You probably read that headline and thought—what? A word processor? Who even uses those anymore?

But what you might not realize is word processors are amazing tools, especially for writers who procrastinate.

Word processors allow you to do one thing and one thing only: Write.

They are distraction-free, which makes them one hell of a tool for getting your writing done. What a great way to get your first draft out of your head and down on paper.

I just happen to have the perfect one. It’s an AlphaSmart NEO*.

And I’m giving it away to one lucky reader.

All you have to do is answer the following three questions in the comments below:

1. What’s the biggest creativity challenge you have right now?
2. What’s your biggest health goal for this year?
3. What’s one problem relating to your writing, creativity and/or health that could use solving ASAP?

POST YOUR RESPONSE BY MAY 15, I’ll be randomly drawing the winner from all entrants that night.

What’s An AlphaSmart NEO?

It’s a cool word processor. Here are the features:

• It runs on battery power—and you can get up to 700 hours of use before having to replace the batteries.
• It’s wireless—since it runs on battery, you can take it anywhere you want to write
• It’s easy to upload the text to your computer—once you’ve written on the NEO, you can hook it up to your computer and transfer the text over for second drafting.
• You can change the font size and line count—custom settings allow you to write however works best for you

Why Would I Want To Enter To Win One?

Because you’ll get the following benefits:

• A distraction-free way to write—NEO’s sole purpose is writing, making it pretty much impossible to do much else while you’re using it. That’s what makes it the perfect tool for a procrastinating writer!
• Portability—since it uses battery power, you can travel with it like you would a laptop, only NEO is much, much lighter than a laptop and doesn’t heat up either.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and good luck!

*This AlphaSmart NEO is circa 2008; it was given to me as a gift, but I had just purchased a new laptop. I only used this NEO twice; it’s in perfect condition and works great. The newer models are pretty much exactly the same as this one.

This is a guest post from Jane Smith

As a procrastinating writer, you probably know full well that it’s not necessarily the scepter of “writer’s block” that is keeping us from our writing goals, although some may call it that. Writer’s block is more of a pervasive inability to put words on paper, a stunting ennui that may last either a few days or several years.

Most of the time, the biggest roadblock is just getting yourself to sit down and start. You have the words in you, it’s just procrastination that’s got you by the shirt collar.

For me, ritualizing the writing process is an incredible way to get you started.

Here’s what I do, though there’s a million different rituals you can dream up that suit your lifestyle:

1.    Have A Hearty (But Not Too Filling) Meal An Hour Before You Begin

Personally, I write best early in the morning, a couple of hours before I head out to my day job. I always have a hearty breakfast—eggs, bacon, etc—before beginning, with lots and lots of coffee. I try not to think about writing during my ritual breakfast.

After finishing my meal, I go out to the back porch, and enjoy the rest of my coffee, watching the birds and my dog play in the yard. I savor the peace and quiet.

2.    Read A Few Poems Out Loud Before Getting to Work

For me, the hardest part about sitting down to write is getting into “the flow.” While the “flow” is a pretty nebulous concept, for me it has more to do with the sound and rhythm of writing. And poetry is all about sound and rhythm.

Get out your favorite poems and recite them to yourself in the best poet-y voice you can muster. It helps and it’s pretty entertaining as well.

3.    Use A Few Different Methods for Physically Writing Your Work to Keep Things Fresh

Sometimes all you need is a change of scenery. Or writing equipment. If all you ever do is write on your computer, try using pen and paper instead or even pencil and paper. You could just as well acquire a typewriter from an antique shop.

By trying out different methods, you’ll see how much your writing changes when your physical tools have changed. It’ll breathe new life into your work.

These are just a few ways that I get my inner writing machine started. As you can see, rituals are always very personal, so you can adjust your own accordingly. Start with some that I’ve suggested and create your very own rituals.

Even if they aren’t necessarily effective, it still makes writing more fun!

What are your writing rituals?

About the Author: Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about free background checks for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com.

Image courtesy of matryosha

I QUIT MY DAY JOB!!

To celebrate my exit from the corporate workplace, I’m offering my eGuide, Butt-In-Chair for $9.95! That’s 50% off the regular price.

But hurry… discount ends March 31 at 11:59 p.m.

