Questions

It’s past mid month…who started and gave up? Anyone still in it? What’s your word count? Anyone want to share their novel link? Mine is “Dragon’s Lineage” located at my Myspace blog http://blog.myspace.com/cathie111

I post almost everyday! Word count currently: 22,594
- cathy_cmr

Hi guys

I currantly write a blog once every so often on wordpress. But anytime i try to write a blog now i just get stuck. My mind goes blank i was just wondering if this happens to any other bloggers and how did you fix this problem. I am getting very frustrated and i dont know what do to.

Serious answers only please
- Irish Princess

Any skillful writer will tell you that at the beginning his text looked clumsy, too. He’ll say that when he now reads his first writings, he can’t help a smile. But he will also tell you that now he feels absolutely comfortable when writing, and the only mistakes that leave him unsatisfied refer to content or main idea, as it happens to a lot of writers, and some editing job has to be done to eliminate them.

If you plan to become a writer or journalist, or simply want to improve your academic writing in order to receive a better grade, there’s the only way out – write, write, and write. The secret is very easy. The thing is that the more you practice, the better you get acquainted with your typical mistakes. The better you know them, the more you will look for the ways to correct them. And this leads to the only possible result – successful writing. A sense for text comes with time, but once you get it, nothing will go wrong about your stylistics. With time you will also notice (and this is surprising to a lot of writers) that when reading a newspaper, you subconsciously edit the news story the way it should’ve been written, or mark good passages of an item.

There are several ways to improve your writing. One of them is by using online blogs. They have become very popular recently. The reason why you should use one is clear: independent critics will leave comments concerning your writing. You can even ask them to do it. However, don’t try to narrow it down to writing exercises. Express yourself. Write about something that bothers, surprises, inspires, or upsets you. Try to make your blog interesting to read. This is also a good option for those who are afraid of the fact that someone may find their papers with “clumsy writing”. Blogs leave you relevantly anonymous.

Pictures can be a way to practice, too. Make an album where you will have a separate page for every picture. Write comments, short stories, or jokes. Pictures are a good way to practice satire. It is a very valuable skill that is not commonly found today. With a practice like this who knows, maybe you will be the next famous satirical writer?

Some of you might be used to diaries; therefore, it’s a good idea to make a feedback diary, where you will leave your impressions of the day. Every day. Put it in whichever form you prefer, but avoid using simple language, or abbreviations. Instead, draw bright and colorful pictures. Usually days in a regular life don’t differ much, and sometimes it’s even hard to remember what happened last Friday. Imagine that in two years you will find your writing diary, read any note, and remember in details what happened that Wednesday in January.

If you don’t feel like committing yourself to everyday writing, make a writing journal. Use it whenever something significant happens to you. You can write in a style of a novel – with some prehistory, background details, and a vivid description of an event. Don’t put limitations like, “I need to write five pages on this event”. Try to avoid brevity, but make yourself comfortable with what you have to do.

If you feel more or less confident, but you know that there still has to be some practice, you can start compiling your own essay volume. It differs from both a diary and a journal, because here you let your imagination go wild and untamed. Create topics, make up stories, work on characters, and conduct researches. You can choose an issue that bothers you, and work on it systematically. Big projects are good for they teach you to organize notes (to keep track of all descriptions and characters), and to finish stories.

Whatever you choose – blogs, pictures, diaries, journals, or essay collections – remember that practice makes perfect. Something that sounds clumsy will look better with time. You will see that your style of writing and shaping the texts will change dramatically. Who knows, maybe some day you will switch blogs for editors and start earning money on writing books? You will probably want to publish a book called “How I Managed to Become a Successful Writer”.


- Jennifer Burns

I’m writing a blog post on dealing with writer’s block and am curious as to when you get them. Is it random? Do you get them when you’re putting too much pressure on yourself? I would also like to know how you deal with them. No worries, I will give you credit if I decide to use your answer.
- Bleeding Pen

I’m writing a blog post on dealing with writer’s block and am curious as to when you get them. Is it random? Do you get them when you’re putting too much pressure on yourself? I would also like to know how you deal with them. No worries, I will give you credit if I decide to use your answer.
- Bleeding Pen

I enjoy Powell’s bkstore’s blog, too.
- John Z

Have you never needed an article and had writers block? You get stuck and just can’t seem to get your thoughts down on paper. Getting writers block happens to the best writers and if you’re in business and need extra content for your website or blog, hiring a ghost writer may be just the answer for you. Hiring a writer for your company articles makes good since if you’re too busy to write them yourself.

