By Justin Dixon of A little Better

Every year it gets easier to start a blog, and as this ease brings more blogs into the picture it becomes more important to set yourself apart. But with so many blogs already out there, and so many ideas already being put in to action, aren’t all the good ideas taken? The answer is no. Each one of us has a unique experience, and angle to come at different problems, and each one of us have a different strength set. You have a message. You may even have multiple messages, the trick is to figure out what they are.

No matter why you are starting your blog if you want to bring people to it, and if you want it to be the best quality that you can produce you are going to need a message. So what is your message? Your message is the story that you tell people about your own life and theirs. It is a consistent message and it is your brand, and without a strong message your blog is going to just end up being a raindrop lost in the ocean.

The first thing you need to know is what you expect to get out of your writing.

Are you doing this for fun? Would you like to turn it into a business? How much do you want your blog to grow? Is there a certain audience would like to connect with? These are the questions you need to ask yourself before your going to have a clear idea of what direction to even start moving in.

So pull out a piece of paper or open a text document because we are going to find your message by answering a few questions. While answering these write down as many things as you can think of. The more things you can put on this list the better, and feel free to add to it as you come up with more ideas.

What excites you most to think and talk about? You are going to need passion to write consistently and you are going to need something that excites you before you can get someone else excited about it. The best part is that if you are excited about something excitement and passion are very contagious.

What type of people do you want to build a connection with? Is there an age group? What do these people have in common? Why do you want to connect with them? Be as detailed as possible, the more specific the better. Try to think from their perspective. This is going to be your target audience, so it needs to be somebody that you can relate to, and think like. It is okay to have more than one type of audience to aim at, but you are going to want to try to aim at one type at a time, unless you can find a broad connection between the different groups.

What type of problems does your target audience have? There is no problem too big or small. Even just relieving boredom is a problem that some groups of people need solved, and changing the world can only be done if somebody tries.

Make a list of what you are good at. What major and minor accomplishments have you completed in your life? If you have troubles coming up with answers than go ask friends and family, what they say you are good at.

How did you achieve each accomplishment?

What type of things do you like to read?

What have been the most important things you have been told in your life?

What have been your favorite things to write about in the past?

Once you have all that down its time to start going over the data. What you are looking for is a common theme. Pay particular attention to the problems that your audience needs solved. What out of the things that you enjoy reading, and writing makes you unique? Is there a need for your audience that is not being addressed, or at least not completely addressed? Is there a particular approach that has helped you that is not talked about often enough? How many things can you apply this information to? This is where you are going to find your message so write out a few sentences, they don’t have to be perfect, just put down as many as you need to. How many relationships can you find between the ideas that you are writing down?

Summarize. Try to put these relationships into a short sentence. Sum it up in as few words as possible. Keep going over this again and again until you find something that makes you pause. If you get more than one idea that’s great you can save extra ideas for later on down the road, but for now pick out the idea that has the most meaning to you.

How few words can you sum up your point of focus in to. What you want to do is come up with a URL idea out of that idea. The next step is to do a search and see if that name is available to be bought. If its not available don’t worry, you can still rephrase it, and you have other ideas written down. If your site name is taken see if you can take a look to see if they are leaving anything off that you would want to do. You can focus on that difference, and rather than see them as an opponent look at this person as someone who could help you spread your message. After all something from your message will probably resonate with them too.

You can check back to your list any time you want, and add to it as you come up with new ideas, and accomplish new things. So now not only do you have a message to focus on and grow with but you have options to switch to if your first idea goes bust. Just make sure that you give it your fullest try before you move on to something else. The minimum amount of time you should work on an idea is one year. Knowing your message is the step that will set you apart. Now you need to do something about it.

What ideas did you come up with? More importantly what are you going to do with your message? You have an idea to share, but its not going to share itself. There is an audience to connect with but you are going to have to do the work to make it as easy as you can for them to find you. You are going to have to put the things together to make them want to come to your blog. So don’t let it go to waste, and have fun.

For more from Justin and his message be sure to check out his blog  A little Better You can subscribe here.

A guest by Everett Bogue of Far Beyond The Stars

There are millions of distractions that the modern day writer has to put up with in order to get their ideas out there. Twitter, Facebook, your feed reader, they’re all conspiring to distract you from getting your writing down on the page.

Did you know, when you’re multitasking between writing and doing something else, it can take up to thirty minutes to get your mind back on track? Flip-flopping between activities is not an option for a writer who’s trying to get some writing done.

This is why I subscribe to a method of pure writing flow. It’s one of the many ways that I use to counter the background noise bubbling up from every direction.

What is flow? It’s kind of like a river of writing, it’s an uninterrupted stream of consciousness directly from the source of your creativity through your brain, into your nervous system, out your hands, into your computer. I like to think of it as zen writing meditation.

There is some important prep work that needs to be done before you’re ready for some serious writing flow time:

1, Isolate yourself.
Shut the door to your study, turn off your cell phone, turn off your email program, shutdown your Twitter. Make note of any other things that I haven’t mentioned here that could possibly distract you from entering the flow. Make sure they can’t beep, howl, vibrate or demand anything from you.

2, Just you and computer.
I write with a program called WriteRoom, which turns my Mac into a tool for simply writing. A simple text editor will work as well. This way it’s just me and the words I type, nothing more. There’s no jumping dock icons grasping my attention, it’s just me and the writing. This is important, because it’s so easy to open Firefox and get lost in the internet. Sometimes if I find that WriteRoom isn’t enough isolation, I’ll turn off the internet altogether.

3, Don’t start writing, yet.
Take a moment and center yourself. I usually do around fifteen minutes of quiet contemplation before I even start touching keys. Focus on the idea that you have, but not too hard, just enough to see a vague outline of what you want to achieve. Why? Because this gives my mind a chance to let everything else in the world go, and just focus on the task at hand: writing.

And now it’s time to write, let the worlds spill out of you onto the page, and trust that they’re okay. There are moments in every creative’s life when they tap into the source of their creativity and they’re able to ride that creativity unto a finished project. With this writing philosophy I’m trying to get at that creative source.

