highcontent's Blog

Many writers do not understand that the online writing business is very different from the offline writing world. The economics are totally different and no amount of lobbying and noise will change that.

Sadly, because of this reason, many good writers have stayed away from the online writing business while others have priced themselves out of lucrative assignments from websites, simply because they want the offline world to be automatically transferred online.

In the bricks and mortar world of writing, top freelance writers are accustomed to single writing assignments paying them $300 at the very minimum. Rates for leading magazines can go up to $3,000 or even much higher.

Thinking that you can push a webmaster to pay you $3000 for your writing is just plain day dreaming. The realities online are very different. For starters, in the offline writing market there are a few thousand publications paying good rates to freelancer writers. In the online world there are millions of potential writing markets (and constantly growing even as you read this). The challenge in the old world is finding a way to beat other writers to assignments. In the new online writing business, the challenge is being able to handle enough clients and to do enough writing daily to make a good income.

Online writing business will tend to come in volumes and for you to make money you will need to be a fast writer. There are some techniques to speed up the writing process (which I deal with in my free short online writing business course available by sending an email to writertips at freeautobot.com) but these technique will only help to speed up a writer who already has a good speed.

Indications are that as the number of websites and blogs continue to grow at the current rate, the economics will swing in favor of the online writing business entrepreneur and rates should go up as the demand for good writers continues to far outstrip the supply. Still it is unlikely that a rate of $3000 per article will be common in the foreseeable future.

So the best thing to do is to find a way to make a good steady income from your online writing business with the current rates and the current state of affairs. Actually this is not too difficult. I know online writers who comfortably make $4,000 on a monthly basis, without too much effort and that is by getting paid less than $11 on average for their articles.

The online writing business will favor the kind of writer who leans more towards novel writing rather than the short story or article writer. This is because a novel writer thrives on writing every day and trying to increase their daily output. This is in contrast to the short story writer who waits for inspiration to write his brief piece at virtually one sitting. Or the professional freelance article writer who will tend to spend more time doing research and sending queries to publications rather than the actual writing work.

The huge advantage that the online writing business entrepreneur has is that they can use the power of the internet to guarantee a steady and constant flow of writing jobs which will leave them with lots of time to do what every writer should enjoy doing the most - writing.

Christopher Kyalo earns a living writing for various online clients. Visit his blog http://100grandonlinewriters.blogspot.com to read the following article; How to get lots of business writing online articles. He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com

article source: adzines.com

At some point, every serious writer is forced to sit down and conclude that there is something seriously wrong with their work. It wanders; it is pretty in some spots and horribly ugly in others. It doesn't always make sense, and is uneven in places. Even though every sentence is grammatically correct, there is something fundamentally broken about the piece.

It lacks structure.

Structure is what holds a good piece of writing together, the material reflection of the reader's psychological need for order. It is the quality that makes the best writing appear seamless, conjured whole from heaven itself. Structure is the logical mind's contribution to a creative process, and a primary difference between professional writing and amateur scribbling: a conscious decision and a learned skill.

Being in many ways the very essence of writing, structure isn't mastered overnight. But here are a few rules of thumb that can help you improve the organizational readability of your work:

Establish a logical order to your presentation.

Ignore all the popular advice to "write like you talk"; that's a misguided appeal to conversational tone usage and a shortsighted encouragement for people who are terrified to put pen to page. In order to master structure, you must learn to write deliberately and with forethought. Plan what you're going to write and how you're going to write it: don't make it up as you go along, particularly when you are writing nonfiction of any kind.

In nonfiction writing (which means anything that isn't fiction), the room for art is small. Don't set out to create art - build a sturdy framework, as a skilled attorney would build a legal argument. Make your supporting points early and establish the logical flow to consequences and conclusions. Don't loop back and make points at word 800 that you should have made at word five.

Make your points quickly - write in 300-word chunks.

