Zack Lim writes:

Hi Marc,

Thank you for sharing this post as it gives a good reminder on staying focus.

It is a good idea to invest some time to think of a list of possible article titles. This works well for me as once a article is written, I will be able to go straight to the 2nd article and write base on the article titles.

Being in a good environment and be in a right frame of mind will definitely improve productivity.

Thanks for sharing this post. I will go and test it out :)

Zack

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Carl Pruitt writes:

Great advice.

The most difficult part of this advice for me to comply with has always is not stopping to edit. I have a near compulsion to stop and edit each sentence before I move on and that slows me down enormously when I give in to it.

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Robert Choat writes:

Carl,

I just hand it over to my wife and she’ll do any editing for me. Then we’ll go over what she had some questions on. Like Chris said, be the writer when you write. Enjoy the experience of it too – the flow state.

Bob :-)

November 3, 2009 at 12:20 AM

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Charles Savage-EL writes:

Hi, i have only wrote 1 article so far, i plan to take your advice,get focused,think about what i want to write about and write a long article and then break it up into several articles. Thanks.

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Gail Manishor writes:

I always just sit down and write everything that comes into my mind about the subject. I add different subjects at the top as I think of them. When I’ve gone as far as I can, I sometimes can make it into 2 or 3 articles. After I’ve written everything I can think of, I begin to rewrite, cut and paste, and do whatever it takes to complete the article. I never know how my book or article is going to turn out until it’s complete.

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Aramide writes:

I have been a victim of writing good articles but i think am going to try this out thanks for sharing waiting for more updates

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Sandie Barrie writes:

Great tip. I just finished my first article. It is important to review the editorial guideliness for submitting to EzineArticles. I am hoping I got everything right the first time.

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Susan Fuller writes:

Excellent advice. Mull, write, rest, and edit…and let’s not forget post.

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NUMEROLOGIST Michael Searles writes:

Great tips on writing anything Chris.
Something else works for me.
Between your steps 2 and 3 I sometimes record myself as if giving a talk on my topic to a live audience.
Doing this helps me to get my creative thought juices flowing freely. I then come back to the recording after a day or so and transcribe my own ideas using the keyboard. Finally, I edit what’s in front of me to create a polished version of what has been mulling in my mind during steps 1 and 2.
Michael

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Ric writes:

I totally agree. With no choice but to write all my own stuff, when I first started it took 2 hours to write one article. It wasn’t that great either. Now, as you mention you get a idea, visualize a article layout and in 20 mins or less there it is. Everybody has to find their own zone, as strange as it may sound after running (a mile or so) I find my best ideas are stimulated. During this time I visualize the title, subtitles and basic content. When I come home I immediately get it on your draft template withing 10 to 15 mins. I’ve recently considered a mini recorder to tape notes as I run.

Regards..

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Daan Theron writes:

Some good tips on how to write better. Especially the part about editing the article later and not while you are writing or even right after you have finished writing it. Nothing breaks the flow of words like correcting typo’s or spelling mistakes while you are writing.

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marcus writes:

Great tips. Since the creative process can leave you at any time it is best to write your articles back to back instead of stopping to edit each article after it is finished.

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Jim Taylor writes:

I too have the problem of editing while writing. I use notepad to write the first draft. That way I can’t edit. Other options are wordpad and notepad++.

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Sharon Clarcq writes:

Thanks for all the great tips! Do you have any suggestions on the proper use of keywords? Looking forward to hearing from you – Sharon.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Keep your keywords and key phrases to less than 2 uses per 100 words and the recommendation is 1 use per 100 words.

Here’s a training PDF we have on using keywords in the article title:
http://media.EzineArticles.com/pdf/ezinearticles/training/intro-article-writing-marketing-3.pdf

October 15, 2009 at 7:47 AM

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Zack Lim writes:

Hi Everybody,

I would like to share with you this free stop watch timer which you will be able to download to your computer.

Base on point number 3 where Marc mention about using the timer, I find this little downloads to be very useful.

=> http://www.online-stopwatch.com/download-stopwatch/

Note: I am not related to this website at all as I just want to share it with you all.

I have downloaded the timer which says bomb timer. Find it to be visually helpful.

Hope you will find this useful :)

Zack

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Marc writes:

Zack,

Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention! It’s a tool I use myself, but totally overlooked when I wrote that blog post. Sometimes we don’t see the forest for the trees I guess. Nice to know I’ve got some astute members watching my back. =)

October 16, 2009 at 8:34 AM

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Daan Theron writes:

I downloaded one of the timers and will try it out in the future.

Thank you for the writing tip.

October 18, 2009 at 12:55 PM

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Zack Lim writes:

Hi Marc,

You are welcome :)

Hope that authors here will find it useful when they are writing their articles.

Zack

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Lance Winslow (Lance to you) writes:

Also, get speech recognition tools to assist you, I use this in about 1/5 of the articles I write and it works good if it is a subject you know a lot about and you can pull it from the top of your heard. I did a little research on this if anyone is interested, then shoot me an email, and I’ll help get you started by pointing to where you can get the best voice recognition stuff. It will help you and although you cannot always use it all the time for everything, it will improve speed in typing and avoiding carpel tunnel too, or wearing off the letters on your key board. It took me 3-laptops to figure that one out.

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Lance Winslow (Lance to you) writes:

Here is a link to my research essay on voice recognition with links to several different vendors (at bottom of the essay). Currently, I am using DNS 10 or Dragon Naturally Speaking and also occassionally use the Microsoft Operating System Vista built in Voice;

http://www.worldthinktank.net/art128.shtml

I hope this helps everyone, and if you have additional questions or concerns let me know. I am glad to help.

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Zack Lim writes:

Hi Lance,

Thank you for sharing the list of different voice recognition software.

All these times, I have only write my article and I have not used any of these software as I personally feel that writing it is faster.

Maybe I am wrong and I will give it a try :)

Zack

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Ruth Stewart writes:

Thanks for that, it is very informative, I am going to particularly enjoy using the timer.

I also like the idea of leaving the written articles for a while and coming back to them, I have put a few on that have turned out to be quite bad! I had to take them down and redo them anyway.

Ruth

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Lalitha Brahma writes:

I have been submitting articles, but the frequency needs to be improved. I also seem to be using the technique mentioned here, but never realized that I can turn it into a system. Thanks for guiding.

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zuri writes:

Hi Marc,

Great tips. May sound simple but its effective. I’ve been doing this everytime I’m task to write an article about something. Once you’re in a right frame of mind and focused, the ideas flows in smoothly.

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