If you want to get on the right track and make writing a constant, deliberate act, pick up your copy of Butt-In-Chair today!

This is a guest post from Angelita Williams

You may have read a host of rationales and tips for improving and/or changing your writing style, but I’ll bet that most of them used your writing itself as the starting point.

Have you ever considered that you may be able to influence your writing by changing your reading habits?

Even if you aren’t directly inspired by the books you’ve read, you should know that you’re constantly drawing from their content on some subconscious level when you write.

You Write What You Read

When you’re enjoying a particular work of fiction, your creative mind tends to latch onto that author’s writing style, word usage, and methods of characterization. If you’ve been reading Victorian romance novels, for example, I’d be willing to bet that you’re writing would have an ornate flourish to it, paying particular attention to detailed descriptions of setting.

Alternately, I’d bet that a current reader of Hemingway or Faulkner would have an understated, minimalistic strain in their prose.

So if you’re unsatisfied with the state of your writing, certainly give it an honest appraisal, but also take a good look at the books you’ve been reading recently. They could very well hold the key to your writing woes.

The Books That Get Under Our Skin

Your reading habits could also be affecting your writing beyond mere stylistic influences. If you’re reading a moving story, it could affect your entire mindset as you write. A particularly wrenching and sad love story could be making your more glum than you give it credit for, and the consequences might be evidenced all over your recent drafts.

Think about it for a second: if you see a well-done dark and gloomy film at a movie theatre, its atmosphere stays with you long after you’ve gone home. Imagine what a book that you’ve been reading for days and days on end does for your psyche.

And this problem isn’t limited to sad novels: if you’re trying to right a particularly grave and serious work of fiction, you might want to forgo any P.G. Wodehouse novels or light beach reading because their levity will probably bleed into the mood of your work.

In an ideal world, you would keep your extraneous reading to a minimum while you’re writing, but for most writers that’s an unrealistic rule to live by.

Read to Your Advantage

You can also tackle your use of inspirational reading as a means of experimenting with new genres and narratives styles. In other words, if you want to try your hand at writing science fiction, what better way could you start than by picking up a classic novel by Isaac Asimov or Anne McCaffrey?

Reading is one of the best tools in your writing arsenal, and the sooner you understand its potency, the better off your writing will be.

How do your reading habits influence your writing style?

About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

Image courtesy of Jayel Aheram

This is a guest post by Bridget Sandorford of CulinarySchools.org

Banishing writer’s block isn’t just about using writing prompts and timers to get yourself back into the swing of writing. The type of writer’s block that those methods help to solve is more about having the motivation or the ideas necessary to make it work as a writer.

When you need to calm your mind or to focus on a single idea, those methods typically backfire because they just send you into a frenzy of writing without purpose. Instead, using physical movement can help to alleviate this type of writer’s block.

Take Short Walks

When you need to calm your mind, a quick 10-minute walk often does the trick.

Sometimes creative people can become anxious when preparing to do their work. Instead of writing, you may find yourself staring at your screen fretting about the work that you have to do.

Walking will give you the chance to put all of those thoughts in some type of order, determining what work is most important and how you will proceed when you return to your computer.

Do Jumping Jacks

Doing some type of intense cardio for a short burst can help to focus you when there are too many ideas floating around.

Jumping jacks aren’t the only choice. Jogging in place for 30 seconds or even sprinting across the room, as silly as you may feel, can help. The idea is to force your focus to move from the many writing-related ideas in your head to your body.

Once you’re done, the writing ideas should settle, leaving only one or two occupying center stage in your mind.

Stretch Your Body

Sitting in front of a computer for hours on end can makes your backs hurt and muscles get tense.

When you have a muscle twitch in your leg or slight pain in the small of your back, you won’t be focused on your writing because you’ll be thinking about the pain. When you hit this point, your writing suffers because you are only focusing on it for a few seconds at a time.

The best answer is to stretch.

Take 10 minutes and really stretch out all of your muscles. Stand up and touch your toes or do slow lunges. Lift your arms over your head and then stretch them to each side.

Get rid of those niggling physical aches and pains so you can return to your writing feeling refreshed.

