This is a guest post by Alex B. Broadway

Obviously I can’t tell you how to write. Nobody can do that. It’s like trying to tell someone how to breathe or blink their eyes.

What I can tell you is how to make writing easier for you.

If you think it takes talent to write, you’re half right. Talent has to be there, but talent is only half the battle.

Talent is something everyone has in them. Heck, talent is something you can buy at the local corner shop for a few cents. It’s hard work that separates those who want to write from those who can.

Here are 8 tips to help you get started:

• Write something. Every day. Status messages on Facebook, Tweets and angry letters to the electrical company don’t count. Even if it’s just a few hundred words on a random topic or a sentence that describes something you saw today. Nothing written is ever a waste.
• Don’t erase what you’ve written, no matter how awful you think it is. Like I just said, nothing written is a waste. You could always rewrite it once you’re done or if it’s that awful just shove it in the bottom of a drawer and forget about it, but never get rid of it.
• Never write for money. People who make a living with their work will argue with me on this, but I stand by it. If I write for the sake of writing, I write at an extreme pace and my work is always better than the last, but the moment I start writing with the sole purpose of trying to make a quick buck I experience a block that lasts for weeks. Write for the sake of writing, not for the sake of money. It only deadens your creative spirit and sucks the life out of your work.
• Eliminate distractions when you write. This is a pretty old tip, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. No matter how many times the neighbor calls today or how badly you want to watch that show on television, once you’re sitting down to write, do it. Giving in to constant distractions will later lead to an endless cycle of procrastination.
• Write anything down immediately. If I get the urge to write I have to do it the moment the idea pops into my head. If I don’t the idea will fade in a while and I’ll never get around to putting it onto paper. You could keep a notebook with you and jot down the basics or just the opening paragraph. Keep a Dictaphone and record it. Save it on your phone. Just don’t let an idea wait until later because it’s hard to recapture that initial flair.
• Get your environment right, but don’t push it. I can’t write when my desk is a mess. I have to clean it up before I start, and most writers have some sort of ritual before they start writing (and I’m sure something popped into your head right now).  Do your pre-writing ritual if it makes you comfortable, but don’t let it turn into a three hour session of “I have to do this before I can write because…” that keeps you from doing it.
• Don’t show your work to anyone until it’s done. This might not work for everyone, but it works for me. Showing an unfinished piece of work to someone creates an expectation that I suddenly realize I can’t meet. As soon as it’s finished I’ll usually send a copy to a close friend so that I can get an opinion, but until then only I get to see it.
• Ignore the critics. Even if you achieve success as a writer there will always be someone who says, “I hate this piece of writing.” Some people are tactful about it and others are just plain blunt. It doesn’t matter. Take creative criticism, anything else you can take with a pinch of salt.

This isn’t a failsafe way towards knowing how to write, but it’ll keep you focused and motivated to continue. Don’t stop writing.

What tips do you have to get started–and stick with–writing?

About The Author: Alex B Broadway is a South African author. His contributions have been published in numerous magazines, including Lyne and the Afrikaans literary e-zine LitNet. Visit his blog at http://alexbbroadway.blogspot.com.

Note: I’m on a blogging break until September. Each week throughout the summer I’ll be sharing guest posts from a different writers. If you’d like to guest post for this blog, send your idea to: jennifer@procrastinatingwriters.com.

Creativity can sometimes be a difficult thing to maintain. The reason? We allow our daily lives consume us. All the drama and negativity and stress and worry (etc.) of life clouds our minds, which in turn keeps us feeling “blocked” creatively.

Morning Pages can be a huge help—as I’ve mentioned before. But what if Morning Pages just aren’t enough? What if there’s so much stress in your life you need something else?

Then I highly suggest you give Morning Meditations a try.

Meditations are a combination of breathing and visualization exercises that are designed to calm your body and clear your mind.

Morning Meditations
When I was closing in on a year of writing Morning Pages, I started to feel like they weren’t helping as much as they used to. I felt like I still needed some additional mental clarity. So I turned to Lilou Mace, a law of attraction and meditation guru.

Lilou has created some of the most genius, mind-clearing, fear-removing meditations I’ve ever come across. The two that I’ve found to be the most helpful are the Quick and Effective Creative Visualization meditation and the Healing Meditation: Release Your Fears.

I do both of these every single morning. It only takes 10 minutes and the benefits can’t even really be described.