Don’t edit yourself.
While you’re flowing, it’s important not to go back and edit things that you may have screwed up. Accept that you spelled miscellaneous wrong, and realize that you’ll be able to go back and fix that after you’re done. You’ll be able to rearrange paragraphs, after your flow is complete. If you stop and fix these things now, you’ve broken the stream of thought and you’ll have to start from scratch.

The time to edit yourself, to second guess what you did, is after your flow is over. When your copy has gone the full life-cycle from conception to being fully typed on the page.

Don’t second guess yourself.
You might be looking at the words coming out of you, and saying ‘wow, this absolutely crap.’ ignore that little voice. It’s trying to sabotage your writing, if you stop and delete what you’ve put out now, you’ll never get to the next sentence, which will inevitably be more brilliant than the one you’re writing now.

The important part is to bypass your inner critic and editor, as they’re conspiring to destroy your ability to get your ideas down on the page.

Keep the pace.
Imagine flowing like kayaking down stream a moving river, but you’re not the boater, you’re the kayak. No matter what happens, even if the person in control stops paddling for a bit, you’re going to keep going. The words will keep coming out of you and out onto the page, until you’ve reached the place where you pull the boat out of the water.

There are several other art forms that tap into spontaneous flow.
MCing is one of these art forms, rappers commonly tap into a stream of consciousness, a process that bypasses any second guessing. The words are moving so quickly out of a rapper’s mouth that they don’t really have time to pre-formulate those words.

Improv dance is another art form that involves tapping into flow. The dancer simply moves spontaneously to the music without any pre-choreographed movements. One of the goals in improv is to bypass the inner critic and just do the first physical action that drops into
your mind. This same philosophy can apply to writing.

Like any skill, flow takes practice to master.
Some people will be better at it initially than others. Don’t judge yourself if your inner critic is screaming at you to stop writing, just acknowledge that it’s there, and with time you can learn to ignore it and just write with the pure energy of your thoughts. Try flowing for short periods of time initially, maybe twenty minutes? And then gradually build on that time frame.

Eventually you might be able to do an hour of free flow writing, or imagine being able to flow for six hours straight? You’d be able to write tens of thousands of words, wouldn’t that be amazing?

Everett Bogue writes a blog on Minimalism called Far Beyond The Stars.

By Glen Allsopp of ViperChill

Since the majority of my working day is now consumed with the task of writing, I’m constantly looking for ways to streamline the process. If I can get quality results in a shorter amount of time, I can spend the rest of each day doing other things that I love.

Unfortunately, my creative mind doesn’t always want me to have spare time to read, chill with friends, or go and watch a movie. It makes me rely on idea files I keep tucked away whenever something pops into my head or if I have abused that resource already, I can spend over an hour mind-mapping ideas just to have content to write.

Even once we know what to write however, it can be hard to actually get going. Removing all distractions and getting in the writing zone is not an easy task. Especially if we haven’t even decided on an article outline or sufficient title. In the past I would put off writing until I knew exactly what I was going to say, so I could be as productive as possible in front of my computer. Now, I’m completely the opposite.

Just Write

Instead of waiting for ideas to come to me or the perfect structure in my head, I now just write. Time and time again, this has proven to be more effective for me than any other process. I may not be making much sense when I write and I almost certainly won’t stop with a copy fit enough to publish, but I will have something. And that’s all that matters.

A workshop I attended recently cemented this idea. I was surrounded my award winning financial journalists, newly signed authors and seasoned writing professionals and they all had the same thing to say: just write. Stop waiting for your environment to be perfect and half of the words to be in your head, just write whatever comes to mind.

Don’t Stop

With so many words going down on the page, it can be tempting to make changes as you go along. I ask you to at least try not to do this and see how things go. If you need to make a huge change that you think you might forget in a few minutes then go ahead, but for everything else, let it go. It can be hard enough to get into the writing flow, so for heaven’s sake don’t lose it because you missed a punctuation mark or you spot a slight grammatical error.

Streamline the Process

Of course, the finished result will be far from desirable. And that’s OK. Something on the page which is messy and needs cleaned up is far, far better than having nothing at all. I’m actually cringing at half of the things I’ve wrote so far in this draft but thankfully, you probably won’t get to read them.

Once you actually start writing things down, the structure tends to create itself. You may have an extra point to make in an earlier paragraph or realise a certain sentence does not fit in with the article. If that is the case, then add or subtract where necessary.

A great quote that really drives this point home comes via Mark Twain:

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.”

Once you’ve “babbled” on and said what you need to say, you can work on making your points in fewer words. You can remove repetition and just focus on the message that you want to get across.

Want to Practice? Check out Nanowrimo

Next month marks the launch of another excellent project for future novelists, Nanowrimo. The aim of the project is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This year, it is taking place in November. 2008 saw over 100,000 entries with over 15,000 making the actual 50,000 word limit necessary. Nanowrimo is unique because its focus is more on quantity than quality. That’s right; quality comes last. Like many of the points here, Nanowrimo is based around actually getting the words out there rather than stressing about the small stuff.

Sure, it’s important to focus on structure and details now and then, but you can only do so much in your head until you actually have to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

So, the next time you’re stuck for ideas or feel you need to brainstorm before you get going, turn off that incessant mind chatter – and just write. Trust me, it’s the greatest realization you’ll have.

Glen is the author of ViperChill, a blog on Viral Marketing. His aim is to help people build remarkable websites that others naturally want to talk about.

A guest post by Jules Clancy from stonesoup

This writing business can be a lonely endeavour. We’ve all been there. Self imprisoned in our lonely garrets – or more likely behind our laptops. Reaching out to the world with our writing but feeling helpless and alone.

Fear not fellow writers. There is hope. I’ve recently discovered a wonderful way to overcome the fear and feel connected with the rest of the world. Let me introduce you to the benefits of finding yourself a writing mentor.

Benefits of a writing mentor

1. Confidence boost
To give your confidence a well deserved boost, there’s nothing like having another writer who you respect and admire take an interest in you and your writing.

2. Inspiration
Talking (or emailing) someone who has already achieved some of your own goals can be incredibly inspirational – not to mention motivating. It’s all about bringing it to life and making the path to success a little clearer.

