(by Brian Clark)
1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
How To Write Better Internet Marketing Articles
by: Jesse Dawson
Writing and submitting articles is an effective marketing ploy to deliver targeted visitors to your website, raise your search engine rankings, and increase sales of your products or sales. The basics of writing an article are much the same, no matter where you use it. You should write it to make the best use of keywords without being obvious. Readers want useful information so don't write a commercial. Gradually you can steer your readers towards your services or products.
This checklist will help you expel common problems in writing articles and improve your writing:
1. Have a specific purpose in mind.
One of the biggest hurdles most new writers face is finding ideas to write about. The easiest way to begin is to write on a topic that interests and excites you. Always have a specific purpose in mind before you begin writing: you should know what you want to accomplish by writing your article. Are you writing an article to clarify an issue for your customers, to attract prospects, to improve the link popularity for your website?
2. Narrow your topic.
Once you have decided on a general area, a good way to narrow down the topic is to focus on the problems that your readers have. Typically, people read articles because they want to be entertained or they want information. Writing entertaining articles is more difficult. However, writing informative articles can be as simple as sharing tips. A guiding principle is to expect readers to be looking for, "What's in it for me?"
2. Know your target audience.
Before writing an article, research your target audience. What are their experiences, their interests, and their wants in the chosen topic? What pain or problem do they try to avoid?
3. Develop a detailed outline first, stressing the benefits.
Now that you have a purpose and a target, organize your article so scanning it quickly will show immediately to your reader how he will benefit from it and what are the most important points.
4. Create a title to stop your reader in his tracks.
Your title should grab the reader's attention and force him to read your first paragraph. Using your most important benefit usually does it.
5. Start your article with the most important information.
Again, do not keep your most important information for the conclusion. Give it immediately and use the following paragraphs to develop it.
6. Keep jargon to a minimum.
If possible, avoid jargon as well as prejudices and insinuations. Write your article so even a child can understand it.
7. Make your article warm and personal.
Speak direct to the reader. Use a lot of "you." Reading your article, the reader should feel warmth and empathy, knowing that you have the same problems and goals.
8. Keep sentences short and simple.
Using short and simple sentences will allow a fluid and easy reading, preventing your reader from becoming bored. Most people don't like to read large documents from the Web; unlike long essays, articles should be around 400 words long. If you break the article into an introduction, a few sub-headings and a conclusion you may only have to write about 50 words in each section.
9. Have someone from the target audience critique your article.
Who can give you better feedback than someone from your target audience? It will help you
10. Spend more time rewriting than writing.
Besides formatting your article for easy reading and presentation, be sure to use tools or an external editor to proofread your writing for grammatical and spelling errors.
Once you have written your article you may want to add it to your own website as a piece of original content. If you add an "About the Author" section with a link to your website, you can also submit it to article directories. As other websites publish your article, search engines create invaluable one-way back links to your website, increasing its popularity. Article submission can be a tedious process, but software and websites that submit to multiple directories will make the job much easier.
Writing and submitting articles is an effective marketing ploy to deliver targeted visitors to your website, raise your search engine rankings, and increase sales of your products or sales. The basics of writing an article are much the same, no matter where you use it. You should write it to make the best use of keywords without being obvious. Readers want useful information so don't write a commercial. Gradually you can steer your readers towards your services or products.
This checklist will help you expel common problems in writing articles and improve your writing:
1. Have a specific purpose in mind.
One of the biggest hurdles most new writers face is finding ideas to write about. The easiest way to begin is to write on a topic that interests and excites you. Always have a specific purpose in mind before you begin writing: you should know what you want to accomplish by writing your article. Are you writing an article to clarify an issue for your customers, to attract prospects, to improve the link popularity for your website?
2. Narrow your topic.
Once you have decided on a general area, a good way to narrow down the topic is to focus on the problems that your readers have. Typically, people read articles because they want to be entertained or they want information. Writing entertaining articles is more difficult. However, writing informative articles can be as simple as sharing tips. A guiding principle is to expect readers to be looking for, "What's in it for me?"
2. Know your target audience.
Before writing an article, research your target audience. What are their experiences, their interests, and their wants in the chosen topic? What pain or problem do they try to avoid?
3. Develop a detailed outline first, stressing the benefits.
Now that you have a purpose and a target, organize your article so scanning it quickly will show immediately to your reader how he will benefit from it and what are the most important points.
4. Create a title to stop your reader in his tracks.
Your title should grab the reader's attention and force him to read your first paragraph. Using your most important benefit usually does it.
5. Start your article with the most important information.
Again, do not keep your most important information for the conclusion. Give it immediately and use the following paragraphs to develop it.
6. Keep jargon to a minimum.
If possible, avoid jargon as well as prejudices and insinuations. Write your article so even a child can understand it.
7. Make your article warm and personal.
Speak direct to the reader. Use a lot of "you." Reading your article, the reader should feel warmth and empathy, knowing that you have the same problems and goals.
8. Keep sentences short and simple.
Using short and simple sentences will allow a fluid and easy reading, preventing your reader from becoming bored. Most people don't like to read large documents from the Web; unlike long essays, articles should be around 400 words long. If you break the article into an introduction, a few sub-headings and a conclusion you may only have to write about 50 words in each section.
9. Have someone from the target audience critique your article.
Who can give you better feedback than someone from your target audience? It will help you
10. Spend more time rewriting than writing.
Besides formatting your article for easy reading and presentation, be sure to use tools or an external editor to proofread your writing for grammatical and spelling errors.
Once you have written your article you may want to add it to your own website as a piece of original content. If you add an "About the Author" section with a link to your website, you can also submit it to article directories. As other websites publish your article, search engines create invaluable one-way back links to your website, increasing its popularity. Article submission can be a tedious process, but software and websites that submit to multiple directories will make the job much easier.
Monday, September 15, 2008
How To Start Writing Articles Successfully
You have probably heard that writing articles is one of the best methods that you can use to promote your online business. You might resist the idea of writing your own articles, because you don't think you are any good at it, or perhaps you might think that it is too hard to find a topic to write about.