Many small companies the owner if the chief cook and bottle washer. To save money, you have to wear many hats to try to save money for your growing startup company. When a company becomes more established, the owner may find he just doesn’t have the time to sit down at his computer and take the time to crank out an article a few times a week. When you get to that point it in business it makes good sense to look to hire a good ghost writer to write articles for your company.

Hiring a ghost writer to write articles for your company isn’t very hard to do. Many article directories offer this service. If your business is very specialized, you may be more challenged to find someone who can intelligently write good fresh content for your website. In a case like this you may choose to try to use a service that specializes at doing this kind of service.

When hiring an article writer one thing good to look for is someone who has a lot of varied experience in many different fields. If you trying to write about car sales, look for a writer that has sales experience in closely related fields. Sometimes too good of a writer may alienate the customers audience if his vocabulary doesn’t match that of the reader. You may have to weed through several writers until you find someone who matches the style and experience of the company web owner.

Reading samples of past articles the author has written on varied subjects is a prerequisite to hiring a good writer for your company. Take your time by doing your research when you are looking for a potential candidate author for your blogs, newsletter or articles. See how closely some of the articles match what you want to hire them to write about.

You can use messaging services like MSN messenger to chat with your author if they reside in a different country then your own. Hiring oversea writers from countries like Thailand and India can save you money and you can get quality writers without the overhead involved with the cost of living of that in the west.

Many overseas companies have people you can hire for as little as $5 dollars an hour. Skilled content writers may be hundreds less per job then what writers in the west may charge. You want to make sure to check their work to make sure your getting quality at a fair price.

In summary, hiring a ghost writer may be the answer to carry out your message to your customers when the owner is too busy with other facets with running the business. Hiring a good writer isn’t hard if you take the time to research your writers past articles and writing work and make sure their style fits that of your own. Hiring oversea ghost writers can save you a lot of money if you’re lucky enough to find a highly skilled writer who can match your style.


- Scott Riefler

One of the greatest challenges of writing a book is staying motivated throughout the project—this is something every writer struggles with at one time or another. And that’s okay. No one can stay focused 100 percent of the time. What’s important is that you stay committed to writing your book and you know how to re-motivate yourself when you feel like setting the project aside.

When you feel your inspiration waning, consider the following ways to snap out of it and stay motivated to write your book.

1. Just WRITE!

The best way to overcome a lack of writing motivation is to write—just put your head down and plow through. Don’t worry about whether or not your words are perfect because you have to go back and revise later. If you’re not sure about things like grammar and spelling, don’t worry about it until the book is finished. A good editor can go back and tell you how to fix the writing. In the beginning, focus on getting your thoughts on paper or on the screen and organizing them.

2. Get Help

Don’t be afraid to ask for help to stay motivated. If you haven’t written a book before you might need to hire a writing coach or read some books about writing to get started and stay on track. If you need help and don’t get it then you’ll be more likely to give up on the book, and if you give up on the book you could be giving up on a brand new career or a great new income stream for your business—or a hobby that you might really enjoy. So whatever you do, don’t give up on writing your book.

3. Communicate Your Challenges

Sometimes, just sharing your struggles with motivation can help you overcome them. One way to do this is start a blog and write about the process of writing the book. Your blog reader’s comments and support will help keep you motivated to write and make sure you meet your deadlines—you won’t want to disappoint your following. You also will have an audience of readers ready to buy your book the minute it’s finished if you cultivate supporters during the writing process.

4. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

If you’re stuck on the writing, think about how great it will feel to finish your book—and imagine what you’ll do with the money that you make from your book. You can expand your business, go on an exotic vacation, treat yourself to a luxury spa weekend, buy a house, buy a car, or thousands of other things. Writing for the pleasure of writing is great. But when writing doesn’t feel pleasurable anymore, it helps to think about book sales—and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if it keeps you writing.