That's the magic number: 300. Books are typically printed with about 300 words to a page; magazine articles will usually be structured into roughly 300-word segments. An effective press release, page of website copy or newsletter article won't run much above 300 words. Any longer and your reader will notice that something is off about your piece. Too much longer and your reader will get bored. For some reason, the human mind seems to be most comfortable reading at the 300-word length.

That does not mean that everything you write must be short, only that long pieces should be built out of short pieces put in order. If you can't make your point in 300 words or less, then you are trying to make more than one point. Simplify the whole piece: break the manuscript down into single-point segments no longer than 300 words in length, and then put your points into a logical order that builds towards your final conclusions. The final product will seem to flow with a gentle rhythm that your readers might notice, probably won't be able to identify, and so will most likely attribute it to your talents.

Try it: you'll be amazed.

Take the entire piece down to a single thought, expressed in a single sentence, and then rebuild it from the ground up.

When in doubt, strip the piece down and rebuild it from its primary components. The greatest threat to structure is diffusion; rather than trying to communicate one thing well, you end up saying lots of things badly. Good structure requires that you have a very clear idea of what you are writing, how you are doing it and why. Do one thing, and do it very well.

Set the piece aside and attempt to make your final point in a single sentence, losing as little important detail as possible. Do not use compound sentences; keep it simple and limit it to a single direct thought. If you can't do it, then you do not have a clear enough idea of what it is that you're trying to accomplish - reorganize the piece or split it into several separate ones.

An English sentence has a natural internal structure all its own. Look at your one-sentence summary and use its structure to inform yourself on how the overall piece should be structured. Once you've reduced your writing to its bare essence, you can reconstruct it on a much more solid foundation.

In the end, professional writing is all about understanding the psychological needs of the reader. If you are writing purely for your own pleasure, with no intention of ever letting anyone else read it (and what a boring life that would be), then it doesn't matter because you're not really writing: you're keeping a diary.

But if instead you want your writing to be appreciated by readers, structure is one concept that you can't live without.

About The Author

Robert Warren (www.rswarren.com) is a Florida-based freelance copywriter specializing in the unique marketing needs of independent professionals.

writer@rswarren.com

article source: adzines.com

Ah, writing. For those of us who love to play with words, it's like standing in front of a smorgasbord, agonising over which delicacies to try. You can potter about with your writing as a thoroughly delightful hobby - writing wedding speeches, penning dreadful doggerel for people's birthdays, or writing stories to entertain your children. Or you can work at it, hour after hour, determined that your book is going to be the next bestseller. You can choose the writing life that's perfect for you now, then change direction later, as your circumstances change and your experience grows.

HOBBY OR CAREER?

I'm going to work on an assumption here - that you actually like writing. (I can't imagine any other reason you'd be reading this article. If you don't like to write, why are you being such a masochist? There are thousands of other jobs out there that will suit you better. Stop reading this and go find one.) So, given that you like to write, you should now ask yourself: 'Do I like writing enough to do it full time, or do I want to keep it as a hobby?'

If you just want to keep it as a hobby, then you are relieved of a number of 'duties' already. Since it's a hobby, you don't have to earn money. You don't have to please editors. You don't have to be published. You can scribble in faint grey pencil on a table napkin if you want - nobody else has to read it. And best of all, you don't ever have to write anything except what you want to write!

PART TIME WRITING

Most of us are not in that situation. We either want to write as a paid hobby (which might also be known as 'part time writing') or we want to work towards a full time career. Let's look at 'part time writing' first, and assume that you wouldn't mind being paid for what you do. (At least in kind - a free book or meal in exchange for your carefully produced text.) If you want to be paid, then you are faced with a certain set of responsibilities. You have to make sure that the person paying you can read your work, so faint grey pencil is out. In fact, it's very likely that good clear word processing is in.

Hmmm... this is beginning to sound expensive. Suddenly it's taking money to make money. You have to invest in your career - in the form of hardware and software and consumables. You have to think about GST and that means a business name. Your part time writing career might take up more time, and cost more money, than you had expected.