Well, in this article, I hope to share with you some tips on how to become a successful online writer --- even if you don't believe that writing is a task that you are prepared to tackle.
Now, let me share some information about me that few people realize..
I do not consider myself to be an expert on the subject of writing. And honestly, my English is not very good at all. It is really hard to tell, isn't it? Keep reading.
You see, I am from Norway. And as you might imagine, I speak Norwegian fluently. For me, English is my Second language --- not my first.
Despite my limited English skills, my articles consistently get reprinted on lots of websites and in lots of newsletters. I have even been published in ezines that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers! And, my latest article has only been in circulation for one week, and it already shows 220 results in Google.
I cannot think of another way of getting that many one-way links to my site so quickly and so easily.
How to Find Topics for Your Articles -
The first thing that you will want to do is to look at your website and ask yourself some very important questions.
What is the theme of your website?
What product or service do you sell?
Do you have a forum on your site? If you are stressing for an idea about what you can write, then use one of your forum postings. (I do this all the time. Sometimes, I can take my response directly from my forum, and I send my answer out as a stand-alone article to the various article directories.)
Do you find yourself answering the same questions over and again for people who are interested in your products or services? If so, sit down and construct your answer in such a way that it can be used additionally as an article to promote your website. Send your answer to the person who asked the question, and then release your answer as an article. I have spoken to many writers who have told me that this is how they got their own start writing articles.
These are only a few ways to develop the topic of an article you might write. You should always try to write about a topic that interests you, and that you think can benefit others to read. Don't hold yourself back with the excuse that you are not an expert in the field that you are writing about.
Everyone on the planet has something to contribute to others. There are things that I might know that you don't know, and I can share that information with you. And, believe it or not, there are things that you will know that thousands of other people including myself have no knowledge about. There will always be something that you can teach to me and others.
Finding the Time to Write -
You may think it takes a lot of time to write, and that you're not able to add this task to your already tight schedule. But, if you would only set aside half an hour every day to write, you'll soon have a couple of articles finished every week.
The Tools I Use When Writing -
Most text editors will have the features you need to write your articles. Writers use a wide range of software applications to help them with their writing tasks. Some of the applications that people use include:
* NotePad - Preloaded as a part of Microsoft Windows
* UltraEdit32 - http://www.ultraedit.com/
* Sun Office - http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/
* Microsoft Word/Office - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
Personally, I use Notetab Light which is a free text and HTML editor. You can download this editor at: http://www.notetab.com/
Beyond your basic text editor, it is nice to have some kind of spelling tool to double-check your work. I strongly recommend that you do not rely too much on the software spelling tools alone. While good, these spelling tools seldom do a good job fixing even basic grammar problems. These spelling tools also miss words that are spelled right, but used incorrectly in the context of the sentence. Examples include: their and there, and week and weak.
When you consider the damage that a poorly written article can do to your reputation and your ability to sell goods and services from your website, it begins to make a lot of economic sense to have someone proofread your article before you release it to the public. The fees that you will be asked to pay for proofreading services will more than pay for themselves by presenting a stronger, more professional image for your website and business.
One place you can go to get good quality, proofreading services is: http://www.ideamarketers.com/services/proof.cfm
Or, if you plan to have your article distributed, and you would like to get it proofread at the same time, you can visit: http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/index.html
Places To Submit Your Article -
I will only list 5 websites here, where you can submit your articles:
- http://EzineArticles.com/
- http://ideamarketers.com/
- http://goarticles.com/
- http://contentdesk.com/
- http://submityourarticle.com/
Well, in this article, I hope to share with you some tips on how to become a successful online writer --- even if you don't believe that writing is a task that you are prepared to tackle.
Now, let me share some information about me that few people realize..
I do not consider myself to be an expert on the subject of writing. And honestly, my English is not very good at all. It is really hard to tell, isn't it? Keep reading.
You see, I am from Norway. And as you might imagine, I speak Norwegian fluently. For me, English is my Second language --- not my first.
Despite my limited English skills, my articles consistently get reprinted on lots of websites and in lots of newsletters. I have even been published in ezines that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers! And, my latest article has only been in circulation for one week, and it already shows 220 results in Google.
I cannot think of another way of getting that many one-way links to my site so quickly and so easily.
How to Find Topics for Your Articles -
The first thing that you will want to do is to look at your website and ask yourself some very important questions.
What is the theme of your website?
What product or service do you sell?
Do you have a forum on your site? If you are stressing for an idea about what you can write, then use one of your forum postings. (I do this all the time. Sometimes, I can take my response directly from my forum, and I send my answer out as a stand-alone article to the various article directories.)
Do you find yourself answering the same questions over and again for people who are interested in your products or services? If so, sit down and construct your answer in such a way that it can be used additionally as an article to promote your website. Send your answer to the person who asked the question, and then release your answer as an article. I have spoken to many writers who have told me that this is how they got their own start writing articles.
These are only a few ways to develop the topic of an article you might write. You should always try to write about a topic that interests you, and that you think can benefit others to read. Don't hold yourself back with the excuse that you are not an expert in the field that you are writing about.
Everyone on the planet has something to contribute to others. There are things that I might know that you don't know, and I can share that information with you. And, believe it or not, there are things that you will know that thousands of other people including myself have no knowledge about. There will always be something that you can teach to me and others.
Finding the Time to Write -
You may think it takes a lot of time to write, and that you're not able to add this task to your already tight schedule. But, if you would only set aside half an hour every day to write, you'll soon have a couple of articles finished every week.
