If you spend ages in the pre-planning and trying to set up perfect conditions before your start a writing project, it’s less and less likely you will be able to create freely and without over thinking everything.

Over thinking will get you into all of those old patterns of

• who do I think I am
• why would anyone read my writing
• what if_________  you probably have a long list like everyone else

and those old patterns will stop you quicker than anything else. DO NOT let that happen to you.

If you do not want to write to make money then just write to get the information out of your head and onto paper so you do not have to keep it in your head. It clutters up your thinking and we get enough interference in your lives so encourage yourself not to let this continue to happen to you.

There are so many resources in that area in the navigation bar above so get started. Get the help you need instead of continuing to think you will get it on your own.  If you are not writing, you are stuck. The resources area will help you get unstuck and get going.

Read the first sentence again!   Capture first, edit later.

Stop trying to be a perfectionist and get going with your writing projects NOW!

Finding Your Inner Author

I am so excited about offering my complete series of creative writing exercises to help people zero in on the type of writing they want to do and to begin to write better in that area.  You can get your own copy.  Click here to get started:     http://www.creativewritingstrategies.com

Use the basic information and apply the type of writing you prefer to it to see if it could be a finished story with the changes you have made or are making.  For example: If a child liked to play with a father’s keys you could have a nice mystery if the keys became missing. You could build on the mystery as you gave the details of where everyone looked, what actually or in your embellished version happened and how the story was solved.

Keep the details of the original version intact and use your embellished top this versions separate so you are keeping the family history in place as you are borrowing the basic story to embellish.  Have fun and see what you can do as you are increasing your creativity in this manner.

Apply this to any type of writing you want to try and soon you will be enjoying your writing more, you may also find yourself wanting to write more.  Start with one or two areas first and then expand to other types of writing.

Give yourself a time to write and keep it to five minutes or under in the beginning.  You can increase the time when you feel  more comfortable with the shorter time.  Try the mini writing sessions on every subject you can think of and see which areas seem to be of more interest to you.  Turn it into a game and see if you can start and finish a story in under the five minute time.  Put a timer on and when the timer goes off put your pencil down and the paper you wrote away.  Allow yourself at least an hour before you go back and read what you wrote.  You can take an additional five minute timed session to change the original if you want to do so.  It may not need any additional changes.  The objective here is to see if you can write about a topic and have a complete story in the mini time frame.

It can be so much fun to increase your writing skill doing it in these mini sessions.  It keeps your project simple and you have to suspend your judgement because after all, you were timed and you only had five  minutes.  Your inner critic won’t have anything to grab onto so you can enjoy the process without the concern that it might not be approved by your inner critic then ultimately approved by others in your world.  What a nice gift you can give to yourself while you are increasing your skill.  Remember to have fun!