This posting is a guest post by Gina Cacace. Her writings, artwork, and musings on life can be found at GinaCacace.com.

I’ve been reading Laraine Herring’s Writing Begins With the Breath (Shambhala Publications*). It has a really interesting approach to creating an authentic writing voice. Herring uses yoga postures and an awareness of the breath to help the writer access the part of the self that is usually guarded by our inner critic. Her first chapter is on risk in writing. She explains that most writers guard themselves in their works, “The writer tries to play it safe, tries to couch what he’s doing in layers of deep, and often beautifully phrased crap. The reader spots this right away…” But that through surrendering ourselves to our experiences, we can become more honest and compelling writers.

I very rarely take any risk in my writing. My memoirs normally adopt a sarcastic tone in order to downplay the importance of events. In fiction, I have created numerous middle aged male narrators, whose voices are usually comedic but distant. In an effort to tap into a more authentic voice, I created a female narrator in her twenties who was struggling to write a story (very much like myself). The result is the short fiction piece All In.

Any writer that shares their work understands that most people will confuse the narrator with the author. This can be frustrating, especially when we’ve worked so hard to create an interesting and complex character. But we can’t deny the little bits of ourselves that we invest into our characters (and that is where risk comes in–the more you are willing to invest, the more alive your story becomes, but also the more susceptible you are to be judged). Most readers will understand that if the story was purely autobiographical, the writer would have labeled it a memoir (as a side note, what is wrong with people who keep releasing fabricated memoirs? Why don’t they just call it fiction and avoid all of this?).

This is not to say that we can only write narrators that share our same demographic information. We all know that there is something that resonates beyond age/sex/location in a story. But to get to that point, we have to admit that if the story we write is our story then we’ll be closer to the characters and the result will be more powerful.

My hope is that the parts of myself I invested into my narrator, Rea, will make her believable. I also hope that readers will understand that she has certain exaggerated traits that make her distinct from me. It is a relatively simple story about self-realization and the confusion of college. Sharing this story is the most important part of the process (although believe me, writing it was difficult enough) so I’d love to have some feedback.

Thanks!
Gina

*For anyone who isn’t familiar with Shambhala Publications, they’re the ones that published Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, another essential tool for supporting your creativity.

To thy own self be true

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. You have to truly believe the things you write to be found anyway interesting or a worthwhile read. You cannot be ‘playing a character’ in your writing, and expect success. Fakeness bleeds through the pages, and your readers will very quickly (either consciously or subconsciously) realize you are merely writing material to attract attention or get paid.

Don’t water it down

I’ve seen so many articles and entries that were 10-15 truly interesting paragraphs. The only problem was the writer had stretched it to 25-30 watered-down, bloated ones. I know you think writing more means you know more, or are informing the readers of more. You also would like to believe that the average reader is so genuinly interested in what you’re writing about, he or she would be more than happy to read 10 pages. They aren’t. Most people just skim long articles. If you want your readers to actually read your content, keep the word count down. Write it in 2 parts, if you have to.

Talk about personal experiences

Nothing screams unique and genuine quite like a few personal experiences peppered through your material. You not only assure the reader that you are genuine, and are interested in what you’re writing about, you instantly give them a “I’ve been there too” sense.

Would you take dog training advice from someone who never owned a dog?

Would you care what someone who never had surgery thought about the recovery process?

No, of course you wouldn’t. The same goes for any subject. The reader wants a certain level of expertise or experience in your writing. They expect you to have firsthand knowledge of what you are writing about, or at least portions of what you’re writing about. If they just wanted pure facts, with no opinions or personal experiences, they would look in an encyclopedia. You’re not that, you’re supposed to bring a personal touch.

Don’t read the competition

I know I’ve said before that reading other blogs or articles on content similar to your own is a good idea. I take it back. It’s not. You will instantly flood your brain with all sorts of ideas for new articles that are basically, at best, rehashed ones. You can read the competition, but don’t do so when you are actively trying to think of a new topic. If you write every other day, use the days off to read the other articles, that way they will (hopefully) not be as fresh in your mind when it comes time to sit down and write.