The Tools I Use When Writing -
Most text editors will have the features you need to write your articles. Writers use a wide range of software applications to help them with their writing tasks. Some of the applications that people use include:
* NotePad - Preloaded as a part of Microsoft Windows
* UltraEdit32 - http://www.ultraedit.com/
* Sun Office - http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/
* Microsoft Word/Office - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
Personally, I use Notetab Light which is a free text and HTML editor. You can download this editor at: http://www.notetab.com/
Beyond your basic text editor, it is nice to have some kind of spelling tool to double-check your work. I strongly recommend that you do not rely too much on the software spelling tools alone. While good, these spelling tools seldom do a good job fixing even basic grammar problems. These spelling tools also miss words that are spelled right, but used incorrectly in the context of the sentence. Examples include: their and there, and week and weak.
When you consider the damage that a poorly written article can do to your reputation and your ability to sell goods and services from your website, it begins to make a lot of economic sense to have someone proofread your article before you release it to the public. The fees that you will be asked to pay for proofreading services will more than pay for themselves by presenting a stronger, more professional image for your website and business.
One place you can go to get good quality, proofreading services is: http://www.ideamarketers.com/services/proof.cfm
Or, if you plan to have your article distributed, and you would like to get it proofread at the same time, you can visit: http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/index.html
Places To Submit Your Article -
I will only list 5 websites here, where you can submit your articles:
- http://EzineArticles.com/
- http://ideamarketers.com/
- http://goarticles.com/
- http://contentdesk.com/
- http://submityourarticle.com/
How to Become a Writer
Gertrude Stein wrote, “To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write.” Who can say what she meant (she also wrote, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”), except perhaps exactly what she wrote: that writing is all and everything of it, the beginning and the end. That to write is to write. We just do it. How to get started writing? Write. How to keep going? Write.
Sadly, for many of us it just isn’t that simple. We have trouble getting started, we have trouble keeping the pace and, too often, we simply give up or our enthusiasm and determination trickle away, like a stream petering out.
But because writing is in our hearts and souls and DNA, after a few weeks or months or even years, we’re back at it again. More determined than ever that, this time, we’ll stay with it.
Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. In my experience as a teacher, more often than not people don’t stay with it. For some, the cycle repeats and repeats. Because we can’t keep the thing going, we begin to judge ourselves failures at writing, our self-esteem goes the way of our tossed out pages, and after a while, it becomes more and more difficult to begin again. This is heartbreaking. Because we are writers and when we aren’t being fully and wholly ourselves — when a piece of ourselves is missing — we can never feel at home in the world or at peace within ourselves. Writing is who we are. Not all of who we are, but enough of who we are that when we’re not writing, we’re not whole.
Claim Yourself As Writer
Until you name yourself Writer, you will never be a writer who writes (and keeps writing).
Most writers I know, especially those who have not published, say, “I want to be a writer.” Or “I’m a [fill in the blank] and I like to write.” Or “I’ve always dreamed of being a writer.” But they don’t actually call themselves a writer. Think of all the other names you give yourself: man/woman, mother/father, wife/husband, friend, teacher, technician, masseuse, lawyer, gardener, chef. We take each of these names as a way of identifying ourselves, both to others and to ourselves. We are what we say we are. In some cultures, new names are assumed when character-evolving events take place. These names indicate the person has been transformed. If you announce you are a writer, rather than simply mouthing that you want to be or you’d like to be, you may be transformed. Try it. Right now. Speak your name out loud followed by, “I’m a writer.” Let yourself experience the sensations you feel when you sound out the words. “But I haven’t been published yet,” you might say, as if this were the thing that would give you the right to call yourself writer. After all, when you tell people you’re a writer, don’t they always ask, “Oh, and what have you published?”
Listen to this: Being published doesn’t have anything to do with being a writer! It has to do with earning money as a writer. Maybe. Getting some kind of validation and recognition, perhaps notoriety and fame. Though truth be told, the majority of published writers don’t earn all that much money or notoriety or fame. We might say, to be published is to be published is to be published. To be sure, getting published is the aim of many of us. After all, we write to communicate, and having an audience is the flip side of the communication coin. But it is not the reason we write. We write because it is what we must do. Anne Sexton said, “When I am writing I am doing the thing I was meant to do.”
Besides, once we are published, this doesn’t mean we will stop writing. We will continue to write. This is what writers do. I have this vision of me at my writing table, a fat roll of butcher’s paper at one end and a take-up reel with a crank at the other end. The paper just keeps passing beneath my pen and I just keep writing. As the old joke goes, “Old writers never die, they just keep revising the ending.”
How do you claim yourself as writer?
First, say it. “I’m a writer.” Say it out loud. Say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it to your friends and family. Say it to the next person you meet at a party who asks, “What do you do?” Say it to a stranger in line at the grocery store. Say it to your mother. Mostly, say it to yourself. “I’m a writer.”
• Make a place for your writing, a sacred place where you go with joy as your companion, not dread or guilt or “shoulds” riding your shoulders like weights of sand. If you don’t already have a room or specific place, make one. Take up a whole room or a section of a room. Before she created her own studio, my friend Wendy used a screen to separate her writing place from the rest of the living room. If the only space you can free up for your writing is part of a table, sometimes, when you’re not eating on it, then make it a special place. When you go there for your writing, bring along a candle or lamp or some flowers, anything that transforms the space from the quotidian to the unique. Make it important and make it yours however you can. Claim the space.
• Get the tools you need. Honor your writing with the kind of paper or notebook you like; buy your favorite pens by the box or spend a bundle on that Waterman or Mont Blanc you’ve always wanted. Have a computer that belongs to you — not one you have to share — and a good printer. It’s amazing what just printing out your writing using a laser jet printer will do to make it look — and you feel — professional. Get a good dictionary, thesaurus, and stylebook. Find books on the craft and subscribe to writing journals.
• Hang out with other writers. Go to readings and book signings, open mikes. Communicate with other writers. Drop a note to someone whose book you admire and tell them (not in a gushy, fan magazine kind of way, but as one writer to another). Sign up for workshops and conferences. Get in a group.
• Read as a writer. Learn from the best. Study your favorite authors, and copy passages into your notebook to get the feel of their rhythm and style. Deconstruct their sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters to discover their techniques and their secrets. Read the work aloud and discuss the books with your writer friends. Next to the act of writing itself, reading good writing will be your best teacher.