3. Contacts – opening doors
The world of publishing is notoriously tough and unfortunately it is still often all about who you know. Having a well connected mentor can be a way to gain some introductions. But you should never expect this as a given – it’s up to the generosity of your mentor. Nor should you forget that all the best contacts won’t overcome a lack of commitment or talent.

4. Help you achieve your dreams
Having access to someone who has already achieved similar goals can be invaluable. We all learn from our experiences so why not make the most of someone elses wisdom rather than re-inventing the wheel yourself.

A mentor may open you eyes to possibilities you haven’t even dared to dream.

5. Impartial constructive feedback
Hollow flattery can be easier to come by than genuine constructive feedback. No one is perfect and we all need to be reminded from time to time. If we aren’t made aware of our short comings and what we need to do to improve, we’ll never learn and grow as writers – or as people for that matter.

How to choose a mentor.

Thereís no script. I found the best thing is to figure out what you need to get your writing on track. If itís introductions then go for someone established and well known, if itís inspiration go for someone whose work you love reading. You donít need to limit it to one mentor.

If you don’t know of anyone suitable, seek out your local writers centre. Or look online – maybe your favourite blogger can help? Be brave. There is no harm in asking – the worst they can do is say no.

How it works day to day

Just as in life, every relationship is different – so is every mentoring situation. Youíll figure it out as you go along. The first time I met my mentor I had a list of questions but didn’t referred to them once.

These days before we meet (which might be as little as once every 2-3 months) I send my mentor some of my writing. It makes for a good starting point. She tells me her thoughts, which have been extremely helpful and we take it from there.

I also discuss my goals with my mentor so I can get guidance on whether I’m being realistic and of course some direction on the best approach to achieve them.

In the modern age there’s no need to meet face to face (although I do find my mentor’s availability increases if I offer to buy her a glass of vino or two).

Jules Clancy is a writer and a cook and the girl behind stonesoup – a blog that helps people become better home cooks by using a minimalist approach to cooking.

Photo by dr cornelius

By Sean Platt of Ghostwriter Dad

No one has championed the use of killer headlines more than Brian Clark. His advice on what makes for a compelling headline is gospel to many in this latest wave to crash across the copywriting shore. It’s impossible to argue – magnetic headlines invariably lead to more clicks, more conversions, and more clients clamoring for your content.

But what about when your words have turned to whisper, and your old posts have been left to whither upon the WordPress vine?

When you first craft a piece of killer content, you want as many eyes on it as possible. Initially, it is a bloggers primary goal to gather as many links and as much traffic as they possibly can. This is the purpose of a killer headline. Bloggers are thirsty for quality content to link to. Finding fabulous material makes them more valuable to their audience, and with the current retweet renaissance, a quality headline can gather clicks like candy on Halloween.

But once the hurry and flurry of fresh content is finished, and the half-life of your copy is a long way from from reaching the tip of the long tail, the smart blogger can reevaluate their headline to determine if they are truly doing what’s best for their content.

Readers may love magnetic headlines, but Google doesn’t give a grin or a giggle. Tweaking your old headlines to target search engine traffic might be the smartest thing you can do.

So how do you do it?

First, revise your title to increase your click through rates from readers who will find you through a search engine query. If your content is day old bread, it’s time to feed the ducks. You are no longer trying to pique the curiosity of a reader, now you are attempting to answer a question or solve a problem from the searcher. Change your title to both capture the maximum SEO benefit (by first conducting the correct keyword research) and then filling in the meta description to match the tone of your title tag.

This works especially well if you’re using Thesis. If you’re not yet using Thesis, consider it. It can be designed to dance to any tune and it’s built in SEO is an outstanding encore.

Next, you will want to change the permalink to match. Google loves a good title tag permalink sandwich.

Finally, you’ll want to use the redirect plugin for WordPress to ensure any traffic or links heading toward the old permalink are now redirected to the new. If you did your duty with a killer headline the first time around, you have hopefully gathered a few links pointing to the old page – you certainly don’t want to lose them.

Headlines are essential to success, but it is custom titles that can make the long tail most lucrative.

Sean Platt and Danny Cooper help small businesses to build their websites and establish an effective online presence.

A guest post by Patrick Stöckmann of Unwrap Your Mind

It’s a dreaded situation for all beginner (and even seasoned) bloggers. You want to write a post, and are sitting in front of a blank page. Suddenly your mind looks just the same – blank. Your inspiration just stopped, and you feel at a loss. We’ve all been there. The good news is that there are some surefire ways of writing quality content in record time.

I want to share with you my techniques for writing a 1,000+ words article in 90 minutes or less.

To show you that I actually do what I preach, I’ve written the first draft of this article in 5 minutes, the second draft (nearly publishable) in 45 minutes, and the final version in 70 minutes. Editing took about 15 minutes and looking up a nice photo added another 5 minutes.

There are 6 steps for creating a successful article in record time:

1. Preparation
2. Write a first draft
3. Create structure and fill the gaps
4. Editing
5. Adding a picture
6. Publish & Party

Step 1 – Preparation

One of the keys to being able to tap into the fountain of inspiration is to not leave it by chance. This key consists of preparation and structure. Inspiration, preparation and structure go hand in hand very successfully.

1.1 Prepare Your Environment

Your mind works best, when you allow it to focus on one task at a time.

How can you do that?

• Remove clutter. A structured working space mirrors a structured working mind.
• Remove any distractions. If you find you are looking at your phone, turn it off. If you are looking at a magazine, put it into another room.
• Reduce noise.
• Check out a minimalist approach for your writing space. Minimalism doesn’t mean cold and uncomfortable. Your room should be comfortable, but with nothing that could distract you.
• Don’t forget to switch off your phones (use an answering machine if necessary).
• Tell people in your house to not disturb you. Make sure they understand the importance of this time.

