A Guest Blog from Mari

Happy Thursday to you all!

You are in for a treat today.  My friend Mari has agreed to do the blog for today.  She has her own blog and I invite you to visit her by following this link.

Now, let me turn this over to Mari.

5 Tips to Help Improve Your Writing and Achieve Your Goals

I don’t always write, but when I do, I do it in the most transcendent way.  Not really, but it is a great goal to strive toward.  This is something that you should do as well.  Have a goal, strive for it, attain it, and then share it with others.  Keeping those wonderful achievements to yourself is just selfish and people want to know how you progressed from start to finish.  Who knows, you could even become the next Stephen King, Chaucer, oooohhhh, even Shakespeare!  Are you game?  Do you have the salt to get from point A to point B like a boss?  If so, devour (not just read) these five ways that can help.

1. First and foremost, WRITE IT ALL DOWN!
2. Organize an evil plan of attack.
3. Start creating the magic within you.
4. Write until your fingers bleed.
5. Mutilate your obstacles and soar.

First and foremost, WRITE IT ALL DOWN!

You’re probably wondering why I’m yelling at you in capital letters.  It’s because someone once told me that “if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen,” and that little tidbit stuck with me and probably always will.  Have you ever noticed when you write something down, you have better recall of it later?  Writing things down improves memory and understanding and unless you have photographic memory, it’s best to start keeping a paper and pen with you at all times.  Ideas come out of nowhere need a place to call home.  Let your notepad be their home.  I cannot stress this enough.

Organize an evil plan of attack.

I have recently re-read Hugh McLeod’s Evil Plans and it is amazing.  It is a motivating force that exemplifies what it means to have goals and a well laid out plan to achieve them.

As part of your plan of attack you will need the following:

1. The goal you want to achieve.
2. Where you are right now in achieving that goal.
3. What obstacles can be in your way.
4. How this will benefit you, your family, your friends, etc.
5. Every single step that you need to take to achieve your goal.
6. The reward you will obtain or give yourself once you do.

Once you have a clear and concise plan laid out, it is time to start creating some magic.

Start creating the magic within you.

What magic?  I have none.  All out and anything that was there was crudely torn from me the day I realized Santa wasn’t real.

Let’s try something.  Think of the worst possible experience you have ever had.  Now that you have that painful memory in your head…write the sucker out on paper, squeezing out every single detail that you remember until there’s nothing left to write.  Lastly, begin building on that experience.

Write down what happened next.  Write down what you think should have happened.  Write down how this experience molded you into the person you are today.  The point is to create a stream of events that flows from an emotional and real place.  This is where the magic comes from…you.

We’ve all heard the saying about writing what you know.  What better way to start writing or create some imaginative destiny than to write about your own experiences?  When people read your words, they’ll feel the impressions, they’ll relate to the journey, they’ll yearn for the reality.

Write until your fingers bleed. 

Writing is a constant action of building upon ideas and moving story lines so that it compels readers to want more.  Lovers of their craft, masters of their craft, will go to extreme lengths to create their works of art.  It will hurt them, it will challenge them with every keystroke, and it will corrupt their sense of time and responsibility.

So, if you truly love this writing thing, as my friend Bill Holland has told us many times before, write until your fingers bleed.  Write until the knuckles crack in your hand when you finally stop.  Fall asleep writing if you must, but don’t stop!  Then when you have stared and stared at the alphabet in its infinite combinations, you’ll keep writing until other body parts start to bleed.  Unless you’re actually bleeding, then please stop and see a doctor! 

The fervor you have, as I mentioned before will come out in your words and the world will see you in those words.  They will know the story as if they have walked it themselves.  They will share it as intensely as you have.  This is your work of art, your masterpiece, and should be treated as such.

Mutilate your obstacles and soar.

After you have changed the fabric of time with your literary masterpiece, it’s time to move on to sharing it with others.  This is probably the most difficult part about writing.  Every single person on this Earth has a story to tell.  Some are better story tellers than others, but you know that you have a gem in your hands.  The competition is fierce.  The naysayers are screaming at you, letting you know passively that they have failed at their own endeavors and wish for you to join them for dinner.  The finances, the marketing, the socializing is too much to bear!  What to do?

Screw ‘em.  That’s right, I said screw ‘em.  Push past the negativity, the walls, and the hopeless and keep going.  Do not stop until you have reached your goal.  Destroy thy enemies with might!  Whoa…getting a little carried away here, but you get my point.  There are so many people out there ready to peg you down at first chance, but the biggest obstacle in your way is you.  You are holding yourself back every time you deny the chance to write.  You are holding yourself back every time you deny an opportunity to share what you love to do with others.  Stop this.  Move forward.  Soar like a bald eagle on the 4^th of July carrying the American flag.

Don’t stop!

You may or may not have been inspired by this, but I know I got you thinking.  That is a good place to start.  Think.  Think about what you want out of your life and go for it, but don’t give up on yourself.  Too often we allow ourselves to reason away our potential.  Yes, it will be hard.  Yes, it will take time.  Yes, it will get confusing, but it will be worth it.  Just keep going and endure to the end, my friends.

My thanks to Mari for some great tips and suggestions.  I’ll see you all again on Tuesday of next week. Until then, write the way you were born to write….oh, I’ll also have a blog post tomorrow…Friday…and my dear friend Christy will be the guest on that one…and then next Tuesday Melanie will be doing the posting…exciting times my friends.

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”