Journaling – Where Do I Start…?

April 12, 2011

ChaseK8 Tips, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

One of the most difficult things for me when I first decided to start a journal was “where” I was supposed to start.

I knew that I wanted to use my journal for personal growth and to sort out some of my overwhelming emotions, but that was about all I knew at the time.

It can be very daunting to sit and stare at a blank page, knowing that you are supposed to fill it with wonderful, touching, deep thoughts. That in itself is often overwhelming.

Fear not there are some tips to help you get started in journaling without stress….

  • Decide what your purpose is – For some journaling is a way to look within, view your thoughts, and possibly find your purpose in life. For others a journal is a way to be more creative through writing or art, and some people simply want to keep a record of their day. Whatever your purpose for journaling you should choose it before you begin. Not to say it wont change along the way, and not to say it wont be for many different reasons, but having an idea of what you hope to accomplish will help you find the direction you need to begin.
  • Chose your form – When I decided to start a journal I went out and bought a great binded leather notebook. I wanted to “write” my thoughts rather than type, just out of personal preference, as I spent most of my day typing and I wanted journaling to be my ‘time out’ from everyday life. Chose how you want to write and where then get together all the tools you will need. Some people prefer to have their journal online or on the computer, and other opt for a handwritten version, it is personal preference, chose the option that suits your needs.
  • Get Inspired – Depending on your chosen purpose you need to find inspiration to start your writing. You can find a plethora of journal prompts online for any given subject. Prompts can be useful in journaling, especially when you are journaling for self-discovery. Choose a prompt, usually in the form of a question, and share your thoughts or feelings on it. You can also create your own prompts by way of pictures, words, or questions you are trying to answer in your life.
  • Let Thoughts Go Where They May – Don’t force yourself to stay on topic, don’t feel like you “have’ to follow a set plan, if you find your writing wandering elsewhere allow it to happen. The most amazing thing about journaling is it’s ability to introduce you to new and amazing ideas that you never would have found. Let your mind and your hands wander free and follow them where ever they choose to take you!

The most important thing to remember is that your journal is a secure place for you to release your thoughts free from judgment or ridicule. Grammar, form and talent are of no consequence, just grow and learn from your writing, and most of all enjoy it.

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Dealing With Negativity as a Writer

March 30, 2011

ChaseK8 Tips, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

It is a fact of life that you can not please everyone all the time, no matter how hard you try there will always be people who are going to be negative towards you. It is also a fact of a writers life that you can not please everyone all the time, and you shouldn’t even try to. 

Everyone deals with negativity in one way or another throughout their lives, when this negativity is aimed towards your passion it can hit home hard.

Accepting that not everyone is going to enjoy your writing, that some times people are going to disagree with your point of view, that there are people who will not understand what it means to be a writer, and that learning to deal with negativity is important part of being a writer if you hope to succeed.

Dealing with the “OH , You’re a Writer” Attitude

My hubby doesn’t understand my desire to write. Though he is not outwardly negative towards my passion, he is not overly supportive of it either. He does not see it on the serious level that I do, and he views it as more of a hobby, than a possible career. This light-hearted attitude has caused arguments between us in the past, I won’t lie. I have been offended on more than one occasion by his lack of interest in my passion for writing. He doesn’t get excited for me when I succeed in landing a project I have applied for, he doesn’t  try to support me when I get frustrated with my writing, or when I face writer’s block. He pretends to listen when I talk about my writing, but the interest just isn’t there, and I can feel it…

A big part of being a writer, especially a freelance writer, is spending large amounts of time at home. Writing, and trying to make a living at it, means that sometimes there are days (even entire weeks) when I deal with no one but the people I live with. It means that after locking myself in the office for hours on end, I finally appear and try to push my current project from my mind to attend to my household duties and appear as normal human being to those that live alongside me.

There have been many moments when I have been absorbed in my writing, “on a roll” so-to-speak, and my hubby, hoping to get my attention or have me help with the children, has made a snide remark about my “silly writing”, or me “always sitting on the computer“, and I have just snapped…

This approach has never solved a thing, and simply leads to more negativity and hurt in the end.

Instead of being hurt by someone who does not see your writing in the same light you do, be driven by their easy-going attitude. If you must, use their lack of attention as motivation to succeed, to prove them wrong even.

