If you haven’t tried even one of my previous suggestions, I don’t know what to tell you. We’re on day five and it’s my last chance to find a method of inspiration to help you write your daily blog. You probably don’t want to know that I am not pulling my hair out with this assignment because I have trained my brain to just write what needs to be written. I also am here to tell you that writing gets easier with each little accomplishment, aka published blog entry. And, you have to begin building trust within yourself about your writing abilities and ideas.

Perhaps you have great ideas and lots of content but have some fear about your grammar and spelling. Sorry, that’s not a proper excuse! –aren’t you using MS Word or some other word processor with spelling and grammar checks before cutting and pasting your text into your unique blog entry? Look into your excuses…they are disguising the real reason you aren’t writing with ease.

Here’s tip number 5: Look to yourself first. In writing they always say that you should a.) write about what you know best and b.) write about what you are passionate about. If health is your topic of passion, add your personal health to the equation and see where it lands you. Inspirations for writing are alive and well within you. Let your first lesson in health for yourself be a guidepost for you. Tell people what it is about health knowledge that is the inspiration for writing your daily blog. If it isn’t clear to your readers, it probably isn’t your deepest passion and it probably isn’t the topic you know the most about. If this is the case, revisit your heart and mind and hit the restart button.

Side note: If you have tried one of my techniques for gaining inspiration for writing and it worked, please share your experience in the comment section. Thank you!

Here’s my fourth tip of the week to get you going so put your seatbelt on! Get in your car, truck, RV, bike or on a bus and head towards your health food store. We’re using health as the subject this week and I am taking you to your favorite store that pertains to your topic for inspiration for writing your blog.

You can take your readers on a tour of your health food store that you personally shop in and help them understand your approach to better health. As you go down the aisles, look for different things that would spur you on to write about them. Does a particular product make you healthier than others? Are the ingredients in your favorite product superior than others? What do you know about how your health food store is organized? Can you introduce your reader to one of the workers at your health food store in your neighborhood? My point is that you can share with us, your readers, your personal shopping journey and make us feel like it was our journey to our favorite health food store and perhaps by doing so, we will learn how to better shop for supplements or foods and be healthier.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables at a Market in Allepey, Kerala, India

On the way to and from your health food store that you buy your stuff from, I guarantee you that you will see and hear many things that will be of interest to your readers. What you think about and buy in your health food store will astound them. What about this: what would your ideal health food store look like? What would the customer service be like? Would the staff be any different? Share your ideas!

If an A to Z list and bibliomancy don’t quite create inspirations for writing, you can always try the YouTube Method for inspiring great blog writing. That’s right! Open up a new browser page and bring up YouTube. Since we are using health as the topic example, if you simply type in that word up comes…half a million plus examples! Now, don’t get overwhelmed, simply refine your search with a single word or short phrase. Let’s try homeopathy for teething. Four video examples came up for review. How easy was that?

Inspiration for writing comes in many forms. Could you write a review of the 4 videos we just saw on homeopathy for teething? What if you had your own experience with this subject and could tell that story or make a video testimony about it. Consider how easy it would be to make a short video and summarize the essence of the video in two short paragraphs? What about a short story using photos and text on the subject of homeopathic remedies for teething babies.

Baby Yokel - Dem aren't no front teeth on dis 4 month old...it's dem little ole homeopathic teething tablets.

Let your experience guide you. YouTube is loaded with videos on health that will get your heart and mind racing. There is enough content on YouTube alone that will take you through a lifetime of writing on the subject of health alone. You can also create a table of information on YouTube videos for health that other people could use as a guide or rating system. What if you reviewed each video in a category so that people could easily access the top ten videos of health? You’d be their hero!

If an A to Z list sounds too predictable –as in people might notice that you are writing alphabetically, you can always mix it up. Who said you have to start with “A” anyways? You really ought to go with the one that makes you passionate and excited to begin and not stop writing. “Take the easy throws”, that’s what my ultimate Frisbee coach always said to us; it was another way of saying “keep it simple”.

The second technique I will share with you to unlock your brain and get you writing again and often is something I call “Bibliomancy”. Bibliomancy is the use of books in divination. Simply open a book, hopefully a book that is on your topic, and start reading the paragraph that catches your eye. Using health as an example, I just so happen to have a copy of “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” by Dr. Mary Enig, PhD and Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation sitting next to me. I randomly opened it to Chapter 7 on page 134 and it is talking about “Health Recovery”. I read on and find it is very exciting and it is beginning to create multiple inspirations for writing that could easily span a whole month!

Take some notes, then discard your notes so that your inspiration for writing comes from your heart and mind with just the essence of what you learned. The point is to get inspired, not report on what the author of the book you picked up wrote; although, if you do quote from the book, be sure to cite it properly.

Happy blogging!

So you need some inspiration for writing. Who doesn’t?

Well, I have just the thing! This A-Z technique I am about to teach you can carry you through every month since there are 5 blogging days a week (22 to 23 days a month on average) –and 26 letters in the English alphabet. That gives you three or four letters that you can opt out of using, such as Q, X, Y and maybe Z.