About the Author: Bridget Sandorford is a grant researcher and writer for CulinarySchools.org. Along with her passion for whipping up recipes that incorporate “superfoods,” she recently finished research on culinary schools in Illinois and culinary schools in Orlando, Florida.

FOR MORE ARTICLES ON THE TOPIC OF
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
FOR CREATIVE PEOPLE, VISIT INKYBITES

Image courtesy of Tobyotter

Just wanted to let you all know that I launched InkyBites.com! I’m still working through some issues, but the site is live and ready for you to dive in. Have fun!

–jennifer

This is a guest post by Brittany Lyons

Each year novel writers have the opportunity to write a 50,000 word novel for the National November Writer’s Month Competition. Sadly, short story writers usually can’t enter this competition because it requires them to write one long piece rather than an anthology of several short pieces.

However, this year Lulu.com is offering an alternative contest for short story writers so that they can also challenge themselves to finish a project in November.

Lulu.com started the short story competition because many writers fail to write 50,000 words during the course of a month even though they start off with good intentions. Instead of letting all that creativity go to waste, Lulu decided to shorten the length requirement to 600 words and focus on quality rather than quantity.

The end result was a contest that story writers of all backgrounds, from those with PhDs to high school students, could participate in with a better chance of succeeding.

Unlike the traditional NaNoWriMo competition, Lulu’s competition offers prizes to all writers who complete their project. All participants get a coupon for 20 percent off of their next Lulu.com purchase.

In addition, participants who finish a short story and submit it to Lulu end up creating an eBook out of their story that they can sell in the Lulu store and on partner sites such as iBookstore.

Lulu has also assembled a panel of judges who will read all the stories and announce three winners in mid-December. The first prize winner gets $500 in cash, a Nook eReader, a professional review of his or her story and publicity from Lulu. The second prize winner gets a free Nook eReader and the third prize winner gets a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

Contest Steps
If you’re interested in submitting a story to Lulu’s contest, here are the steps you should take:

1. Download Lulu’s eBook template and plug your short story into it.
2. Create an account at Lulu if you don’t already have one and upload your completed story to Lulu before Dec. 1.
3.  Create a simple cover that includes the title, author and description of the book and use Lulu’s site to convert the story to an eBook.
4. Submit the link to your eBook to Survey Monkey to get your 20 percent off coupon

That’s it. Four simple steps and you’re done.

Thanks to Lulu’s contest, short story writers are not forced to write longer works than they are used to just to say they accomplished something in November. These writers now have their own contest that provides them with a finished project to sell at the end as well as a shot at some money.

Besides the monetary rewards this contest helps short story writers get in the habit of writing regularly enough to complete a project in a month, which is a skill that will last past the end of the competition.

What will you enter into Lulu.com’s contest?

About the Author: Brittany Lyons aspires to be a psychology professor, but decided to take some time off from grad school to help people learn to navigate the academic lifestyle. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where she spends her time reading science fiction and walking her dog.

This is a guest post by David Lazar of CometDocs.com

Everyone knows the old saying that “reality is sometimes stranger than fiction,” and this is why there are a lot of successful writers out there that base their stories on real life events that they have either personally experienced or have been informed of by others.

Looking to real life is one of the best ways to get an idea for a new story. Whether it is an event that has occurred in your personal life, a story you heard from a friend or even something that you might have seen on the news, real life events can inspire you to write and provide you with a good foundation for your next story.

However, it is important to know that, unless it’s an absolutely spectacular story on its own –– which is usually not the case –– there is a lot that you as a writer need to do in order to turn your recollection of a real life event into a fantastic work of fiction.

You’ll find that most stories based on real-life events are embellished and changed not because the writer felt uncomfortable with telling the story as it really occurred, but because, usually, the story just isn’t that interesting in its original form.

Here are some things to think about if you are looking to write quality fiction inspired by real-life events.

1.    Decide Whether Your Topic Is Worthy
First of all, you need to decide whether something is interesting enough to turn into a compelling work of fiction to begin with. More importantly, you need to see whether this real life event is a good enough basis for a good story – whether it has the potential to be turned into something interesting. Sometimes writers tend to be way too faithful to the original story when trying to write fiction stemming from real-life events.

Just because something really happened does not mean that you cannot embellish. In fact, embellishments are recommended. Sometimes the hardest part of taking a real story and turning it into fiction is being able to let go of the truth.

