Writing Articles & News
Do You Need A Website Content Writer?
Do you need a website content writer? Okay, you have your website up. It is one page explaining your veterinarian business and hospital. It has everything you think you need on the page. It has your name, address, business telephone number and credentials. But, you are not getting many hits to your website and you are wondering why. Well, search engines rank your website by many different factors, the content, the keywords, the links into your website and the links leaving your website. ...
Need To Write An Article? 'three' Is A Magic Number!
Writing articles for magazines, the Internet or the local community paper needn't be a headache. Providing they are informative, reasonably short and to the point, readers and publishers will welcome your articles. But, if the secret to writing neat, sweet articles is to keep them succinct, how do you maintain your focus and avoid the pitfalls of waffle? Try the 3 by 3 Plan! Taking a really simple example, suppose you want to write about kites. The first stage is to ...
To Write Successful Business & Academic Communications, Learn the Architecture of a Story
Human beings seem to be born with a gene for telling stories. Stories from our families, our communities, and the media form our worldview and shape our lives. In fact, scientists have discovered that our ability to create stories is intricately connected to our ability to learn. This is because our brains seek to create meaning through relationship, which is what stories do so well.
Get Noticed! Eight Tips to Catching an Editor's Eye
The first five pages of a novel are critical. Editors make quick judgments. They don’t like to admit it, but they do. Somewhere an editor is sitting in an airless room staring at a pile of manuscripts hoping to strike gold, but doubtful. She wants to get through the toppling pile as quickly as possible. Therefore she is going to look at your manuscript and search for one thing: A reason to say ‘no’. Your goal is not to give her that reason. There are many factors you can’t ...
Publication Road
The journey to having my first novel for children published has been riddled with road blocks and shonky bridges. The good news? At every rickety stage I've picked up tips (and anti-tips) which I'm happy to share with Newswrite readers...
Why Manners Maketh the Freelance Writer
Lately I've been noticing an odd trend amongst the freelance writers who contact us every week: rudeness.
Passionate About Writing?
I'm a writing fool! 2 book proposals, 1 user's guide, a business technology analysis paper, and a FileMaker Pro 7 application! Can you say, "RedBull?" Actually, my preferred energy drink of choice is Monster. But I'll save my energy drinks discussion for another time.
How NOT to Get a Freelance Writing Job
In the business of freelance writing, it's not enough to be good at writing. You also have to be good at finding work – and selling yourself when you do. Persuading a new client to let you write for them, rather than one of the hundreds of other writers out there, can be an art in itself. Here's how not to do it…
Written Communications – 6 Tips on Language & Tone
In most aspects of business, we will be expected to write a message to a client or customer, in the form of a letter, memo or e-mail. Language and tone in these communications is vital to the relationship with the recipient, and can mean the difference between a sale and a lost prospect. Therefore, we cannot afford to get it wrong. Following are six tips on how to write to a customer or client to ensure the best possible outcome.
Should You Hire a Ghostwriter?
Have you heard the term ‘ghostwriter’ and wondered what they do or who they work with? Although it sounds mysterious, ghostwriting is actually a very simple agreement where an individual or company hires a writer to create a work that will be owned outright by the buyer. The buyer is not required to give credit to the writer and is even allowed to claim authorship.
What Do People Want To Read?
Not long ago I found a wonderful book – “The Top 10 of Everything 2002” – which listed the world’s best selling books of all time. Want to know what they were?
Writers can Grow to be Comfortable with Criticism
On my first newspaper assignment as a critic, I was well prepared to dish it out. I was less prepared to take it. Imagine my surprise when my witty, well-crafted critique drew a smattering of letters filled with name-calling and nasty words. It stung. Could the critic handle criticism? I discovered that with some emotional discipline and introspection, I could not only handle criticism, I could grow from it. Here's how.
Through the Eyes of an Artist
As writers, we initially tend to be either more cerebral or emotional than perceptive. Its occurs to me that writers are driven to express what they actually haven't figured out how to say verbally, but long to say somehow. Then, we at least have the struggle down on paper where we can move it around, erase it, start over and add to it. Seeing the words will perhaps give us a better chance of revising to something close to what we want to say.
Get Published: The Nuts and Bolts of Good English, and How to Impress a Publisher (1)
Not all writers write good grammar. That's a fact. It's no big deal. Well, mostly it's no big deal. As a freelance books editor, I've seen hundreds of books whose authors cannot produce decent grammar and punctuation. I do it for them. I'm paid to do that -- mostly by the hour.