Step 1 – Open up a new document in MS Word or whatever word processing software tool you use and make an A-to-Z list.

Save it as, for example, “December2009_AZList.”

Using the premise that you are writing a blog about health, fill in a topic or subject that you know about that starts with the letter “A”.  Continue down the list of letters writing one or two words next to each letter. Here’s a partial list to show you how easy this could be:

A – Vitamin A
B – Vitamin B
C – Cholesterol, the good and bad news, or myths about
D – Vitamin D
E – Eructations…eh, excuse me, I mean burps
F – Freckles and your face
G – Gout
H – Homeopathy, happiness, health, heart, hemoglobin, hair, HIV, halitosis, hormones

Step 2 – Open up your adword tool, such as Google’s and type in a short phase with your first topic, in this example, Vitamin A. The tool will respond with a list of popular search phrases that ought to give you some amazing inspiration for writing on your first topic. Remember to write on topics that have a search volume between 200 and 500. Here’s a sampling of the results Vitamin A gave me.

excessive vitamin A = 480 to 320 (current month and last month respectively)
fruits with Vitamin A = 390 to 320
foods containing vitamin A = 590 to 720 (a bit high but close enough to include in your text)
RDA of vitamin A = unknown to 210 (results are not calculated due to insufficient data and last months report)

Step 3 – Get busy with this latest inspiration for writing a blog entry! Your vitamin A blog entry has practically been written for you at this point…just remember to use one of those keyword phrases in your title, repeat your title and bold it in the body area, and use the keyword phrase in your 250+ word blog entry several times.

I’m never stuck for an idea so let me share with you how to get one. Ready? Look to your right, what do you see? Okay, so it’s a white wall. Gee, that sounds boring, only it isn’t. It’s a possible essay on walking through walls and the bones that were once found in a monastery’s walls in south India during renovations; a new entrance to your computer space with a secret latch and wine storage unit; or, a blank canvas waiting for a beautiful and colorful image to appear. Look down to your left. What? It’s just the carpet? Oh, my! It’s a jungle in there if only you put a magnifying glass on it. Write about it for a 5 year old as if you were sitting around a campfire and wanted to scare the heck out of them. Go look out a window…it’s the opening of a short story just describing what it feels like to be inside looking out. And we haven’t even taken a walk outside.

A creative writing idea is what you make of the simple things in life. The most elaborate writing ideas are merely the simple ones dressed up in words.

Walk. Stop. Examine. Let your nose touch something.

Run. Stop. Close your eyes. Recall what you saw for the police.

Sit. Close your eyes. Smell. Pretend you’re blind and write.

Dream. Wave your magic wand. What did you make?

A creative writing idea awaits you right now… Will you take it?

Present Day, 2009:
Dear Santa, I want a laptop for Christmas. Thanks! Love, Annie

Long gone is my darling little-kid typewriter that captured in black ribbon ink my limericks, jokes, short stories and letters to my brother’s telling them to give me my stuff back. Nowadays, I have different “tools of the trade” for writing. I use a text editor like MS Word for all my efforts before publishing so that I have basic writing tools available such as a spell checker, thesaurus,  grammar editorand more. I have a super fast machine that myhusband built for me from scratch for all myfilm, music, photo and graphic editing needs but it isnot road warrior material. I need a laptop since the world has become a mobile place and I am a global writer.

I decided I don’t need anything too fancy since I don’t want the temptation of being able to create anything more than a blog entry while on the road or check email. This means I can get something lightweight, on the smaller side, with less horsepower under the hood. I don’t want to weigh down Santa’s sleigh with an 17″ laptop with DVD player and burner. I think myneeds will make Santa happy this year.

The idea of being able to blog from the road is rather attractive. For example, I can put a laptop in the bottom of my baby’s stroller and walk over to the local cafe and work on post or two and when my “cafe Americano” is done, I can pack up and head home.

If you are going to blog and be consistent, you really ought to consider having the tools of the writing trade. This could be a laptop, proper software, ergonomic chair and desk or even a headset for taking calls so you don’t hurt your neck. (I am sure you don’t need reminding that writers must take care of their hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and neck to stay in the business of writing).  Once upon a time the typewriter was the essential tool for professional writers. Before that, it was a scribe. Before that a chisel. Before that a good memory for telling a long tall tale.

How professional do you plan tobe this coming year? Will you miss a blog or two because you’ll be on the road? Can you remember to set up blogs in advance?

Happy Thanksgivings With Love From Arabella

Heartfelt gratitude is effortless to express. It spreads across the heart region and pours emotion into every fiber of one’s being flooding the eyes and smile with the pleasure of being blessed. The real trick is turning those wonderful feelings into words that one can express to another either orally or in writing. It’s easy enough to feel gratitude, but writing it so that it sounds heartfelt and not clumsy or over the top is a gift.

I have read many beautiful and heartfelt expressions of gratitude be expressed to my mother over the years. Look to an older person who is incapacitated in some way who has a faith that needs nourishing on a daily or weekly basis and then consider how a small gift, such as a ride to church, can be a huge gift to them when they value being able to be part of a worshiping community. These lovely old people flow with the most beautiful expressions of gratitude that convey their soul’s deepest appreciation. And, they are most genuine.

