With the Internet and growing number of publications, opportunities for writers have never been better. And to help you make the most of your writing skills, the following tips can help to increase your writing output.

1. Rather than sit down to a blank screen or sheet of paper without any thoughts, plan out what you are going to write. Agatha Christie did a lot of her thinking while washing up and, by using mundane activities such as this to sort out your thoughts, you will find you will get far more from your writing sessions.

2. Use modern technology to help you. If you write your material in longhand, to help speed up the transcription process you could use voice recognition software or there are programs available which convert handwriting to text. Look at how you write and work and if there is software or other tools that can speed up the process, use them.

3. Another way to be more productive is to specialize and make the most of your research and knowledge. If you have just written a piece on a certain subject, think of how it could be adapted to a different market. By considering other ways you can use your knowledge you will find this can increase your output rather than having to start fresh with each piece of writing you do.

4. If you write online articles, rather than regard them as essays, think bullet points. By listing the key points you want to put across in concise and numbered sentences, you will find this can speed up the time it takes to write and compile an article as well as being appreciated by online readers.

5. To help prevent false starts or wasting time and effort on projects you never finish, make an outline first. Organize your thoughts and facts and give structure to your work. By writing to an outline and plan, your work and writing will flow much better and ultimately lead to you writing and producing more.

6. One of the best resources writers can have is an ideas book and, by recording your ideas and thoughts, this ideas book can become a valuable resource. And by continually adding to it, when you are in need of inspiration or ideas to write about, by running through your ideas book, new ideas and possibilities can often come.

7. Deadlines help to concentrate the mind. By setting yourself your own personal writing deadlines and objectives - and keeping to them - you will find this can help to keep your writing on track as well as making you more productive.

8. Use your time efficiently. With the Internet, the wide variety of emails that come through as well as television, valuable writing time can quickly be lost. Be disciplined and, to write more, use your time wisely and cut down on time wasting activities.

9. Another way to increase your writing output is to think ahead. Although you may be busy on a particular writing project at the moment, give some thought to what your next piece may be about. This way you could find yourself gathering ideas, facts and thinking over possibilities and so, when you are ready to start your next work, you will be able to do so much quicker.

10. It is often said that practice makes perfect and the more you write, the better your skills will become. And by writing regularly you will not only be improving as a writer but all the time be adding to your output.

To be a productive writer you do need to be organized and self-disciplined and, by following these suggestions, you will find they can help you to write more and hopefully lead to more writing successes too.