walls in your work.
© 2005 Sophfronia Scott
BONUS : How To Top Google By Writing Articles
Search engines determine their rankings based on two things:
1) Is your site relevant? (Optimized for certain keywords)
2) Is your site important? (Many links back to your site from other sites)
Only when you address both of these considerations are you guaranteed of making an impact. Your degree of success depends on how hard you try and how many other people you're competing against (and how hard they're trying).
Optimizing your site for keywords is the easy part. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm for more information on SEO copy.) Generating links back to your site is much more challenging – and time consuming (especially considering Google’s dampening link filter – see http://www.divinewrite.com/googlelinkfilter.htm). But it can be done; and you don’t need a huge budget.
The key to topping Google on a budget is writing articles.
HereÂ’s how it worksÂ…
STEP 1) YouÂ’re an expert in your field so you possess knowledge that other people want.
STEP 2) You write a helpful article – sharing your hard-earned knowledge and expertise.
STEP 3) You submit your article to recognized “Article Submit” sites on the Internet.
STEP 4) Publishers of online newsletters, ezines, etc. gather content from these sites for free.
STEP 5) Helpful, well written articles are snapped up by thousands of publishers from all around the world.
STEP 6) The only condition is that they must publish the article with a functioning link to your site.
STEP 7) 300 people publish your article – you get 300 links back to your site.
Below are some FAQs about article writing that will help you write your articles and manage your campaign.
Q) What should I write about?
A) Write about what you know. Make sure itÂ’s related to your business (so you can use the keywords you want to rank with) and helpful (so it gets published). For example, if youÂ’re a manufacturer of industrial plastics, you might write an article - or series of articles - on how best to handle teflon tubing prior to installation. Once you get thinking about it, you'll probably find there are hundreds of articles you could write that are helpful. You may even have some of them partly written already in your instruction manuals or installation guides, etc. Another good idea is to think of all the questions you get asked by customers and potential customers. These questions show you what people are interested in. If you write an article answering every one of these questions, you'll get published, and you'll also show yourself to be a credible expert. (You may even cut down phone support time!)
Q) How long should my article be?
A) The best articles are only as long as they need to be. Keep it short and sweet – there’s nothing wrong with a 400 word article. By the same token, if you need 1500 words to say all you need to say, that’s fine as well.
Q) What kind of writing should I use?
A) Simply write in a style that your audience will be comfortable with. If they’re from the old school, don’t write like I am. Don’t use contractions, don’t end sentences with prepositions, and don’t start sentences with “and” or “but”. But if they’re not old school, just use conversational English. In fact, the more of yourself you include in the article, the more engaging it will be. The key is to make it readable.
Q) Should I focus on keywords?
A) Yes! Yes! Yes! Any SEO website copywriter will tell you that just as you need to optimize your website for specific keywords, so too should you optimize your articles. If possible, turn keywords into links back to your site. And always try to include keywords in the headline and byline of your article. And donÂ’t worry about being seen as Spam; if your article provides good quality information and guidance, it won't be seen as spam by the search engines even when itÂ’s very keyword rich.
Q) Where should I submit my article?
A) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of submit sites on the Internet. Too many to include here. Do a search for “article submit” and just find the ones that are most applicable to your industry and offer the most subscribers. Alternatively, you can purchase a list.
Q) Who will publish my article?
A) Generally people publish pre-written articles because they want “eyes on paper”. In other words, they want to generate traffic to their site. Helpful articles are one way of doing that. It also sets them up as credible authorities on a particular subject. And it develops customer loyalty. There are hundreds of thousands of companies (maybe even millions) publishing online newsletters, ezines, and article pages. No matter what your industry, you’re bound to find quite a few who are interested in what you have to say. In fact, once a few publishers recognise you as a good source of content, they keep coming back looking for more (and even email you asking if you can send them directly).
Q) How will I know when my article has been published?
A) As one of the conditions of publications, you can request that the publisher notifies you when they use your article. Of course, most donÂ’t bother to do this, so it's a good idea to set up a Google Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) which notifies you when your URL has been published on a web page. Google doesn't pick them all up, but it picks up a lot. Whenever you receive an alert, you make sure the article in unchanged and the link back to your site is functioning.