2.    Turn Everyday Events Into A Narrative
Even if you are telling the story of a person who has had a very interesting life, you need to be able to turn this story into a flowing and exciting narrative, because no matter how interesting someone’s life is, a day-to-day account of what they do is not really going to result in a real page-turner.

One of the hardest things about telling a real story is to try and fit the most interesting and dramatic events into the form of a narrative, making it a true story, with a beginning, climax and resolution, not just a journal of an interesting person’s everyday habits.

3.    Create the Details
No matter how great the story, it will not write itself. Even if the basis of the story is very exciting, you still need to work very hard on getting the details just right in order to keep the story interesting and to keep it moving along as a strong and entertaining narrative.

The problem with real-life stories — especially if you heard them on the news or from a friend –– is that they are all told in short. Fiction needs to be a detailed account, because you need to assume that the reader has no background or prior involvement with the story.

The trick is to write while being fully aware of the fact that you are writing for someone completely detached from the situation, with no prior references to the story. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and make sure that you build the story in detail and as thoroughly as possible.

4.    Develop A Real Plot
A fun or interesting story that you heard someone tell is essentially an event –– not a plot. The hardest part is determining whether or not this event has enough potential to become a good work of fiction. No matter how cute or funny you think the story is, it might not be able to carry a story.

Look at the event and identify everything around that event –– what led to it, what resulted from it, who was involved, how they were affected –– and then decided whether or not this has the potential to be turned into an interesting plot.

Can you imagine seeing a movie being made based on this event or does it seem like more of a sketch in a comedy show? If you see the potential to turn it into a feature film, then it might be a good candidate for becoming a strong work of fiction.

5.    Make Your Narrator Compelling
The point-of-view can make or break the story. The most important thing you need to decide on is who you want to have narrate the story. A lot of times, people tell a story as themselves, but remove their character from the plot, which tends to disconnect the reader from the story.

If you cannot develop the characters fully and are not able to tell the story whole-heartedly without including yourself as a major actor in the story, then don’t write in first-person. Writing in the third-person might give you a fresh perspective and more freedom to explore the characters, their relationships and the plot in general.

Remember, real life is interesting, but there is always room to make it a bit more exciting when trying to write a good work of fiction.

What tips do you have for turning real life into fiction?

About the Author: David Lazar is a regular blogger at CometDocs.com. With a background in journalism, he enjoys writing about and following a variety of topics, including creative writing, news writing, careers, technology and new media.

This is a guest post from Rochelle Melander of WriteNowCoach

It happens to nearly every NaNoWriMo participant. After a string of days when we amass an embarrassingly wonderful amount of words, laying down scenes and adding dialogue, we get stuck. We do not know what our characters want (heck, we don’t even know what we want).

We poke around in our useless outline, wishing we’d have planned a bit better in October when we had all the time in the world. Now we need to write something fast before we get behind on our daily word count.

Never fear, weary writers! When all else fails, borrow some handy techniques from popular novelists and watch the words pile up. Here are five ways to add words and move your story forward.

1. Explain Stuff—When you get stuck, give a character the opportunity to explain how something works to another character. In Scarlett Thomas’s novel, Popco, Alice Butler is a creative genius who designs toys for one of top toy companies in the world. While she and her colleagues are away at Thought Camp, Alice begins receiving coded messages. This gives Alice the opportunity to explain to the reader all about lateral-thinking puzzles, mono-alphabetic ciphers and poly-alphabetic ciphers.

2. Borrow Stuff-–In Lev Grossman’s novel, The Magicians, half the fun of reading the book is figuring out what pieces he borrowed from other famous fantasy novels, like C.D. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. Though Grossman changes the name, most readers recognize Fillory as our lovely Narnia. When you get stuck, borrow a character, setting or event from one of your favorite novels.

3. Do Something Different—Sometimes our writing brains need to stretch their creative muscles. Giving our brains a different creative writing task can help us overcome writer’s block. In Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Visit From the Good Squad, she wrote an entire chapter as a PowerPoint presentation. Other novelists have used letters, poems and other narrative forms to add variety. What will you try?