Make Time to Write
The second thing you must do to be a writer who writes is make the time to write. This is where many would-be writers fall short. Unless you make the time to write, you’ll never write. Extra time won’t just show up, and if you promise to do your writing “as soon as...” you’ll never get to it. Take it from one who knows. For the better part of twenty-five years, I was a writer who would write “as soon as...”; I had more stops and starts in my writing career than a local train. It wasn’t until I actually set aside writing time on a regular basis that I became a writer who writes.
Make an appointment with your writing self, write it down in your calendar: 2:00 p.m. Monday: Write; 3:30 p.m. Tuesday: Write; 9:15 a.m. Wednesday: Write; and so forth.
Find a time that fits you. Don’t set aside two hours if you can only do thirty minutes. Don’t set your alarm for 5:30 in the morning if you always resist getting up and hate the mornings. You may come to resent your writing as much as you resent the alarm clock. By the same token, don’t say you’ll do it at night after everything else is done if, by 8:30, you’re supine on the couch and can’t keep your eyes open. Find a time that works for you. Take half your lunch hour. Do it right after work. Get up half an hour earlier. If you have the flexibility to make your own schedule, set aside time during the workday.
In my classes I listen to the complaints of students who say they just don’t have time to write, then I ask for a show of hands of those who watch television on a regular basis or those who surf the Web. When the rows of hands waving in the air look like an Iowa cornfield in August, I ask again, “Who can’t find the time to write?” Sheepish grins and embarrassed giggles. Write instead of watching TV, instead of surfing the Web, instead of spending an hour or more reading the newspaper, instead of going out with friends. You have to give up something. Even if it’s only leisure time in front of the tube.
Note: don’t give up taking walks or witnessing sunsets.
You may have always heard that if you want to be a writer, you have to write every day. This is not an absolute rule. Few rules are. To be successful (i.e., a writer who writes), you do have to write several times a week — at least four or five sessions, and every day is best. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon swears by his 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday-Thursday routine. Part of it is the daily habit of it and part of it is the continuity. The writing will come easier with regular practice, too. You get better at something you do often. Mick Jagger said, “You have to sing every day so you can build up to being, you know, Amazingly Brilliant.”
In a New Yorker (January 28, 2002) article titled “The Learning Curve — How Do You Become a Good Surgeon? Practice,” Atul Gawande related the importance of practice. In writing about elite performers, he said, “[T]he most important talent may be the talent for practice itself.” He referred to K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist, who noted that “the most important role that innate factors play may be in a person’s willingness to engage in sustained training.”
Like exercise or losing weight or taking a class, sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to do it with a supportive companion. Make a date with a friend for writing. If you can’t get together in person, make a phone call or e-mail one another to say, “I wrote today” or “I’m going to write at 6:30 this evening,” or “How’d the writing go today?”
Waiting for inspiration to descend before you write is like waiting for Godot. Interminable. It’s been said that if you show up at your page at the agreed upon time, inspiration will know where to find you. Someone else said, “Writing is 20 percent inspiration and 80 percent perspiration.” Besides, if writing is your daily practice, you won’t need inspiration to get to it. Imagine waiting for inspiration to rest her shining arms around you before you take the dog for a walk or drive to work.
Write
Finally, the third leg in the triangle of being a writer who writes is, of course, doing the thing. Talking about writing isn’t writing. Thinking about writing isn’t writing. Dreaming or fantasizing isn’t writing. Neither are outlining, researching, or making notes. All these may be a part of the whole milieu of the writing life and necessary to getting a project completed, but only writing is writing.
“You can’t sit around thinking,” said fiction writer David Long. “You must sit around writing.”
So every day, at the appointed time (or at some spontaneous gift of time), you sit at your desk (or your table in the café or on the grass in the park), you open your notebook or you boot up your computer, and you write.
Do this every day and I will guarantee you, you will fill notebook after notebook, you will begin and complete stories, essays, narrative nonfiction — whatever you want to write. You will have bits and pieces and wild, imaginative ramblings. You will be a Writer Who Writes.
(From Writing Alone, Writing Together by Judy Reeves. Copyright © 2002 by Judy Reeves)
Sadly, for many of us it just isn’t that simple. We have trouble getting started, we have trouble keeping the pace and, too often, we simply give up or our enthusiasm and determination trickle away, like a stream petering out.
But because writing is in our hearts and souls and DNA, after a few weeks or months or even years, we’re back at it again. More determined than ever that, this time, we’ll stay with it.
Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. In my experience as a teacher, more often than not people don’t stay with it. For some, the cycle repeats and repeats. Because we can’t keep the thing going, we begin to judge ourselves failures at writing, our self-esteem goes the way of our tossed out pages, and after a while, it becomes more and more difficult to begin again. This is heartbreaking. Because we are writers and when we aren’t being fully and wholly ourselves — when a piece of ourselves is missing — we can never feel at home in the world or at peace within ourselves. Writing is who we are. Not all of who we are, but enough of who we are that when we’re not writing, we’re not whole.
Claim Yourself As Writer
Until you name yourself Writer, you will never be a writer who writes (and keeps writing).
Most writers I know, especially those who have not published, say, “I want to be a writer.” Or “I’m a [fill in the blank] and I like to write.” Or “I’ve always dreamed of being a writer.” But they don’t actually call themselves a writer. Think of all the other names you give yourself: man/woman, mother/father, wife/husband, friend, teacher, technician, masseuse, lawyer, gardener, chef. We take each of these names as a way of identifying ourselves, both to others and to ourselves. We are what we say we are. In some cultures, new names are assumed when character-evolving events take place. These names indicate the person has been transformed. If you announce you are a writer, rather than simply mouthing that you want to be or you’d like to be, you may be transformed. Try it. Right now. Speak your name out loud followed by, “I’m a writer.” Let yourself experience the sensations you feel when you sound out the words. “But I haven’t been published yet,” you might say, as if this were the thing that would give you the right to call yourself writer. After all, when you tell people you’re a writer, don’t they always ask, “Oh, and what have you published?”
