Need to jumpstart a writing project? Try a quick scratch outline.

1, 2, 3, list your goals, list your three ideas, list three things you need to include, list three action steps. Just three! That is enough to get down on paper what you’re trying to accomplish.

It may seem like nothing, but it clears the mind a bit and helps you formulate a next action AND it prompts you to begin to ask questions about what you’re going to write.

I rely very heavily on scratch outlines for everything from blog posts to book projects. How do you know where you are going with a piece of writing if you don’t at least give yourself some sort of map first?

There ya go.

In this year of 2009, content is king! You may be writing more than you used to. Many people have told me they are writing more important pieces than they used to. So how are you to get it all done? How do you organize your day and space to accomplish all the writing you desire to finish?

You get a plan.

1. Write down a week’s worth of writing. Four articles, five blog posts, a white paper, web site content, whatever. If you have a scheduling notebook, it’s even better. I use Moleskine’s weekly notebook. One page is my calendar and to-do list, the other page is my writing plan where I can scrawl notes and have everything I must write open in front of me.

2. Take five minutes to think strategy about each piece of writing. If you’re planning editorial content for a blog, you write down each day’s post (or what you hope to post or your topic) and then you brainstorm titles. I find that if I brainstorm titles, the content follows close behind. I suppose that’s why for longer projects, the theme is the thing. Eric Maisel in his book “The Art of the Book Proposal” has readers plan out ten things the reader should learn, and then brainstorm twenty-five titles, or twenty-five different possible themes. It works! I’ve pulled that technique over to my shorter pieces.

3. Give yourself options. Say you need to write a blog post by tomorrow. You write down the topic, think about it a bit, now what? I say you need two different posts to choose from. It’s a trick for your brain. If your mind starts to consider which post it prefers over the other, you’re already writing. It tricks you into writing before you’re even able to throw up all your barriers. Nice, eh?

If you outline ahead of time the writing you must accomplish each week, you’ll find your writing responsibilities are less hectic and you’ll have more creativity than ever (it will jumpstart your brain!).

Maybe because it is hard. Especially if you want to write something that is better than just throwing words on a page. If you take time to think through a piece of writing you soon realize that it needs more attention than you thought it would at first. It may seem disconcerting at first to actually have to spend more time thinking than writing, but trust me, it’s worth it.

Just this morning I got up early (it’s almost 90 degrees here in Seattle) in the cool of the day to think through a writing problem. Within twenty minutes I had my solution.

Writing is hard, but sometimes just a continued think (what I call a focused thinking of your writing project at all times) for a few days pays off within a quick twenty minutes.

1. Always have some aspect of your writing project to think about. Then go about your day, work, house cleaning, child care, errands, grocery shopping, even television. It will pop up when it’s ready, trust me.

2. If you lose track of your writing in the midst of a busy life, don’t fret. Just go find it again. Sit down for a few minutes and just stop. Recenter your thoughts on your writing goal. If this takes multiple tries, join the club. This is why some very talented authors aren’t as prolific as we’d like them to be.

Now, go write!

It’s the QUESTION of our social media frenzy. How do you create good content to increase traffic and earn subscribers?

I hate to have to let you down, but it’s not really about the content creation.

It’s about being authentically you.

People want to follow a person, a breathing human being that isn’t always doing things right, that makes decisions that sometimes could be different, but who is resilient. Social media is really human culture. Follow the doings of someone interesting and you can sell a million newspapers . . . or in our lingo, you’ll get a lot of traffic.

1. Quit stressing about writing style and grammar and just write.

2. Don’t worry about traffic numbers or stats or Google rankings, just keep doing your thing.

3. Don’t accept promotional gigs just for the heck of it; if someone offers you a review copy of a new novel, only accept if you’re actually interested in reading it.

4. Don’t fret when traffic falls off for a day or two. Just go post something about you, your day, your issues.

5. Your message is not as important as making sure it’s an authentic message. Is it really you? Social media users can sniff out a faker a mile away. Be YOU. Mess up, be anal-retentive to the point of irritation, be obsessed with something, who cares what it is, just do it because you want to and not because someone told you to.

You may ask, why I am harping on this the first day back to blogging in a month? Well, I had a lot of non-blogging, thinking time while in Europe. People could care less about recycled lifeless writing; they want the real deal, the writing that has a charge around it.

Be prepared to be charged. I’m back.

A lot of people want to write a book. It seems so glamorous and ultra-cool to write books. But actually, blogging may be the new ultra-cool thing. Penelope Trunk recommends that people blog rather than write a book.

Her reasons for this are the following:

“People who have a lot of ideas need a blog, not a book.”

I agree with this actually. I’ve done this route and it definitely is true that a blog is the best way to filter out all the ideas and create your own theories. Of course, a book can then happen about one major idea that I’ve blogged about with authority for a couple of years or so.

“A book is an outdated way to gain authority.”

I’m not sure I agree with this. I think books still are a great way to gain authority. Sure, blogs have done this, but the best bloggers often have books before the blog or books as a result of the blog. Books still work.

“Books lead to speaking careers, but speaking careers often lead nowhere.”

Yeah, this makes sense. I am interested in the speaking circuit, but not sure I want to just travel around speaking. I think many speakers who do this are excellent, however, and I’d be proud to be a part of a speaking panel at some point. Still thinking about this.

“You’ll make more money per hour flipping burgers than writing a book.”

So true. Nuff said.

“When you’re feeling lost, a book won’t save you.”

I agree with this. Writing a book is an interesting approach for so many people who are wondering what to do next, but as an income replacement approach, probably not the best. However, if you’ve distilled your many ideas into one cohesive idea, then go for it.