There will always be people who give you that “Oh so you sit at home all day and do nothing” look when you announce that you are a writer, you would be surprised how many people actually believe that to be true. It is a fact that you can not control, what you can control is your reaction to them…

Dealing With Rejection

Ask any successful writer and they will tell you, you are always going to get more rejections than acceptances in your career, especially if you are just beginning. If you send an article to your favorite magazine and they return with nothing but a rejection letter you may start to question your writing, or you may even feel like a failure and consider giving up.. but don’t trow in the towel just yet. Just because one magazine doesn’t accept your style doesn’t mean none of them will. Perhaps that specific magazine doesn’t see your vision, may be they have no market for your article at the moment, or perhaps they have run similar content in the recent past and are simply in search of something new. Though it would be nice if every rejection came with an explanation, the truth of the matter is, many don’t. Editors are even busier that writer’s, thus they don’t have the time to individually reply to each submission they receive, many of the rejections sent to writers are automatically generated responses, and are not at all personalized to the content.

Don’t allow frustration to distract you, keep going full steam ahead. Submit the piece to other magazines and publisher, or set it aside to update at a later time. Whatever you do, don’t give up on a piece simply because it was rejected, if it was worth writing in the first place it is worth the work of finding someone who will appreciate it.

If you are lucky enough to receive a personalized response, and it does happen, take the advice and use it wisely. Constructive criticism is the greatest tool a writer can have. Don’t feel defensive, no one is a ‘perfect’ writer, even best-sellers get feedback regarding their novels, take the advice being offered with an open mind and utilize it to grow within your writing.

You will never please everyone, all the time, and if you try you are only going to end up disappointing yourself in the process. Have confidence in your abilities and take every achievement as a step towards success. Move forward and grow when you can. Find those people who will support you and hold them dear. Writing groups and online communities are a great place to find support, and get advice, find one in your area, online, or start one of your own.

Most importantly never give up, it is your passion, your dream, you must give it your all and aim for success, no matter what anyone says… If you set it in your mind it can be accomplished!

Until Next Time….

Write On!

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Boost Your Blog Stats By Appealing To The “Info Scanner” Society of Today…

March 20, 2011

ChaseK8 Tips, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

You spend hours, maybe even days slaving away over a piece of writing. You edit, re-write, then edit again, finally producing a piece you are proud to display. You publish the piece and sit back to revel in the glory…. but no one sees your spectacular post, no one reads it, there are no re-tweets, no comments, and no one is sharing it on Facebook. You site stats resemble a ghost town, and you are obsessively checking them every hour.

Rejection of any kind can drive a writer mad, seeing a piece that you spent ample time constructing get lost in cyber space among the constant clutter of other blogs is frustrating enough to cause a writer of any level to throw in the towel, but don’t give up yet… There are some simple tips and tricks to getting your writing the attention it deserves;

Boost Your Blog Stats With These Simple Tips....

 

Provide Information Clearly and Quickly

It is a simple fact that readers are looking for information, and with people’s lives as busy as they are these days, they want it fast!

We have all ‘info scanned‘, you type a phrase into Google and begin scanning the available information. Maybe you click on a page or two, and begin to read the post, scanning for the answer you are seeking….

The fact is, that if the information your reader is looking for is not easily seen, they will move on to the next item on the list.

To help your reader easily find what they came in search of ensure that your posts are not to in-depth. If you want to produce a complex piece consider breaking it down into smaller points to cover over various posts. A reader is more likely to return for more later, than to sit down and read for a solid hour at a time. This method also provides you with easy inspiration for future posts.

Use bullets to break up your facts; because readers scan pages, using bullets will break up your writing and make it more appealing to the reader who is scanning for information. Bold headlines, numbering, and lists are also great ways to attract the eye to the information they provide. People prefer a ‘quick read’ it is best to accept this and use it to your advantage, rather than try to fight it with information overload.

Revert back to ‘essay’ mode. Back in English class we were all taught to state our point at the beginning of our piece and write our following sentences in support of our outcome. By following this basic method on your blog, or in any form of writing, you allow the reader to quickly decide if they want to engage deeper into your piece. Stating your conclusion first and breaking your writing into supporting pieces will allow the reader to scan from point to point quickly, and help them easily obtain what they came to find, it is at this point that they will decide to backtrack and read your piece in its entirety. You can not write with the expectation that your reader will engage in each and every detail the first time around, you must write with the ‘busy mind‘ in focus and ensure that all the information can be easily gathered in a short period of time.

Another way to break-up your writing and make it more appealing to the ‘info scanner’s’ eye is to use page breaks. Keeping your paragraphs to one point each and adding plenty of space between each idea is a simple way to help your reader ‘scan‘ your thoughts more easily. Keep your paragraphs short and to the point allowing the readers eyes to flow effortlessly from point to point.

