Want to Learn about Writing from a Writer

Here is one of my favorite blogs to read about writing - from an upcoming writer. She shares challenges, tips, great resources, and fun ideas. It's a must read blog! Take a gander at it.

http://fromsarahwithjoy.blogspot.com/

Finding a Copywriter Service

If you have a small business or are looking for good copywriters, there are many copywriting services you could use. My recommendation is to begin with a freelance service such as freelancer.com or guru.com - you can get samples of previous work and determine if the writer is someone who will fit the style you want.

Another great option is to go to your local college or university and place ads for writers in the English or marketing departments. You could potentially get an intern or inexpensive student to write copy and perhaps find a great future employee that way.

Finding a copywriter service can take some time, and if you use a business you will end up paying their overhead costs as well as for the writing, but you also may get a few more guarantees and various styles. There are many talented writers searching for work, you might even consider placing ads in local classifieds and could find what you are looking for that way without having to go through a formal copywriting service. Be creative. You may find undiscovered talent simply by perusing blogs and forums. Just make sure you enter into any agreement as a limited contract or trial basis, or you may get stuck with a copywriter who has a different writing style or tone that you need.

Online Writing

In order to have effective online writing, you should keep in mind SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics, keywords that people use to search, and good writing practices.

Short, concise paragraphs are more effective for online writing.

Make sure you use keywords and phrases which are popular for search engines - so your online writing content will be found in searches from Google, Yahoo, and Bing! (The top 3 search engines).

You may decide to hire professional writers who have SEO / internet marketing experience to get content for your websites that are both optimized and easy to read and understand. There are many jobs available for online writers... if you are a writer looking for online writing jobs, just make sure you do not have to pay for any leads, and that those advertising are legitimate before providing your personal information.

Writing Competitions

Writing Competitions: How to Win

By: Kay Green

At the end of our second short story competition, I put together these guidelines based on comments from our readers and administrators about what makes them want to recommend - or throw out - a competition entry. Some of these points may seems obvious but it really is worth checking your entry to see how it measures up.

Practical Things

Read the competition rules before you start, when you finish, and once more as you prepare to send in your entry. Keep a competition check-list, and as you parcel up your precious work refer to the list at every move - format, word-count, required cover-sheet information, closing date, fee, who is the cheque to be made out to? Please do this - we all make a lot more administration errors than we ever know about. Why waste the hours you have put into your work by sending it to the wrong address, misdirecting the cheque or missing the closing date? And don't expect the readers to make an exception for you because your story is so good - if the entry breaches the rules, it will probably be sidelined by an administrator before it gets to the readers so your brilliance won't be discovered.

Don't trust your computer's spelling and grammar check. We've all heard those hilarious stories - 'I mis-spelled Gabriel and my computer corrected it to Garfield', 'it's turned burglar into bugger,' etc. It will give the readers a laugh but not a big enough laugh for your story to win the competition. And if you don't know how to handle punctuation and capitalization, find out. If you let the computer do it for you, it won't do it well enough. Readers might take on a story that needs correction but it has to be exceptionally good for them to make those kind of allowances. Why set extra obstacles to your progress?

Don't use fancy fonts, complicated formats or great new gizmos you've just downloaded. Whether you are sending paper or e-copy, the easiest format for most people to handle is a Word document (the file tag should be .doc or .rtf) on standard A4 paper with automatic (not hard) returns at line-ends. Anything else makes extra work and risks annoying (or at worst defeating) the competition administrators.

Creative and Style Points

Look long and hard at your title and first paragraph. Readers have a huge pile of work to consider and although they try to look at each one with equal enthusiasm, it's hard to stay fresh. All our readers speak with delight of those moments when they start a new story and the opening startles them awake. It's neat, smooth and original, it entices them to read on.... Is your opening that special?

Now look at the ending. It might be happy, it might be tragic or it might point to untold events in an imagined future but it must leave an impression. Don't let the story just tail off - the reader will get to the end and instantly forget it.