1.2 Prepare Your Computer

• Make sure your computer is running stable. If you happen to have a mac, great – your computer might already be stable. But even with a windows machine you must make sure, that it is running smooth and secure. Nothing will kill your motivation faster than writing for an hour and then having a machine crash and losing all your hard works.
• Save early, save often. Remember, first thing to do after you opened a new file is to save it, and then save early, save often. Use a keyboard shortcut (Command-S on a Mac or Control-S on a Windows Machine).
• Clear up your desktop. You should also make your desktop as distraction-free as possible. Remove all clutter here as well.
• Think about a minimalist PC. A great guide for mac users, who also would like some minimalism power is macminimalist.
• Create one folder. This is essential! Having a specific location allows your brain to be free from remembering, where you’ve put that brilliant idea or nice picture. I have a folder on my desktop called “Drafts”. In this folder, I’ll put all files I use for an article (my article text file, any notes, any links that I save, any photos I might use, etc.). Having one folder allows you to focus on the task and not on searching. Once I have finished and published an article, I move the used files in another folder called “Finished”. You can of course also delete them, since the published files are on the internet. But I prefer backups.

1.3 Prepare Your Upcoming Articles

• Pre-write headlines. I collect all headlines, that come to my mind in a single text file called “headlines.txt”. Although I might not use it for my next blog post, collecting them is a great way to go for inspiration. What I also do is to create the headlines for my next 2-3 blog posts in advance. I even pick them, before I write anything about them. This allows my subconscious mind to work on it and stumble across links, articles, photos, without me needing to think about it. This is a powerful technique. So if I have my headline for the article already in a swipe file, I pick that one out and put it on top of the article file in my text editor.
• Collect & research. if you need to research, you should do it upfront and should put your notes and links also in the “Drafts”-Folder.

1.4 Prepare yourself

Preparing yourself is just as vital as is preparing your environment. You must be able to unclutter your brain for a while (just as you uncluttered your house).

Steps to do this:

• Learn meditation and relaxation.
• Take some deep, relaxing breaths.
• Make some quick notes (on paper or at least mental) what is fascinating about your topic. Creating fascination is one of the best ways to create focus on anything you want to achieve.
• Picture in your mind, how you would feel, once you have the article finished and published. Feel the satisfaction now and boil it up, so you can hardly hold yourself back from starting on it.

Step 2 – Write the First Draft

Now you’ve prepared yourself. You are sitting in a distraction free environment, with a super clean, stable computer and in front of an empty text document. How do you get those 1,000+ words onto it? It looks hard – but don’t worry, I’ll show you surefire ways to never get trapped by writer’s blog again.

2.1 Forget About Starting Your Story at the Beginning.

Countless authors never started a book, simply because they couldn’t figure out the first sentence. Trust me, a good beginning is sometimes the hardest part of writing an article. But you make it 1,000% harder, if you try to write it into empty space. The function of your first paragraphs is to be a bridge for the reader from your headline to your main content. And it is much harder to build a bridge, if one bank is missing.

Therefore, don’t force yourself to write the first sentences. Let them come to you later, when you’ve already written your main content.

2.2 Start With Just Some Ideas

Spill out some thoughts that come to your mind. If you already have a headline from your swipe file, great, then associate some words that come to your mind, and write them down. I started this article with the headline and the following keywords:

• mind mapping
• keywords
• headline and picture associations
• distraction free environments – room & computer – minimalism
• modular building of an article – don’t start from beginning
• using flip charts or other graphical tools
• starting with headlines – swipe file
• prepare yourself

This took me about 5 minutes. You see the headline and these keywords, were already the first draft of the article. That was what I saved first.

There are some great tools for you to come up with key words and key concepts.

• Mind Mapping One of the best ways to get into the flow is to have a quick brainstorm. Just throwing some keywords into your mind and coming up with some associations is a great way to start with a basic structure draft. A great tool to use for this is the concept of mind mapping created by Tony Buzan.
• Keywords Association and Key Concepts List This is even more minimalist than mind mapping. It is the approach I used for this article. I just write down what comes to my mind, and let my mind create associations to the headline and the general idea of the article. Note, that I might not use all the keywords in the article.
• Drawing Devices Draw some concepts, draw structures. I often use a traditional flip chart or doodle something on a blank piece of paper. Writing on a flip chart allows me to look at it from over the table, and it also allows me to get up and add some more things. Hint: Sometimes just getting up and moving your body a bit can release a writing block and inject new inspiration into your creative flow.

With all these tools it is important not to censor yourself at this stage. Just write down what comes to your mind.

I would use about 5-10 minutes as a maximum for this stage.

Step 3 – Create a structure & fill the gaps

Now you have around 10-20 keywords or key concepts. But look closely at them. It maybe that you already have a structure. Try to come up with a rough structure for your article at this point. You see most articles aren’t read in the way you would read a novel. Most articles are first scanned by your readers. Therefore, having a good structure, using lists, headings and subheadings allows the reader not only to scan your content and dive into whatever interests him, it also allows you to write your content much faster. Because once you have a rough structure, you can focus your attention on writing just the content for one point of your structure.

For instance: I wrote down the keyword “mind mapping”. So I now only focus on writing some lines about this specific part. Maybe if it is a bigger part of the article, I also write some more keywords, focusing on mind mapping and then add meat to these keywords. You see, when you structure your article in an early stage, you won’t be overwhelmed. Break your task down into small steps and smaller sub-steps.

Hint: If I get stuck with a part of an article, I use the Keyword Association Method from above for this part of the article. I quickly write down all keywords that come to my mind for that part of the article for about 1 minute. This makes completing the rest is easy.

Step 4 – Edit

Now you have your

• headline
• structure (headings, lists and bold text)
• and main content

Now it’s time to form it into a smooth article.

• Read your entire article. Is there anything unclear? What could you write better? Read it aloud and listen to yourself. This will make you aware of sentences that don’t sound good.
• Is there something missing? Do you need to add any sentences to form a bridge between concepts?
• Create an intro. If you haven’t already done so, write an intro that bridges from your headline to your first paragraph.
• Do a spell and grammar check.
• Check for readability and scan-ability Is your article structured well? Does it have lots of lists and a good heading structure? Are important points bold? Can you get the gist of the article by scanning it?

Step 5 – Look for a quality picture

The good thing about starting with some keywords is, that it allows you also to find great pictures that go along well with your message. Look up photos at istockphoto or flickr using some of the keywords from your headline and your main headings.