WHAT KIND OF WRITING?

But wait... you have more decisions to make. Are you going to concentrate on just one kind of writing (say, writing short stories for popular magazines) or are you going to peddle your words in any way that will bring in cash?

There are lots of people out there who require writers. They need wordsmiths to write their 21st birthday party speeches, or to put together smart resumes and application letters, or to create snappy promotional material for their business flyers. If you're happy enough to do all of these things and more, then you can certainly generate a part-time (or even full-time) income. Of course, you may have to advertise, and obtain business cards, and that costs more money... but don't worry: the better you become at what you do, the more your clients will do your advertising for you. ("Oh, you must get so and so to do your flyer; she's really good...")

THE 'SERIOUS WRITER' - TYPE #1

Time to move on to the Serious Writer. Serious Writers come in two flavours: the ones who want to write the Great Australian Novel (or win one of the major literary awards for novels) and disdain networking, marketing, self-promotion and all those mundane things.

They are passionately committed to writing literary fiction, and if it takes twenty or forty years of living off relatives or typing at night after their day job, then so be it. Some of these Serious Writers can write like angels and will undoubtedly achieve what they want. Others never mix with anybody else and have no idea that their work is substandard or boring until they get their first rejection. (They may not realise even when they get their hundredth rejection.)

THE 'SERIOUS WRITER' - TYPE #2

The other kind of Serious Writer is the one who is determined to make a success of writing, investing as much time, energy and cash as is needed. He is happy to network and talk to clients or editors and other writers. Sometimes this becomes a broad-based writing career - this person just loves words and crafting finished pieces of writing, whether it's fiction, non-fiction or promotional material. He is happy to be writing - any kind of writing!

Not everyone is happy to write whatever puts bread on the table. Some writers are content to do an assortment of fiction (mainstream, romances, or romantic intrigue, for example) or to target one specific genre - say speculative fiction - in both short and long formats. They spend time tracking down other aspiring writers in these genres, swap stories of near-misses and 'good and bad' rejections, and share the jubilation of finally getting a 'yes'. If you are determined to write only what you want to write, then don't give up your day job in a hurry - it might take a while and a few 'practice books' to get your first acceptance.

What you can do, right now, is determine the writing life you want-and start working towards it. Begin by asking yourself the ten questions below.

KNOW THYSELF: 10 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE ON THE WRITING LIFE THAT WORKS FOR YOU:

• Would I rather do any kind of writing than do other work? (If the answer is 'yes', and you know you handle words with creativity whether you're writing a short story or a letter to the bank, then a multi-faceted writing career might suit you.)
• Can I identify a range of writing that I would be happy to attempt? Is there a need for this writing? Can I provide a special service, or target a niche market?
• What kind of books do I like to read? Are these the kinds of books I'd enjoy writing?
• How much money do I need to spend on equipment or resources to start a writing business? If I haven't got this money, how long will it take me to save it or obtain it?
• How many hours can I devote to writing?
• Do I need a separate office and phone line, or can I share a computer with the family?
• What other commitments do I have? What other demands are there on my time?
• If I could choose any kind of writing at all to do, what would it be? Can I work towards this, even if I can't spend all my time on it now?
• Do I have a network of supportive people - friends, family and other writers - to help me achieve what I want? If I don't, can I find these people?
• What can I do RIGHT NOW to set my writing career in motion, or to start moving in the direction I really want?

(c) Copyright Marg McAlister

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers' tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/

article source: adzines.com

Your computer is a writing machine, a word processor, a desktop

publishing system that can make you rich and famous. The big seller on the internet is information products and you can get a flood of cash pouring into your home office from you writing. Your computer can be turned onto autopilot flying high off the ground into cyberspace. The computer desktop publishing system makes it all possible.

1. Start right now and just do it. Start digging to find your gold mine on your home office computer. Even if you do not write like William Shakespeare you have a better writing machine than Shakespeare did with his crow quill pen. The truth is many writers today are now making big money writing with no more experience than you have.

