—The Blog Series: Blog 15

Part 2: Write the Manuscript

6 Secret Strategies to Jumpstart Your Muse

If you’re a church-goer, you might have heard the Bible verse Romans 12:6—“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us” (NIV). When we’re born, God gives each person a distinctive gift, an ability (or two) that we do especially well and find satisfaction in. I love to sing and dance, but do both with the savvy of a yowling three-legged frog on an oil slick. Since God pointedly deprived me of those talents, at least in any marketable way, you are enjoying the magnificent publication now before you.

I’m a writer and editor by nature. That’s my gift. Sitting down to write a book doesn’t intimidate me like it can soon-to-be authors. I can’t shut my muse off. It bombards me with ideas 24/7. My mind writes while I’m driving. It writes while I’m walking the dog. It writes while I’m trying to sleep.

You’ve spent your career becoming an expert at what you do. I fully understand that that doesn’t mean you consider yourself ready to crack your knuckles and type out a manuscript.

If you have trouble jumpstarting your muse, in this and the following blog are six secret strategies many of my clients find advantageous. As a novelist, I've used these techniques to write 75,000- to 100,000-word novels, from first page to last, in less than six weeks each.

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #1:

Time, Place, and Freedom

When you sit down to work on your manuscript, allocate two to three hours (more, if you write on weekends) in which you won’t be interrupted. Zero distractions. No family, no Internet, no phones, no dog. Free yourself (your muse) from all other responsibilities. Before you begin, plan the writing schedule you will follow, and let your family know what to expect in the coming weeks, or they’ll be plotting your computer’s demise before you’re done.

Be sure to schedule your most alert time for writing, the time of day when you feel the most motivated. Also, write where you feel most motivated to write.

Larger blocks of dedicated time means your muse will be freed, and inspired, to do its thing. Too, your book will be completed sooner and sending new clients to your business.

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #2:

Write the Topic That Excites You

From your list of chapter titles, choose the topic you feel most excited to write about, and begin there. Don’t feel that you have to write linearly, meaning in the order the topics will appear in your book. That can put a damper on your inspiration to write. It could bore you.

And if it bores you to write it, it’ll bore the reader to read it.

Instead, each time you sit down to create content, free yourself to write whichever topic appeals to you to write. Or work on the topic for which you have the most notes completed. That will inspire your muse and make the writing go fast.

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #3:

MP3 Recorder

A quality MP3 recorder is one of the few tools a writer cannot do without. If you have a recorder that you use for business, invest in another one to use exclusively for writing. It will be the most valuable item you purchase.

Keep your recorder with you at all times. And I do mean all times. When an author is in writing mode, book ideas can strike anytime, anywhere. Keep the recorder with you so you can easily note your ideas. If you don’t, you’ll kick yourself for it later when you can’t remember what you’d wanted to say.

When you sit down to write, start your session by playing back the recorded notes. If possible, do not outsource the note-typing to a transcriptionist. Type the recorded notes into your word processor personally. This further helps to accelerate the creative flow, since typing recorded ideas generates even more ideas. A couple of brief, recorded notes can easily inspire several paragraphs of great content.

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #4:

Transform Writer’s Block into a Writing Boom

How can a writer avoid the infamous “block”? Simple. At the end of each writing day, decide what you’re going to write about the next day. This enables your mind to stockpile ideas for when you sit down to write.

Record every idea in your MP3 recorder.

When you do sit down, you know what you’re going to write about, and, as noted in Strategy #3, typing the playback will inspire more ideas still. A boom!

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #5:

Switch Off the Editor

Some people new to writing books think that editing while you write is an efficient use of time. In fact, the opposite is true.

Writing is a creative process. Right brain. Editing is logical. Left brain. Like an electrical switch, only one can receive current at a time.

If you try to throw the switch to editor mode at the same the writer is switched on, that causes writer’s block. It stops the creative flow.

Constantly trying to flip the switch back and forth from writer to editor to writer again slows the creative flow to a trickle. In the end, writing takes far longer.

It’s faster and you get better results by writing a rough first draft, then rewriting to make the content shine like gold.

Jumpstart Your Muse Secret Strategy #6:

Seventh-Inning Stretch

When writing for long periods—several hours or all day—take breaks when you need them. There’s no sense ending each day feeling like you’ve been dragged by a horse, especially if you’re the one whipping its backside. Take a short walk. Get some coffee and chat with your spouse or a friend. Creativity needs breathing space, or you’ll choke your muse.

Prefer to complete your manuscript draft in just one to two days? Work with award-winning author, book coach, and editor Tammy Barley for $795, and speak—not write—your entire manuscript draft in about 8 to 12 hours. Tammy provides personal, one-on-one book-creation assistance, from development of an initial idea to a top-of-the-line published book in your hands. Visit https://www.pogofishmedia.com/book-creation to learn more about Tammy’s Platinum Draft™ 2-Day Book-Creation Program, or simply Contact us.

The content for this blog series is taken from my book Business Gold: How to Write a Book to Spotlight Your Expertise, Attract a Ton of New Customers, and Explode Your Profits!, available at Amazon.com. (The publisher, Business Book Productions, is now PogoFish Media, owned by the author of this article).