Just the other day, I decided to spend a few hours writing at the pier.  It was a beautiful day of fresh air, peaceful atmosphere and of course, no internet.  I’ve never been to this part of town, and I was pleasantly surprised by the surrounding and more importantly, what it did for my blog content.

When I sat down and gazed upon the body of water in front of me, I immediately felt energized and wanted to write.  Content just kept flowing out of my brain and eventually translated onto the laptop screen.  The couple of hours I spent was extremely productive, and although I usually get distracted quite easily, I was pretty happy writing at the pier where there are tons of people walking by.

What I experienced was an energy boost from the change of environment.  Being in the same desk everyday, it’s sometimes hard to bring out the creativity within me.  All the new surrounding at the pier stimulated my mind and allowed me to write longer, faster and better.

I was actually amazed what the difference changing the environment did to my writing that day.  From now on, I will periodically go around town to write my article to see what that will bring for the content.

Next time you are stuck writing content, try to go out and do it in a coffee shop, mall or the park.  Seeing something visually different will give you the needed boast to write a better article.

One of the secrets I accidentally found was that I write much better if I turn off the internet when I write blog articles.  They turn out more complete, better structured and flow much better.

I used to write all my blog articles through the wordpress editor (which is a great editor btw), but while traveling for business one day, I decided to start writing on the plane.  Even though it gets noisy at times and sometimes your neighbor likes to look at what you are typing, I find that I’m much better able to concentrate and get into a groove while I type away on my keyboard.

Why is That?

Curious about why that is, I spend some time thinking about it and here are some reasons that I came up with.

Distractions
With instant messaging, skype, emails and twitterfeed all turned on, it is very hard to concentrate with so many little things popping up on the desktop.  When I was on the plane, none of these would bother me because I didn’t have access to the internet.

Alternatives
When I’m on the plane, I open Microsoft Word and that’s the only thing on the screen.  Since I’m extremely bored and there’s nothing else to do, I end up typing on the screen and not trying to compare writing blog articles with something else that I could be doing during the same time.

There is No Rush
When I’m on a 5 hour plane ride, I’m stuck in the chair for a long time.  Unless there is a TV in front of me, there is really not much to do.  When I start writing on my article, there is absolutely no sense of rush.  I know I have a ton of time to finish the article so I take my time to gather my thoughts and just write.  I noticed that taking my time ends up making me more efficient and produces a better article in a shorter amount of time!

Try It

Since I’m not always on the plane, I started to turn off my internet connection while I write. For those that get many phone calls, I would even turn off your cell phone. This way, you can enjoy writing your article without interruption and I’m sure the quality (and quantity) of your articles will increase dramatically! All you need to do is try it and you will realize the difference!

As a blogger, we often feel compelled to put up a new post .  After all, many popular blogs are updated daily (some even update a few times a day).  Those bloggers seem to be able to churn out great article after article and if we want to be like them, we better mimic that behavior.  Sorry to break the news to you but don’t do that.  Stop writing unless you’ve got something to share.

Often, we stare at the screen thinking about what we want to write.  Sometimes, the words just come out and we type and type and type, sounding natural, personal and energetic.  There are those other times though that all we end up doing is stare, feeling awkward, useless and hopeless.  Normally, we continue to stare but seldom does the situation turn around because we feel even worst as time passes and the cursor is blinking at the same spot.

Don’t worry if this happens next time.  Known widely as the writer’s block, this phenomenon is very natural and happens to just about everyone.  It just means you feel uninspired at the moment and it definitely doesn’t mean you are bad at writing.  What you really need is to take a rest and not stare at the monitor.  So whenever it happens to you again, go take a walk, see a movie or get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  Get away from your environment and your creative juices will be flowing once again.

The worst thing you can do is post on your blog just for the heck of writing.  Your blog represent your image, and unfortunately (and fortunately), content are archived for others to search.  Once you write a piece of bad content, it tends to turn readers away from your blog.

If you take away any advice from any blogger, it is this: Do not write unless you have something useful to write about. Only post quality content, and you will realize the benefits in the long run.