2. These writers write hot selling articles a chapter at a time and turn them into short ebooks of 20, 50 or a 100 pages that sell like crazy on the world wide web. The hot selling products on the internet is information. People around the world want to know "how to do it" and they buy millions of "How To Do It Books."

3. The truth is the computer is a complete publishing system where one person can do what once took an entire publishing plant of expert craftsmen like typesetters, writers, proof readers, printers, engravers, book binders and sales people. Now one person with a computer can do it all.

4, The way to begin is to just do it. I started when Terry Dean from myhome town in Richmond, Indiana said, "Just Do It." Sure I made a lot of dumb mistakes, but I did research and interviews. I started my newslettercalled, "Big Money Publishing" and I asked hundreds of writers questions to find out what they did to become successful. I got back thousands of answers and published over 150 newsletters in a two years period.

5. Many writers like Terry Dean, Shawn Casey, Rosalind Gardner, JeffreyLant and thousands of others became rich and well known writing with their computers. I wrote articles, books, manuals, stories and information products. No I have not made my million yet, but I am on my way and I expect to earn that much from my writing. I read constantly and study how other writers write. The secret is to write, write and write. I do it everyday of my life.

6. Whether you write poetry, stories, autobiographies, how to's, business information or information products there is a huge world wide market on the internet. Millions of dollars are spent for books and almost every one buys books to learn how to live in todays complicated world.

7. Brainstorm book ideas with friends, take college courses, read books,subscribe to newsletters, learn about book writing, publishing from researchon the web.

8. Do you think writing a book is too difficult, too long, too expensive, or too complicated. Some writers write a new ebook every month. Now it is easier than ever with the computer writing machine. Yes you can do it if you try.

9. Will your book sell? Check the nearest book store like Books A Millionto see tons of books being sold.

10. Rethink your assumptions about book writing. If you write about something a little different with your experiences, there is an audience out there that wants to know what you have learned. We need to share what we know with others. The more of yourself that you put in your book the more your will reap. You can reach 15,000 to 500,000 with computers when you send out your messages on email.

I am Norm Williams, with 25 years writing in my ad agency book barn in Crystal Beach, Florida. Send for my free newsletter: "Big Money Publishing" and get my free ebook "Crazy Copy Sells" to learn more about making money writing with your computer.

Send to: ncheck@netscape.com with "subscribe" in the subject.

mailto:ncheck@netscape?subject="subscribe"

article source: adzines.com

First drafts are for getting down the ideas. Anna Jacobs calls the first draft the 'dirty draft'. Jenny Crusie calls it the 'don't-look-down draft'. The most important thing is to get it written.

Then comes editing and polishing. Some writers love this stage: they can roll up their sleeves and start whipping that book into shape. Others are not so keen. They'd rather have a tooth extracted than sit down and write another word. Unfortunately, a 'dirty draft' is the equivalent of a tooth with a cavity - it needs fixing or it will cause a lot of pain!

There are any number of things you should be looking for when you're editing. If we tried to cover them all here, this would be a book and not a tipsheet. So we'll limit ourselves to four, all of which come under the heading of "Variety".

Vary Your Sentence Beginnings

This is particularly important when you are using the first person. More than one writer has written a desperate note on work sent in for me to critique, saying something like "I seem to be saying I, I, I all the time... but how can I avoid it when I'm writing in the first person?"

Yes, it can be a challenge. But once you learn the strategies for getting around this problem, you'll find yourself automatically making the necessary changes as you write.

An Example

I staggered into the bathroom, cursing the person who invented daylight saving. I needed sleep. Lots more sleep. I was aware, of course, that an hour wouldn't make much difference; not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? I wondered whether anybody actually did anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon.

We have four sentences starting with "I" in the above example, and one "I'd". This might not look like a lot in this short sample - but if the frequency of the personal pronoun 'I' continued at this level, the reader would probably find it a bit tiresome.