Listen to this: Being published doesn’t have anything to do with being a writer! It has to do with earning money as a writer. Maybe. Getting some kind of validation and recognition, perhaps notoriety and fame. Though truth be told, the majority of published writers don’t earn all that much money or notoriety or fame. We might say, to be published is to be published is to be published. To be sure, getting published is the aim of many of us. After all, we write to communicate, and having an audience is the flip side of the communication coin. But it is not the reason we write. We write because it is what we must do. Anne Sexton said, “When I am writing I am doing the thing I was meant to do.”
Besides, once we are published, this doesn’t mean we will stop writing. We will continue to write. This is what writers do. I have this vision of me at my writing table, a fat roll of butcher’s paper at one end and a take-up reel with a crank at the other end. The paper just keeps passing beneath my pen and I just keep writing. As the old joke goes, “Old writers never die, they just keep revising the ending.”
How do you claim yourself as writer?
First, say it. “I’m a writer.” Say it out loud. Say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it to your friends and family. Say it to the next person you meet at a party who asks, “What do you do?” Say it to a stranger in line at the grocery store. Say it to your mother. Mostly, say it to yourself. “I’m a writer.”
• Make a place for your writing, a sacred place where you go with joy as your companion, not dread or guilt or “shoulds” riding your shoulders like weights of sand. If you don’t already have a room or specific place, make one. Take up a whole room or a section of a room. Before she created her own studio, my friend Wendy used a screen to separate her writing place from the rest of the living room. If the only space you can free up for your writing is part of a table, sometimes, when you’re not eating on it, then make it a special place. When you go there for your writing, bring along a candle or lamp or some flowers, anything that transforms the space from the quotidian to the unique. Make it important and make it yours however you can. Claim the space.
• Get the tools you need. Honor your writing with the kind of paper or notebook you like; buy your favorite pens by the box or spend a bundle on that Waterman or Mont Blanc you’ve always wanted. Have a computer that belongs to you — not one you have to share — and a good printer. It’s amazing what just printing out your writing using a laser jet printer will do to make it look — and you feel — professional. Get a good dictionary, thesaurus, and stylebook. Find books on the craft and subscribe to writing journals.
• Hang out with other writers. Go to readings and book signings, open mikes. Communicate with other writers. Drop a note to someone whose book you admire and tell them (not in a gushy, fan magazine kind of way, but as one writer to another). Sign up for workshops and conferences. Get in a group.
• Read as a writer. Learn from the best. Study your favorite authors, and copy passages into your notebook to get the feel of their rhythm and style. Deconstruct their sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters to discover their techniques and their secrets. Read the work aloud and discuss the books with your writer friends. Next to the act of writing itself, reading good writing will be your best teacher.
Make Time to Write
The second thing you must do to be a writer who writes is make the time to write. This is where many would-be writers fall short. Unless you make the time to write, you’ll never write. Extra time won’t just show up, and if you promise to do your writing “as soon as...” you’ll never get to it. Take it from one who knows. For the better part of twenty-five years, I was a writer who would write “as soon as...”; I had more stops and starts in my writing career than a local train. It wasn’t until I actually set aside writing time on a regular basis that I became a writer who writes.
Make an appointment with your writing self, write it down in your calendar: 2:00 p.m. Monday: Write; 3:30 p.m. Tuesday: Write; 9:15 a.m. Wednesday: Write; and so forth.
Find a time that fits you. Don’t set aside two hours if you can only do thirty minutes. Don’t set your alarm for 5:30 in the morning if you always resist getting up and hate the mornings. You may come to resent your writing as much as you resent the alarm clock. By the same token, don’t say you’ll do it at night after everything else is done if, by 8:30, you’re supine on the couch and can’t keep your eyes open. Find a time that works for you. Take half your lunch hour. Do it right after work. Get up half an hour earlier. If you have the flexibility to make your own schedule, set aside time during the workday.
In my classes I listen to the complaints of students who say they just don’t have time to write, then I ask for a show of hands of those who watch television on a regular basis or those who surf the Web. When the rows of hands waving in the air look like an Iowa cornfield in August, I ask again, “Who can’t find the time to write?” Sheepish grins and embarrassed giggles. Write instead of watching TV, instead of surfing the Web, instead of spending an hour or more reading the newspaper, instead of going out with friends. You have to give up something. Even if it’s only leisure time in front of the tube.
Note: don’t give up taking walks or witnessing sunsets.
You may have always heard that if you want to be a writer, you have to write every day. This is not an absolute rule. Few rules are. To be successful (i.e., a writer who writes), you do have to write several times a week — at least four or five sessions, and every day is best. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon swears by his 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday-Thursday routine. Part of it is the daily habit of it and part of it is the continuity. The writing will come easier with regular practice, too. You get better at something you do often. Mick Jagger said, “You have to sing every day so you can build up to being, you know, Amazingly Brilliant.”
In a New Yorker (January 28, 2002) article titled “The Learning Curve — How Do You Become a Good Surgeon? Practice,” Atul Gawande related the importance of practice. In writing about elite performers, he said, “[T]he most important talent may be the talent for practice itself.” He referred to K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist, who noted that “the most important role that innate factors play may be in a person’s willingness to engage in sustained training.”
Like exercise or losing weight or taking a class, sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to do it with a supportive companion. Make a date with a friend for writing. If you can’t get together in person, make a phone call or e-mail one another to say, “I wrote today” or “I’m going to write at 6:30 this evening,” or “How’d the writing go today?”
Waiting for inspiration to descend before you write is like waiting for Godot. Interminable. It’s been said that if you show up at your page at the agreed upon time, inspiration will know where to find you. Someone else said, “Writing is 20 percent inspiration and 80 percent perspiration.” Besides, if writing is your daily practice, you won’t need inspiration to get to it. Imagine waiting for inspiration to rest her shining arms around you before you take the dog for a walk or drive to work.
