Writing, Among Other Things

Category: Writing (Page 13 of 19)

Use Goal-Setting to Enhance Your Writing

Goal Setting theory of motivation is considered to be one of the most effective theories of motivation. We all need to stay motivated to go about the business of doing whatever it is that we do in our lives. But, more than anyone else, it is us – bloggers and struggling writers – who need to keep our motivation levels high in order to achieve success in our chosen field. How can we do that?

One way is to apply the goal setting theory to our writing.

The goal setting theory is simply about setting goals for our writing. But we already do that, what is so special about this theory? This theory says that our goals should have four essential qualities:

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Finding Ideas when you have none

If you have been blogging on a regular basis, over a long enough period of time, you must have had days when you have run out of ideas.  You cannot write a post, even if your very life was depending on it.  The reasons for this phenomenon could be many, but the existence of this phenomenon is undeniable.

Here are a few steps that could help in such a situation:

1. Prevention, I am sure you have heard, is better than cure. This may sound like no advice at all, but as far as possible avoid getting into a position where you have to search for ideas. Plan most of your posts in advance, so that there is no last minute rush – and accompanying panic – to come up with a blog post. Continue reading

First post of the New Year!

I know it is a bit late, but since this is my first post of 2009, I would like to wish all readers of NeoBluePanther.com a very happy and prosperous new year 2009.

Every new year brings with it lots of hopes, and it is because of these hopes that we make resolutions, and decide that we are going to change a few things about us and our lives in the years to come.

I am sure most of you have made many new year resolutions. In fact, I am sure some of them have already being broken. I know I have broken a couple.

But, I have a pretty long list of resolutions, and the loss of a couple resolutions does not matter much. However, my most important resolution is about writing more.  And if I am able to do that the results will show on this blog.

Hope, all of you are able to achieve what you set out to achieve this year!

November, where did you go?

failureI had two major things planned for the month of November. One was doing the Blogging Idol – II, and the other, as I had said in my last post, was winning the NaNoWriMo.

Unfortunately, I could not devote time to either of the two, which is a little sad.

But, as they say, the important thing is not how many times you fall, but how many times you get up after falling. So, instead of crying out about how things went bad, and how much I regret not being able to do what I should have, I am going to learn my lesson from my failures, and hope that I don’t repeat them again.

Actually, if I think about it, I can find many reasons for my failing to achieve what I had set out to do. But, most of the reasons would be mere symptoms. Digging a little deeper, it can be safely said that the one reason for  my failure was –  lack of planning and organising.

In fact, when people fail in any endeavour, 9 times out of 10, it can be safely assumed that it was lack of proper planning and organising that led to the failure.

It would be an understatement to say that planning is very critical for success. For a writer, it will be best if he has a plan about what he is going to write before he actually starts writing. This is true for writing a blog post, a short story, or even a novel. Sometimes, one can feel that writing is a creative process, and by having a plan for it, one might ruin the whole process. But, planning does not mean reining in your creative self; it just means that you take the time out beforehand to identify things like, what do you write best about, the time of the day that you write best, the time available to you for writing, the place where you are hoping to get your writing published etc.

Organising is no less important for success. Once you have begin writing – even with a good plan –  things may  still go wrong. Even the best laid plans have a tendency go awry, but if you are organised there is a good chance that you can still go on even after the original plan has failed.

Organising oneself can be done in many different ways. In fact, I feel, that each one of us has to identify for himself, or herself, the areas where one lacks, and then work on that area, till the weakness becomes our strength. Perhaps, in the posts to come, I will share with you my weaknesses, and my struggles to overcome these weaknesses.

Do you think you are an organised individual?

How is NaNo treating you?

We are halfway through November, which means we are halfway through NaNoWriMo. I hope most of you who are doing NaNoWriMo are going along really well, and come out as the winner at the end of the month.

At my end, things are not going along too well. The little graph below says it all :

I guess it is still not an impossible thing to do, but it definitely is going to be very tough to finish this from here on; Especially because, there are a few other things that absolutely need to be done in the next few days.

But, as they say, hope, one must…and that is what I am going to do for the next few days. Along with writing, of course.

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