So, a book is a good thing. I know many folks who are going straight to book, doing both a blog and a book, or blogging first. It’s a fun thing to contemplate.

What have you decided to focus on? A book or a blog?

As a business owner, the last thing you want to do is read more, right? Especially more business-related books. The flood of information you endure is stifling. I have another idea.

Read a novel or a collection of short stories or a memoir or poetry.

I’m serious.

I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed with business advice and case studies and best practices for your chosen industry. Sometimes you want to open your high-rise window (with a rock, no less) and just empty out your in-basket and to be read pile. I feel your pain. My to be read pile is stacked all the time. But I am very careful that most of that not be business-related. I find that my best writing comes when I read other things. For example, I read Emily Dickinson’s poetry when I want to inspire, I read James Patterson when I have writer’s block (if he can write, I can write), and when I want to organize a big project, I pick up a memoir. Memoirs are highly organized and I find just by reading them (e.g., Terri Jentz’s Strange Piece of Paradise or David Grann’s The Lost City of Z) that I am inspired by their structure. I find myself pondering how the writer took all that information and organized it into an interesting read.

I encourage every one of my clients to read more, and to stretch their reading limits to include books and articles that they might not pick up on their own volition. I find that when I come back to the business topics, I feel refreshed and more alert to spot items in those pieces that I can use to make my business a success.

What are you reading right now? Not a business book or article, but fiction or memoir or a short story. Let me hear it.

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past year, it’s to use an outline. It’s so much easier to fill in blanks than create something from blank space.

To take the information you’ve gleaned from a pile of books and organize it into coherent thought is hard work, so make it easier on yourself and your readers and outline it.

A simple A. B. C. outline works fine. What are three things you’ve learned or want to say?

Underneath those letters can be numbers: 1,2,3 and you can then list three things that support the things you want to say.

See?

It’s not rocket science. All those lectures in junior high and middle school about outlining were worth it. I paid no heed until I actually had to start writing so much in the past year, but I am so glad they attempted to teach it to us at least. Right?

Easier said than done, right?

Yep.

I don’t think of it as a blank page. I think of it as a release for my overloaded brain. I mean, come on, don’t you just need to get some of those thoughts out? I sure do.

(Now you understand my long-winded blog posts, don’t ya?)

1. Think first. Clear your mind and focus on the writing task. Who are you writing to? What are you writing? How many points does it have and where do you start?

Well, sure, easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. I can hear you saying to me, “If I knew all that, I wouldn’t be afraid of the blank page!”

Right.

But really, how much time have you spent worrying about the writing task rather than actually considering your audience and purpose? How much time have you spent organizing what you have to say into points? (Hint: go for three points, or five, but pick a number and outline what you’re trying to say)

2. Fill in the outline. Easier to write to an outline than just to whatever comes out first. I use it in every blog post and for every single email I write. Last week I had to reply to a journalist asking me for my thoughts about the Jake Tapper/President Obama on Leno/Twitter fiasco. I just immediately tapped out a series of five bullet points (similar to the blog posts I write on here) and immediately was able to frame my thoughts. I hope the journalist saw that frame as clearly as I did (we’ll see) but it helped me write succinctly and quickly on a complicated topic.

3. Jot notes or expand on the outline. This is your first draft, remember. No one will know if you write self-serving and inane comments in your first draft. Just let it out. The stuff that comes out of my brain astounds me every time. I am an odd bird.

4. Set it aside for awhile. Give your brain time to ruminate on what you wrote. Your subconscious is thinking about it, so give it time to percolate.

5. Read it aloud and tweak as necessary. Once you’ve read it again and tweaked it, I’d say you’ve got a working first draft. Then it’s time again to review your audience, the purpose of the piece, and if each bullet point still belongs in the cohesive whole.

Well, look at that! Your blank page is full of text. Amazing how that happens.

I was a guest blogger earlier this week over at Twitip.com, the blog about Twitter. I’ve been invited to participate on a continual basis over at Twitip.com, so I’ll try to link from here to there as often as I can.

Check out my post: Twit-equette Rules to Remember.

It’s hard to see other blogs getting more traffic, more comments, more subscriptions, isn’t it?

Well, do your readers like you?

1. Are you snarky, always pointing out how life is just not fair? Or are you hopeful, offering tips that help others succeed? Drop the attitude and be nicer. Quit playing the victim card. Why are you doing this blog? To prop up yourself or to help others make it through?

2. Are you too self-conscious, always having to be perfect, never wanting to share how you’ve failed in the past? Let it go already. You’re going to make mistakes, leave typos in your blog posts, offend someone, but if you don’t get real AND QUICK, you’re not helping anyone.

3. Are you too concerned about making that next sale, always trying to manipulate your readers into calling you and giving you money? Blogging isn’t just about making money. Blogging is about creating a meaningful conversation online, providing information that others need so that they can create better lives (have a better blog, succeed at Twitter, run a successful moonlighting entrepreneurial business). Forget about making sales and just make connections. Make meaning.

4. Are you too high-strung about your readers and the stats you follow relentlessly? Do you want more readers just to make yourself feel better? Go get a shrink. Blogging and the Web are not substitutes for self-esteem. If anything, the web is brutal. If you can’t get it together, folks will either ignore you or bombard your blog with comments. The web is not a place to build your personal kingdom.

5. Is this just a popularity contest? Or is this really about you helping others and making a difference? I feel that the more people who I can help, even if it’s just one, then it’s worth it for me to be online, writing blogs. I do this to help business owners who are very overwhelmed with blogging. I know the feeling. I get up every day and feel that way. But I don’t make multi-million-dollar decisions on top of it. I’m not the manager of over a hundred employees, I’m not on the line for a business loan. That’s why I blog.

What would your readers say about you?