“I try not to get analytical in the writing process. I try to just kind of keep the flow from my brain to my hand as far as the pen is concerned and go with the moment and go with my guts.”

Quentin Tarantino

Clearing the Decks

Do you ever sit down to write, or create, and you’re simply not feeling it? Your mind is either blitzed out and overloaded with a wash of nonsense such that we can’t see the nachos for the sauce or it’s just … well … blank. For me, the trick is to write something. Anything. Think of it as priming or oiling the creative wheels. We need to clear the decks and the decks are often littered with garbabe.

Once we’ve written our way through the nonsense we’ve got a fresh canvas on which to paint so to speak. One of the things I do with my writing is to have a daily journal. I do like to write on paper and I have a bullet journal but I do have a digital journal also. That way there is no excuse for me not to write. Because have you noticed … we have a shit load of reasons for not doing it most of them wrapped around the notion that ‘I don’t feel ready’. We need to be aware of our own limitations guys. Be honest with ourselves. What is it that stops us from doing the things we say we’re going to do?

Mining For Treasure

We need to pinpoint our weaknesses and set up little support methods for ourselves to counterbalance our tendency toward putting shit off. I use the DayOne journal and it is synced across all of my digital devices including my desktop. There are a whole bunch of journal apps out there but I find Day One to be the best for my purposes and it looks pretty cool too. Journal writing is a great way to get rid of all that nonsense in our heads and to pave the way for all the juicy creative stuff that’s buried beneath.

We need to mine for the treasure. It’s rarely on the surface. I think quite often what stops people from blogging or writing content or simply being creative, is that they wait around to feel ready, they wait around for ideas. If I did that … I’d probably create a piece of work about once every few months.

Keep it Simple

If you want to blog more or to generate more content for your social media platforms I would recommend making an agreement with yourself each day for three months to write for ten minutes every single day. Don’t set yourself up with an agreement you are not going to keep. I see it time and again at my photography workshop. Participants feel inspired and then they go back into their daily lives and they make agreements with themselves that are unrealistic like ‘I’m going to do a portrait shoot every day’ or I’m going to write for 2 hours each day.

Have you noticed that when you resolve to do something you are usually feeling inspired? And then quite often, the next morning, you wake up and that inspired version of you is no longer around. Instead, in its place, is a lethargic, snooze the alarm, kind of character who has no intention whatsoever of going for a run at 6 am. We have to box clever guys.

So keep it simple. 10 minutes a day is manageable for most people and for sure if you hit the ten minutes and want to keep at it then rock and roll. The secret is to make a start. You will be amazed at how much content you can create on a weekly basis with a simple 10 minute daily agreement.

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