So far from doing these meditations daily for almost five months, I’ve:

• Gained clarity of mind—no longer is my mind cluttered with all the bullshit that comes with living life and working a day job.
• Improved circulation—all of the deep, slow breathing has improved my blood flow. Now my fingers and toes aren’t always frozen. This is especially nice on days when I’m typing for long periods of time.
• Quieted my mind–It probably won’t surprise you (since I’m a Social Media Manager at my day job) that I like to talk. That’s because my mind is constantly racing with things I need to do, say and take care of. These meditations have taught me how to quiet the negative voices and thoughts that are always with me. This is great for getting rid of the inner editor!
• Removed my fears—since I start every day releasing all of the things I’m afraid of, they no longer haunt me all day long. In fact, I’ve become more motivated now that my fears have subsided.
• My creativity was unleashed–I get ideas for blog posts, stories and all kinds of other random things throughout the day now. My creativity is no longer muddled by fears, which allows the ideas to come to me in a more clear, focused way.

There’s so much more I could tell you about, but you’re better off experiencing it for yourself. Once you do, you’ll never want to turn back.

How To Get Started
If you want to give Morning Meditations a try, just to see what happens (and I really, really recommend that you do!), here’s how to get started:

1. Find a comfortable, quiet place in your house—for me, it’s my walk-in bedroom closet. For you it might be your home office or your kitchen or the room under the stairs.
2. Grab a set of headphones and your iPhone/BlackBerry/Android/ETC phone that has internet access (and if your phone doesn’t have internet access, then you’ll have to meditate in front of your computer because these particular meditations are only available on YouTube).
3. Sit up straight in a comfortable position.
4. Listen to the meditations, starting with the Quick Creative Visualization meditation and ending with the Healing Release Your Fears meditation. (This is the order I recommend, but feel free to switch them around.)
5. Go on with your day—yes, it’s really that simple. The results from your 10 minutes of meditating will follow you.

Note: If you’ve never meditated before, you may have trouble sticking with it at first. It’s OK. Just do your best and every time your mind wanders, bring it back to the meditation. Eventually, you’ll be able to get through an entire session without losing your focus.

Also, if you’re a beginner, you may feel light-headed afterwards for a few sessions. This is completely normally and just means you haven’t been allowing enough air to flow through your body. The more you practice, the quicker this feeling will go away.

What meditations have you tried in the past? How did these meditations help you create what you want and release all the things you don’t want?

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is the founder of Procrastinating Writers. She is co-founder of the Better Writing Habits Challenge. For more great writing tips, tools and advice, be sure to follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Starting next week I’ll be on a blogging break. But don’t worry, I have a whole list of fantastic guest posts lined up for you. And if you’re interested in writing a guest post for this blog, e-mail me your topic idea to: jennifer@procrastinatingwriters.com with the subject “Guest Post.”

This is a guest post by freelance writer, Emily Suess

Before I was a professional writer, I was a peer writing tutor at IUPUI in Indianapolis. And before I was allowed to tutor my fellow undergraduate students in the University Writing Center, I had to complete a semester-long training seminar.

“Right now I want you write about your writing process,” my professor said. “What are your habits, quirks, tips, tools? Describe how you write from start to finish. What’s the first thing you do? The second? The third?”

In the moment, none of us Writing Fellows (that was our collective academic name) could quite figure her out. So before picking up our pens, we gave her a quizzical look. She rolled her eyes at us and asked, “How can you help someone else write if you don’t know how you do it?”

Defining the Writing Process
I started that in-class, free-writing assignment with the words, “I procrastinate.” And so did every other student in the room, as it turns out. Our professor chided us for being so unoriginal and smug about our writing.

She asked us why we all thought it was so cool to procrastinate. None of us had an answer.

Eventually she got me to see that writing was a process that was much larger than scribbling notes in a diary or typing term papers with a word processor.

My whole worldview changed when I realized that reading and researching, thinking about angles, talking about ideas with classmates or friends, and even pulling my hair out were all a part of my writing process. And some of those things started the moment I got an assignment.

For me the revelation was life-changing.

My process—my writing—actually began immediately, not two nights before the 20 page paper was due. “I’m not a slacker!” I told myself.

Are You Really a Procrastinator? Or Are You Just a Poser?
Don’t get me wrong. Procrastination is real, and it can be detrimental to writers. It makes stressful situations catastrophic, increases your chances of messing up, and just generally threatens your productivity.

