A guide to writing without restricting the flow of creativity

Warning: This is a guest post by FitJerk’s Fitness Blog. FitJerk’s guest post has colorful language, so be aware of that. If you want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog, please check out more info here.

When Marko approached me to write a guest post for him… I was like “yeah, why the hell not”. Although my passion is fitness, I do have a blog, so it’s fair to say that blogging itself is my passion since it’s one of the sexiest platforms ever devised to help you spread your helpful message… or your shenanigans, whatever floats your boat, I won’t judge.

But the problem was finding out what to write about. I went to his blog and was like “fuck, this guy posts like 6 times a week on the topic of blogging, what possible topic on blogging has he NOT covered by now?” and to make things worse, there are a million OTHER blogs out there on blogging and I don’t want to harp on the same repetitive, sleep inducing dodo… what to do?

So I figured if there is one topic that no one had ever written about, it was how “I” tend to write. I mean it’s only logical because he’s not me, so he probably doesn’t roll like I do. Now, I’m not out to make a million and one FJ’s but if you can learn a thing or two from the way I do things, then the valiant effort it took me to bang out these keystrokes will have been worth it. So, lets get on with it…

What exactly is creativity?

Actually, I don’t REALLY know what it is, but I do know the state associated with it. It’s when you’re sitting in a chair, checking out some article when suddenly, an idea pops into your head and your mind starts RACING with possibilities… and if you’re a blogger, you can come up with a way to turn it into a post in 5 nano seconds. So you begin writing and just can’t stop, line after line you just keep going and before you know it, an hour has passed by.

I’d like to think of that as creativity (specially for writers) and if you can tap into this goldmine, well then the content you pump out will be golden as well. Personally, I have 2 techniques that help me tap into this goldmine, the first is known as…

Your core is always shining through

I want you to remember those words. In fact, I want you to jack hammer them into your skull till your profusely bleed out of your ears. They are that important. It doesn’t matter if you have a video blog, an audio blog or a written blog, every time you create content and put yourself “out there”… you need to realize that YOUR CORE IS ALWAYS SHINING THROUGH.

So what is your core? Well… the fuck do I know? Everyone’s different. But whatever your core happens to be, whether it is quiet and shy, loud and obnoxious or steady with a flow, you need to realize that it’s always shining through, which means you cannot afford to be FAKE or put on a FRONT or claim to be an EXPERT at something you are not. This is the first step you need to take when you want to write without restricting your flow of creativity. If you’re faking it, your audience will know, and when they know, it will cause a few problems:

1. They won’t be able to trust you and will become skeptical, the same way a pushy car salesman puts you on the defence. You know he has an agenda when he asks you how your day is going or how you’re liking the current courses you’re taking in school or whatever. His interest in your life isn’t genuine and you can sense it.
2. You’re content will blow harder than Hurricane Katrina. Seriously, the connection between the brilliant idea in your head and what comes out on the page will be so distant and weak, you’ll want to slap yourself for coming up with something so utterly garbage.
3. Because of reasons in #1 and #2, it’s inevitable that you’ll be forgotten, mentally slotted in the group of mediocracy with other loonballs that will never get a second look, or a second chance. Technically speaking, you will have a shitty “stick” ratio. How sad.

When you create content, you need to be real… whatever that may mean for you. If your reality right now isn’t what you want it to be, then go change it. Work and invest in yourself if you have to. Once you do this, come back and do what you set out to do.

If tomorrow I started kissing people’s asses and was all love-dovey, my current reader base would call my bluff, roast my ass, unsubscribe and never return. They KNOW what I’m about. When I write, I’m not fooling anyone… I know I can be an ass and I know that I can get carried away, but that’s who I am so I don’t try and hide it by making my content or my website all mainstream. I don’t try and please, I try and provide… there is a difference. When you please, you are bending over for people, when you provide, you are sticking your hand out… if they take it, cool, if not, then no big deal. See, I value my readers but I also value myself and it would be an injustice if I was lying to both parties. Get what I’m saying?

As an example, take a look at my pen name… I didn’t give myself this name you know, it was bestowed upon me. I just found the hilarity in it and ran with it… you need to do the same. Run with what your core is TRYING to express to the world and everything else will just follow.

Spit first, shine later

People used to ask me “Hey FJ, what exactly is your writing style?”… and I never had an answer to that question because although literature is something I’ve sorta studied and spent time with, I never knew there was some “specific” style of writing. Or maybe I didn’t want to believe it because to me, the whole idea of having ONE style of writing is bullshit. That’s like asking “what style of martial arts do you practice?” I like to take the whole Jeet Kune Do approach from Bruce Lee… I take what’s important to me and create my own style.

So the next time someone asked me that question, I had an answer. I now call my writing style “Verbal Diarrhea” and diarrhea isn’t something you can control is it? Which is why it’s kinda ironic because it’s not actually a style. Heh, I crack myself up sometimes.

But the thing is, I do all of this on purpose and with intent… it’s a technique I call spit first, shine later. When you come up with an idea… stop worrying about the type of pen you’re using, the type of paper you have, or the fucking sentence structure in your paragraph. All that shit is IRRELEVANT! Just spit it out… all of it, then once you have it on the page (or screen) go back and polish it to a shine.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people try and write PERFECTLY in one go… as if the concept of the “editing” has never graced their damn heads. It’s there for a reason, when you have an idea, an impulse or a thought… the last thing you want to do is restrict it. Just start writing and let it flow and I guarantee that the words will come.

Here’s to great content…

And there you have it, a little insight on how I do things. Some of you will be able to take it and apply it and some of you won’t… either way I think you should at least consider trying what I wrote because it will have an insane impact on the quality of the content you create. It will be more authentic, more entertaining and therefore more valuable to your reader than the generic lameness you see on something like Ezine articles… which means they will stick to your site better than bird shit to a windshield.

Image by Alicepopkorn