Hint: Very often you’ll paint pictures or use stories in your article to transport your message. Find the keywords in these stories, and you know what to look for on flickr or istockphoto.

Step 6 – Publish & Party

Publish it. Send it to the world. And enjoy fame and stardom – or at least enjoy that some people will find your article interesting, and that you could help them with a problem.

Read more by Patrick on his blog Unwrap Your Mind.

By Leo Babauta

I’ve decided to take the plunge and join NaNoWriMo in November (for the 2nd time), attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days.

Join me!

I successfully completed NaNoWriMo in 2006, and it was an incredible time. It was a lot of fun, and joining with the efforts of tens of thousands of fellow writers is an experience like no other.

Just a few reasons to do NaNoWriMo:

1. It gives you the motivation to finally write that novel.
2. It teaches you some good habits — getting writing done every day.
3. You learn a lot about yourself when you’re put to the test like this.
4. Like I said, it’s tremendous fun to join up with so many enthusiastic writers.

So I’ll be doing it, and today I’d like to share my secrets to being successful at NaNoWriMo. I’ll also share some tips about midway through the challenge, and some lessons learned after it’s over.

1. Not all the words have to be good. You just have to write 50K words, but it doesn’t matter what they are — as long as they’re prose (in other words, no typing random nonsensical words, as fun as that might be). Just type a shitty first draft, and don’t worry about getting every word right. Type fast and furiously.
2. You can repeat some words. When they say 50K words, they don’t mean they all have to be unique. For example, feel free to repeat “the” and “and” and “fornicate” as many times as you like throughout your brilliant manuscript. Copying and pasting several paragraphs at once … not encouraged.
3. Use simple tools. When you’re writing, you don’t need software with a lot of bells and whistles — in fact, the more of those it has, the worse a tool it is. Do you really need outlining and corkboarding and different paragraph styles and templates? No! All you need is the ability to type text, and word count. I recomend a plain text editor (on the Mac, try TextWrangler with the toolbars hidden) for writing. Once you’ve written your count for the day, you can use a full-featured writing tool … Scrivener is the best out there for Macs. Copy and paste your text into the outliner (or whatever) and keep your notes and research organized. Separate the research/planning/outlining from the actual writing.
4. Plan beforehand. Some people go into NaNoWriMo competely blank, with no plan, but I think that’s a mistake. While you can definitely overplan, it’s best to have a decent idea what your novel will be about (be able to say it in one sentence) and a general idea of the characters and plot. Don’t overdo it — half a page to a page will do. I recommend the Snowflake method. Do this before Nov. 1 — maybe in the week leading up to the month (not the night before).
5. Shut off the Interwebs. Seriously. Use a utility such as Freedom to shut it off. Turn off the phones and Blackberry. Clear your desk. Have no distractions. But especially the Internet. If you don’t heed this tip, you’re very likely to fail.
6. Get up every 15-30 minutes and walk around. Sitting and focusing is great, but our creativity can stall if we concentrate too hard sometimes. It’s good to disengage, to get away from the work, to walk around to get our brains working in different ways, and often this will get the ideas to flow.
7. Write in the morning. This will vary in effectiveness from writer to writer, as many of you are more productive in the afternoon or evening. But I’ve found that it’s best to write first thing in the morning (after getting coffee of course), because if you wait until after work or after the kids are in bed or whatever, many times you will fail to write. Things come up that push the writing back, and you’ll justify putting it off (”I can always write 3,000 words tomorrow to make up for it!”). But if you do it first thing, before you get busy or unexpected things come up, you’ll always get it done. And you’ll feel good the rest of the day. If later you write in the evening, hey, bonus.
8. Write every single day. Don’t skip days because you’re a little ahead or things are a little busier today. If you want to skip Sundays, fine, but don’t skip days on a whim because you’re tired or busy or feeling lazy.
9. Hit a word count. Set a word count to hit each day. If you write every day for 30 days, you need 1,667 words per day to hit 50K. If you only write on weekdays, you need to write 2,500 words per day to hit 50K. Whatever your schedule, calculate your minimum word count and hit it every day. If you go over, hey, bonus.
10. Get social – after you write. Go on the NaNoWriMo boards or use other social media to talk to other writers going through this challenge. Encourage each other, help each other with problems, post if you have questions, ask for help if you need it. It’s really a great part of the experience. However, avoid using socializing with writers as a way to procrastinate. Unless you go on the boards to take part in a dash (see how many words you can write in 15 minutes) or some such challenge, write first and then socialize.
11. Plan for finishing the novel. It turns out that 50K words isn’t actually a complete novel. And even if you’re done with your first draft after 30 days, you’re not really done. You need to revise and rewrite. Many NaNoWriMo novels get left undone after the month’s over — but not yours. Be smart and plan time to finish the novel. Consider joining NaNoFiMo (30 days to finish the novel you started). If you’d like a break after November, maybe plan to finish in January.
12. Have a blast. The most important tip of all, and no NaNoWriMo guide would be complete without it. *Have fun.* That’s the whole point of this thang. Sure, you’ll agonize, you’ll get stuck, you’ll face unbelievable angst … but if you don’t have fun doing it, you’re doing it wrong.

Other good guides to “winning” NaNoWriMo:

* Macworld’s articles
* How to win in 5 easy steps
* 10 tips to triumph
* 5 tips for NaNoWriMo
* Tips from veterans
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Read more from Leo at Zen Habits, mnmlist, and Zen Family Habits. Also see his new ebook, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.

Note from the Editor: November sees the beginning of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Anyone can join the thirty days of literary abandon. WTD will run posts to inspire and encourage you on the way.

By Marelisa Fábrega of Abundance Blog

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins in just a few days, on November 1st, and thousands of would-be authors are registering with high hopes of crossing the finish line on November 30th, novel firmly in hand. The objective of writing at least 50,000 words in 30 days doesn’t seem so daunting, until the sobering thought hits that you have absolutely no idea what you’re going to write about. Or perhaps you do have an idea—one that would look great as a blurb on a book jacket cover–but the plot is eluding you, or you can’t see your novel’s characters very clearly. One solution is to prime your creativity pump by turning to the tarot.

