Simple solutions to stress-free writing.
Hello everyone, and welcome!
I haven’t been quite as active with these posts lately as I’ve taken a break and done a little writing myself. But I’m getting back into this where I talk about writing, speaking, marketing, and marriage.
Today I’m again talking about writing. Specifically, some bold solutions for stress free writing.
Lily Needed a Stress-Free Writing Experience
Lily was frustrated. She had been writing on her novel for a month.
Then her friend Alex called and asked her how her writing was going.
Lily expressed her frustration at not making as much progress as she had hoped.
Alex said, “Well, why don’t you take a break?”
Like many of us would, she replied, “I don’t have time to take a break.”
Alex answered, “I don’t mean take a break for a week, maybe just an hour or so. Just take a little break. Clear your mind, relax, and come back and start writing again.”
Lily was doubtful if that would work, but after they hung up, she took his advice and she went out to a nearby park.
She started walking around and looking at nature and enjoying the sights and sounds.
After that much needed break she went back to her house feeling very rejuvenated, and she started writing. Then she wrote more and more, and it was hours before she finished.
Lily’s story reminds us of the need for solutions to stress-free writing. So here are six simple solutions for stress-free writing.
Writing is A Process
First of all, understand that writing is a process. It’s not just something where the perfect product comes out right away.
When you do this, you will be editing, and you will be perfecting the process.
Some of us are what we call a frustrated perfectionist. This is something that I have to deal with, but I have been able to learn how to do it. In other videos, I’ve talked about how sometimes I will just set a timer and start typing away. The timer forces me to get my thoughts down and move on instead of writing the same sentence over three times.
Just keep going. Later, as I look at what I wrote, I find out that many times that first sentence wasn’t so bad.
I might find things to shorten and tighten and things to eliminate and reword but perfectionism can keep you from getting anything done and will take a long time.
You need to realize that it is a process, and you will be able to edit after you write.
My favorite quote is “You can’t edit unless you have something to edit.”
Realize that writing is a process that there is improvement with practice. The more you write, the better you get. Then once you produce one book, you will be able to produce another one.
The second book will be easier than the first provided you do quickly enough that you don’t have to learn everything all over again. But you improve with practice.
Start With A Plan
The second tip for stress-free writing is to start with a plan.
Jot down ideas of what you want to write about. Then you can create an outline or you can create a mind map.
If you’re not familiar with a mind map, that’s where you start with a blank sheet of paper and in the very center of it, you write down your main topic or your working title and you draw a circle around it. Then radiating out from that circle. take other ideas that come to mind and place them in little cartoon speech balloons.
So you can write your first point into your balloon, and then you’ll have related ideas that will be subject points.
It’s just the main idea in the center and then you have some of the main ideas related to the main ideas coming out from the center.
Each one of those will be within a circle and then you will have related circles that come off of each of those main ideas. That will be your mind map, and then you can turn that into an outline.
Then when you get ready to write, you can use whichever one you prefer.
Eliminate Distractions
The third tip for stress-free writing is to eliminate distractions.
Get in a room by yourself.
Turn off your social media access.
Turn off the ringer to your phone and anything else that might distract you.
Then go ahead with your writing.
Take Breaks
The fourth tip for stress-free writing is to take breaks
I like writing in five-minute to twenty-minute writing segments. Sometimes I can go 50 minutes at a time, but I don’t recommend going much more than that at one time without taking a break.
Many people find that writing for 20 or 25 minutes and then taking a five-minute break turns out to be good for them. But be sure to take breaks just like Lily did in our story at the beginning.
Write in Small Chunks
Another helpful tip for stress-free writing is to write in small chunks. Don’t think about the overwhelming totality of your project, just figure out the little parts.
Just think about small chunks and write that.
Also. you do not have to write in order of your outline. You can jump around. That’s one of the great things about composing.
When you are writing, find what interests you at the moment and focus on that part of your project.
That will “prime the pump” for you and then you can go to other sections that are necessary, but maybe not as interesting to you.
But write in small chunks.
Use Software
The sixth tip for six simple solutions for stress-free writing is to use software.
You can use dictation software if you are comfortable with that. That’s one idea for using software.
Another one is to speak your book or do it in a video like the one above. Then you can take the audio and put it into transcription software where it will transcribe many of the words that you spoke. (Speech to text) Of course you will have to clean that up and you will have to edit it to turn spoken speech into written speech but doing that can be very helpful.
In fact, many of the blog posts that you see on my site at Randy’s blogs.com are first composed orally in videos just like the one in this post. After that, my team and I come together and produce the written blog posts.
Then there is editing software like Grammarly, which will help you with your grammar, your sentence structure and things like that.
There’s another one I am not as familiar with, but I’ve heard of it. It’s called Hemingway editor. You might want to check that out.
At the very least, use the spellcheck, check and grammar check that is on your word processing programs. Most of those word processing programs today do have that capability.
So, there you are: six simple solutions for stress-free writing.
I hope that this has been helpful to you.
If you would like more writing tips like the go to www.randysblogs.com.
For the ultimate guide to writing, consider purchasing my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.” It’s available in both e-reader and hard copy formats.
If you’d like to have me speak at your event, fill out the form here and I will be in contact with you.
That’s all for today. Until next time, I’m Randy Carney reminding you, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!