Write
Finally, the third leg in the triangle of being a writer who writes is, of course, doing the thing. Talking about writing isn’t writing. Thinking about writing isn’t writing. Dreaming or fantasizing isn’t writing. Neither are outlining, researching, or making notes. All these may be a part of the whole milieu of the writing life and necessary to getting a project completed, but only writing is writing.
“You can’t sit around thinking,” said fiction writer David Long. “You must sit around writing.”
So every day, at the appointed time (or at some spontaneous gift of time), you sit at your desk (or your table in the café or on the grass in the park), you open your notebook or you boot up your computer, and you write.
Do this every day and I will guarantee you, you will fill notebook after notebook, you will begin and complete stories, essays, narrative nonfiction — whatever you want to write. You will have bits and pieces and wild, imaginative ramblings. You will be a Writer Who Writes.
(From Writing Alone, Writing Together by Judy Reeves. Copyright © 2002 by Judy Reeves)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
In Search Of Ideas For Articles
Finding something to write about can be frustrating for all writers from time to time.
I have made a list of a few suggestions for those days when the well seems to be running dry...
I hope these ideas may provide some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing again.
Some of these suggestions are based on personal experience and the incredible gift that God gave women of being able to bear children, which makes us uniquely qualified to write about some topics that nobody but mothers can truly understand and utilize as potential article topics. Ideas Just For Mothers Themes associated pregnancy, labor, post-partum issues, breastfeeding, potty training, motherhood, and similar subjects related to children and parenting in general.
Most of our experiences as mothers can be transformed into articles of interest to other mothers and publications that target this specialized market.
Think about how you felt the day you went into labor, what you learned from your pre-pregnancy classes, how you successfully taught your child to feed himself or give up diapers, how you overcame your initial fears of being a good mother, how your discipline techniques worked or didn´t work, and any other particularly moving moments in your journey through motherhood. Special Topics For Women Subjects like, arts and crafts, cooking, fitness, gardening, romance, and weddings. While women are certainly capable of writing about a wide variety of topics from world news and politics to science and technology, sometimes ideas for articles can be easily generated by focusing on our personal interests.
Many women are excellent cooks, artists, hobbyists, active participants in aerobics or other exercise programs, dieters, green-thumbs, romance lovers and brides at least once in their life. Our experiences and knowledge in these familiar categories can be a constant source of inspiration for potential articles that publications are searching for.
Source:http://penulissukses.com
I have made a list of a few suggestions for those days when the well seems to be running dry...
I hope these ideas may provide some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing again.
Some of these suggestions are based on personal experience and the incredible gift that God gave women of being able to bear children, which makes us uniquely qualified to write about some topics that nobody but mothers can truly understand and utilize as potential article topics. Ideas Just For Mothers Themes associated pregnancy, labor, post-partum issues, breastfeeding, potty training, motherhood, and similar subjects related to children and parenting in general.
Most of our experiences as mothers can be transformed into articles of interest to other mothers and publications that target this specialized market.
Think about how you felt the day you went into labor, what you learned from your pre-pregnancy classes, how you successfully taught your child to feed himself or give up diapers, how you overcame your initial fears of being a good mother, how your discipline techniques worked or didn´t work, and any other particularly moving moments in your journey through motherhood. Special Topics For Women Subjects like, arts and crafts, cooking, fitness, gardening, romance, and weddings. While women are certainly capable of writing about a wide variety of topics from world news and politics to science and technology, sometimes ideas for articles can be easily generated by focusing on our personal interests.
Many women are excellent cooks, artists, hobbyists, active participants in aerobics or other exercise programs, dieters, green-thumbs, romance lovers and brides at least once in their life. Our experiences and knowledge in these familiar categories can be a constant source of inspiration for potential articles that publications are searching for.
Source:http://penulissukses.com
Ten Ways To Become A Successful Writer
* Author: Theodora Cochrane
Anyone can call themselves a writer. All you have to do is write – a story, an article, a journal, a novel, a poem. But that is rather like being called a plumber because you sort out the central heating and replace washers. Or a dressmaker because you make your own clothes. Or a bricklayer because you built your own garage. These are hobbies you enjoy. They aren’t your main source of income.
The difference between writers and the other examples is that people who write are usually passionate about what they do.
If you are one of these why not become a real writer who gets paid for their work? It gives great pleasure to answer “I’m a writer,” to the question “What do you do?”
It gives even greater pleasure to add “For a living.”
So what must you do to become a full time writer?
1. Get paid for your work.
I’m afraid that there are many people who are so anxious to see their work in print that they will write for nothing. There is only one acceptable reason for doing this and that is to build a portfolio of published material.
Unfortunately editors know which publications use such material and sadly some of these publications will print material which would not be of a standard to be paid for. If your work is good enough you will get published.
I operate with two guidelines. I only offer material for which payment will be made if it is accepted – even if it’s only a letter to a ‘Reader’s Letters’ page.
2. Never dispose of anything you write even if it’s been rejected.
It can be re-worked and represented to another publication or at another time. Maybe it can be incorporated into another piece. While you decide what to do it can safely sit on file in your computer ready to be summoned when you’ve got writer’s block or a spare moment. Sometimes just re-reading it will set you off on a more productive line of thought.
3. Write every day.
Set an achievable target for doing this. Even if it’s only an hour a day at first you must stick to it no matter what else happens. Choose your time of day. Get up earlier if necessary. Make it a habit so that you feel uncomfortable if you don’t do it.
4. Don’t give in to writer’s block.
There will be days when you sit down at your desk and your mind goes blank. Don’t sit there doing nothing or, even worse, decide to end the session and do something else. Just write anything. Even if it’s gibberish. Write about the fact that you can’t think of anything and how cross that makes you, etc.
Before you know it your writer’s block will have disappeared.
5. Start small.
A good place to start submitting work for publication is the letter page of magazines and newspapers who pay for the items they publish.