But sometimes we writers are a little too hard on ourselves. Sometimes we call ourselves procrastinators when we’re not. Sometimes we get lost in word counts and page counts to the point that our obsession with the numbers is what’s really holding us back.

From here on out, try giving yourself some credit for the moments you spend looking for inspiration, for the time you set aside for creativity. Realize that as a writer, pondering equals working. Stop beating yourself up and use your newfound freedom to be more productive.

What is your writing process like? Do you do anything others might find unusual or helpful?

About The Author: Emily Suess is a freelance writer and editor in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a contributing writer at SmallBusinessBonfire.com.

If you would like to write a guest post for Procrastinating Writers, be sure to read our guest post guidelines, then send an e-mail with your idea to: jennifer@procrastinatingwriters.com.

This is a guest post from Tara Miller of PsychologyDegree.net

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all take a solo writer’s getaway to a cozy little cabin on an island in the center of a pristine lake accessible only by rowboat?

It would have a fully stocked pantry and refrigerator, Internet access, plenty of natural lighting, and a reliable computer where we could devote hours to writing chapter after chapter of that book we’ve been trying to write for years.

Best of all? No one would bother us.

While a life like that sure would be nice, it’s not reality for most aspiring writers. Many of us have full-time jobs that don’t involve writing, a spouse and/or kids chomping at the bit for our attention as soon as we get off work, and a host of other responsibilities.

We’ve got a hundred reasons not to write, but if we’re ever going to finish what we’ve started, we must eliminate reasons not to write.

Let’s examine those reasons:

1) “I don’t have enough time”

On some days, this very well may be true, but it’s rarely true on every day of the week. Unsurprisingly, this is often the same reason people provide for not working out!

There’s always an hour you can carve out of your day either early in the morning or late at night to do the writing you love. While an hour every day or every other day may not be ideal, it’s a great way to make progress on your book or freelance piece.

For the very few of us who truly don’t have that extra hour, we may have to cut some items out of our lives to clear the way for writing time that is, if writing is truly important to us.

2) “I’m too stressed”

Stress is a reality we all face, and to write effectively and preserve our overall health, we must find ways of alleviating this stress.

Meditation, prayer, positive affirmations, journaling about the things weighing on our mind and light exercise, such as a brisk walk, can work wonders in how we feel at the end of the day. Even 10 minutes of engagement in any of these activities can clear your mind enough to write.

For chronic stress or anxiety that keeps you up at night, consider speaking with a certified professional. Chances are a lot more than your writing is being affected.

3) “I’ve got writer’s block”

This is a legitimate reason many writers make a dead stop in the middle of their book or project. However, oddly enough, the best remedy for writer’s block is to write more.

While you wait for inspiration to strike, draft some character profiles for your novel or type up some research notes on the topic of your writing. Do some side exercises in poetry or draft a short story based on a flat character from your novel.

The goal is to keep the writing flowing until the next step for the book or project becomes clear to you.

4) “I’m too old/young”

Nowhere is it written that there is an ideal age for writing a book, launching a freelance career or transitioning to a writing-intensive career. Some of us may need to take a few courses in creative or professional writing to build up a rusty or undeveloped skillset, but there’s certainly no perfect age for writing.

And if Justin Bieber can write a memoir (albeit likely with the help of a ghostwriter), you’re probably not too young either if you can tell your story in a compelling way.

5) “No one will like what I write anyway”

You’ll never know if you don’t keep trying. Even rejection is a learning process, if you allow yourself to learn from your weaknesses. If you don’t think your writing is up to snuff, attend writing conferences, take writing classes and read writing that you consider excellent to hone your skills.

What reasons do you give yourself not to write? And how have you learned to overcome them?

About the Author: Tara Miller particularly enjoys writing about psychology degrees.  Questions and comments can be sent to: miller.tara23@gmail.com.

If you’d like to write for Procrastinating Writers, be sure to check out the guest post guidelines and then submit your post idea.

By Megs Payne

What exactly is the novel-writing process?

First, let us address what it is not.

The process of writing a novel is not the unfolding of your story. Setting, character, plot, premise—none of these have any bearing on the writing process.

It is not how you choose to write your story either.

Theme, structure, mood, tone are all irrelevant to process. It is not filling out note cards, outlining or engaging in mood-setting rituals. Tools are not the process itself.

