The last couple of weeks I’ve been cranking out more writing than I have in a good long while.

I’m drafting an article about my experience of burnout, a page for a new group book project, my next column for New Escapologist and fleshing out some ideas for a new book. 

And I’m keeping up with these emails.

So there’s lots going on.

I’ve got into a solid groove where I sit at my laptop and start writing, and l just keep writing until Lauren grabs me round the waist and tries to haul me away from my screen like the World’s Strongest Man trying to haul a Jeep loaded with concrete blocks.

i.e. it takes her some real effort.

And that’s because when I’m in the flow, I know the best thing to do is to keep writing.  Any distraction or, god forbid, other activity or commitment, breaks the spell and quite often I sit back down later at a half-written piece of text and have no idea what I was going to say, even though in the moment the words would’ve just kept flowing.

It hasn’t always been like this.

Back when I first started writing, each word was like drawing blood from a stone and hours could go by without me darkening the page.

Touch wood, those days are behind me.

And I think I know why.

See, writing has become such a big part of my day-to-day life that it’s very hard to read a magazine, listen to a podcast or even overhear two friends nattering in my local coffee shop without getting ideas.

I know the very next morning I’ll be putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and I’ll need one of those ideas.  I’ll need a theme or a spark.  Otherwise I won’t have an email that day.

So I’m always on the lookout.

As soon as an idea appears, I whip out my iPhone and jot it down. 

If I don’t, the idea vanishes in a puff of smoke, never to be seen again. 

After doing this for a year, I have ideas coming out the wazoo.

I’m writing this email in a Word doc.  And as I glance to the bottom left of the screen, I can see I’m on page 114 of 337, in a document with 104,172 (104,173, 104,174…) words.  Words which make up topics, subject lines, random phrases, interesting snippets, half-formed paragraphs and other random scribbles.

It’s this spaghetti soup of words & phrases which allows me to squeeze out an email each day.

And perhaps one day lead to a bestseller?

Who knows.  Watch this space.  I’ll be writing about this too over the coming weeks.

Anyway, enough writing about my writing.

Before I sign off:

There’s another writing approach I’ve been testing out with my emails.  You could call it a mindset or an attitude.

I’ve noticed when I adopt this mindset, my writing flows 10x more and has an energy to it which is sometimes missing when I don’t.

(I used it with this email, so I’ll let you be the judge)

The cool thing is that this mindset doesn’t require any mental shifts.  If anything, it requires NOT shifting.

I know I’m being a tad cryptic.

But if you’re curious about this mindset, I’ll tell you.

I have a question for you in exchange.

If you'd like to know the mindset which I think has added more zip & zing to my writing, hit reply.  In your reply, let me know what book you’re reading right now or a book you just finished.  In return, I’ll hotfoot this writing mindset right over to you.

That’s it for today.

 - Tom