Warning! Don’t be tempted to present something you dashed off on the spur of the moment.
Prepare the items you submit to editors with as much care as you would if it was a short story or article. It is good practice for working on longer items and will sharpen your skills.
6. Study your market before you submit anything at all whether it is a letter, an article, a short story or a novel.
Show professionalism by choosing a suitable subject and style.
7. Edit, revise, rework and edit again until you are sure you’ve got it right.
Some writers study the market before they decide what to write about. When I’m writing short pieces, unless I’m working on a commissioned article or story, I prefer to write whatever is in my mind at the time.
Then I work on it so that it is suitable for whichever market I have chosen.
One piece of writing can often be adapted and edited to suit several different publications. But beware of the next point.
8. Never send the same article to more than one publication at a time.
You will end up in any editor’s black book if after publishing your piece of work it is then printed in a rival publication. Wait until your ms has been rejected before submitting it elsewhere. Before re-submitting it, re-read it. Especially take note of any comments the editor might have made. (They do sometimes do this.)
9. Do not alienate editors.
To most people that would seem to be pretty obvious but there are still tales of hopeful writers sending angry letters or making abusive phone calls when their submissions are rejected.
Remember that there are hundreds (at least) of hopeful authors sending in material. Don’t pester any editor for a decision for at least a couple of months, and then a polite enquiry by ‘phone, letter, or email is acceptable.
10. Never give up.
There are very few writers who were successful from the start. Keep a list of how many rejections the best authors had. Read it every time the heavy sound of a rejection landing on the mat depresses you.
Before long it won’t be that heavy thump, it will be an acceptance or a cheque. At last you’ll be on your way to being a real published writer.
________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theodora Cochrane has been a published author for many years. She writes using different pen names to maintain her privacy. To see more tips for writers visit
http://www.BAwriter.co.uk/ - Tips for writers which is a page designed for writers and small and self publishers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Anyone can call themselves a writer. All you have to do is write – a story, an article, a journal, a novel, a poem. But that is rather like being called a plumber because you sort out the central heating and replace washers. Or a dressmaker because you make your own clothes. Or a bricklayer because you built your own garage. These are hobbies you enjoy. They aren’t your main source of income.
The difference between writers and the other examples is that people who write are usually passionate about what they do.
If you are one of these why not become a real writer who gets paid for their work? It gives great pleasure to answer “I’m a writer,” to the question “What do you do?”
It gives even greater pleasure to add “For a living.”
So what must you do to become a full time writer?
1. Get paid for your work.
I’m afraid that there are many people who are so anxious to see their work in print that they will write for nothing. There is only one acceptable reason for doing this and that is to build a portfolio of published material.
Unfortunately editors know which publications use such material and sadly some of these publications will print material which would not be of a standard to be paid for. If your work is good enough you will get published.
I operate with two guidelines. I only offer material for which payment will be made if it is accepted – even if it’s only a letter to a ‘Reader’s Letters’ page.
2. Never dispose of anything you write even if it’s been rejected.
It can be re-worked and represented to another publication or at another time. Maybe it can be incorporated into another piece. While you decide what to do it can safely sit on file in your computer ready to be summoned when you’ve got writer’s block or a spare moment. Sometimes just re-reading it will set you off on a more productive line of thought.
3. Write every day.
Set an achievable target for doing this. Even if it’s only an hour a day at first you must stick to it no matter what else happens. Choose your time of day. Get up earlier if necessary. Make it a habit so that you feel uncomfortable if you don’t do it.
4. Don’t give in to writer’s block.
There will be days when you sit down at your desk and your mind goes blank. Don’t sit there doing nothing or, even worse, decide to end the session and do something else. Just write anything. Even if it’s gibberish. Write about the fact that you can’t think of anything and how cross that makes you, etc.
Before you know it your writer’s block will have disappeared.
5. Start small.
A good place to start submitting work for publication is the letter page of magazines and newspapers who pay for the items they publish.
Warning! Don’t be tempted to present something you dashed off on the spur of the moment.
Prepare the items you submit to editors with as much care as you would if it was a short story or article. It is good practice for working on longer items and will sharpen your skills.
6. Study your market before you submit anything at all whether it is a letter, an article, a short story or a novel.
Show professionalism by choosing a suitable subject and style.
7. Edit, revise, rework and edit again until you are sure you’ve got it right.
Some writers study the market before they decide what to write about. When I’m writing short pieces, unless I’m working on a commissioned article or story, I prefer to write whatever is in my mind at the time.
Then I work on it so that it is suitable for whichever market I have chosen.
One piece of writing can often be adapted and edited to suit several different publications. But beware of the next point.
8. Never send the same article to more than one publication at a time.
You will end up in any editor’s black book if after publishing your piece of work it is then printed in a rival publication. Wait until your ms has been rejected before submitting it elsewhere. Before re-submitting it, re-read it. Especially take note of any comments the editor might have made. (They do sometimes do this.)
9. Do not alienate editors.
To most people that would seem to be pretty obvious but there are still tales of hopeful writers sending angry letters or making abusive phone calls when their submissions are rejected.
Remember that there are hundreds (at least) of hopeful authors sending in material. Don’t pester any editor for a decision for at least a couple of months, and then a polite enquiry by ‘phone, letter, or email is acceptable.
10. Never give up.
There are very few writers who were successful from the start. Keep a list of how many rejections the best authors had. Read it every time the heavy sound of a rejection landing on the mat depresses you.
Before long it won’t be that heavy thump, it will be an acceptance or a cheque. At last you’ll be on your way to being a real published writer.
________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theodora Cochrane has been a published author for many years. She writes using different pen names to maintain her privacy. To see more tips for writers visit
http://www.BAwriter.co.uk/ - Tips for writers which is a page designed for writers and small and self publishers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Simple Strategies For Success as a Writer
Top Five Simple Writing Strategies:
1. Set aside time every day to write. I know, you've heard this time and again but it's true and it's important. It keeps you in the habit of writing, makes your copy more interesting, professional, and focused and it ensures that your book doesn't take ten years to finish.
