Writing is a highly creative process. While writing, you need to generate thousands of ideas and make them easily accessible for the readers. A writer needs to remember that they write for people, not for their own satisfaction, and they need to follow thousands of rules of creating effective content.
When you write once in a while, you do not even notice that the process of idea generation and writing itself may be rather tough and tedious. However, when you become a professional writer, you start to notice that sometimes writing does not bring you pleasure but makes you frustrated. What idea to choose? What words to select to start writing? What style to use? How to cover the idea in the most accessible and captivating way? How to make a perfect introductory sentence? These moments are challenging by far, however, there are some methods that you may implement to keep your mind sharp all the time and write something interesting and captivating every day.
To stay productive and creative, you need to take care of your health and to grow your personal competence. In this article, we will give an overview of the best methods related to these two ways of keeping writing-fit.
Take care of your body
There is a saying that a sound mind is in a sound body. If you want to stay productive and create useful and captivating content, you need to make sure that your body is healthy.
Check your nutrition
Modern people have multiple problems with nutrition. The matter is that most of us have no time to prepare a healthy lunch and we do not even have time to eat until late in the evening. Thus, we either eat junk food not to stay hungry or do not eat at all. However, our bodies do not actually like such an approach. If we do not eat regularly, our bodies do not receive all necessary elements and vitamins, and over time, the problems appear. Thus, think about eating healthy and regularly.
Check your physical activity
Nutrition is not enough to stay healthy. You do need to move and engage in physical activity. Running, swimming, or yoga will be perfect for anyone who spends almost all the time sitting at the computer. Physical activity powers up the body, awakens muscles, and makes you happy and more concentrated.
Many writers do not know how to get rid of permanent back pains and problems with sleep. If you have noticed that you endure such problems, go for sports. You will not notice the immediate effect but in a couple of weeks, your nervous system will normalize and you will get rid of the problems with sleep, pain in different parts of the body, and permanent desire to have some rest.
Check your sleep
Many writers, especially freelance writers, prefer to work late at night. However, this lifestyle is not the best choice for those who want to stay healthy. The matter is that our bodies follow certain algorithms for staying fit, and these algorithms depend on the time of the day. Some hormones are better produced when the body is resting in the dark, other hormones are produced early in the morning when we are active. It has nothing common with biorhythms that we establish for ourselves (for instance, you may prefer to go to sleep late at night as you believe that this is better for you). Nevertheless, it is better to go to bed early and wake up early to help your body follow the algorithms established by nature.
Check your mindset
Your body is important by far but your mind is also crucially important. If you have some problems with frequent changes of mood or you feel disappointed all the time, you may feel less productive. Being depressed you cannot enjoy writing, and this process can even irritate you. Thus, you need to take care of your mental health if you feel that you have some problems.
Check your surroundings
Sometimes, to feel good, we need to be in a proper place and time. If your nutrition is perfect, if you regularly engage in physical activity, sleep well, and are not depressed, perhaps, you need to change your surroundings. Go for vacation or rent another apartment to check how the surrounding influences you. If you leave in a big city, go to the country, and on the contrary.
Grow your writing competence
Of course, to stay creative and productive and to be able to generate new ideas all the time, it will not be enough to be physically and mentally healthy. You need to grow your writing competence and get rid of all possible boundaries that may prevent you from getting more witty and intelligent. Thus, you need to work on your ability to think sharp and generate the ideas.
Read every single minute
Reading is perhaps the easiest and the most pleasant way to widen your horizons and experience something new. You do not need to travel to another country to find out something about it, and you do not need to become a doctor to grab the basic information about diseases. Reading reveals new worlds and helps you understand how you should write to capture the attention of your readers.
Most of the writers notice that when they read something interesting and captivating, they actually get inspired by revealing some unexpected ideas and thoughts. So, if you feel that you have no idea what to write, just start to read.
Gain some new skills
Your experience makes you a good writer. If you avoid experiencing something new, sooner or later you will notice that you have nothing to write. The best experience that a writer may get is gaining some new skill. When we learn something new, we improve our existing skills and talents.
The skills that you master may be different. For example, you may learn to play some music instrument or you may just get the second (or even the third!) degree. You can even learn to knit or to ride horses. Any experience is perfect for your writing career, just remember to try different fields of activity to always get something new and unexpected to nourish your creativity.
Work on your attention
Being attentive is a good way to notice things that will inspire you to write more and generate brilliant ideas. If you do not pay attention to the details, you may not notice that the world itself is already full of thousands of ideas and you just need to take them and implement them into your writing. However, it is not easy to become attentive, especially if you have got used to skipping the details and looking at the bigger picture.
Improve your memory
For a writer, it is vitally important to have a good memory. The matter is that just to be attentive and notice interesting details is frequently not enough to write in a good way. You need to remember these details perfectly to be able to implement them in your writing. For instance, you have heard an interesting conversation, but you failed to remember it. Will it be useful for you? Definitely not. That’s why you are to train your memory to be able to keep in mind everything important that you notice.
Create schedules
It may seem rather strange but to become more creative, you need to follow certain schedules. Again, this is about the power of habit. When your mind and body get used to the ‘creativity time’ in your daily schedule, you do not need to wait till the inspiration comes. The creativity will be automatically turned on, and everything you need to do is to use it. But this habit cannot be nurtured within a couple of days or even weeks, so devote some time to it.
Write regularly
The secret of productive and effective writing lies in regular practice. Professional writers write every day because they really need to, so they have a regular practice. However, people who do not write professionally, need to create situations when they need to write. For example, they may write down their ideas, thoughts, or even some kind of a diary. Some people choose so-called morning pages for practice.
Write down your ideas
Sometimes, the ideas just come to your mind. In this case, it is always better to write down these ideas so that you can use them later. Just remember to check this list of ideas in future. However, even if you forget some ideas and remember only some of them, it will indicate that the ideas that you remember really deserve to be implemented.
It’s difficult to remain sharp-minded all the time and generate unique and interesting ideas. However, as a writer, you need to make everything possible to work on your creavity all the time. If you work on your creativity, you will eventually notice that it is easy to generate ideas and create content that catches the attention of your readers.
Over to you:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Now I want to know your views and ideas for how to keep your mind sharp and write something unique every day? Please share this post with your fellows on social sites.
Author Bio: Christina Battons is a web content writer and blogger from LA. I am a graduate of the University of Southern California. Currently, I write for various blogs like Pro Writers Center or similar. I am interested in topics about education, writing, blogging, motivation, etc. My writing I use as a tool to further the education of others. My free time I spend with my family, friends, or riding my bicycle. You can connect with me through Twitter or Facebook. I’ll be happy to hear you, just drop me a line!
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