All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Learn to Write a Children’s Book That Shines!
By: Lisa Brunel
Are you that person who loves the idea of telling stories to children? Stories are an important part of the way we teach the children around us and writing a children’s book is one way to do it! The truth of the matter is that while writing a children’s book might be tougher than it looks at first glance, it is actually a lot easier than many people make it out to be and if you learn to write children’s books the right way from the beginning you will be way ahead of those who don’t. You need to make sure that you are taking the appropriate steps that allow your book to shine, and taking a look at some of the tips below will help you.
The first thing that you need to remember when you learn to write for children is that you need to keep the pace up. A book’s pacing refers to how it flows and you need to find the pace that suits you. For instance, a book about trying to find a lost puppy might involve a lot of fast pacing and short phrasing, while a book about a lazy Saturday afternoon might have a more slow and soothing pace. Take some time and think about the book that you want to write and make sure that you have chosen a pace that is good for the story that you are trying to tell.
Another thing that you need to do is to learn to write a story that your audience can relate to. Can your audience put itself in the place of your main character, and are the things that your main character is doing something that the audience might do? For this to work, you need to think about how logic works and what other people might do. There are many different ways for you to take your children’s book, but at the end of the day, you will find that finding the right path means finding the logical one.
When you are researching about writing a children’s book, specifically making your writing shine, remember that you should never talk down to the audience. There have been many authors that do this, and it is a sure sign that children are going to get irritated with the book. Trust your audience to be able to understand what is going on, and don’t feel as if you need to explain everything to them. Similarly, do not assume that some things are over their heads. Children are very familiar with negative emotions like anger or jealousy, so if your story calls for them, think seriously about how you are going to present them.
Finally, when you to learn to write a children’s book, remember that showing something happening is more important than telling it and you will get a better response if you do. The younger your audience, the more you need to show things happening. The truth is that writing a children’s book is something that takes time and effort. You need to read other authors’ books and look at the style of writing they use and you should look into the wealth of information out there. The more you know about children’s books, the better off you are going to be, so take some time and really consider what your resources are.
Author Resource:-> When you learn to write children’s books it is important that you have all the right information from the start so you don’t leave anything to chance when it comes to your success as a children’s author! Visit http://www.learntowriteachildrensbook.com and sign up to the free newsletter where you will receive regular writing tips and articles specifically on writing for children
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Book Writing Tips to Speed Write Your Book for Maximum Sales Sooner
By Earma Brown
Where are you in writing your book? Whether you are almost finished after 2 years or just beginning, these book writing tips may help you. You owe it to yourself and your important message to finish fast and sell sooner.
For years, my book manuscript would end up in the drawer with the rest of my unfinished projects. No more; now I finish my book writing projects strong and fast.
I learned from my mentors who showed me the way. I even learned from my competitors who finished their books fast to sell sooner.
Here’s some book writing tips to help you speed write your book for maximum sales sooner:
1. Place book writing goals in your top 3 priorities. Setup a regular writing schedule. Think about your priorities right now. Can you fit 7-10 hours a week in? If you have to let something go that is not high on your priority list, do it. Now is your time. Later is not better.
2. Put your reader first. When writing your book, you should be writing to your reader. Use the word “you” and avoid as much as possible using the words “I” and “We”. An author friend chooses a friend interested in her topic and writes all her books to them.
3. Write an intention goal for your book. Do you have a plan in place? Write on purpose. Don’t set yourself up for failure by not planning. Even if it’s a simple intention goal like “I complete my book (title of book) this year by (date and year.) I educate myself and do what it takes to complete it.” Set one and write it down so you can hit the target.
4. Break your writing into short sections. It’s easier on you to write. Furthermore, it’s easier on your reader to read. Try to break long paragraphs into shorter, more digestible chunks. Make it easy to read and you’ll reach more readers.
5. Use short sentences and simple words. Writing and reading a long sentence takes longer than a short one. Cut lengthy sentences in half to make your writing easier to read. Aim your copy so a 6-7th grader could understand it. Remember using complex words won’t impress your readers. Most times it will annoy them to the point of not finishing your book.
6. Be concise but specific. Compelling copy is concise. Unnecessary words waste your time and most of all your reader’s time. It dilutes your message and makes your book longer than necessary. Additionally, be specific. When writing your book, stick to the specific information about your topic. The more relevant facts you include, the better. If you don’t bother to dig for specifics about your topic, your book may end up vague filled with meaningless words.