Although the tarot is most often used as a tool for divination, tarot cards are also great, practical tools for writing and creative thinking. Corrine Kenner, author of “Tarot for Writers”, explains that well-known writers, such as John Steinbeck and Stephen King, have used tarot cards for inspiration. She adds that Italian novelist Italo Calvino went so far as to call the tarot “a machine for writing stories.”

If you’re thinking of writing a novel, you can apply the imagery and symbolism of the 78 cards of the tarot to help you develop plot, conflict, character profiles, dialogue, and scenery, as well as to introduce unpredictable elements. The cards can even serve as a creativity prompt if you hit a brick wall while you’re writing. With a tarot deck beside you, you won’t be starting out with a blank sheet of paper. Instead, you’ll have a world of imagery as your disposal, which, if you allow your imagination and intuition to step forward, will begin to move, speak, and take action. This article will help you get started in using the tarot to write your novel.

Choosing a Tarot Deck

There are many different tarot decks which you can choose from, including everything from the Lord of the Rings Tarot–with “Death” depicted as Gandalf fighting the Balrog–to a Jane Austen Tarot, in which each card represents a character or scene from one of her novels. Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith created the best-selling Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck in 1909, and that’s the deck we’ll be referring to in this article. You can either purchase a deck from Amazon, or you can print the cards out, for free, here.

Tarot for Writers 101

You don’t have to become an expert on the meaning of the tarot cards in order to use them as a creativity tool. Once you have a general idea of the symbolism of the cards, you can apply your own interpretations and use them as a springboard for your own ideas and impressions. The tarot will help you in allowing your intuition to tell you stories which you can then get down on paper. In essence, you’ll be taking the open ended images on the cards and projecting a story onto them.

Basically, the tarot consists of two parts: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana is made up of 22 cards; the figures of the Major Arcana represent universal archetypes which serve as the basic patterns for human thoughts and emotions, as well as dramatic, life-changing events. For example, the Hermit can represent the need to withdraw, to seek solitude, or to look for a new direction. If you draw this card while trying to decide where your plot goes next, it could mean that your hero is about to leave everything he knows behind and embark on a solitary journey or adventure.

There are 56 cards in the Minor Arcana. While the Major Arcana expresses universal themes, the Minor Arcana brings those themes down to the practical arena and applies them to everyday life. The Minor Arcana has four suits—typically called Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles—and each suit has ten numbered cards and four Court Cards (King, Queen, Knight, and Page). Each of the tarot’s four suits corresponds to one of the elements: fire, earth, air, or water:

• The wands represent fire: someone with a fiery personality; tempers flaring; something is about to go up in flames; literally, something catches on fire.
• The cups represent water: someone who is very emotional; intuition; a desire or want; the beginning of a love affair.
• The swords represent air: someone who is very intellectual; using words as weapons; ideas coming into conflict; having interests in common.
• The pentacles represent earth: someone who is very wealthy; money trouble; buying or selling real estate; an opportunity to make lots of money.

As an example, the three of swords shows a heart being pierced by three swords. If you pull out this card it’s time to introduce an element of betrayal or heartbreak into your story. As further illustration, the five of wands shows five men; each is holding a wand and they appear to be working against each other. This card could symbolize that there’s something in the environment that’s working against the protagonist, it can represent a race or competition, or it can mean that one of your characters needs to learn to get along with others.

If you want more information on how to interpret tarot cards, there are plenty of books out there which can help you, and there’s a free online course on the tarot here.

Example: The Empress

The Empress is tarot card 3 in the Major Arcana. The card shows a beautiful woman seated on a throne covered with soft, lush pillows. Her gown is white—representing purity—and is decorated with pomegranates; she‘s wearing a crown with 12 stars representing the signs of the Zodiac; in her right hand she’s holding a rod which symbolizes power; and she has a shield with the symbol for Venus, the goddess of love. Her belly shows a hint of pregnancy. In the background there’s a forest with trees in various stages of life, a field of ripe wheat, and a waterfall.

From the symbolism and imagery on the card, you could come up with some of the following possible meanings to apply to your novel:

One of you main characters wants to become pregnant.

• An unplanned pregnancy creates a conflict in the story (maybe one character wants to keep the baby and the other doesn’t).

• It can refer to motherly traits that are present in your character, or that your character meets someone new who has these traits. For example, in the Fairy Tale Tarot the Empress is represented by Cinderella’s fairy godmother.

• As an outcome, this card can be a sign of prosperity (notice the abundance that surrounds the Empress).

• It’s also a card of creativity; creative seeds are planted and will flourish and grow. It can represent an idea that’s beginning to take shape: an idea for a new business, for a marketing campaign, and so on.

• If you pull out this card when you’re trying to come up with a setting, it can represent a warm, inviting home filled with good food and laughter.

• The card can be a warning that your character needs to learn patience: just as everything in nature grows according to cycles, everything happens in due time.

• The card can also refer to a situation that is pregnant with promise.
• If the empress is surrounded by negative cards in a reading, it could signify the negative side of motherhood: over-protectiveness, smothering, and refusal to let go.
• If the card is reversed it can mean domestic upheaval, infertility, an unwanted pregnancy, or suppressed artistic expression.
• In the Wizard’s Tarot—in which the Major Arcana represents the faculty at a magic school–the Empress is represented by the Professor of Herbal Magic.

Creating Spreads to Craft Your Novel

A spread is a layout of the cards with a definite purpose in mind. Spreads can be simple—even one card can be a spread—or they can be very elaborate: there’s one spread that uses all 78 cards. Set the intent to create a scene for your story, shuffle your cards, and pull one out at random. Write your scene based on the card that you selected.

Now set the intent to establish the setting for your novel and go through the process again. You can follow this process for anything that you want to know about your novel: start a dialogue, suggest a plot twist, bring a supporting character into the conflict, and so on. Instead of one card, you can use two cards and balance them against each other: the pros and cons of a venture your protagonist is considering, a heated argument between two characters, and so on.