When I Run Out of Ideas
I do on occasion run out of ideas for my column writing. I do this after finishing a huge writing project like a book. I am just plain "written out" and am fresh out of things to say. When this happens, I turn to the news and am rarely disappointed.
Generating Nonfiction Book Titles Without a Hassle
The process of developing a working title for your nonfiction book can be a hassle sometimes. You first have to brainstorm a few titles, and if the results aren't to your liking, you are practically forced to brainstorm more possible titles --- or do you?
Get Published: The Nuts and Bolts of English, and How to Impress a Publisher (2)
The tiniest things can be so useful when you come to consider the nuts and bolts of writing. The comma is one of them. No, don't go away: it's a useful device that's often used badly -- or ignored altogether.
Children's Stories The Essentials
There is no specific formula for children's fiction. There are, however, some necessities. Whether you are writing a humorous picture book or a coming-of-age novel for young adults, you will need: a main character, a setting, a problem or goal and a satisfying ending.
Check Your English Grammar With This Easy Technique
As an International language, English has been used widely in online world. Whether you use it to write a sales letter, a follow up, ads headline, an article, and so on, you need to use it correctly.
Hero's Journey – The Herald
Beyond three and four act story structure, lies the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is the most usable story structure consisting of at least 106 stages and the template for successful contemporary stories, from Star Wars to Al Pacino Scarface to The Incredibles to War of the Worlds to The Dirty Dozen to Midnight Cowboy. The Hero’s Journey is a valuable template because: a) It attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the ...
Get Published: The Nuts and Bolts of Good English, and How to Impress a Publisher (3)
A well-punctuated approach letter may make the difference between acceptance and rejection by a publisher's commissioning editor. In this article, I'll look at just one small, but often bothersome, piece of punctuation: the apostrophe.
Six Tips for Creating More Lifelike Story Characters
Working on my first humorous novel, I started with a single character. I followed suggestions in writers' reference books for developing story characters. Then, still dissatisfied with my results, I began to explore other ways to make my characters more lifelike and included those strategies below.
Don't Make This Huge Writing Mistake!
You can create a great headline, a dynamic first sentence, and a brilliant lead paragraph. But if you can’t hold readers during those middle paragraphs, they’ll never see your conclusion.
Starting a Freelance Writing Career (or Thoughts About Taking the Plunge)
Nike's ad has taken on new meaning for me of late; "Just do it!" runs through my mind like a mantra. Although my dreams have nothing to do with athletic shoes and little to do with athletics (unless you count the long list of ideas I have developed which revolve around my sons and their activities), I have spent a long time avoiding the one thing I've always wanted to do - write.
Starting a Freelance Writing Career (or How I Sifted Through the Muck and Found My Way)
So, the decision is final. I am a writer. Actually, I have always been a person who writes, but I have never applied the term to myself in a professional sense. Having pushed aside my financial fears and gained the requisite self-confidence, I began to surf the net in earnest for information about how to begin a freelance writing career. The vast amount of information was daunting enough, but when I realized how much time and effort would go into an attempt to get published, I ...
The Dreaded Daily Word Count
Open any book on ‘how to write,’ and somewhere you will find a discussion of how many words you should write every day. Forget the struggle to get ourselves to the paper or the computer every day, now we have to produce a certain number of words?
7 Reference Books for Your Desk
I hate to admit this, but I rarely get an original idea. That’s bad for a writer. However, I’ve got lots of paperback friends who help me sound smarter. They’re the seven reference texts I keep on top of my desk. Here they are, and why each one means so much to me. 1. Dictionary – And old teacher once told me, “If you don’t know the meaning, look it up.” Sound advice. My desk copy is “Webster’s New World Dictionary.” 2. Thesaurus – I’m always looking for a different way ...
Creative Writing
Do you consider yourself a storyteller? Do you consider yourself a writer? Were you always the student in school that the teacher chose to read your creative writing out loud to the rest of the class? Believe it or not these skills can land you a very good job in Washington D.C. with a regulatory agency. Perhaps you can get a job at the FTC, i.e. The Federal Trade Commission, because many of their cases are pure hokum and creative writing projects.
Understanding That Online Writing Is Business Writing Will Make You A Fortune
Never before in the history of the business of writing have opportunities opened up and presented themselves in such a large quantity and scale for writers to easily win so much regular business and revenue.
Quotations As Expressions In Life
Quotations are expressions, usually in the spoken form or in literature, which are referenced to by others. Usually, quotations are written within quotation marks, as a verbum dicendi, to indicate that it was an expression given by a particular person. Nowadays, quotations are usually referenced from sources such as literature, speeches, movie dialogues, interviews or even song lyrics.