Writing

ASP 048: Patrick King on Copywriting and Book Title Strategies for Authors

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“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”- Jim Rohn Patrick King is a self-published author, dating coach, consultant and a front man of an eighties cover band. Steve …

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30 Surefire Ways To Bust Through Writer’s Block

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Are you feeling stuck and uninspired in your work as an author?

Have you extinguished that spark of creativity that lights up your imagination and ability to write with ease?

Maybe you’ve lost track of where your writing was going, or you feel like the well of ideas has run dry.

Writer’s block affects all authors from time to time, but knowing this offers little comfort to those who are currently experiencing it. It’s a painful, frustrating place to be.

Author and blogger Jeff Goins has narrowed the causes of writer’s block down to these three common culprits:

Timing – your ideas aren’t quite well-formed enough to be memorialized in writing.

Fear – you feel way too vulnerable to put your work out into the world to be judged or criticized.

Perfectionism – you need everything to be perfect in your head before you start.

Science fiction author Charlie Jane Anders says that writer’s block is actually too broad a term for a number of different creative challenges. She breaks up the concept of writer’s block in these 10 problems:

  • Being unable to commit to a single idea.
  • Getting stuck on one part of the outline.
  • Getting stuck in the middle of the story or concept.
  • Hitting a dead end because you took a wrong turn a while back.
  • Feeling bored with characters who aren’t doing anything or material that seems dry.
  • Being paralyzed by future imagined negative reactions.
  • Not being able to think of the exact right word.
  • Thinking the story or idea was great in concept, but now seems all wrong in writing.
  • Getting stuck while slogging through revisions.

Having an awareness of what your block might be can enable you to judge how best to proceed.

Fortunately, authors have a variety of opinions for busting through writer’s block. Just remember that what works in one situation may not work in another. That’s why we at Authority.Pub encourage you to try out many different strategies to figure out what works for you.

Some are practical, some are more creative, and some are a little woo-woo. Whether or not you believe in muses and divine inspiration, don’t rule any out until you’ve tried them.

The most important part is that you do something. Don’t just sit there staring at an empty sheet of paper or a blank document on the screen. Once you get the momentum going, you will be on your way soon enough.

Here are 30 ideas on how to overcome writer’s block.

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10 Simple Steps To Writing A Book (We’ve Sold One Million Copies Using These Steps)

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Whether you’re a professional, a blogger, a consultant, a homemaker, a retiree, or anything else — you can learn how to write a book.

Now before you think, “I can’t write a book. What would I write about? Who’d want to read a book I’ve written?” — please hear me out.

I never thought about writing a book either, but as of today, I’ve written more than 20 books over the last year 3 years. I’m not sharing this to brag, but just to let you know it can be done, even if you don’t think of yourself as a book writer.

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How To Become A Better Writer

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I write six days a week an average of 3000 or more words a day.

This writing includes blog posts, books I’m working on, as well as materials for self-improvement courses I create. That adds up to about 936,400 words a year.

According to Amazon’s Text Stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. So I’ve written the equivalent of over 14 books in the past year. (I actually did write and publish 8 books this year.)

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ASP 34: Expert Editing Advice from Team Writership

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Quote of the Day:

“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you, and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

– Arthur Plotnik

Today’s guests are Alyssa Archer and Leslie Watts from Writership.org, whom Steve has met previously. Alyssa and Leslie will actually be working with Steve on the book that he is currently co-authoring with Hal Elrod. Leslie does developmental and structural editing, and also does some proofreading.

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