One way to use a three card spread is to have the cards represent your character’s past, present, and future. You can also set the intent to determine the following:

• The first card represents your character’s primary goal and motivation.
• The second card represents your character’s greatest fear in relation to this goal.
• The third card explores the internal conflict your character has to conquer along the way.
• You can go into more detail by having larger spreads. For example, shuffle the cards and set the intent that the first six cards you choose will represent, in order, the following:

1. Protagonist: this card represents your main character.
2. Antagonist: this card represents the main adversary.
3. Theme: this card represents your novel’s theme.
4. Beginning: this card represents the beginning of your novel.
5. Middle: this card represents the middle of your novel.
6. End: this card represents the end of your novel.

You can even create intricate character profiles by pulling out several cards and assigning them meanings, such as the following:

• Relationship with mother
• Relationship with father
• Relationship with siblings.
• What was the defining moment in the character’s life?
• What was their first job?
• What are some of the character’s idiosyncrasies or quirks?
• What’s their greatest fear?
• What do they want most out of life?
• What are their major strengths?
• What are their major weaknesses?

The Celtic Cross Spread is a particularly good spread for setting out an intricate plot. In addition, you can come up with your own spreads: decide what you want to know, ask a question, and develop a custom-designed spread.

Conclusion

Using the tarot to write your novel is simply about trusting yourself and allowing your subconscious to express itself. Pick a card and set it in front of you. What’s the first image that you notice? What do you think it means? Do you get an overall impression from the image as a whole? What thoughts or feelings emerge? How can you apply it to your novel? Write freely, without censoring yourself, based on the images and symbols that you see in the card and what they represent to you.

Keep in mind that the tarot can be used for inspiration regardless of the genre of your novel: whether your protagonist is a fairy with gossamer wings, an Indiana Jones-type character in search of an ancient artifact, or a relentless detective who won’t let go of an unsolved murder that happened fifteen years ago. Gather your laptop or writing tool of choice, your favorite coffee mug, and your tarot deck, and get ready to crank out your novel and win NaNoWriMo this year.

Marelisa Fábrega blogs about creativity, productivity, and simplifying your life over at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. Marelisa is the author of the ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists”.

By Leo Babauta

After blogging for almost 3 years now, it’s hard to remember what it was like when I first started out. I’ve written nearly 1,500 blog posts, not only for Zen Habits and this blog, but as guest posts (and in the past, paid posts) for dozens of other blogs.

But I’m going to force myself to go back to those early days, when I tentatively started a simple journal on Blogger.com and put my first shaky words out onto the web.

This is a guide for new bloggers — so if you’re experienced, feel free to skip this one. This is the post I wish I’d read when I started, and in a sense I’m writing this to the Leo of January 2007 who knew nothing about what he was doing.

Hi younger (and infinitely more handsome) Leo … rest easy. You’ll do fine. You’ll write some crappy posts, but that’s OK. In doing so, you’ll find your voice, find what works, and start to connect with an audience.

Be brave, and forge on.

That said, here are some tips to help you along on your journey. Blogging basics. Oh, and feel free to break any of these “rules”, as nothing is ever set in stone.

1. Write for the reader. This is the most fundamental of the fundamentals, and though this list isn’t in order of importance I’d be remiss if I didn’t start here. While a blog can be a personal journal, if you want an audience of more than your friends and family, write for an audience. Don’t just write about your random thoughts and experiences, but think of what the reader wants to know, what the reader’s concerns are, what the reader is interested in, and how you can help provide that.
2. Solve the reader’s problems. What are the reader’s problems? Solve them, one post at a time. To do this, I think about the problems I’ve been addressing in my own life, and as it turns out, most people have the same problems. I’m not as unique as I thought. And then I write about how I’ve been solving them — what actually works for me. People seem to find that useful.
3. Put yourself in there. While the post should be for the reader, it’s really a conversation between you and the reader. So don’t be afraid to put yourself in the post. Share what you’ve learned, talk about your life, as it’s relevant to the post, and let your personality show. Make it personal, and the reader will connect with you.
4. Find your voice. This is the personality I talked about above. It’s about finding a conversational tone, but it’s more: you have a unique voice, and that voice speaks to the reader, in her head, as she reads your posts. You need to learn to find your voice, by experimenting, trial and error. The more you write the more that voice will emerge.
5. Be concise. This is an ironic statement given that this is a long-ish post, but concise doesn’t mean short. It means there aren’t a lot of unnecessary words. Write all the blather you want, but go back and edit, so you’re not wasting the reader’s time. Read more.
6. Make it scannable. The reality of reading on the Internet is that people scan articles, get the main points, and only if those main points are worthy of their time do they read the full text — despite what long-winded ranting bloggers have to say about the issue. So write for that reality, if you want people to read your posts: make it easy to scan and find your main points, through lists, sub-titles, blockquotes, or the like.
7. Headlines matter. The most important few words of your posts are your headlines (or post titles). They need to catch the reader’s attention and promise to solve a problem the reader has. If it doesn’t do this you’ve wasted a headline.
8. Offer solutions. This is almost a repeat of an earlier point, but it’s worth stressing. Often a blogger will bring up a problem but then end the post. You need to offer a solution, or the reader will be left feeling unsatisfied. If you don’t have a solution, maybe toss out some ideas and then ask for reader solutions. But in most cases, write a solution.
9. Post regularly. This doesn’t have to be daily, but if you haven’t posted for a few weeks (except to apologies for the lack of posts), you’re not likely to build a good-sized audience. People subscribe because they have a reasonable expectation, based on past performance, that you’re going to come out with useful content on a regular basis. I’d say weekly posts are a minimum, and 2-5 times weekly is ideal. More than once daily isn’t recommended (unless you’re a huge blog like Lifehacker) because people don’t like too many posts in their inbox.
10. Mix up post lengths. I prefer long-ish posts full of useful information, but short posts that get to the point and have a big impact are good too. Don’t be set on one post length. If a post gets so long that it takes 20 minutes to read, you might narrow the topic and split it into two posts.
11. Make it worth talking about. Don’t just write what everyone else writes. Write about something that’s a bit (or a lot) different, or in a way that’s different. Write about something that people will want to respond to, pass on, talk about with others. Be bold and be different.
12. Link often. Don’t be self-contained. Don’t be afraid to send your readers to other good posts or blogs, because they’ll appreciate it, and so will the other bloggers. Be a part of a wider conversation. For example, my favorite blogs about blogging: Problogger, Copyblogger, Skelliewag, Daily Blog Tips, Chris Brogan and Chris Garrett.
13. Feel free to tell stories. Not every posts should be a “story” post, but a well told story captures the reader and conveys information in a time-tested form. A good method to try out is starting a post with a relevant story.
14. Establish why the post is important. The intro of your post — the first 3-7 paragraphs (roughly) — should not only grab the reader’s attention but establish why the reader should even care about the post. Show why the problem is a problem, and why the reader needs to read the rest of the post.
15. Read the best, and mimic them. The best bloggers break all of these rules but do it so well. For example, Dooce, Textism and Idle Words rarely make things scannable, but they’re oh so readable. Read widely, not just within your niche: check out Daring Fireball, Merlin Mann, Paul Graham, Justin Blanton, Shawn Blanc, Patrick Rhone, just to get started.