Try to avoid telling the reader too much. Find a way of getting characters and events to unfold your ideas for you. It is much more fun for readers if you lay a path for them to make their own discoveries. Remember that old line from schooldays - don't tell me, show me.

Introduce a question in the reader's mind as soon as you can. It doesn't have to be as obvious as the 'whodunit' of a murder mystery but there must be something to suggest that the reader will discover a treasure if they read on.

Read the direct speech of your characters aloud. Ask yourself if those people would really talk like that. Many stories are rejected because the writer has forced the characters to spool out information in an unnatural way. Make sure you have set out the dialogue in a logical and consistent way. For example, if you start out using double quotes for speech and italics for thought, keep it like that. Changing half way confuses the reader and infuriates the typesetter.

Ask yourself what is unique about your story. If there is nothing in the plot, the characters, the setting or the language itself that you believe is new, you can bet there won't be anything the judges haven't seen 50 times over.

If your word-count is near the maximum for the competition, look for opportunities to edit. Where two stories are being compared, the shorter, more tightly edited one is likely to be chosen.

Make sure you know why you are writing the story. It may not have a plot but it must have a point. If you know the point, it will be easier to see where you have wandered off the track. Cut irrelevant paragraphs and keep it clean and focused.

Avoid bashing on about the big topic of the moment unless you really have something new to say or an unusual angle on the topic.

Finally, don't send work that doesn't impress you. When you've finished your story, put it away for a few weeks then get it out and pretend you've never seen it before. Read it because you want to enjoy a good read. If you don't enjoy it, the judges probably won't. Be really honest with yourself about this. When you read your work you will either get a sinking feeling and start praying for blind luck (you aren't going to win) or you will get excited butterflies, thinking this really is a special piece of work (you may well be going to win). If you get the sinking feeling, do yourself a favour. Ask yourself - and your best friends if they are honest - do you lack confidence in yourself or do you have doubts because there are faults in the work? If you suspect it is the latter, do take the time to re-think and re-write. When that cheque and/or that offer of publication come your way, you will be so glad you did.

Now, write that winning story and send it in.

Why not send your next entry to us at Earlyworks Press? We usually have poetry and short fiction competitions running and we set occasional specialist genre competitions and web-based challenges. We are story addicts and we are looking forward to a good read!

About the Author

Kay Green is editor and competition administrator at Earlyworks Press.

Writer, editor and English teacher, Kay Green is a lifelong lover of story in all its forms. Her collection 'Jung's People' was first published by Elastic Press and is now available through Circaidy Gregory Press

Earlyworks Press is also a club for the promotion of independent writers and illustrators. The club has an online forum for developing stories and poetry and 'enclaves' around the UK where like-minded writers get together for workshopping and discussion, and to organise book fairs and other activities.

(ArticlesBase SC #278338)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Writing Competitions: How to Win

Writing a Thesis

Writing a thesis can be a little bit intimidating if you are not clear on what a thesis is or how to write a good thesis.

Basically writing a thesis is a way to tell the reader what your paper is about in one brief paragraph. First begin with a short introduction to your topic then include in one or two sentences your position about the topic. This position is your thesis statement and summarizes the argument you will present in your paper.

The rest of your paper provides evidences or proof that support your thesis, and tries to persuade the reader to agree with your thesis.

Coming up with a good thesis statement requires thought and consideration. Make sure your position is clear and you have strong arguments to support your position. There are many great resources online for writing a thesis. Take advantage of your local library and argument papers to get good examples.

Online Writing Classes

As the new year is upon us, you may consider setting some writing goals and perhaps looking at some online writing classes. There are many online writing classes available and as you research make certain you assess cost, teachers, resources, and recommendations. Find others who have taken the class before and find out what they have to say about the course.

