Ebook & Article Marketing, Ovecoming Writer's Block

What is writer's block?

Well, I just can't think of a single darn thing to
say. Oh well, I'm outta here!

Sound familiar? No! Oh, get real! We've all
experienced this phenomenon when we absolutely have to
write something, particularly on deadline. I'm talking
about. . . . .uh, I can't think of what the word is .
. . oh, yes, it's on the tip of my tongue . . . it's:

WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!

Whew! I feel better just getting that out of my head
and onto the page!

Writer's block is the patron demon of the blank page.
You may think you know EXACTLY what you're going to
write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears
before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.
I'm not talking about Zen meditation
stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of
blank.

I'm talking about sweat trickling down the back of
your neck, anguish and panic and suffering kind of
blank. The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish
of writer's block gets.

Having said that, let me say it again. "The tighter
the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer's block
gets." Now, can you figure out what might possibly be
causing this horrible plunge into speechlessness?

The answer is obvious: FEAR! You are terrified of that
blank page. You are terrified you have absolutely
nothing of value to say. You are afraid of the fear of
writer's block itself!

It doesn?t necessarily matter if you've done a decade
of research and all you have to do is string sentences
you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent
paragraphs. Writer's block can strike anyone at any
time. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our
own self-worth, but it's sneaky. It's writer's block,
after all, so it doesn't just come and let you know
that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had
your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses. If
you dared to put forth words into the greater world,
they would surely come out as gibberish!

Let's try and be rational with this irrational demon.
Let's make a list of what might possibly be beneath
this terrible and terrifying condition.

1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a
masterpiece of literature straight off in the first
draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure.

2. Editing instead of composing. There's your
monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder, yelling as soon
as you type "I was born?," no, not that, that's wrong!
That's stupid! Correct correct correct correct?

3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone
write, when all you can manage to do is pry the
fingers of writer's block away from your throat enough
so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You're not
focusing on what you're trying to write, your focusing
on those gnarly fingers around your windpipe.

4. Can't get started. It's always the first sentence
that's the hardest. As writers, we all know how
EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be
brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your
reader's from the start! There's no way we can get
into writing the piece until we get past this
impossible first sentence.

5. Shattered concentration. You're cat is sick. You
suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity
might be turned off any second. You have a crush on
the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party
planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more.
How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental
clutter?

6. Procrastination. It's your favorite hobby. It's
your soul mate. It?s the reason you've knitted 60
argyle sweaters or made 300 bookcases in your garage
workshop. It's the reason you never run out of Brie.

FACE IT ? IT?S ONE OF THE REASONS YOU HAVE WRITER'S
BLOCK!


How to Overcome Writer's Block

Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from
this article as fast as you can. Absurd! you huff.
Never in a million years, you fume. Writer's block is
absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be
impossible to overcome.

Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it's not that
easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and
listen. All you have to do is listen ? you don't have
to actually write a single word.

Ah, there you all are again. I am beginning to make
you out now that the cloud of dust is settling.

I am here to tell you that WRITER'S BLOCK CAN BE
OVERCOME.

Please, remain seated.

There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one,
pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you
even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate,
guess what? You're writing.

Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming
writer's block:

1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself.
(I know, that's a clich?but as soon as you start
writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend
some time mulling over your project before you
actually sit down to write, you may be able to
circumvent the worst of the crippling panic.

2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a
masterpiece in the first draft. Don't put any
expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell
yourself you're going to write absolute garbage, and
then give yourself permission to happily stink up your
writing room.

3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your
first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your
shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is
a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by
galaxies. It's even incomprehensible to the conscious,
editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down
at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and
blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over
your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a
fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but
instead, using your thumb and index finger of your
dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey
back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jump
in ? quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, let
everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or
your computer keyboard.

4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that
all-important one-liner when you've finished your
piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end.
Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it
over, the first line will be blinking its little neon
lights right at you from the depths of your
composition.

5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us
so many curve balls. How about thinking about your
writing time as a little vacation from all those
annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps
even a physical one, where nothing exists except the
single present moment. If one of those irritating
worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an
ugly bug!