Conclusion

In conclusion, writing unique content and interesting articles is not rocket science. Almost anything you write will be interesting to someone. The number will go up if you have even the slightest amount of skill in delivery. Write about what you believe in, and don’t try to make every visitor happy. Keep it simple, stupid.

For instance. A new blogger decides to start writing. He is an avid baseball fan, he watches a game, sometimes 2 or 3 every single day. Instead of following the logical path, and blogging about baseball, he blogs about home improvement. Why? Because he heard there is more money in advertising on home improvement blogs.

He is destined to fail. He has set himself up, right from the very start, to write about a topic he has no real interest in. Passion shines through a passionate writers words, as does disinterest.

So, in conclusion and to make a long story short, next time you are considering a new venture…be it a blog, a job, a book or a project, choose wisely. Pick something you are passionate about, and would enjoy doing even if you made NO MONEY doing it. Get to work and before you know it, you’ll have a profitable project on your hands.

Passive production can be defined in the same way. Passive production is the art of working on a project without actually devoting any time exclusively to it. The pro’s of passive production are numerous, including the ability to get far more things completed in a day, since you aren’t dedicating any specific block of time to your project. Your odds of having a unique and interesting thought pertaining to the subject matter go up significantly as well, as much more time passes between the first line being written and the last.

Passive production can be accomplished in a number of ways, and in this article I will cover a few.

1. Jot and save
My personal favorite, and what I typically use; Jot and save is exactly what it sounds like. You write small tidbits throughout the day, either on an existing project, on a new one, or just general thoughts. You aren’t devoting any time exclusively to producing the content you are slowly assembling, so your labor hours effectively goes to almost zero. The only time you will have to spend is piecing all the ideas together in to one coherent chunk of material.

I find Wordpad works well for this, when I am near a computer. When away from my desk or laptop, I like to carry a stack of index cards in my pocket. Index cards work better than notepaper as you will be less inclined to attempt to write more than a thought or two on an index card. The idea is not to spend a lot of time, at a time, on the project. Just a thought, a quick jot, and move on.

2. Voice memos
I personally do not like using this method. I have known people that it has worked well for, but I find it more of a chore to listen back to my notes than to read them. The mentality is the same here, though, as jot-and-save. Keep your ideas brief, no more than 3-4 seconds. A technical note, if you are using an old microcassette recorder, make sure you leave a few seconds of blank air between notes. Neglecting to have any space between ideas can make for some difficult reviewing later.

3. Journalize
I have found this method to work well, but just be rather impractical. The idea is that you carry around a journal, a notebook of some sort, all day. You constantly write in it, organizing your thoughts in to separate sections or pages for separate projects or articles you are writing. The difference between this and jot-and-save is that you would want to write as much as you could at any given time. A paragraph, a page, even the entire article.

This would still be classified as passive production, though, because you aren’t physically devoting any time to the work. You’re writing while waiting for dinner, or in traffic, or at the bus stop.

That’s about it for my Introduction to Passive Production. I am relatively new to this myself, so I will likely be expanding this article in to a series as I have more ideas and experiences to share.

Search Engine Referrals: I use failed search engine queries from each one of my sites to write articles for those sites. Say, I write an article on “improving your self esteem through mantras”, and I see that I got a few hits for “a list of self esteem mantras”, I know people are searching for lists. So I research it, and try to get an article up within a week or two on just that subject. It’s a very easy way to see what people are looking for, and not finding, at your site.

Everyday life: A lot of my articles are quite obvious to most. Thing is, even the most obvious statement I can make, is news to someone. Things you have realized through trial and error, or just logic, at least one reader has not. Writing a quick entry can’t hurt. Your loyal readers that are not interested will skip it, and you just might gain a few.

Mistakes: One sure-fire way for a quality article is one about a mistake I have made. This is good news for me, because I make quite a few. Good news also that, more often than not, other people are making the same mistakes. Or better still, they are trying to avoid making that mistake, and find my article via a search engine.

Other blog entries: Lots of times other blogger’s entries give me inspiration. Either because I feel they did not cover a topic properly, did not present the conclusion or solution that I felt I would come to, or just didn’t answer all the questions. I never, however, copy content or direct topics from other bloggers. Neither should you. If you want to write a followup article, or a similar article, consider linking to the original writer. Consider also what you can add to what was said. If you have nothing more to give, look for another topic.