2. Write conversationally. Not only is conversational writing easier to read, it's easier to write. Simply imagine that you're writing to a friend or family member.
3. Write for a specific amount of time, and make it reasonable. Don't promise that you're going to write for four hours a day unless you're already a professional full time writer. It just isn't reasonable. On the other hand, if you can only write for 15 minutes a day then that's a reasonable goal. If you end up writing for more than 15 minutes then great but if not, at least you've met your goal.
4. Outline or plan your book. Many people groan at the thought of outlining their book. You don't have to break it down into a 30 page detailed account of what you're going to write. Simply draft your chapter titles and the points that you want to cover in each chapter. It will make your writing process more efficient, more focused, and more productive.
5. Write when it works best for you. Morning, noon, or night what is the best time for you to focus on your writing? Don't assume that just because you have more time in the night that that is the best time for you to write. You could be exhausted by the time the 6:00 news rolls around and clear thought just doesn't happen. If you're a morning person, write in the morning and vice versa.
By Bob Burnham
1. Set aside time every day to write. I know, you've heard this time and again but it's true and it's important. It keeps you in the habit of writing, makes your copy more interesting, professional, and focused and it ensures that your book doesn't take ten years to finish.
2. Write conversationally. Not only is conversational writing easier to read, it's easier to write. Simply imagine that you're writing to a friend or family member.
3. Write for a specific amount of time, and make it reasonable. Don't promise that you're going to write for four hours a day unless you're already a professional full time writer. It just isn't reasonable. On the other hand, if you can only write for 15 minutes a day then that's a reasonable goal. If you end up writing for more than 15 minutes then great but if not, at least you've met your goal.
4. Outline or plan your book. Many people groan at the thought of outlining their book. You don't have to break it down into a 30 page detailed account of what you're going to write. Simply draft your chapter titles and the points that you want to cover in each chapter. It will make your writing process more efficient, more focused, and more productive.
5. Write when it works best for you. Morning, noon, or night what is the best time for you to focus on your writing? Don't assume that just because you have more time in the night that that is the best time for you to write. You could be exhausted by the time the 6:00 news rolls around and clear thought just doesn't happen. If you're a morning person, write in the morning and vice versa.
By Bob Burnham
How to Become a Writer
Here are the How To Become A Writer Eight Steps To Success:
1. Create a successful writer's mindset.
To have a successful writer's mindset, you must know where you want to go with your writing. Create an intention, and then visualize yourself creating that intention in your life.
2. Develop the habit of journaling regularly.
Every serious writer MUST keep a journal. A journal is a tool that will improve your ability to notice the events in your world. It's also a tool that helps you mine your emotions and thoughts.
3. Practice writing daily.
The other way to improve your writing daily is by doing a daily practice. The easiest writing practice to do is timed writings. Choose a length of time (at least 5 minutes; more is better). Set a timer and just write.
4. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and write to your strengths.
Every writer has specific strengths and weaknesses. When you know yourself as a writer, you can choose the projects with which you can have the greatest success.
5. Write with feeling.
Writing is all about emotion. If your writing lacks emotion, it will be flat and uninteresting. You must know your own feelings about what you're writing, and you must also know what feeling you want to evoke in your reader. Keep these emotions in mind as you write.
6. Fill your writing with just the right details.
Detail is essential to great writing, but too much detail can bury good writing under a layer of distraction that turns the writing dull. When you learn to create the perfect balance of details-just enough, but not too much, you become a writer who can easily get published.
7. Make your writing hypnotic.
You must have the ability to mesmerize your reader. You create hypnotic writing with the use of short phrases, the use of rhythm, and pacing. You also create it with perfect word choice and a constant awareness that your writing must be for the reader.
8. Always have a writing plan.
An absolutely essential element of writing success is motivation. You must be able to stay motivated to start and finish your writing projects.
You can avoid both procrastination and writer's block by always having your projects planned out. Create a short term and a long term plan. List the projects you want to do this week, this month, and this year. Once you've created the list, get out your calendar and make a schedule for how you can complete your projects.
Source:http://www.squidoo.com/
1. Create a successful writer's mindset.
To have a successful writer's mindset, you must know where you want to go with your writing. Create an intention, and then visualize yourself creating that intention in your life.
2. Develop the habit of journaling regularly.
Every serious writer MUST keep a journal. A journal is a tool that will improve your ability to notice the events in your world. It's also a tool that helps you mine your emotions and thoughts.
3. Practice writing daily.
The other way to improve your writing daily is by doing a daily practice. The easiest writing practice to do is timed writings. Choose a length of time (at least 5 minutes; more is better). Set a timer and just write.
4. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and write to your strengths.
Every writer has specific strengths and weaknesses. When you know yourself as a writer, you can choose the projects with which you can have the greatest success.
5. Write with feeling.
Writing is all about emotion. If your writing lacks emotion, it will be flat and uninteresting. You must know your own feelings about what you're writing, and you must also know what feeling you want to evoke in your reader. Keep these emotions in mind as you write.
6. Fill your writing with just the right details.
Detail is essential to great writing, but too much detail can bury good writing under a layer of distraction that turns the writing dull. When you learn to create the perfect balance of details-just enough, but not too much, you become a writer who can easily get published.
7. Make your writing hypnotic.
You must have the ability to mesmerize your reader. You create hypnotic writing with the use of short phrases, the use of rhythm, and pacing. You also create it with perfect word choice and a constant awareness that your writing must be for the reader.
8. Always have a writing plan.
An absolutely essential element of writing success is motivation. You must be able to stay motivated to start and finish your writing projects.
You can avoid both procrastination and writer's block by always having your projects planned out. Create a short term and a long term plan. List the projects you want to do this week, this month, and this year. Once you've created the list, get out your calendar and make a schedule for how you can complete your projects.
Source:http://www.squidoo.com/
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