Appeal to the eye with images. Using images is an obvious way of attracting readers to your content, people are drawn to images, and often look for them to tell the story. You need only look at the most popular gossip magazines to see that sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Adding caption to your images will also help generate an audience,your readers will be enticed to read further in order to get the ‘whole story’.

Attracting people to your posts in the first place is one of the biggest challenges that writers face. By using relevant ‘tags’ for your posts you will attract the right readers more easily through search engines. Be sure that you use tags that are relevant to your topic and that you use as many as you can think of, ‘the more the merrier’ when it comes to tags, as you want your post to show up in as many searches as possible.

Once you have the readers on your site your mission is to keep them there, one of the best ways to do this is by using relevant links in your writing. Linking back to your own relevant content from past posts will keep your readers on your site, and help them gather more information. Linking to past posts is an easy way to generate traffic and show your versatility, but be sure that you are only linking posts that are relevant to your current subject, though linking to a post about pigs in a post about politics may be humorous, someone reading about politics probably has no interest in ‘the basics of pig farming’.

The most basic strategy for getting your writing the attention it deserves is by being bold. Using bold text to highlight information pulls the reader’s eye to the point you want to highlight. It is a ‘tried and true’ method that is easily accomplished without much effort.

Lastly you must remember to edit your writing with an open mind. Once you have written your piece read over it with an open mind; Are you highlighting the most important information? Is it easily gathered for the ‘info scanners’ of the world? Are your readers able to quickly get the basics of your piece without having to deal with the details right off the hop? If you can not decide for yourself than have a friend read over your content and decide how informative it is, and how quickly you are providing information. Remember that most readers don’t have much time, you want to make your point clear and provide your information quickly if you want your readers to feel compelled to read deeper, always remember the ‘busy mind’ and you will attract the audience your writing deserves.

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Quick Tips To Improve Your Writing Right Now!

March 15, 2011

ChaseK8 Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Every writer, big or small, wants to improve their writing. It’s part of the joy and excitement that writing entails, there is always a way to grow or improve. The most commonly given advice to anyone who hopes to develop their skills is simply to write, and write, and write, and write some more.

While this is very truthful, and useful, advice there are a few tips that can help enhance your writing right now;

  1. Get to the point – No matter what style of writing you prefer it is best to make your point clear as quickly as possible. If you can not express yourself clearly in a few words you run the risk of losing your reader along the way. This is not to say that everything you write should be a short, concise piece with minimal word usage, description is a great thing, but when you have taken the time to write seven lines of detailed description before even touching your topic, character, or position chances are your reader will either bore, or be confused, and simply give up reading. Be sure that your point is clear before you start to elaborate on it further. Remember those lessons in English class about having a topic sentence for you essay? View everything you write from the same mindset to avoid wandering off topic.
  2. Use easy-to-read paragraphs – Keeping your sentences and paragraphs to a minimum length will help the flow of reading your piece. Readers are drawn to clear, concise, easy-to-read pieces. Aim for shorter sentences that will promote speed, as well as retention, there isn’t much use in writing something easy to read without the reader retaining any of the information. Anywhere between 40-100 words is the ideal comfort level for reading.
  3. Watch your tone – We have all experienced a misunderstanding with the tone of someone’s writing. I am constantly misinterpreting the tone of my hubby’s text messages, and this can lead to confusion, and even anger at times. It is easy to forget that your readers my not be able to clearly catch the tone you are aiming for in your writing, sure you know that you are being sarcastic, humorous, or serious, but you need to ensure that you tone is clear to others. The best way to ensure this is to edit , edit, edit, and have someone else edit for you. Get a friend to read over you piece to see if they catch your tone clearly and have them express how the writing makes them ‘feel.’ A misunderstood tone can change the entire view of your writing. Take for example the sentence:
    Stop That!
    Am I angry? Teasing? Giggling playfully? Your readers won’t know unless you tell them, don’t assume that they will be able to figure out your tone on their own, make it easy for them to understand.
  4. Get Personal – This applies to anything that you write on various levels. When writing a story get close to your characters, you should know them inside and out. Create a character bio sheet and create endless amounts of information about each character so you can answer any questions that may arise. You should know your characters better than you know yourself. When writing other styles it is sometimes helpful to use personal opinions, or examples to connect with your readers. If someone is reading your piece chances are it is because they are interested in the topic you have written about, it is often helpful for the reader to see that someone else has experience with the topic they are interested in, and it helps them to connect with your writing on a more personal level. This advice goes hand in hand with the ‘write what you know’ advice writers are often given.
  5. Consider your audience – In anything that you write you must consider you target audience. You would not use big, extravagant words in a story for children, or an adult tone in a piece for teenagers, you must consider who will be reading your writing and aim to create an equal tone. This will help your audience better connect with your writing, better understand your point, and make them feel equal. One of the most amazing talents of a good writer is to be able to connect with their audience, and make them feel like they are listening to their best friend.

