Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies
Want to improve your writing? Master a new hobby.
Leo Tolstoy played chess. Ayn Rand collected stamps. Other famous writers liked to take a break from writing to play a round of golf or try a new recipe or paint with watercolors.
These hobbies not only gave them new experiences to write about but also helped them develop skills that made them better writers.
Once upon a time, the typewriter was the only piece of technology a writer had to make his work easier. Now we not only have computers, but we can also access an endless array of useful writing tools on the Internet. Best of all, many of these web applications are absolutely free!
But it takes time to hunt down these apps (time you could be spending on writing), so I’ve done the work for you and put together a list of my favorites. Read on to discover 15 of the best free web applications for writers.
A story idea suddenly appears in your head with a complete beginning, middle, and end. You sit down to write, and the words flow freely. It’s as if the story is typing itself.
How often do you experience that kind of burst of incredible inspiration?
I’m guessing that probably doesn’t happen to you very often. (If it does, I am incredibly envious of your superpower.)
However, for the majority of us writers, the Muse is more like a grouchy hibernating bear who refuses to leave its cave. If we wait for her to drop in on us before we start writing, we probably would only end up with a handful of words every year.
In Jack London’s 1905 essay on how to become a published writer, he wisely observed, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”
London believed that writing daily was the best way to rouse the sleeping Muse. He advised in his essay, “Set yourself a ‘stint,’ and see that you do that ‘stint’ each day; you will have more words to your credit at the end of the year.”
However, implementing a daily writing habit is hard work, and even when we show up at the computer, the words might still refuse to come.
We need a way to lure the Muse out of the cave, and one of the best ways to do that is with a writing ritual. Read on to discover how several famous writers used writing rituals to spark inspiration and how you too can design a powerful writing ritual to achieve your daily writing goals. [Read more…]
If you’re like most writers, you probably spend a big part of your day seated at your desk in front of a computer.
There are stories and blog posts to write, comments to reply to, emails to send, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts to update, articles to Tweet, and the list goes on. If we’re not careful, we can easily fall into the trap of staring at a computer screen for hours.
And that’s not only detrimental to our health but also detrimental to our creativity.
Science fiction writer Orson Scott Card observes, “Take care of your body. Writing is a sedentary business; it’s easy for many of us to get fat and sluggish. Your brain is attached to the rest of your body. You can’t do your best work when you’re weak or in ill health.”
Card’s solution? A daily walk. He writes, “It’s worth the time to take an hour’s walk before writing. You may write a bit less for the time spent, but you may find that you write better.”
Card isn’t the only writer who lauded the benefits of walking. Read on to discover several of the famous writers who were also walkers and how a daily walk can boost your creativity.
Do you struggle with fear as a writer?
Fear that your writing isn’t good enough? That people will criticize what you write? That you’ll write one good story and then never be able to write anything else?
Fears like these can feel overwhelming and make you think that maybe you should just give up on writing. It’s easy to imagine that the greatest writers confidently showed up each day at their typewriters, words flowing effortlessly from their fingers.
But that’s not true. Even the greatest writers are not immune to fear and self-doubt.
Nobel laureate John Steinbeck was one famous writer who wrestled with insecurity and severe anxiety throughout his entire writing career. But he didn’t let those fears defeat him.
Read on to discover his invaluable advice for how to confront your writing fears.