My take is – Flash Blogging.

In Flash Your Fiction: Writing Exercises, Melissa at Writing Forward shares an interesting writing technique – Flash Fiction. She writes:

…go through the story one last time removing as much as you can without making the piece unintelligible. A traditional example is:

Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back.

Of course, this is an oversimplified example, but it certainly gives you an idea of just how much a story can be broken down into its basic movements

That is exactly what I need – adapt Flash Writing to Flash Blogging.

I am using templates when I write my blog posts. It helps me keep my post idea clear and reduce distractions to the minimum.

Boy Meets Girl

When a boy meets a girl it is about excitement. This is how I start my posts – it must be an excitement, a hook. Usually it is a question or a strong statement. My post is the boy and you, the reader, are the girl. What makes you feel the excitement?

• Asking a question. “Have you ever though to quit blogging?” or “Feel exhausted? Drained?” or “Would you like to be an A-List blogger?”.
• Taking a strong position. “Quit blogging now!” or “All bloggers are hard workers, no wonder they are exhausted and drained” or “To become an A-List blogger you must follow these three steps:…”

Boy Gets Girl

Dear reader (the girl), I (the boy) want to win your heart!

After the first line I assume you are hooked. Now I need to connect with you. To do so I answer my question or elaborate a bit on the stand I have taken in the beginning. This should translate the excitement into a connection, preferably an emotional connection. Can you feel the connection between us? Have I got you?

Boy Loses Girl

Now you are mine, I’ve got you. You are excited, connected. You are reading my stuff.

Having fun? NO?!?!??! Am I loosing you? Am I boring you?

To reduce the chance of losing you (the girl) I (the boy) try writing punchy and with less elaboration – straight to the point of the idea I want to convey. I also format my posts with subtitles and bullets to allow you scan my post without even reading it line by line.

In the end of the post when I am sure you are bored and the chance of losing you is the highest, I add some credibility by adding a relevant quote from someone famous. All in the name of love. Our love. But…

There’s more to love than boy meets girl – Jimmy Somerville

Boy Wins Girl Back

Oh… you are back! Happy me !

You came again, you want to read more posts from me? That is huge! You even recommended me to your friends? – Awesome! Seems like the technique works, doesn’t it?

Practice This – Get Results

• Ask question up front or take a stand – hook me up.
• Give me the whole idea of the post in the first two lines – do not make me work hard to fall in love with you. This way you get me quick.
• Elaborate, offer some new techniques that work – do not bore me with just prose.
• Format your posts with subtitles, bullets, and bold type – do not make me work hard to keep loving you.

My Related Posts

• Blog Post Template Plugin For Windows Live Writer
• Boost Your Blogging Productivity With Post Templates

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Discuss People

I say, discuss people but do not dwell on it. Find the role models, learn what they have done to achieve their results.

• Find the role model.
• Research on the guy using online search and social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
• Research the guy’s blog.
• Share your observations with your friends.
• Get connected, build your network.

Discuss Events

I say,  discuss events. Our world’s pace is getting faster and faster. There is no sign it’ll change. But how do you follow after what’s going on? How do you focus on what matters and how do you weed out the rest?

• Listen to what your role models have to say.
• Set up alerts for keywords on search engines.
• Reverse engineer the event – find what was the root cause.
• Grab the inspirational idea behind the event.
• Model the pattern.

Discuss Ideas

Got an idea? Share it! Discuss it, create the buzz, ask for feedback like crazy. Make it sticky!

• Find the audience for the idea.
• Find the return on investment for your idea.
• Model the success (always as a win win).
• Get listeners to buy in.

But is it enough to just discuss the ideas to become the next great mind? No!

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it. “ – Thomas A. Edison

Practice This – Get Results

• Start the conversation – with your friends, with your colleagues, with your boss, with your family, with me. Build and strengthen your network.
• Discuss ideas – put your craziest ideas on the table. Draw the attention. People will relate to you as an innovator. It is a valuable brand these days.
• Do not just throw ideas to the wind. Use it, show results, show it actually works.

My Related Posts

• Basic Instincts And Marketing
• Ask Your Customers’ Friends – Your Growth Hides There
• How to Use Outlook 2007 RSS To Effectively Aggregate And Distill Information

If so, your must recharge yourself in one or more of personal power dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual.

by aeter

In The Power of Full Engagement the authors state that in order to achieve sustained peak performance you need to be:

• Physically energized.
• Emotionally connected.
• Mentally focused.
• Spiritually aligned.

Physically energized

There are three ingredients to empower yourself physically:

• Breathing right. Thinking and controlling breath seemed to me over-kill. I started to notice I sometime take really deep inhales, It helps me to focus, switch gears. It recharges me.
• Eating right. This one is my favorite. I strongly believe in eating right. The following post was inspired by the book – Food, Energy, And Day Rhythm. I also like blogrdoc’s “Eat no food that makes a health claim”.
• Sleeping right. The authors recommend 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep. Sleeping less is killing, more sleep kills too. I stopped staying awake until midnight and beyond. I wake up earlier and full of energy.

Emotionally connected

Emotional resilience – active engagement with others’ and personal emotions – is the other energy source for personal power.

I was totally drained emotionally lately. Both work and family are the sources of the drainage.

The authors recommend switching channels. So I did. I started focusing on positive emotions both at home and at work. I switched off all sources of negative emotions. I do not ignore it, I do handle the situations but I never get stuck on it. I move on to the positive emotions sources.

I also started to apply Mike King’s morning smiling technique he describes in his A great way to Start and Finish Every Day.

I feel much less drained and with much more motivation to cope with more challenges.

Mentally focused

Mental acuity – intellectual challenge. What do you feel right after you solved tricky problem? Empowered, satisfied, ready to another fight. Right? What do you feel doing tedious work? Boredom. Mental atrophy.

I am always looking for interesting jobs, challenges. When there is none, I make up them, solve it and publish on my technical, other blog. When I finally post and share the solution I feel empowered. Would you?

Spiritually aligned

Spiritual capacity – periodically revisiting deepest personal values. Few of my values are:

• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Respect
• Openness
• Partnership
• Calculated recklessness …

Got values? Stick to it and you will never feel spiritually down.

Flat-liner

The authors say without stretching you muscles – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – your life becomes flat-liner. Flat-liner life is atrophy that kills. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, stretch your muscles, get fully engaged, feel the power. The Power of Full Engagement

Snap! – The Power

P.S. Yes, it is Russian in the beginning. It goes like this:

“Amerikanskaya firma Transceptor (not sure here…) Technology pristupila k proizvodstvu computerov Personalnii Sputnik”

Which means “American company Transceptor (not sure here…) Technology just started producing computers named Personal Satellite”.