5. It’s Not Just About You

Another great way to get motivated is to think about how your book will benefit others, which is an underlying desire almost every aspiring writer possesses. Sharing your experiences might really help someone else who is in the same situation that you were, so let the satisfaction of helping others motivate you to keep writing your book.

Staying Motivated in the Future

Motivation comes and goes. The key to completing your book successfully is to recognize when you need a motivational kick in the pants and take action. When you feel like setting your book project aside, consider these strategies for overcoming your motivational challenges—your future success as a writer may depend on it.


- Melinda Copp

My email box has been filling up with notices about the annual start of National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). However, in general, I write nonfiction. If you, like me, consider yourself a nonfiction writer, don’t sit around for the next 30 days twiddling your thumbs and wishing you had a cool contest to enter this month. Instead, join me in starting and finishing a work of nonfiction during November. That’s right, take part in the Write Nonfiction in November (www.writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com/) challenge.

Instead of writing 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days, commit to writing an article, a booklet, a newsletter, or a book in the same amount of time. Whatever non-fiction writing project you’ve been putting off, get started now. You can even start a blog and blog for 30 days.

No one will be looking over your shoulder. Write Nonfiction in November does not constitute a contest, and I won’t be handing out a prize at the end of the month. Your award comes in the form of the great feeling you will get from knowing you completed your “assignment.” No one will be counting your words, nor does anyone care how many words you write (not even me). You simply are challenged to write — and to not write alone. I’ll be writing every day, too, and hopefully some other people will be writing as well.

Write Nonfiction in November also constitutes a blog. I invite everyone who is writing non-fiction during November and wants to share their experience to go to www.writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com/ and post comments. (You can also access it from my web site at www.copywrightcommunications.com.) I’ll be posting blogs every few days about nonfiction writing in general - why I enjoy it, tips on getting published, how my writing is going, etc.

While last year I blogged alone, this year my Write Nonfiction in November blog will offer readers and writers something new and exciting: guest blogs from experts from many areas of writing and publishing. So far the following experts will be blogging with me: agent and consultant Philippa Burgess of Creative Convergence; Mitch Davis (Yearbook of Experts/www.expertclick.com); author Ron Arons (The Jews of Sing Sing); agent and author Mike Larsen (How to Write a Book Proposal and How to Get a Literary Agent); agent and author Katharine Sands (Making the Perfect Pitch); Internet and website guru Linda Lee (Smart Women, Stupid Computers); Randy Peyser (Author One Stop); Annie Jennings (Annie Jennings PR); and executive magazine editor and publisher Seth Mendelson (McFadden Publications.

I’m still working on getting a few more people to agree to post a blog. I’d like to have at least 15 out of the 30 blogs written by someone other than me this year, so readers can benefit from someone else’s experience and expertise other than mine. Hopefully, that will make Write Nonfiction in November a resource for nonfiction writers not only in November but all year long.

Nonfiction writing offers many benefits and challenges. I love nonfiction writing, because it allows me to explore subjects that are interesting to me and to then share them with others. As a magazine journalist and book author who likes to wrestle with issues in my life or subjects that excite me, I get to spend my days researching those very same issues and subjects, speaking to experts about them, finding answers and solutions to them, and coming up with ideas and theories related to them. Then, I get to craft what I’ve learned into a story - an article, essay or book - that offers what I’ve learned and discovered - and possibly even put to use successfully in my life - into a form that others can read. This then hopefully helps or excites them.

However, the world of nonfiction publishing has changed dramatically over the last few years. It’s getting harder and harder to get a nonfiction book published if you don’t have what they call a “platform.” Magazines and newspapers are discontinuing publication left and right. Self-publishing choices are becoming slimmer rather than broader. Book promotion and sales has become the job of the author not the publisher. For all these reasons, nonfiction writers need to stay educated about the new tools of their trade, such as the Internet and all it has to offer. The nonfiction writer has to wear many hats and has to wear them well to become successful.

So, November is here, and it’s time to start writing nonfiction. Are you ready for the challenge? Even if you aren’t, as the Nike advertisement says, “Just do it.” And visit www.writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com/ to find out what you need to become successful along the way.


- Nina Amir