7. Write your book the easy way to finish fast. Three of the top ways to speed write your book includes: Act Now. Action will paralyze fear each and every time. Avoid marathon writing. Know you don’t have to become a hermit to write and complete a successful book. Commit to the tracking approach. Doing a set amount,even if it’s only 30 minutes to an hour, each day builds a cumulative effect.
8. Use laser focus. Apply laser focus to complete your book writing project faster. For example, if you look at a 40 watt bulb, the light is soft. Yet you can take the same 40 watts; put it in a laser gun and the same 40 watts become a focused beam of light that can cut through different objects like a sharp knife through paper. To use laser focus in your book project, prioritize, do only one project at a time and complete one project before you start another.
If you don’t use these book writing tips to finish fast, you may be this time next year working on the same book project. Remember to put your book writing in the top 3 priorities of your life, write an intention goal, put your reader first, break your writing into short sections, use short sentences and simple words, be concise but specific, learn to write the easy way and use laser focus. Using the above simple book writing tips you can easily write and complete your book fast. See you at the finish line. Finish fast; finish strong and sell sooner.
Earma Brown, 12 year author and business owner helps small business owners and writers who want to write their best book now! Earma mentors other writers and business professionals through her monthly ezine “iScribe.” Send any email to iscribe@bookwritinghelp.com for free mini-course “Jumpstart Writing Your Book” or visit her at Book Writing Tips
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Earma_Brown
Speed Writing : How to Write Fast and Get Attention!
By: Jane Sumerset
Whatever kind of work you’re doing, the faster you can finish, the more time you make for yourself. The same is true for repairing electronics as it is with writing. If you feel you can benefit from a writing “turbo mode” (such as when you’re in a time crunching deadline), try these things that have benefited many looking to speed up the pace that they put words to paper.
- Just write more.
The more you write, the easier it gets to lay down words to paper. That’s just the way it is. Nobody gets their momentum started by thousands of words only to proceed even slower, that’s a fact. You still can cut out sentences, or switch them when revising your writing.
- Use a template whenever possible.
Many forms of writing won’t require you to start from the ground up. If there’s an option of using a pre-made template, use it; plenty of grammar software titles come with dozens of them. Don’t forget to perform the appropriate tweaks.
- Copy and revise.
Here’s a dirty little trick that seldom gets talked about. When you’re really in a bind and need to finish as quickly as possible, don’t be afraid to cheat a little. Copy directly from your reference and paraphrase in parts; it’s artful plagiarism and is frequently acceptable.
- Write in bits and pieces.
If the words just won’t come together, then just write down the core ideas. You can return to them later once the muse has caught up with you.
There are many ways to lose a person’s attention while they’re going through your copy. Ineffective writing isn’t that hard to do. Want to lose your readers and have them abandon your copy before getting halfway through? Follow these things every good writer should avoid and refuse to run your copy through an English writing software which can catch them.
- Don’t do any transitions.
Jumping from one thought to another without an appropriate transition can leave your readers feeling like something’s been pulled from right under them. How would you feel if you were watching Heroes and the next scene they cut into shows a storyline that happened on Entourage? With the right transitions, even the most implausible juxtapositions can be acceptable, with the reader happy to go along. If you’re going to change subjects, always close the first one and lead into the next.
- Ramble incoherently
I hate a lot of emails and forum posts for this reason. Too many people just ramble on endlessly, with no thought or structure to what they’re putting down on paper. If your ideas aren’t clear to you, they aren’t going to be any clearer for readers when you put them down on paper. Get some structure and work through your ideas step by step.
- Pepper it with jargon and slang
Jargon has its place. Unless you’re writing for a very tight audience, though, it usually just causes you to lose readers. Unless you’re certain that your audience has the same background that you do, jargon just makes your copy difficult to comprehend.
Author Resource:-> See how innovative Speed Writing Software instantly can boost your writing skills and watch how NLP technology can help you to write perfect emails, letters, essays or reports. Visit: http://www.englishsoftware.org
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Freelance Writing Opportunities – Opportunities Online For Freelance Writer
By: Steve Phipps
Freelance writing opportunities are on a rapid rise these days and one may think that is a crazy statement since newspapers and magazines are going out of business in record numbers.
The reason I say that freelance writing opportunities are on the rise is due to the sheer amount of content on the Internet.
Think about the billions of websites and blogs online that require a constant feed of written content to keep visitors coming on a daily basis. This actually presents more opportunities in freelance writing than were ever available in the off line print world.
