I recently wrote an article dealing with some of my best tips for online authors. That article dealt largely with finding inspiration, getting organized, and just forcing yourself to write. In the time since I published it, I've gathered a few more tips for those of you that are still stuck. For those of you who have already found topics but are stuck in the actual writing, these tips deal a little more with the processes and the mechanics you may want to try out.

Brevity is the Soul of Wit

You've probably heard it said that "brevity is the soul of wit," but have you ever really considered what that means? Not all writing or speaking can be or should be short. Sometimes, that just isn't an option. But if you want to display "wit" in your writing, you should strive to keep your work both short and pithy.

To quote an expression that is slightly less trite, I ask, "how long is a dissertation?" The most accurate answer to that question is probably that "it depends." If you need to do a lot of writing to appropriately cover a topic, then that is a reality with which you must deal.

When that's the case, try to eliminate any of the unneeded information and leave that to the reader to find. Consider the fact that if your writing is brief but interesting, you will pique the reader's interest in your topic and inspire him or her to read more individually. Comparing that to an article that is far to long, drags on and on, and ultimately saps any interest the read has, I'm sure you can see which is a lesser evil.

Another technique is to break your article into digestible chunks of text. Divide long sections into different paragraphs and sections with headings. The problem with long writing is that people have a focused attention span of roughly one minute for every year of their ages. If you put natural breaks into your writing, you will make it easier to read by drawing attention to what should be focused on in each section. For an example of this, look at how different school textbooks are compared to those published ten or more years ago; they are full of headings, subheadings, and highlighted text that can key the reader in on what is the main idea.

You can also break things up by adding related images or even generic clip art. When you see something in a book or magazine with a picture nearby, you probably assume that it's there because it has to do with the story. The dirty little secret is that sometimes it's there only because you would have gotten bored and possibly would have quit reading if it was absent (even though you've probably never realized that).

Your Writing Direction

Different writers will write in completely different directions. Now I'm not talking about writing from left to right or right to left but rather the direction you take in your hike through a topic that you are covering. In general, there are two directional categories that writers will fall under: linear writers and circular writers.

If you are a linear writer, you will tend to write best from beginning to end. You will probably develop at least a rough outline first and may even enjoy the process of organizing the outline itself. To non-linear writers, the idea of enjoying an outline sounds both sick and wrong. As a quick word of warning, if you write from start to finish but don't like outlining, you probably aren't a linear writer. Instead, you are likely a circular writer that has that has been taught to write in a way that isn't natural for you.

If you aren't a linear writer, you are most likely a circular writer. These are the folks who will have tons of ideas in their heads, will sit down with a blank notebook page, and in an hour will either have a blank page or a page full of scratched-out introductory paragraphs. If you do exactly what I just described, I have good news for you: it doesn't mean you are a bad writer and it doesn't even mean there is something wrong with you. There is a reason why you can't get started and the solution is so fundamentally simple that you will probably laugh at yourself when you realize what you've been doing.

Answer this question: who says you have to start at the beginning? The answer is actually that it's the linear writers who say that, but that you ain't so forget it! Circular thinkers will generate many more creative ideas than linear thinkers, but often can't get past their introductory paragraphs and don't get far enough along to write the really good stuff that's already in their minds. If you have a good idea for a paragraph in the middle or the end of your article, go ahead and write it before you lose your thought.

Your Writing Level

There are some settings where you are expected to use big, fancy words. If that's important, use them. But otherwise, why waste the time and brainpower?

If you look at most newspaper and magazine articles, they are written at a level that a sixth grader could reasonably be expected to comprehend. Now if you are writing articles of a technical nature, you probably are assuming a more educated audience. That may be true, but even an educated audience may not be able to follow a Shakespearian sonnet, particularly when your writing includes a lot of logic, reasoning, and analogies. Such thought-provoking work could be difficult to follow if your words and sentence structure are overly complicated.

Writing, like any form of communication, has one primary purpose: to share information or convey emotions. No matter how eloquent your writing looks, if it doesn't accomplish that purpose, it is of little use to the reader.

Write in Series Form

Whether you are a linear writer or a circular writer, there are going to be times that you don't know where your writing will lead. Still other times, you may know where you are going but time may be a concern. These are cases where it might be more convenient to write in the form of a series.

As I stated previously when discussing the importance brevity, there is nothing wrong with being concise. If you are wanting to write something epic but you are short on time, sketch out a basic plan for where you are going and tackle one chunk at a time. This will allow you to publish your work more frequently.

If you are publishing on a website, you will probably get more people coming back to visit if you write a lot of short articles published daily than one large article published weekly. It will be shorter at each publication, but there are far more benefits than negative consequences to stretching out a topic over time. Like a good meal, smaller portions are easily consumed, quickly digested, and are more rapidly absorbed.