Journal Writing and Books
As I said in my last post I have written in a journal for many years. Firstly handwritten in well-bound books, then on a computer file and more recently on my blogs (of which I have three – this one on writing, another on birding and a third on my travels).
I recently read an article about someone who doesn’t keep a journal in the traditional sense. She writes her journal entries in the books she reads!
One reason I stopped lending my books out was because when people borrowed them, they did not return them. I never saw them again. However, since I have become an avid reader, journal writer, and freelance writer, the most important reason of all why I do not lend my books out to others is because in the midst of reading them, they have become my personal journals.
She writes in her books – in the margins, on the top and bottom of the page, between paragraphs – wherever there is space to write. I’ve done a little of this over the years, and I often underline significant passages I want to find again. In longer passages I will run a pencil line down the side of the passage. I will also use asterisks liberally.
To read the whole article click here.
Increasing your page views on your blog
Darren on ProBlogger has a very useful list of 14 ways to increase the number of your Blog’s page views.
To read the article click here.
Related articles you might like to read include:
Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers
Do you understand your Blog’s statistics?
Michael Rock in his article “How to analyse your visitors to improve your web site” has a very easy to use list of what the different aspects of your stats mean, and why they are important.
You could gain a lot of traffic to your web site by simply looking at the number of visitors per month, but what do they do when they reach your site? Do they visit the pages you want? Do they leave shortly after arriving? What pages are they interested in? Etc. Armed with this important information you can tweak your web site to help achieve your goals. What good is it to have hundreds of visitors go to your site if all they do is leave right away or look at pages that are not important?
I found the article easy to read and understand.
Coming up with writing ideas
I generally do not have trouble coming up with writing ideas. Over recent years I have usually been in the happy situation of having far too many ideas for writing. Far too many for me to use. In fact I don’t think I will run our of ideas for several decades. Even blogging every day on three blogs hasn’t emptied the tank. On my blog on birding I’ve been going strong since early September 2005, while this writing blog and my travel blog have been in existence since the beginning of March this year.
A Common Problem
Coming up with new ideas for writing is a common problem amongst writers, especially bloggers, where the pressure is on to keep posting regularly, whether you choose to do it daily, weekly or less frequently. For non-bloggers there is often the pressure of publishers’ deadlines; to remain credible one has to write, one has to produce. Keeping fresh is the challenge. A dull mind results in dull writing. Coming up with fresh ideas is not easy when one is tired, under pressure or feeling that the tank is running on empty.
What can one do about keeping the ideas factory churning out material that is fresh, interesting, new or different?
Steve on his blog “Why My Blog Stinks” has come up with an amazing list of ideas that work – most of the time – in helping him keep fresh. He uses these ideas to keep the creative juices flowing.
In the past I have sat on tops of mountains and overlooked valleys. Some of my best poetry have come from doing this. Sitting on top of a mountain usually comes after vigorous activity, which is scientifically proven to stimulate the creative juices in your brain.
Other ideas he has listed are as simple as taking a brisk walk, having a long bath or reading an inspiring book. One of my favourites also gets a mention:
…traveling to new places can really help generate some ideas. I think change of scenery is sometimes a great idea to help look at what you are doing from a different angle.
Travel gives a different perspective to the daily grind.
Another one that I use effectively from time to time is not mentioned by Steve. In our cold winter months I love to go to my favourite comfortable chair, curl up with a good book and a cup of tea or hot chocolate in front of a warming fire. Nothing better when the winds outside are howling and the rain is pelting down on the roof.
Aiming for the Stars: to Boldly Go Where no Blogger has Gone Before.
Aiming for the stars.
Now there’s a lofty goal. Aim high. If your aim is too low, you might just surprise yourself and hit the target, so aim high. I set high goals with my writing and my blogging, as well as many other aspects of my life.
Are Your Goals Measurable?
An important reminder about setting goals: they must be measurable. If I say “My goal is to be a better writer” that is not really a goal. How can it be measured? It is a worthy ambition indeed but not really a goal. If instead I said, “My goal is to write a post on my blog every day for a year,” I’m setting a measurable goal. At the end of the year I can test that goal and say, “Whoops. Only 23 posts – bit short on that goal!”
Take a Long Term View
Setting goals for today, this week and this month are important in many aspects of life. For the serious writer and blogger they are crucial. Without clearly defined short term goals I tend to mess around with this and that and don’t really achieve much. Staying focussed is all important. It gets things done.
Too often though, I get too focussed on the immediate, and don’t keep a big picture view in mind. I read somewhere many years ago that most people, when setting goals, vastly overestimate what they can achieve in a month, or a year, but vastly underestimate what they can achieve over five years. Writing and blogging are long term projects. You can’t write a best selling novel in a week (well most of us can’t). You can’t have successful blog in just a month. Take a long term view. Be in it for the long haul.
Group Writing Project
Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has us at it again. This week’s project is on developing goals for a blog. Two weeks ago many contributed to his challenge to write about The Habits of Highly Effective Blogging. I’ve had some interesting and worthwhile feedback from my contribution here on my birding site and also on some follow-up articles on this blog. I’ve been thinking seriously about my long term goals with my blogs (I currently have three – see the others here and here).
Where am I heading with these blogs?
What do I hope to achieve?
What stars am I aiming for?
My Stars – or the blogging goals I’d like to achieve by the end of 2008.
- Posts: To have written 1000 posts in each of my three blogs by the end of 2008.
- Income: To have a certain level of income (not for publication) per month by the end of 2008.
- Plan: To draw up a plan of what I want to blog about over the next three years.
- Comments: To respond to all genuine comments from my readers.
- Links: To make at least one link every week, more if possible.
- Read: To read at least three blogs of other bloggers every day.
- Community: To develop a community of loyal readers of my blogs by engaging them in conversations through comments, links and emails.
- Accountability: To be accountable to myself (through regular posts, links comments etc) and to my readers (through traffic and comments).
- Content: To write posts that will be of interest to my readers leading to increased traffic to and comments on my sites.
- Enjoyment: To maintain a sense of enjoyment through all of my writing.
Wait a minute, I hear you saying. You’ve broken your own rule about goals being measurable. Some of these goals will be hard to measure, so they will need to be refined, reworked and modified as I go along. I need some thinking time to work through the issues.