4. Send Your Characters On A Journey—In the imaginative novel, Swamplandia, by Karen Russell, the youngest sister Ava must travel to the darkest part of the swamp to save her sister. This is probably the most exciting and harrowing part of the book. When you’re not sure what to do next, send your characters on an adventure. It helps them build character and provides plenty of conflict and interest for your readers!

5. Look Back!—When a novelist needs to let the reader know about some crucial information, a flashback can be a helpful addition to the story. In Popco, much of the current story line depends on the reader understanding Alice’s past. Instead of using the traditional flashback, where the character thinks back over a past event, Thomas has woven chapters about Alice’s youth in with her chapters about the present. However you do it, adding in back story can add richness to your story and help you reach that word-count goal.

What do you do when you get stuck? What plot techniques have you borrowed from other writers?

About the Author: Rochelle Melander is a certified professional coach and the author of 10 books, including a new book to help fiction and nonfiction writers write fast: Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) (October 2011). Melander teaches professionals how to get published, establish credibility, and navigate the new world of social media. In 2006, Rochelle founded Dream Keepers Writing Group, a program that teaches writing to at-risk tweens and teens. Visit her online at www.writenowcoach.com.

View Image Source

This is a guest post by AmyYoung of HowDoesRentToOwnWork.org

If you want to excel at writing and in life, self-motivation is crucial. Staying motivated while working can be hard no matter what you may do in your job. So you may wonder how you can achieve a more consistent level of motivation.

I have come up with a few tips that have helped me stay motivated at work. Maybe, with a little effort, they can help you stay motivated as well.

Wake up Motivated
If you want to stay motivated throughout your day, it is important that you start every day with motivational thoughts. To make yourself feel good about getting out of bed, give yourself something to look forward to during your day and think of it as soon as you wake up.

This simple action can help you start your day in a positive mood and give you the energy you will need throughout the day. If you’re having a hard time thinking of something to look forward to, write them down the night before and look them over in the morning.

Sometimes, it can be hard to find anything to look forward to in your workday, but remember that your negative feelings don’t have to affect your whole day.

Not every day will be bright and sunny, but you will need to give yourself the right messages so that you don’t become discouraged.

Tomorrow is a new day. The past is gone, and now you have a chance to be better. Today, all you need to do is start.

Making these mental statements will help you improve you moon, and then you will find it easier to stay motivated.

Set Your Goals
Make a list of realistic goals. It may be helpful to limit your goals to three lists of three: three things you need to get done today, three things you would like to do today, but that can wait, and three things you’d like to get done eventually.

You could also make a master list of short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

Setting these goals every day and setting a deadline to complete each goal will give you the opportunity to physically see what you need to accomplish, and you will feel much better every time you can cross off a task on your list.

Also, tell someone about your goals. Actually saying them out loud will make them feel more real and achievable.

Review your goals as often as possible to remind you exactly what you want to achieve. It is easy to lose focus and get sidetracked when you don’t see your goals often. The more attention you give to a goal, the more motivation you will have to complete the task.

Reward Yourself
If you try to work for eight hours straight every day, you will probably go crazy. Rewarding yourself with breaks or a special treat at the end of the day will increase your motivation during the day. Your reward may be a night off with a movie or a play day with your kids at the park.

Use whatever will keep you going through the day and keep you motivated.

Put up a picture to remind you of the reward coming when you finish all of your tasks for the day. This could be the best way for you to find the self-motivation necessary to get through the day, but rewards can also be distracting.

A reward strategy has been proven to be a very effective way to increase motivation, but if you reward yourself no matter how you perform or give yourself a reward before you finish a task, it may just become another distraction. Don’t reward yourself for something you have not earned.

Without hard work and dedication, you will not be successful with a reward strategy.

Above all else, just have fun with whatever you’re doing.

If you truly enjoy your writing, you will be more likely to be able to motivate you.

Have a sense of humor, and don’t take yourself too seriously. A happy and healthy mind is the best tool for self-motivation.

About the Author: Amy Young is the author of articles related to business, working from home, and personal finance. The company she works for focuses on education for those looking for information on personal finance.

Note:If you’re attempting NaNoWriMo this year, be sure to sign up for my free 30 Days of NaNoWriMo Tips for Procrastinating Writers.