6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your
research notes within sight. Use someone else's
writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or
on the computer if you have to.

Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from
somewhere?). Tack up anything that could possibly help
you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your
grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat
when you finish your first draft within sight ? but
out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing
that you need to write, and read it. Then read it
again. Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away.
As soon as it does, grab your keyboard ? and get
writing!

So Many Article Directories, So Little Time

Twice today I received invitations from article directory owners to join their new sites. In many ways I am flattered, but in other ways I almost want to mention that they have their work cut out for them. As an author of several hundred articles online [I expect to add between one and two hundred per month for the foreseeable future] I have some recommendations for article directory managers. If you are interested in learning what they are, please read on.

Benchmark Ezine Articles – My primary site for submitting articles is with EzineArticles.com. Why? Volume, service, article penetration, search engine optimization, blog, forum, email updates, site navigation, cutting edge technology, to name some features. This site is one that is highly active where authors know the manager, Christopher Knight, and hear from him regularly. You get the feeling that Ezine Articles is going places...and fast!

Ask Permission First – Some of my articles have appeared elsewhere, without my permission. I guess having over 400 articles online gives me extra special attention, perhaps more than someone who has 40 articles. Still, I must say that one web director who took my articles has apparently given up the practice and without notification to his authors. Let's just say I won't waste my time with someone who doesn't at least care enough to respond to my emails!

Distinguish Yourself From The Pack – Thanks to a new article software program that hit the market over the summer, lots of folks are snapping up this easy to use program and starting their own directories. Competition is a good thing, but a shake out will occur. If you want someone like me to take interest in your site, to direct my clients to you [I have plenty], and keep me interested, your site shouldn't even look like any of the rest of them. I am not saying you shouldn't use the new software, but please take it to the next level and make it work to the max.


Build Up Page Rank – Heck, my own site pulls down a page rank of 6. I want you to match my site's strength or at least come close. Some of the newer sites are not yet ranked and little or nothing has been indexed by Google. BTW, Google is it for me. MSN and Yahoo are alright, but Google rocks. After these three...nada!

Details, Details - The big picture of getting articles out there is great, but I like to see some attention paid to the fine details too. Ezine Articles has not one, but three resource boxes for authors to select from each of which contains information already keyed in by the authors. I know not of one other directory that has even one. Hmmm...

Where Are You Going? - Where is your article directory going? Do you have RSS feeds, submission agreements with other sites, unique features that are regularly being rolled out, etc. A blog where we hear from YOU, the manager, is highly useful.

There are other areas I am sure that I haven't covered. I am not singling any directory out and I do wish you the best in your endeavor. Perhaps as your site grows I'll sign up, but for now I am very busy writing articles and submitting to just a few select sites, like Ezine Articles. Thank you for allowing me to vent!

Article Writing: 10 Reasons Why The Discipline Is Necessary For Any Internet Marketer

The hardest part about writing, is getting one's self to actually start writing. Most writers usually hate to write but love it when they have finished writing. To be able to escape this process, what some writers do is procrastinate.

Having this attitude really does not get anything done. One of the basic reason why some think this way is because they are afraid to fail. They also put tremendous pressure upon themselves, thinking that whatever writing that they should do and produce must be brilliant.

The fact of the matter is that no writer, or person for that matter, is perfect. Everyone has flaws and having imperfections is the perfect reason why more writing should be done.

Discipline is important. Without this, nothing will get done or will get written. Having discipline causes any writer, especially those who write articles for the internet, to think clearly and go beyond his or her mundane concerns. When one has discipline, the focus is on the output and not on the ego.

Discipline serves as a guide

Having discipline enables anyone to think in a lucid manner. It also helps in coming up of ways to present the details and facts of an article. A disciplined mind gets things done easily.

Using a guide in numbering the characters that should be present on each line of a given article is an easy and controlled way to limit as well as define what it is to write about and how.

Observe how doing this and setting a limit to one's self actually helps the writer compose the article thereby avoiding awkward breaks in each sentence. When this is done, readability of the article is achieved as well as the topic at hand becomes a whole lot clearer.

Discipline helps achieve focus

There are a million things to write about as well as there are a million things to say. Having discipline makes it a lot easier to select a particular idea or subject. A general issue could still be broken down in sub topics and start from there.