People who say “thanks so much” when there is no warmth in their voice, no accompanying smile or other outward sign that says clearly “you have moved me” could use a little help in the Expressions of Gratitude Department. Maybe they like to leave people wondering…? Perhaps they just aren’t feeling very grateful and are just speaking the words out of habit. If you are reading this post and are one of those types, please add some more cayenne based chili to your diet and watch more “It’s A Wonderful Life”!

This year, in particular, I am most grateful for my daughter’s health and well-being. I am most grateful for the loving and positive thoughts that were sent our way, the uncountable prayers by thousands of people known and unknown. I am deeply moved by your compassion and caring. I hope my aura of gratitude reaches you when you least expect it…and when it does, may a big, warm and happy smile reach your heart. It is my hope and prayer that, in that heartfelt moment, you feel the depth of my gratitude.

Be blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Creative writers are generally at one end of the spectrum while technical writers are at the other. It’s somewhat like using artists and engineers to create a spectrum. It’s not to say that an engineer couldn’t be an artist of any sort, far from it as I have known and taught several engineers how to oil paint, but for the sake of this blog entry, let’s just look at creative writing and how you need it to help your blog be fresh and engaging and perhaps remove some “blog writer’s block”.

Straight out of Wikipedia.org is this creative writing definition:

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well.

All right, maybe that wasn’t very helpful and I suggest you read the rest of their page as it is loaded with the “dreams and imaginings of youth” and “English Literature departments” and so forth.  The main idea of the above definition is to show how wide a net can be cast on the subject of creative writing. Where do you fit in? I’m definitely fiction and non-fiction, novels, short stories and play- and screenwriting although I have yet to be formally published. (Psssst! I’ll be blogging in the future about my self-publishing experiences).

Even if your blog is technical, creative writing can round out the dry material with juicy comments and you can use humor to lighten the boring material and make you more memorable. After all, people return to blogs that have short stories that are well crafted, engaging –perhaps entertaining and/or contain useful information. (Creative writing can even be done without words by using images only –and that I would call story boarding which could only be created by a mind that has strong creative writing skills and great storytelling abilities. Check out Squidoo for some cool storyboarding if you are looking for something to write about or be inspired by.)

Most people who blog are approaching their website content from the “creative writing blog” standpoint without realizing it. It is important that you become aware of this so that you can constantly seize fresh material with zeal and write new posts with urgency.

If you find you experience writer’s block, do not worry! Just remembering that you are a creative writer is all you need to get you in the spirit of things. Try these 7 tips the next time you get stuck: (Remember to keep your answers short and positive, not sassy and negative)

1.) Read a creative writing definition or two on the web or in a dictionary.
2.) Write down the ways that you are a creative writer.
3.) Write about why you think you are stuck, even if you think it isn’t productive.
4.) Write about the purpose of your blog.
5.) Write about how it feels to have to forgive the reason why you think you are stuck even if this makes you angry. This generally will clear the block.  If you think you can’t do this step, write about how it will feel to be stuck with the feeling of writer’s block forever.
6.) Write this affirmation down and say it out loud as a test of your willingness to forge ahead: “I allow myself to have and enjoy all good things.” (I’ll be curious…did you sigh? Yawn? Feel emotions come up when you said this? That’s the best sign that the block is releasing!)
7.) Remember that “all things exist in time and space” and that the blog entry that you desire already exists and is waiting for you to remember it. Perhaps when you think about this concept, you can simply express gratitude that you know this little known fact and reclaim some peace of mind.

My own creative writing definition is this:

Creative Writing allows me to have permission to write what I feel, what I think, what I want, what I need, what I love or hate; at any time, any place, with or without anyone present –or any thing; and, it is okay to use any words or images in any sentence or paragraph without grammar, spelling, punctuation or writing rules, other mind trips or head games to stop me. I believe I have a gift for creative writing because I have Irish genes in me. I think the storytelling gene is part and parcel to the DNA package. 

All my creative best…

BONUS POINTS: What’s your creative writing definition? –or how do you solve writer’s block?

As a creative writing teacher with a set curriculum to follow, she would find ways to make class less boring and I for one appreciated this, especially before lunch when I was running low on energy to fuel my brain. If the clicking of her heels on the hard linoleum, as she paced up and down the desk aisles wasn’t enough to keep me awake, she would call on me to elaborate a point. (I could always be counted on in English class to talk…it’s an Irish thing). This method of calling on the unsuspecting student was a secret weapon for most teachers. She would force us to get creative with our answers when floundering for an intelligent reply to her question. Even guessing produces creativity. She certainly showed her cleverness when she would take our really lame answers and build something out of them to spare us some shame.

I doubt that I will be the best creative writing teacher you ever had, but if you begin to look at how you are writing your blog with some desire to be writing even just a wee bit differently, I’ll take that as a compliment.

Now, go do and be your creative best!