Just start writing: A lot of times I’ll open up a word processor and just start writing. Nine out of ten times within a few paragraphs I’ll have a great idea for an entry.

Well, these are my ideas. If they help you, I’m glad. If they don’t or you have any of your own, consider adding them in the comments.

Before Starting

Before starting to write your entry, and after choosing your topic, list between 15 and 25 concepts you would like to hit in your article. If you are unable to do this, choose a new topic. Your topic should not only interest your readers, but interest you. Passion is not something easily faked, and can be read rather easily in an article.

Outline

If you aren’t willing to sketch out a quick outline, you shouldn’t be writing this article. Take your 15-25 concepts, boil them down in to 8-10 solid ideas, and arrange them in a logical order.

The Paragraph Order

Sentences should be arranged in a clear sequence. Hasty thinking causes a lack of unity in your entries, and will likely result in a strange arrangement of your sentences. Be careful not to write as you think, in other words, don’t just write down ideas as they come to you and press Publish. Your mind is not set up to think in clear paragraphs, because it’s thoughts don’t have to make sense to anybody but you. Your entries, on the other hand, do.

The Paragraph Size

We all learned this in elementary school, but bloggers seem to have forgotten somewhere along the line. Make sure your paragraph is of a proper length and make sure you aren’t just hitting enter at random points. Each paragraph should have five or six sentences all related to each other. Start with a clear topic sentence, followed by 3-4 supporting sentences and finishing with a closing sentence that wraps up your ideas. If you have a layout with a small content area, as in not particularly wide, you may have to adjust this.

The Daunting Paragraph

Concerning paragraph size, we need to also remember we are not being graded for grammatical correctness. A long, daunting-looking paragraph that just breathes uninteresting is more likely to get a potential reader to move on than a short one is. If you’ve written a huge block of content, any more than 8 lines on your layout, consider breaking it up in to two seperate paragraphs.

Revise

Go back over your entry, read each paragraph carefully. See if there is anything you do not need, or a concept you’re pumping five sentences out of, but could be summed up in two. Try to boil down each paragraph. In other words, without creating run-on sentences, attempt to remove one sentence from every paragraph. If you’re able to do this, you’re over-writing. Either shorten the entry or choose a new topic that you can write more about.

Find a quiet place in your house

I tried this one, it didn’t work for me but it may work for you. I live in a one-floor ranch style house, there is no “quiet place”. Everything can be heard from every room, all the time. If you have a multi-level house, you might try retreating to an unused room on the least-used floor. If you’re like me, skip right to the next headline.

Get some headphones

You want noise canceling, you want big ear pads. The biggest, thickest ones you can find. Sometimes just wearing them is enough to drown out distractions, but I like to play white noise while I write, a good example of a perfect piece for concentration is Jon Wheeler’s “Drift” (MP3). Miles Davis also works well, as well as any instrumental jazz albums or compilations.

Drive somewhere, park your car, in the evening.

I like to drive to a local waterfront park, park my car, break out my laptop, and just start writing. Due to the limitations of my laptop’s LCD, I usually do this after dark. Anyplace safe will do, a parking lot or even your own driveway. It’s amazing how simply changing the sounds around you can help you to concentrate more. For instance, my dog barking is a sure-fire way to lose my concentration virtually instantly. However, hearing a dog bark while I’m parked somewhere does not affect me. I think it has to do with a subconscious realization of responsibility. Your kids are screaming, you know you’ll have to do something about it. Someone elses kid’s are screaming, you remain focused because its not your responsibility.

Don’t work for too long of a stretch

If you have kids, dogs, or live with other people, try not to work for too long of a stretch. Better you work for an hour and quit voluntarily, than work for an hour and a half and get interrupted mid-sentence. Complete your current thought and get up every 60 or 90 minutes and make sure everybody is content, then get back to work. You’ll also be looking at your writing with a fresh eye when you return.

I welcome any of your tips or tricks for working in a noisy environment, so please leave them in the comments below.