Q) Will the publisher change my article?
A) No, generally not. Changing articles is just extra work. In fact, that’s why publishers like good articles and consistent content providers – because that means they don’t have to do any extra work. I’ve had many articles published, and don’t recall a single instance of an article being changed without my permission. If you’re worried about it, you can include an instruction not to change the article in your conditions of publication.
Q) Can I get an SEO copywriter to write and submit my articles?
A) Yes. Any SEO copywriter should be able to write keyword rich articles and submit them to a number of high traffic article submit sites.
Q) What kind of information would I need to supply an SEO copywriter to write my article?
A) YouÂ’d need to tell your SEO copywriter something like, "We want to write an article which helps people install teflon tubing. The kinds of people who'd be doing it are... They'd be doing it because... The benefits of our tubing are... The difficulties they'd face are... Here are the key steps to successful installation..." Using this information, your SEO copywriter should be able to put together a very readable article which would be bound to get published.
Q) Will my reputation suffer if my article appears on a dodgy site?
A) It shouldn’t. Most dodgy sites will be either unrelated or have very low traffic. If the site is unrelated, the publisher won’t go to the effort of publishing your article. If it’s related but has very low traffic, very few people will see your article there anyway. And besides, even if your article appears on a dodgy site, it probably won’t be changed because – dodgy or not – publishers don’t create extra work for themselves. So your original presentation, content, and intent will be unaffected. Write a good article, and it always reflects well on you, no matter where it's published.
Q) How long will it take for my ranking to increase?
A) There are no guarantees in SEO. It all takes time. For a start, the search engines can take up to 2 months to update their index of pages. And a single inbound link generally won’t have much impact. Depending on how much competition you’re facing for keywords, and where the links are coming from, 100 inbound links may not make much of a difference. (Links from high PageRank sites are more beneficial to your ranking – see http://www.divinewrite.com/seotradesecrets.htm for more information on PR.) So don’t expect anything to happen too quickly. But if you’re dedicated, and you’re prepared to write quite a few articles, you’ll definitely see results within a few months.
Happy writing!
Search engines determine their rankings based on two things:
1) Is your site relevant? (Optimized for certain keywords)
2) Is your site important? (Many links back to your site from other sites)
Only when you address both of these considerations are you guaranteed of making an impact. Your degree of success depends on how hard you try and how many other people you're competing against (and how hard they're trying).
Optimizing your site for keywords is the easy part. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm for more information on SEO copy.) Generating links back to your site is much more challenging – and time consuming (especially considering Google’s dampening link filter – see http://www.divinewrite.com/googlelinkfilter.htm). But it can be done; and you don’t need a huge budget.
The key to topping Google on a budget is writing articles.
HereÂ’s how it worksÂ…
STEP 1) YouÂ’re an expert in your field so you possess knowledge that other people want.
STEP 2) You write a helpful article – sharing your hard-earned knowledge and expertise.
STEP 3) You submit your article to recognized “Article Submit” sites on the Internet.
STEP 4) Publishers of online newsletters, ezines, etc. gather content from these sites for free.
STEP 5) Helpful, well written articles are snapped up by thousands of publishers from all around the world.
STEP 6) The only condition is that they must publish the article with a functioning link to your site.
STEP 7) 300 people publish your article – you get 300 links back to your site.
Below are some FAQs about article writing that will help you write your articles and manage your campaign.
Q) What should I write about?
A) Write about what you know. Make sure itÂ’s related to your business (so you can use the keywords you want to rank with) and helpful (so it gets published). For example, if youÂ’re a manufacturer of industrial plastics, you might write an article - or series of articles - on how best to handle teflon tubing prior to installation. Once you get thinking about it, you'll probably find there are hundreds of articles you could write that are helpful. You may even have some of them partly written already in your instruction manuals or installation guides, etc. Another good idea is to think of all the questions you get asked by customers and potential customers. These questions show you what people are interested in. If you write an article answering every one of these questions, you'll get published, and you'll also show yourself to be a credible expert. (You may even cut down phone support time!)
Q) How long should my article be?