The process of writing a novel is the process of bringing a story out of
the void and onto the page in a form the writer is satisfied with.

Or mostly satisfied with anyway.

There are seven main functions of the writing process: conception,
building, immersion, drafting, rest, revision and editing.

These are functions, not steps, because steps must be done in a particular order, and the unfolding of the writing process is as unique as the writer who uses it. Each novelist’s expression of these seven functions may be different and, indeed, may even vary for the same novelist from book-to-book.

Drafting is at the heart of the novel-writing process. It is the most necessary component, for it is the goal.

Drafting has two components that are inextricably interwoven: The first component is deciding the words of your story; the second is fixing those words in writing or on the computer.

The two components can be done in two separate steps, if preferred.

In my very first draft of my first novel, I actually played out words in my head while in bed, edited them, memorized them, then wrote the scenes in the morning. Drafting can be done as a single act, the words only coming as they are written. My first completed draft of a novel was written in this fashion.

Building is similar to drafting, but instead of deciding words, it decides the elements of your story. This too can be done mentally or on paper, inside or outside of the process of drafting. Outlines, characters and character profiles, languages and scenes you plan to write are all examples of building.

Just as there are writers who begin their novel-writing process by drafting, there are those who begin by building. Tolkien said once that his stories were created to expound the histories of his languages and the races who spoke them.

My own stories have always sprung from a premise. My current novel-writing project could not be conceived until I conceived a world and a set of rules for it to happen within.

You can build before drafting, while drafting but separately, in the draft as part of the act or after drafting with an eye to revise.

Many writers use all of the above.

Those who have never written often believe that all novels begin at conception. Conception is a unique part of the process that can come from any other part. Conception is the defining moment that turns the writing process from being just the process of writing to being the process of writing a particular story.

This is frequently the same as deciding the idea of your novel, but may also be deciding the theme, topic, feel, character, beginning, ending or climax. This defining moment can be difficult to pin down, but most writers can remember the exact moment they entered their novel’s world.

Immersion into the novel and writing process can be tricky and may have little to do with actual writing at all.

Writers have often listed rituals such as lighting candles, securing feline companionship or using a favored pen or typewriter as integral to their writing process.

The mind reinforces memory based on their concurrence with other memories, so writers can reinforce the mind’s connection to their story by always doing certain things while writing it.

Some writers choose a more literal form of immersion by reading through previously written material. This can smooth the gears to write what comes next or serve as a necessary medium for editing and revision. It is possible to immerse mentally by playing the story forward and back like a movie before writing and even to revise the course of the story in their mind.

As vital as the need for immersion is the need for withdrawal and rest from your story. Rest gives space for the subconscious mind to work through snags in your writing or blank spaces you have yet to fill in.
It allows the conscious mind to forget the written words and see it with fresh eyes when necessary. It lends perspective and enough distance to prepare you to part with your beloved words in the act of revision.

Revision is a time of re-envisioning your novel. It can be stopping and remembering your initial vision, altering that vision before, during or after drafting, or the generally understood process of envisioning how to get from the mess you have to the book you want.

Editing, though generally lumped in as the same part of the process, is another beast entirely.

Editing is the function of refining and polishing the words of your story until they have the sound and shades of meaning you want. It is fact-checking and grammar tweaking and pulling out your dictionary when the spelling is off.

Where revising is about the content of your novel and the elements of your story, editing is about the words themselves.

And when those words finally match the dream that came to you out of the void, then your novel is done.

Or mostly anyway.

About the Author: Megs Payne writes poetry, flash fiction and science fiction fantasy from her home on the Web. She is still a recovering procrastinating writer.

By Emma Newman

There once was a writer.

She worked hard, earning enough silver from her words to keep a roof over her head and food on her family table. She spun long ribbons of words for the merchants of the land, words that made the merchants lots of gold.

But the writer had a secret. She preferred writing words from her own heart, words that existed for nothing else but pleasure and delight. She loved writing stories.

But months and months went by without her writing any stories at all. There were merchants to write for, silver to be earned and a house to look after.

There was always something else to do.

This made her so miserable she resolved to consult the wise woman. This was no small thing; everyone was scared of the wise woman. She lived in a cave, wore strange clothes and, it was rumoured, never went outside in the daytime.

The writer baked a nice cake, gathered up her courage and took both to the cave. The wise woman was pleased by the offering and invited her in to sit by the fire.