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For new bloggers who’d like to learn more about the basics of blogging, we’re offering an A-List Blogging Bootcamp in December: “How to Create a Blog that Rocks”. More info to come!

Read more from Leo at Zen Habits, mnmlist.com, and Zen Family Habits. Also see his new ebook, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.

By Leo Babauta

There was a time when I would agonize over writing a post, get it perfect, and basically spend hours on it (if not days) before publishing.

Perfect is the enemy of a good blogger.

These days, I post to four different blogs without it taking large chunks of my life away: Zen Habits, Write To Done, mnmlist.com and now Zen Family Habits. If I allowed perfection and a million other obstacles to get in my way, I’d never be able to get my ideas out there.

Having the ideas isn’t the problem — I have a million of them. What I’ve learned is “frictionless blogging”: removing all the barriers to publishing so that I get those ideas out into the world as easily as possible.

What are the barriers to blogging? Think about it in your own life — what slows you down? Fear of sounding dumb? Distractions? Fiddling with your blog software, stats, widgets? Formatting a post perfectly? Getting every single word right? Finding the perfect photo? Writing the perfect headline?

These and many other things create friction, and the more friction there is, the less you can publish. Now, we should ask the question: is it desirable to publish quickly and often? Not always.

I am a fan of slow living, and a minimalist, so you’d think frictionless blogging and being prolific would be against my nature. And it is, to the extent that I don’t like a chaotic, complicated, frenetic, overly speedy lifestyle. But if you can remove distractions, enjoy the act of writing, and then publish in as simple a way possible, that’s a good thing.

You don’t need to be prolific or speedy. I am, as a blogger, only because I love putting my ideas out there — to be used, to be criticized, to be turned into something new and better, or to slowly fade away into the void because no one cared. All of those are better than my ideas languishing in my head, never to surface into the world.

So I publish, without friction. And it works. I can blog a lot, easily, and still have time for other projects (A-List Blogging, a fitness course I’m creating, ebooks, and other fun stuff).

So if you’re interested in frictionless blogging, here are a few tips:

• Write in text or Textile or Markdown. Ignore formatting when you write. Don’t even worry about links or photos. Just write. Text is perfect for this, but lately I’ve also been using Textile because it’s still fast but it saves time later. Markdown is also a good choice. With all three, you’re just writing text, and not worrying about complicated formatting.
• Use a simple tool. Wordpress and other blogging software are great, but for writing, they’re overkill. And they contain distractions, like going to look at comments or stats or plugins or widgets or your theme. Forget about all that. Just focus on the writing, by using a simple tool. The simplest is a text editor with no bells or whistles. I use TextEdit on the Mac, and used Notepad when I was on a PC.
• Eliminate distractions. When you’re writing, turn off the Internet and close your browser and all other programs. Seriously. You don’t need them to write — if you need some research or a quote, do that first, then copy and paste into your text editor. Clear everything else away, and just write. Focus will improve your writing and remove a lot of friction.
• Forget perfectionism. This is the biggest roadblock for many bloggers. I’ve talked to newer bloggers who will spend days crafting a post, but the result is they post infrequently. Let go of the need to get it perfect. Instead, focus on getting it out. You can improve it later (see the next tip). If you find yourself trying to be perfect, imagine that I’m sitting next to you, about to punch you for being a perfectionist. Let go of this need, and the imaginary Leo now gives you a big smile, and leaves to go write a post.
• Publish quickly, then fix. This is a bit unconventional and may not work for everyone, but it works for me. Often I will paste the text of a post into the Wordpress editor, format a couple of sub-headlines in bold, write a quick headline, and then publish — without putting in links, without editing or proof-reading. Then I’ll post it to Twitter, and know that I will get some readers very quickly. Finally, I’ll go and add in the links, proof-read, make some edits. The reason for doing it backwards like this is that 1) I’ve gotten the post out there, as frictionless as possible, and 2) it gives me a little incentive to work quickly to get things right, as I know people are already coming to read the post. It’s a weird method, but again, it forces me to be fast and frictionless.
• Pick the first photo that works. I like to have a nice image to go with my posts. It adds a nice visual element, draws the reader’s eye, sets the mood for the post. But I can spend a LONG time looking for a good photo. So lately, I just pick the first one I can find that fits my standards — not the best one.
• Format simply. Some bloggers put in a lot of bolds and italics and other more fancy formatting. I try to avoid overdoing that stuff. I use bold to highlight certain items and sub-headlines, but that’s mostly it.
• Write a good headline. OK, this is one thing you should do well, because you shouldn’t change headlines after you publish (it’s confusing). And a headline is important. That said, don’t agonize or take too long. You’ll get better at this as you go, especially if you look at how the best headline writers do it, but for now, just write the best one you can within a minute or two. List a few different versions, quickly, and pick one. Then be done with it.
• Fear of sounding dumb. This is a real fear, but you can’t let it stop you. We all sound dumb sometimes (or a lot of times, in my case) — it’s unavoidable. But you have to put yourself out there, or you’ll never interact with others on topics you care about, you’ll never get better, you’ll never get anywhere. Sound dumb, and have fun doing it.

Time to publish this post, from first word written to pressing “publish”: 25 minutes.