A) The best articles are only as long as they need to be. Keep it short and sweet – there’s nothing wrong with a 400 word article. By the same token, if you need 1500 words to say all you need to say, that’s fine as well.
Q) What kind of writing should I use?
A) Simply write in a style that your audience will be comfortable with. If they’re from the old school, don’t write like I am. Don’t use contractions, don’t end sentences with prepositions, and don’t start sentences with “and” or “but”. But if they’re not old school, just use conversational English. In fact, the more of yourself you include in the article, the more engaging it will be. The key is to make it readable.
Q) Should I focus on keywords?
A) Yes! Yes! Yes! Any SEO website copywriter will tell you that just as you need to optimize your website for specific keywords, so too should you optimize your articles. If possible, turn keywords into links back to your site. And always try to include keywords in the headline and byline of your article. And donÂ’t worry about being seen as Spam; if your article provides good quality information and guidance, it won't be seen as spam by the search engines even when itÂ’s very keyword rich.
Q) Where should I submit my article?
A) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of submit sites on the Internet. Too many to include here. Do a search for “article submit” and just find the ones that are most applicable to your industry and offer the most subscribers. Alternatively, you can purchase a list.
Q) Who will publish my article?
A) Generally people publish pre-written articles because they want “eyes on paper”. In other words, they want to generate traffic to their site. Helpful articles are one way of doing that. It also sets them up as credible authorities on a particular subject. And it develops customer loyalty. There are hundreds of thousands of companies (maybe even millions) publishing online newsletters, ezines, and article pages. No matter what your industry, you’re bound to find quite a few who are interested in what you have to say. In fact, once a few publishers recognise you as a good source of content, they keep coming back looking for more (and even email you asking if you can send them directly).
Q) How will I know when my article has been published?
A) As one of the conditions of publications, you can request that the publisher notifies you when they use your article. Of course, most donÂ’t bother to do this, so it's a good idea to set up a Google Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) which notifies you when your URL has been published on a web page. Google doesn't pick them all up, but it picks up a lot. Whenever you receive an alert, you make sure the article in unchanged and the link back to your site is functioning.
Q) Will the publisher change my article?
A) No, generally not. Changing articles is just extra work. In fact, that’s why publishers like good articles and consistent content providers – because that means they don’t have to do any extra work. I’ve had many articles published, and don’t recall a single instance of an article being changed without my permission. If you’re worried about it, you can include an instruction not to change the article in your conditions of publication.
Q) Can I get an SEO copywriter to write and submit my articles?
A) Yes. Any SEO copywriter should be able to write keyword rich articles and submit them to a number of high traffic article submit sites.
Q) What kind of information would I need to supply an SEO copywriter to write my article?
A) YouÂ’d need to tell your SEO copywriter something like, "We want to write an article which helps people install teflon tubing. The kinds of people who'd be doing it are... They'd be doing it because... The benefits of our tubing are... The difficulties they'd face are... Here are the key steps to successful installation..." Using this information, your SEO copywriter should be able to put together a very readable article which would be bound to get published.
Q) Will my reputation suffer if my article appears on a dodgy site?
A) It shouldn’t. Most dodgy sites will be either unrelated or have very low traffic. If the site is unrelated, the publisher won’t go to the effort of publishing your article. If it’s related but has very low traffic, very few people will see your article there anyway. And besides, even if your article appears on a dodgy site, it probably won’t be changed because – dodgy or not – publishers don’t create extra work for themselves. So your original presentation, content, and intent will be unaffected. Write a good article, and it always reflects well on you, no matter where it's published.
Q) How long will it take for my ranking to increase?
A) There are no guarantees in SEO. It all takes time. For a start, the search engines can take up to 2 months to update their index of pages. And a single inbound link generally won’t have much impact. Depending on how much competition you’re facing for keywords, and where the links are coming from, 100 inbound links may not make much of a difference. (Links from high PageRank sites are more beneficial to your ranking – see http://www.divinewrite.com/seotradesecrets.htm for more information on PR.) So don’t expect anything to happen too quickly. But if you’re dedicated, and you’re prepared to write quite a few articles, you’ll definitely see results within a few months.
Happy writing!