It's easy to change. Look for (a) opportunities to simply drop the word "I" and (b) ways to restructure the sentence so it's not necessary. We'll rewrite the above:

I staggered into the bathroom, cursing the person who invented daylight saving. Oh, for more sleep. Lots more sleep. Okay, one hour wouldn't make much difference: not when I'd been up half the night. But what was the use of having an hour chopped off the morning? Did anybody actually do anything with that hour when it turned up again in the afternoon?

Easy. With a few simple changes, we've cut out three instances of the word "I". Much more acceptable! And by tapping directly into the viewpoint character's thoughts instead of saying "I wondered" and "I was aware", we're moving deeper into viewpoint, and therefore achieving more reader involvement.

Check carefully for your use of the personal pronoun in all your work. It's all too easy to start sentence after sentence with "She", "He", "I" or "They".

Vary Sentence Structure

Check your sentences to make sure they're not all following the same structure. You saw in the above example how easy it is to change things around so sentences don't all begin with the same word. It's just as simple to make sure they don't all have the same rhythm.

Example

"I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic," he said, leaning on the kitchen counter.

"Of course not," she replied, crashing the pan down in the sink.

"I do understand what you're saying," he went on, adopting that conciliatory tone she hated so much. "But I have needs too."

"Yes, I know that, Tim," she said through gritted teeth, blasting hot water into the dirty pan.

This is all getting a bit dull. There's a lot going on, but we're almost in a state of torpor because of the predictable rhythm. Throughout this passage, we have:

[direct speech] + [speech tag] + action or clarification.

Let's try a variation:

"I don't want you to think I'm not sympathetic." Tim leaned on the kitchen counter, idly clicking a pen.

Alana crashed the pan down into the sink. "Of course not."

"I do understand what you're saying. But I have needs too."

His voice had that conciliatory tone that made her want to slap him. "Yes, I know that, Tim." She wrenched on the tap and sent hot water blasting into the dirty pan.

We have (a) changed the placement of the dialogue; (b) eliminated several unnecessary speech tags and (c) relocated her reaction to his tone of voice to the paragraph containing her words, not his words. Small changes - but a big effect.

Vary Sentence Length

This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks. The worst offenders are writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons and colons. These might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off. Worse, they'd get lost. You risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences. It's quite likely those long sentences would also be grammatically incorrect.

Example

Allow me to reconstruct the previous paragraph into one sentence to show you what I mean:

This sounds easy - but judging by the thousands of scenes I've critiqued, it's not as simple as it looks: the worst offenders being writers who like to construct long, flowing sentences with lots of commas, dashes, semi-colons, and colons... these might have been de rigeur in Jane Austen's day, but most modern readers would doze off - worse, they'd get lost: you risk the meaning being obscured by long, unnecessarily complex sentences (which are also likely to be grammatically incorrect).

Phew. I feel the need to take a long gulp of air after just typing that one.

Just as annoying are writers who like to write a succession of sentence fragments. Like this. One after the other. Like machine-gun fire. It drives readers nuts.

Sentence fragments, used sparingly, can be very effective. They do a good job of reflecting the fragmented nature of most people's thoughts. Overused, they arouse homicidal instincts in the reader. Be warned!

Bottom line: vary your sentence length. Avoid long, wordy sentences and use sentence fragments wisely. Most of the time, write grammatically correct sentences that are appropriate for the style and tone of your chosen genre.

Vary The "Voice" Of Your Characters

Here's a good writing exercise for you.

• Jot down the names of four people you know with very different personalities.
• Imagine each has had a bad experience with a sales assistant or a tradesman.
• Now write a page in which each recounts their experience. Try to get the dialogue to reflect that person's personality without torturing words to reflect dropped aitches or dialect etc.
• Read your work aloud. Does each person (character) sound like an individual?

In summary: when you edit your work, make sure that your characters don't use the same sentence patterns, the same slang or the same pet phrases.

(c) copyright Marg McAlister

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers' tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/

article source: adzines.com