Using Free Writing
First, go to your writing place or writing space. Get comfortable, get ready and set a timer or alarm for five minutes. Viewing a high-impact, graphic, photo, video or image to jump-start you to begin pouring out your personal:
o thoughts
o ideas
o feelings
o memories
o quotes
o comments
o problems
o complaints and gripes
o opinions
o questions
... by free writing them onto the printed page or computer screen.
It's Important Not To
For this technique to work most effectively it's very important that you:
o Don't stop until the time is up
o Don't edit what you write
o Don't re-write any words, phrases or sentences
o Don't spell check any words
... and never you mind the grammar for now. You'll get to that later.
Just free write whatever pours through the floodgates of your mind. If you free write for as little as fifteen minutes, you'll have a tremendous head start on producing an article or two in short order. Steve Manning, author of "How to Write a Book on Anything in 14 Days or Less" writes that most people can produce around two thirds of a page of free writing in just five minutes using only three keywords.
Then, when the first five-minute timed segment is finished, stand up. Stretch, take a few deep breaths, smile, and congratulate yourself. Now sit your butt back down, set the timer for five minutes and free write again.
Next, prepare a third and final segment of free writing using all the same criteria as with the first two free writing sessions. You should be much more relaxed and comfortable in doing this third free writing session after completing the first two successfully.
After that, when you've finished the third free writing session, go back and get a word count. This is simple enough when using MS Word for example, as you can go to the toolbar at the top of the screen, select "Tools", then "Word Count" and then "Count Words". The total word count will be shown. You should have anywhere from six hundred to nine hundred or a thousand words written. If not, you can always tack on another five-minute free writing session or two to get up to the word count you need.
The Final Clean Up
Finally, you can go back over your writing. Organize it into a coherent article. You can also do your spell and grammar checks if necessary. And if you want to touch it up or re-write a bit, then feel free to go ahead and do so. In less than half an hour, more or less, you should have two or three articles in the bag. Now that didn't hurt a bit, did it?