“Wise woman, I need advice,” the writer said.

“Speak, and I will help you if I can. But cut me a slice of cake first, a wise woman thinks best with a full stomach.”

Cake was cut and the writer told the woman about her misery.

“What’s the problem here?” asked the wise woman, wiping at the crumbs on her chin. “You can write. Write!”

“But I never seem to get around to my own words,” the writer sighed.

“Put yourself first for a change!” The wise woman said. “It’s easy.”

The writer sighed. “If only.”

The wise woman frowned. Her usual technique was failing. “You write for merchants every month?”  

At the writer’s nod, she continued. “You deliver on time? You write well for them?”

“Yes, I have high standards. I’m never late.”

The wise woman scratched her hairy chin. “When was the last time you wrote something for yourself?”

“A few months ago, for a competition,” the writer replied, her eyes sparkling at the memory. “My short story won. There was a prompt we had to write to and—”

The wise woman held up her hand. “I’ve heard enough, leave this with me. Return in the morning. I’ll have something for you then.”

The next morning the writer returned and the wise woman was waiting for her, holding a bottle shaped like a tear drop in her hand. She held it out to the writer.

“Drink this,” she said. “The solution will come to you.”

The writer looked at it nervously. “What’s in it?”

“The exact recipe is a secret,” the wise woman replied. “But it has essence of accountability, a sprig of inspiration, a good few dollops of commitment and a dash of bravery. And cinnamon. That makes all the difference.”

The writer kissed her on the cheek and promised to bring a cake again soon. She ran home, drank long and deep from the bottle and fell asleep.

She woke with the answer glowing in her heart. “I know!” she gasped, hurrying over to the blank page on her desk. “I’ll start a short story club! People can give me ideas, opening lines and titles every month and I’ll pick one and write a story from it. The person who gave the idea will read it first, and then the rest of the members of the club can read it. I’ll be as accountable to them as I am to the merchants, they’ll get a story to read every month and I will be writing!”

And the rest is history…

Thank you for indulging me. I’ve been reading a lot of fairy tales to my little boy lately, and it seems some of them have seeped in.

So this is what my inner wise woman came up with when I was struggling to get around to my own creative writing every month: Em’s Short Story club.

The end of the tale above describes it in a nutshell, but I wanted to share the benefits of doing something as crazy as committing to write a short story inspired by club members every month.

Here are the benefits:

Accountability
Whenever my little procrastination demons get to work, running the club reminds me that there are people waiting to read the story. I have made a commitment and won’t let my readers down – and that is a powerful thing. At some point whatever is stopping me from writing becomes less important than the desire to keep my word.

A Pool of Inspiration
The club is now in its third month and I only pick one winning idea each month. Believe me when I tell you it can be hard! The people in the club are wonderfully creative, and I now have a pool of ideas to dip into any time I need them. I found that competitions with prompts always made it easier to write a story, and now I have many quirky and creative prompts there whenever I need them.

A Deadline
I don’t know about you, but it seems all too easy for a month to go by with no creative writing, especially when writing forms a large part of your job. I run a copywriting business, so I’m immersed in words all day long. The short story club has made me more mindful of time, and has ensured that whatever else I have done that month, I’ve written a story.

Know Thyself!
If you are good at working to deadlines in every other area of your life, find the thought of people waiting to read your stories to be motivating enough to beat the procrastination demon, but not so scary you get blocked.

Maybe you should make a terrifying commitment like I did, too.

If not, feel free to come and join in with mine!

About the Author: Emma Newman has a dual identity. By day, she writes B2B content for her business, Your Nisaba, and writes post-apocalyptic fiction and dark short stories by night at Post-Apocalyptic Publishing. Her debut YA post-apocalyptic novel, Twenty Years Later, will be released in October 2010. She is mostly made of tea and lives in Somerset, England.

If you would like to write a guest post for Procrastinating Writers, read the guidelines, then send me an e-mail or @ message on Twitter with your idea.

By Donald EW Quist

“Hurry up, we’ve got to walk Tofu,” my wife barks at me, holding up our dog as a reminder of my responsibility.

“Just give me a second,” I whine. My fingers hover above the keyboard readily, waiting for something.

“Donald, come on,” she says.

We sigh deeply. Together, in unison, we recite my maxim, “Just let me finish this sentence.” Her tone is mocking.