Consider all these factors before you begin your writing, and create an outline of the goals you wish to achieve. It is important that your readers feel your passion, and connect with your writing in order to relate to, and retain what they are reading. Planning before you write is the easiest way to ensure that you achieve simplicity, and flow in your writing, and that you reach your audience with the clarity you need to get your point across. When it comes to writing practice makes perfect so write, write, and write some more!

Until Next Time….

Write On!

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The Art of Journaling

March 10, 2011

ChaseK8 Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

I wanted to touch base on the subject of Journaling as many of my friends and fellow writers have been discussing this subject lately, and I have yet to discuss it here.

Journal writing can be an excellent tool for writers, as well as on a more personal level. Journals allot you a safe and private space to explore new ideas, try new things, express your thoughts, and grow as a person in general.  Journal writing is an effective tool for many different issues that we face in life, it can help you to openly express your feelings on an issue without having to worry about what others will think, or about causing offence with your opinion. Journals can also be a the perfect instrument for teens as it can help to encourage a healthy body image, positive thinking, and strengthen self-esteem, it provides them with a safe place to vent their frustrations and think about their ideas before they take any action.

If you are like me you probably had a diary when you were younger, or even a few, journaling is the same idea as the ‘diary‘  on a more ‘grown-up level and without the awkwardness of talking directly to an inanimate object. Journaling is also more geared toward an inward focus rather than a log of day-to-day activities, it is a collection of questions, answers, musings, ideas, and thoughts on whatever area you choose to explore.

When you think of journaling what comes to mind? Do you see a hardcover book? A password protected file on your computer? A private online site that you can share with others if you desire? Are you more likely to use a sketch pad and doodle your thoughts than write them in words? Whatever tool you choose, it is important that you find something you are not only comfortable writing in, but something that inspires you to write as well. Journaling is helpful for encouraging regular writing, and thus you should choose an object that you enjoy using. Some people choose bold colorful journals, others prefer to use an inconspicuous binded book, and many opt for an online journal that is password protected, but can be personalized as required. When it comes to journaling it is about personal preference rather than what is right or wrong,

Here are a few things to consider when thinking about starting a journal;

One of the greatest things about journaling is the lack of format that is required. It can be a great relief for a writer to not have to worry about grammar, or form when writing. Your journal is a ‘personal‘ space, and so worrying about proper spelling and grammar is not a necessity, unless done by choice.

You can find links online that will lead you to many different kinds of journals, and you can start a journal for almost any purpose that your mind can create. There are journals for personal growth, business ideas, writers, artists, parents, children, music, travel, cooking, etc… any passion, thought, need, or creation can be formed into a journal. The possibilities are endless, it is another one of the wonderful things about journaling, as you grow your journal can grow with you.

People choose to journal for a variety reasons, for some it is a way to find their true self, get through a rough tine, look inward and sort out their desires in life, or keep track of their personal/professional goals. For others journal writing is simply a way to keep track of their ideas, or a way to regroup and relax at the end of the day. Your Journal is what you make it for ‘you!’

When you begin your journal think of ‘why‘ you are beginning, and ‘what’ you hope to accomplish. If you stray off this original path though, don’t stress, allow your mind to take you where it wants to go. You may feel awkward at first writing your thoughts down so openly, but just allow them to flow, don’t think about what you are writing, and don’t edit. Journaling is a lot like free-writing in the sense that you want your mind to lead you to the outcome, rather than your outcome leading your mind.

You can opt to use prompts in your journal writing as many people do, (this is especially popular when you are writing a personal growth journal) or simply answer your own questions as they arise. You can choose to deal with the issues you are facing personally/professionally, or just let your mind lead the way. As I said before, the great thing about a journal is that there is no right or wrong, it is all about ‘you,’ and it is a relaxing, easy way to learn more about yourself, gather ideas, answer questions, and personally grow from within. The only rule to journaling is that you must enjoy it.

For writers that are considering journaling it can be a wonderful tool for facing your fears, creating ideas, tracking your progress, or just venting your frustrations, You may find that the freedom of writing without rules stems ideas that would otherwise not be found.

Whatever your purpose in starting a journal be sure that you choose a form that suits your needs. Don’t stress about having to write, or needing to do things a certain way, simply enjoy the experience and use it as a tool for growth. Be honest and allow your mind to release the creativity it holds within, get to know yourself, and your writing, and be open to the discoveries you may find.

 

Until next time….

Write On!

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