Or you may set a consequence for yourself if you do not achieve your goal. This past year my goal was to finish my book by the end of the year or I had to pay one of my nieces $100. Well, I'm sad to say I didn't finish my book - but I'm close. Now we've made another deal - I have until the 15th of January and if I finish by then, then she will give me 1/2 of the money back. It's not much money - but it does motivate me and give me a deadline that I'm determined to reach.

Whatever your goal is for the new year - taking small daily actions can get you a long way at the end of the year. Even if you write for 15 minutes each day - you certainly will have a lot to show for it after 365 days.

I'd love to hear your new year's goals and if you have had success with any online writing classes.

Quote: Writing Novels

I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars. -- Fred Allen

Writing Requires Balance

I've got tons of ideas and screenplays I want to write, but it seems that I'm suffering from a severe case of writer's block. It's not that I can't write, it's that I can't get myself to write. Everything else seems to come first. This past year I was saving a company from closing, and every ounce of my energy went into that business. Now that it's stable and I've moved to another venture -- I'm getting ready to move, attending conferences, packing, etc -- and writing seems to get put on the back burner. This is the first time I've had in months to even sit down and get caught up on my emails and my blogs.

I'm sure it's a common thing -- writing does take balance, energy, thought and focus. It's not something that is easy to just sit down and whip out a novel or a screenplay. You need to immerse yourself -- and that is difficult to do when the phone is ringing and the world demands your attention.

My hope is that since I do recognize what is happening -- that I can get myself to make writing a PRIORITY, rather than a task that gets moved from one day to the next.

I'd be interested in hearing from other writers how they deal with the challenges of making time to write, making it a priority, and what strategies can help with writer's block.

Getting Back to Writing

Well, I've finally decided to take the time off from working to finish my book. I've been thinking about how to transition from the business and logical thinking required with work, and the creativity and inspiration which is necessary for writing.

It has been difficult for me to switch between the two sides, and thus I have put off my writing. However, I've gotten to the point where I feel such a need to finalize my first book, I'm trying to get rid of distractions and take time away from my routine in order to write.

Does anyone else have this problem -- probably -- and there are probably many solutions which would make it possible for me to do both. But I've not yet found that solution, so I'm thankful I can get back to writing for at least a little while.

New Publishing Company

For those of you interested in getting published -- there is a new publishing company called Meridian Publishing that will allow you to have a contract and they will print books on demand. It's a very exciting concept. I know the publishers and am happy to recommend them and this business model to any aspiring author. Check it out.

Keeping Track of Writing Ideas

I've tried several systems in the past to keep track of all of my writing ideas -- I've gone from 3x5 cards, to my planner, to notebooks full of thoughts, to emailing myself, to tracking everything in Word documents, to Folio software. But haven't found anything that really works the best. I end up having ideas all over the place.

Do any of you writers out there have a good system to keep track of your writing ideas?

Writing Contest - Deadline May 1, 2007

If you have a self-published book, Writer's Digest is looking for the best self-published book from the past several years. You can win $3,000 in cash, get national exposure for your book and get the attention of prospective publishers and editors.

CATEGORIES:
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
Genre Fiction
Nonfiction
Inspirational (Spiritual, New Age)
Life Stories (Biographies, Autobiographies, Family Histories, Memoirs)
Children's Picture books
Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
Reference Books (Directories, Encyclopedias, Guide Books)
Poetry

ENTRY DEADLINE: Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Enter Writing Contest

Penguin Books - Launches First Wiki Novel

Penguin Books has launched the first web-based wiki novel -- a collaborative novel which can be edited, written or read by anyone online. Using wiki software, this novel should be interesting. It's an experiment of sorts.

The novel will be entitled "A Million Penguins" and is available at www.amillionpenguins.com. It should be a very unique novel with many voices. Hopefully writers who contribute will do so for the purpose of creating a great novel, rather than just messing around.

Although there are no plans to publish the finished book -- if it gets as much publicity as expected, certainly all of the individual authors of the book would want to purchase a copy, so it would be worth publishing. Of course, that depends upon the experiment being a success.