Supaproofread Blog

Visualisation: How To Place Yourself in the Right Frame of Mind

I spent New Year’s Day bashing out exam questions for a client and it ranks as one of my more boring projects to date but it is finished and as a reward for myself, I did some research on getting into the mood for generating ideas for an article I’m writing tomorrow.

One technique needs no research from me as I use it often; visualisation.

Visualisation is simple and requires nothing more than closing your eyes and using your imagination. As such you can perform this anywhere and anytime, though it is not recommended while driving or when you should be paying attention to your better half!

Visualisation helps you get the creative juices flowing by playing a trick on the mind.

Practice This Yourself for 30 Seconds

Try this for size – close your eyes and think of the best holiday you ever had. Think of what made it so special for you; romance, food, music, the smell, the sights and sounds and think of one thing in particular that happened on that holiday that made you laugh and happy.
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English Rules!

I had a brilliant Christmas Day with my family! I spent the day at my ex-wife’s with our children and stuffed myself silly with ham and turkey. Yes, I do have a happy divorce from my ex-wife which is why we are like brother and sister today 😉

One of my son’s presents was “i before e (except after c)” by Judy Parkinson and is a throw back to “old-school ways to remember stuff” – I just loved reading it, not least for the nostalgia and also to give me something to post about and “Yes, yes, yes!” – I’m scraping the barrel but give me a break, it is Christmas!

One of the verses used to educate the little darlings of 1855 was written by David Tower and Benjamin Tweed and it goes like this:

“Three little words you often see
Are articles: a,an and the.

A noun’s the name of anything,
As: school or garden, toy or swing.
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Where to Get Your Information

There are people who can find just about anything on the internet just short of hacking into top government websites. Then, there are those people who can’t find anything at all. Google can only get you so far. Then, you have to learn a few tricks to get you the rest of the way.

Speaking of Google, it really is a good way to search for just about anything. When you type in a few keywords, rather relevant sites come up in the search. Some search engines will only show you the sites that pay the most money. But, Google does a good job at creating analytics and sending out digital spiders to crawl all over websites. With all of their science put together, you can’t help but get some really relevant websites in a search.

I have a few favorite sites that I know off the top of my head, and for writing they come in handy all the time. Merriam-Webster has an online dictionary where you can verify your definitions. But, it also has a pretty good thesaurus. EBSCOhost is a research database that has literally millions of articles from newspapers, magazines and encyclopedias all over the globe. But, you need to be a subscriber. The backdoor for many of us comes from having a library card and accessing a public information network like Sailor, Maryland’s Public Information Network.

Getting the Ideas to Start Rolling

Plenty of ideas floating around in the air, how in the world are we expected to reach up and grab any? It’s not really that difficult. But, you have to be focused. You have to be in tune. But, be in tune with what?

There is a conscience that seems to subtly drift from thought to thought until finally we are faced with an issue. Tap into what people are discussing. When they mention their concerns, offer your opinion or expertise. Write a blog, article, a screenplay or even a book to put your thoughts into the mix. It’s fun and it’s community.

I often get my thoughts from some of the most adverse places. I could watch an episode of The People’s Court and get an idea about a screenplay. Possibly, the idea fits other ideas I’ve had and I’m ready to put them together. For me, at times it’s that easy.

In fact, I’ll give you an example. Looking back at The People’s Court, that guy that stands outside the courtroom — I’m only kidding — Curt Chaplin always seems to want to stir things up even when the plaintiff and the defendant are fine with the outcome. His remarks seem to intend to incite people to voice their opinion when they were trying to be nice about everything.

The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Great Article Writing

I know I covered the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How the last time. But, haven’t you got it yet? There is always more involved than what I let on in my first post on any topic. In fact, entire books have been written about article writing. Entire college courses teach it. So, one simple post isn’t going to cover everything.

Articles that get in depth are what people want to read. Don’t simply answer the questions and move on to other questions. Get in depth information that goes deeper than anyone else writing on that topic. Otherwise, you are simply telling people what they already know.

Example:

Frederick Dominguez and his kids were lost for three days in the mountains of Northern California because they ventured out there to cut down a Christmas tree. They were found on Wednesday by a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew.

If you visit any news site or look in any newspaper where this story is told, you will find this information. Does it answer the six critical questions? Yes.

Who – Frederick Dominguez and his kids.

What – were lost and have been found.

When – Wednesday.

Where – mountains of Northern California.

Why – looking for a Christmas tree.

How – California Highway Patrol helicopter crew.

But if you can find this story anywhere, why would anyone read yours? It makes all the difference in the world that the mother of the children had no idea they were missing until she realized her youngest child didn’t go to school on Monday. It makes all the difference in the world that a new snow storm was about to come and the search was about to be aborted. It makes all the difference in the world that people like Cory Stahl who owns a pest control business shut his business down so that all the employees could help with the search.

There are plenty of answers to those six basic questions. Keep digging. Dig deeper. Make sure you have as much information as you can and discount nothing. Any bit of information can make your article more interesting than the others. That’s the essence of great article writing.

What are style guides?

Michael has covered the APA and MLA writing styles in an earlier post that you can find here. There are numerous writing styles and you should always check to ensure which style you will be using for a particular piece of work. Simply putting “Style guide” into Google or other search engine will throw up a whole list of these guides.

Every publication will have it’s own writing style guide which you will be expected to follow for your own work if you expect to see it published. Fortunately, getting hold of a style guide is free if the publication has it stored online and is available for th elikes of you and me to download gratis. You can find the Guardian’s here and for the academics, the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) has their’s here.

What are you going to uncover in these Style Guides?
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