The words to be used for such an article must also be appropriate to the kind of reader targeted. Once this is decided upon, selecting the appropriate mood, be it serious, funny, etc. would be a lot easier.

Having discipline makes it easier to break a topic down

If it is simply too overwhelming to write an article in one get up and go fashion, the only solution is – don't write it.

Discipline yourself to think of the article in easy and convenient small chunks. Take each idea as one paragraph. Then think of another idea in terms of another paragraph. Then, make a simple outline of the article as well as the issues and topics that will cover it.

Discipline yourself to just let go


Writing is a process. It is best that writing be not forced. Such an attitude produces an article that is stiff, unreadable and – most likely – unlikable.

Discipline yourself to just write
A lot of things could crop up inside one's head about the article one is intending to write.

It is easy to be distracted about other topics that could be included in the article, or other issues, as well as other subtopics.

It is best that one should just stick to the current topic at hand. Topics or issues that are off the main points must be avoided.

Remember that the objective is to write, complete and finish the article. Entertaining any and all forms of distractions will not be helpful.

Be disciplined to not edit --- at least not yet

In any first drafts, the key to writing completely is to let the ideas just flow. Editing must and will have to come at a later part. Editing is not part of the writing process, at least in this stage where thoughts really just have to flow, so let it.

Be disciplined to re-read and review the article

After the writing is complete, this is the perfect and best time to start reading it as well as reviewing it. First time drafts must be proofread. This is also the best time to start editing.

Check and find out which parts seem to lag. Is there any weak idea that needs backing up? Are there no spelling errors in the article? Are there any errors in grammar? Such mistakes must be paid attention to as it could distract the readers from the idea and point of the article.

Discipline yourself to relax

After writing, let the article stand or sit on its own. Get up and eat, sleep, read, watch television or simply get out.

Make sure that you spend at least a day letting the article breath.

Discipline yourself to re-write
Getting back to the article after a considerable amount of time away from it enables anyone to look at it with fresh eyes.

Check the title. Review if the sentences are complete thoughts. Delete or re-write what needs to be edted or re-written.

Well-written articles should be satisfying and not leave readers wanting to have more.

Discipline yourself to make the article known

After all is said, written and done, it is now time to send the article out. Readers should be appropriately advised where the article came from, who wrote it or if there is any link related to the article and its source.

In summary, discipline helps anyone, especially in writing, start and finish a task with a process that is methodical and one that actually works. All one needs is discipline to carry it through.

How To Write A Problem Solving Article

If you are like me then topics and ideas for writing articles about my product, service or niche can be tricky and getting started even worse.

You will probably know the problems people have in your industry. If you don't then you should find out by asking your customers or searching on the internet. Forums can be a great source for finding problems people in your market suffer.

Over time I have found that writing to a formula works well as it gives you something to hang your words on and breaks up the writing into manageable chunks.

The problem solving article works so well because you have the opportunity to show that you know what you are talking about and help the reader at the same time. You build a relationship and they are more receptive to purchasing your services or products as a result.

Here is a simple formula that breaks up the task of writing your article into simple chunks that will make writing your next article a breeze.

Generally there are two main types of problem solving article:

"How to Articles" (eg "How to write the perfect article")

"Tips & Tricks" (eg "10 ways to promote your article")

Make the title of your article compelling to draw people in. Also, try to make your title unique that way when you search for it in the search engines (using the title of your article in quotes) you will know that all the entries which come up will be for your article.


Your opening sentence is vital. You need to grab the attention of the reader or they will not read your article. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Did you know that...

How many times have you...

Here's an easy way to...

Next state the problem and make your first point followed by a more in-depth description. State your other points and go into more details for each.

Once you have finished making your points begin to wrap up your article with a summary and conclusion.

Finally you should end you master piece of problem solving with a call to action to get the reader to think or do something. That way when they see your resource box they are more likely to click on the link to your site or call you up.

Always check to make sure that your title still makes sense with respect to your article. Double check to make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

So that's it. Problem solving articles help you build a strong relationship with your readers (customers) and are easy to write when you follow the simple formula.

Now go write your article and watch your business grow.