Blog Post #401 for 2014 and writing in BEAST MODE.

So strange to think that this is blog post #401 for 2014. I hit 365 posts in September and have been slowing down since then which now brings me to today. I want to talk about my writing process and how I was able to get my these blog posts from my head to being published.

I don’t see myself as a traditional writer. I always enjoyed writing and grammar classes in school, but I never thought I would ever write as much as I do on my own today. This writing addiction came to me about 2 years ago and it has grown at an alarming rate. I’ve learned alot not only from other writers and bloggers, but also from myself. Our own experience is one of the best learning tools we have.

I don’t always follow this list of tips below, but they are the foundation of how my ideas are born and carved to something I am proud of.

1. Teach yourself to write in BEAST MODE daily.
   This is probably the hardest part, but once you can learn to write in BEAST MODE then your writing capacity will increase. What is BEAST MODE? It’s when you stop making excuses and just start writing. Your thoughts and ideas are up in your head, but they need a place to settle. Just take some time each day, even just 10 minutes and just start writing/typing down ideas. I even do it on my iPhone. Some will be less full concepts than others. When you learn to just write and get your ideas out of your head your mind can begin to see the missing pieces. BEAST MODE is shamelessly grabbing all of your ideas and just recording them. Heck a voice recorder works! Once they are there they have a chance to grow rather than vanish in your mind. It isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s better than not writing at all.
2. Clean up the mess that BEAST MODE made.
   Now it’s time to tidy things up and find the ideas you totally love. It’s time to find focus. Don’t feel bad if you throw away 95% of your list. I have 60 drafts of blog posts that I thought I would like and ended up never publishing. Work on your best ideas. One at a time. Throw those old ideas in a nice little folder somewhere so they can stop distracting you.
3. Make it personal. Tell a story.
   Now it’s time to make the idea relative to you. Why are you writing about this topic? Is there an incident that you can speak to that the reader can connect with? Create some depth that can capture a reader’s attention.
4. Refine. Refine. Less is best.
   It can be hard to take away from all the work you put in, but get rid of the parts that seem redundant or unnecessary. Loose ends can make ideas feel incomplete. Find the strands that you can remove to tidy it up.
5. Just publish.
   Perfection is the enemy. I hate that guy. What’s the worst that could happen when you publish? “Whoops! Typo! Bad Link!… etc.” Mistakes and errors happen. Just get your idea out to the world already. You can always fix what you write in this digital age you live in. You have less reason to be afraid to share our ideas.