She shakes her head disapprovingly as she saunters off to another part of the house.

Writing takes time; time you would have spent doing something else with someone else. It’s unfortunate but it’s sort of the price of admission; the cost of doing what you love.

Making writing a priority means sacrificing face time with friends or that special someone. Often procrastination is a result of meeting our commitments to others.

We put down the pencil and push away from our desks in order to keep our relationships active and healthy, as we should. Like literary agent Nathan Bransford told fans of his blog, “No book is worth losing a friend, losing a spouse, losing crucial time with your children.”

What I’m talking about here is deciding what time is crucial, and accepting the fact that you can’t get things done if you’re cruising the bar with your friends every weekend.

You can’t focus on your writing if your significant other demands so much of your attention you’re scared to devote time to anything else.

There is a feeling of belonging that comes with sharing moments with the people we love. Too often that feeling gets confused with accomplishment.

You spent the afternoon farting around playing video games with your brother, shopping with your sister, watching an entire season of The Shield on DVD with your spouse; meanwhile the piece you’re working on hasn’t advanced and you’ll be struggling to find some other time to finish it.

Striking a balance between these two loves can be difficult, but remains entirely possible.

• LEARN TO SAY NO—Finding time to write requires having the strength to tell loved ones you can’t be available at their every beck and call. You need time for you, time to write.
• FIND FRIENDS THAT UNDERSTAND—Needy friends are not conducive to writing. Unless you plan to make them characters in your next novel or use them as case studies for the next BIG dating how-to-book, you shouldn’t feel so obligated to hang out with them. Make sure that your friends are the type that understand your commitment to writing and give you room to work.
• DON’T SETTLE—It takes a special kind of Special Someone to deal with a writer—a patient soul ready to deal with the fact that their partner spends just as much time inside their head as out.Make sure that the person you choose to be with understands your passion and encourages you to refine your craft. Try to find someone with similar ambitions who, instead of stifling your creative growth, nurtures your need to create.
• SCHEDULING—If maintaining a healthy social-life is important to you, set aside specific times to write. However, don’t be surprised if you run a little over the time you’ve allotted for yourself…

“Are you finished,” my wife asks, bending down to let Tofu off his leash.

“Yes. Did you already take him for his walk?”

She nods, moving in closer. “You’re finished, you’ve saved and everything,” she asks.

“Yes,” I tell her.

“Good,” she says, dropping a plastic bag full of fresh doggie-doo onto my lap. “You can take out the trash.”

About the Author: A freelancer for Media General, Inc., Donald E.W. Quist has written several special interest features for the Florence Morning News, the Hartsville Messenger and InnerViews Magazine. He is the recipient of the 2005 Coker College Write-On Award, and his creative work has appeared in Xcursions Magazine and ERGO magazine. Currently he is shopping for a home for his first novel—Young Folks.

He hopes to launch a website this summer. He invites you to follow him on Twitter: @DonaldEWQuist.

courtesy of Secret Tenerife

By Jennifer Blanchard

Procrastinating Writers has been growing every day, and with growth comes change. There are so many unique voices out there, and I want to share them with the world. 

Rather than write everything myself, I’m looking for guest posts.

Do you have a writing productivity process that works for you? A motivation tip? A writing tool you love?  A piece of writing advice to share? Then I’m looking for you!

If you’re interested in writing a guest post, shoot me an e-mail, or send me a Direct Message on Twitter (@ProcrastWriter), with your idea and a link to something you’ve written (if you can).

There are a couple guidelines your post should follow:

• It has to be helpful, informative, educational, etc.There’s no room for posts without a point on this blog. I work very hard to create content that is useful, and relevant to creative writers who are trying to overcome procrastination; I’d appreciate if you’d do the same.
• It has to be proofread. We’re human, so of course mistakes will happen. But what I don’t want to see is a post with typos, missing words, misspellings, etc.  Proofread your work. Use spell check. Read it aloud. Have another reader look it over if you can. The occasional mistake is allowed. Poor writing is not.
• Use your voice. As the great Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” Readers want to hear from you, not from you trying to imitate someone else. So use your voice. Write a post that shows how unique and creative you are.
• Be positive. I believe that a positive outlook in life makes all the difference. And that philosophy also spills over into this blog. You’ll never get anywhere as a writer with a negative outlook or attitude.

I very much look forward to hearing from you and using your guest posts to help creative writers overcome procrastination.