I was asked recently, by someone just starting up a blog, what they should do for inspiration for their entries. I’m pretty sure they don’t know about this blog, so I think they were just asking me to make conversation, but that’s neither here nor there. It…inspired me to write an entry on it, and here it is.

The simple answer really does sum up the point that I plan on getting to, so if you realize what I’m saying by “don’t” already, you honestly can stop reading right now. The way I write, what works for me, is not writing an article, rather recording a thought and expanding it with explanations to make it coherent to a third party. For instance, lets say I’ve made a change in my day-to-day ritual that I have found productive, and I think it would make for a good entry. I would do the following:

1. Write the idea down as simply as I can.

This past week, I’ve started drinking one cup of coffee in the morning, and replacing my second with green tea.

2. Consider (and write) my reasons for making this change.

Excessive caffeine has been causing me to feel jittery throughout the day.

3. How has this change helped me?

I feel a lot better, and it has inspired me to change other aspects of my diet that may be unhealthy.

Now, the simplest way to form this in to an article would be to take #2, expand it in to the opening paragraph. Expand #1 by explaining any roadblocks I may have run in to in giving up the coffee for the middle two or three paragraphs, and finally close with a paragraph based on #3. Obviously this does not work for all topics, and I don’t use it all the time, but its definitely a good tip to remember when writers block sets in.

Look for a much-longer Part 2.

A) Write furiously, think little. The best part about typing an article vs. handwriting it on paper is the ease of editing. You can go back hours or days later and clean up something you hastily wrote. I like to use this to my advantage. I write what I’m thinking, very quickly and without regard for grammar or typos. It doesn’t matter if it wouldn’t make sense to another soul, it only has to make sense to me. When I’m done, or I feel like I’ve more or less said what I wanted to say, I can go back and rearrange sentences, paragraphs and headers, to make it all coherent. Then I publish.

B) Write all in one. Don’t write your articles in seperate documents. Write them all together in one file. Often times I’ll write what I think should be two seperate articles, and realize midway through I can piece them together to make one longer, more in-depth piece. Nine out of ten times when I start what I think is a new article I have already, at some point, written a few lines or a paragraph on it. Sometimes its a thought or an idea I never would have re-thought of for inclusion.

C) Use lightweight software. For my initial first-drafts, I like to use Notepad or Wordpad. The lack of tools keeps me from being tempted to make page-setup and layout changes to my piece before its completed.

D) “Let it marinate”. It’s not my term, I picked it up from Lifedev. My interpretation of this is I like to save my document, close it, and wait at least an hour before reopening it and rereading it. 100% of the time I find changes I want to make, edits I think improve the article. It never fails. Your readers will wait a few more hours, don’t be impatient.

E) Stay focused. Some people can work with the TV on, dogs barking, headphones blaring…I am not one of those people. I find that if I have any distractions, I will spend about 75% of my time paying attention to them. The work suffers. Turn off everything, including extra applications on your computer. If you have a laptop, consider driving to a park where there is no internet connection, parking, and writing there. Use your laptop’s battery as a timer. I like to work until mine is almost-depleted, but then again I have a Dell, so that’s considerably less time for me.

F) Don’t be afraid to trail off. That’s why we aren’t publishing immediately. Don’t be afraid to trail off on to other subjects, you might wind up writing one full article and several snippets for others. My best ideas have been products of off-topic sentences in other articles.

In conclusion; these tips work for me. You may have varying degrees of success with them, but if you find yourself having trouble producing content, you might consider giving one, or all of them, a try.

Too many times when perusing the blogosphere I notice a blog with entries that just…don’t seem right. The sentence structure is strangely arranged. About midway through the page, I realize why. The writer is attempting to catch high-paying keywords on their Adsense ads, or certain queries on the search engines. What a terrible, terrible idea.

Assuming your readers are not quick enough to realize what you’re doing is a very bad idea. It insults them, and they’ll know it. Better to have 50 loyal readers, than a thousand one-time-wonders.

So, to thy own self be true, write articles that you care about. Forget about the search engines or the adsense ads. If you’re truly providing quality content, the readers will come.