The key is finding legitimate opportunities that require writing work from freelance writers. There is actually more work out there than most people realize and the reason you cannot find it is because you have to weed through the maze of scams and junk.
Many online business owners and even bloggers these days rely on the skills of freelance writers to provide a daily stream of content to their sites and blogs.
The reason for this of course is because we have become an “instant society.” The second a news story breaks or anything happens anywhere we want to know right now.
We also turn to the Internet for information about a wide range of things we are interested in or want to learn.
Writers have to create all this content. Now maybe you can start to see there are an incredible amount of opportunities for freelance writing and beyond writing for others you can use your skill or passion for writing to make money in tons of other ways.
A great way to start taking advantage of freelance writing opportunities is to find a group of online business owners or site designers that simply do not have the time or skill to write their site content.
You can simply perform the topic research and craft article content for those business owners on a pay per submission basis. This approach alone could keep a writer busy on a full time basis while earning a very nice income.
Blogging about any topics you desire and adding in some paid advertisements can bring in a nice part time income and even grow into a six figure business as has been the case for many who started out freelance writing.
You have to be careful because there are a ton of “online infomercial” type programs that target those who are looking to get paid as writers with opportunities that are not so great.
Either they pay pennies and you will literally have to write 10-12 hours a day to equal even a low paying hourly wage or they are simply a waste of time.
Just remember there is an entire world of website and blogs out there. Someone has to provide the content that visitors come to read. This means an incredible amount of real and legitimate freelance writing opportunities for skilled writers as well as those who simply have a passion for writing.
It can be a awesome way to make a living.
Author Resource:-> Steve Phipps is an online business man that got his start as an online freelance writer. He has put together a nice video site and free newsletter for anyone interested in real legitimate freelance writing opportunities. You can visit his site at: http://www.authorsnook.com
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Short Story Writing: Article 15: Judging a Short Story
By Ian Mackean
I was once approached by an organisation which was running a short story competition and asked whether I could suggest a ‘points system’ whereby a short story could be graded – points for plot, style, characterisation etc. I replied that I did not think such an approach was viable. I certainly didn’t use any such system when assessing the work of my students, and I hope this article might reassure anyone who feels that in the other articles I have tended to suggest that a story could be judged in this way. Fiction writing is an art, and cannot be judged in the same way that we could judge answers to questions on mathematics or general knowledge, which can be ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
Aspects of a story, such as plot, characterisation, point of view, style, and so-on are important, but to try to judge a story first and foremost by those criteria is to come at it from the wrong end. A story must be judged on its own merits, and as a whole. Individual stories differ so much from one another that it is impossible to adopt a fixed set of criteria.
The way I assessed my students’ stories was to ask myself whether a story worked, and if it worked I could then add that it worked because the plot, or characterisation, or style, and so on were well-handled, and if it didn’t work I could say that one or other area, such as plot or characterisation or style had let it down. The story as a whole came first, and I only applied those secondary criteria if they were important features of that particular story and I could use them to explain why a story had worked or not worked
Whether or not a story works can depend on factors such as whether it is convincing, whether it draws you into its world, whether you find it exciting or moving, whether you feel the characters come alive as real people, whether you feel you have learned something, or gained some insight, or been amused, at the end of it, or quite simply whether you enjoyed reading it. These are subjective judgements, but reading and writing are subjective matters, there is no getting away from that.
I felt the organisation which was trying to judge short stories by applying a set of objective standards was going about things in an inappropriate way. The subjective experience of the reader should be the main guide as to whether or not a story works, and then, for such purposes as writing a review, commenting on a student’s story, or judging a competition we can talk in terms of aspects such as plot and characterisation when it is appropriate to the particular story.
Provided that the judges of a competition are experienced readers who can articulate what it is they like or dislike about a story, and provided that there is a panel of judges and not just one person, there is no reason why they shouldn’t let themselves be guided first and foremost by their subjective experience of a story.
Copyright: Ian Mackean
http://www.literature-study-online.com/creativewriting/
Ian Mackean runs the sites http://www.literature-study-online.com, where his site on Short Story Writing can be found, and http://www.booksmadeintomovies.com. He was a short story and novel writing tutor for many years, and had many of his own stories published in literary magazines. He is the editor of The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, ISBN 0340882689, which was published by Hodder Arnold in 2005. When not writing about literature or short story writing he is a keen amateur photographer, and has made a site of his photography at http://www.photo-zen.com
