Tag: writing-tips

The writing process

February 21, 2026

Once again, I am up early. It is Sunday morning. The radio clock will come on in a few minutes. Cindy will start to arouse sometime after that and begin to get ready for church. When I got up, Essa, the cat, was all over me in bed. My brain was full of thoughts, and I was having trouble getting back to sleep.

So, I got up. This is my writing process. I know that many professional writers use different techniques from mine. Let’s establish this first.  I am not now, and never have made my living from my writing. I write because I have a brain, and my way of exercising it is to express the things that enter my head in a printed form.

Someday this column may appear in some part of a book, if I choose to add it to one. That’s also part of my process. I will get up in a minute and let Biscuit, our dog, go outside to do his business. I am not one of those writers who can go into my office, lock the door, and spend hours at the keyboard.

I have a life like most of you. Does it bother you when you read a book on writing and the author tells you that you must spend a set amount of time alone without distractions? It does me. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always had a family. Cindy, the girls, and the animals come first. Then I can write when I have a few minutes.

Currently, I have about seven of these columns in a queue to be published on Doiloigroup.org on a certain date. I’ve developed this technique over the years I have published these columns. There are over a hundred columns and at least seven or more books in various files on this computer.

Let me revise those numbers. These files may be well into the hundreds. They are not all on this laptop. Some are on paper, a separate hard drive, or in notebooks I used before I had a computer. When I have time, I review these ideas wherever I have them. That is also part of my process.

Yes, it is an eclectic or odd way of doing this thing we call writing. I’ve been a writer for over sixty years. I learned to put letters together to form words, and then sentences, paragraphs, and articles. These have sometimes been put into books. You can read these books as I put them together in my premium materials. That will cost you money to see. Why? Because I want to know how serious you are about reading and learning from me.

As I asked God what He wanted me to do, He explained that my ministry in the business world is now over. He wants that service to be translated back into my career as an author. My books will not be published by traditional companies. So He had me start Douloigroup.org.

Other authors do not want you to see how hard it is for them to create. I want you to realize that it is not easy for any of us to do this thing we call writing. I told you I would be interrupted and must come back. I was wrong because, at this point, I have been composing these words for almost thirty minutes.

This is unusual for me. I wrote this column to encourage those of you with busy lives who have delayed calling yourselves writers because you have not yet been published. Not all of us need to have books printed. I decided years ago to just write and publish when I could, and now, I do. Try it, you’ll like it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Writer’s block

October 17, 2025

I’ve been a writer for over sixty years. I do not remember ever having writer’s block. I developed a habit in grade school of writing what I wanted when I wanted to. Most of my teachers were just happy that I never asked what to write about. It was usually “write about something that happened to you or something that you are interested in.”

In junior high my teachers were more demanding. I had to write fiction or non-fiction, essays, or reports. Often, I would start more than one paper. If they wanted a particular piece but gave no restriction on the topic, I might write two or three different items. The day before it was due I had to choose which would be submitted.

More than one educator would suggest that we submit an additional paper for extra credit. I was always prepared for that. The fun thing about doing this was that often when a new assignment was given, I had at least one written that could be used.

In high school it became more difficult. Each paper had the maximum and minimum number of words required. Topics were more difficult to choose because the requirements were more restrictive. When I began taking journalism I continued to write multiples of each assignment.

News stories, editorials, features, and even sports articles seemed to come easily. My feature articles were the ones that were accepted most often. News items were not as well accepted. Sports was definitely not my bailiwick. When the staff for the paper senior year was announced, I was the page three feature editor.

Page one was the editor, page two the associate editor and of course page four was sports. Two photographers were chosen as well. Other jobs like yearbook staff were also filled. Our sponsor told us she made the decisions based on our strengths.

Senior year I wrote pieces that appeared on each page including page four. When we selected a theme for the feature page for each week everyone in all the classes were asked to write columns for each issue. Our teacher selected articles from the ones I gave to her. I submitted only one of mine to insert for each edition. We did not submit copy with bylines to prevent preferential treatment.

Each issue featured a bylined piece of mine on at least one page. Photographs from my camera also appeared in the paper and the yearbook. I had editorials that were requested on certain topics for specific issues. These were published with no acknowledgement of authorship.

My skills included interviews which were a mainstay of page three. If no one in the classes volunteered for these stories, they were handed to the feature editor. I spent a lot of time interviewing the principal and most of the staff. Today my favorite joke is to tell people that I was in the principal’s office at least three times a week. I just don’t tell them why I was there.

In my files I have close to a hundred ideas or partial columns. I have been gathering these for over ten years. Each piece I publish may be written completely within the last few days. Others are finished after they have sat in the files for as much as three years or more.

I hope that this has helped you with ways to avoid the dreaded writer’s block syndrome. I always tell young authors that the only way to learn how to write is to write. It always works for me. Tell me if I publish something that you think should have stayed in the file a while longer and gotten more polish.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger