Researching, curating and sharing the best online articles for writers in all genres

Apple’s War on Amazon Starts Thursday
Cult of Mac

Google Search Adds Google+
Social Examiner

How to Create a Story
Kindle Author

Why Your Copy Isn’t Converting
CopyBlogger

Indie Authors in the Spotlight
Ken Hoss

Work Over Your Head
Ken Pressfield

One Way Novelists Have it Easy
Mystery Writing is Murder

Turning Up the Volume on Author Podcasts
Publishers Weekly

I attended a writing seminar many years ago and the speaker – - who was pontificating from  his “I am great” platform – - told the gathering that the use of a semicolon would guarantee a rejection slip. As a long-time semicolon user (and lover), his proclamation scared the bejeezus out of me. Fortunately, the fright was temporary.

For the grammar heathens among us,  according to Wikipedia:

Ben Jonson was the first notable English writer to use it systematically. The modern uses of the semicolon relate either to the listing of items or to the linking of related clauses. [I choose the latter usage]

According to the British writer on grammar, Lynne Truss, many non writers avoid the colon and semicolon for various reasons: “They are old-fashioned“, “They are middle-class“, “They are optional“, “They are mysteriously connected to pausing“, “They are dangerously addictive (vide Virginia Woolf)”, and “The difference between them is too negligible to be grasped by the brain of man“.

In my world, a semicolon is a wondrously useful way of connecting two thoughts about a related subject. An example of the semicolon: Everyone knows he is guilty of committing the crime; of course, it will never be proven.

I so often have two (or more) thoughts running about inside my head  that the semicolon is as natural as taking a brief pause when speaking. I haven’t moved on to another point or another topic; I’m simply giving my breath a chance to catch up. Thus, the semicolon.

Dear Reader, please cast your vote; yeah or nay for the semicolon.

If you write or read Fantasy and Sci-Fi, you may want to check out this free offer over at Amazon.

It’s a free subscription to Fantasy and Sci-Fi Digest. Amazon notes that most subscriptions have a free 14-day trial period, but this “this exclusive digest edition of “Fantasy & Science Fiction” magazine is always free for Kindle customers.”

In reading the blurb, it appears that this free subscription is available on all of the Kindles, the Android, iPhone and iPad.  The one app I found missing was the one that you could download to your PC.  If I missed reading this somewhere please let me know.

For my readers who write fantasy or sci-fi (a booming genre) I’d love to know what you think of this freebie.  Please leave a comment below.

I think one of the earliest ghostwriters on the Planet was Cyrano de Bergerac, the poet whose love letters written for   Christian, a young cadet, won the heart of Cyrano’s own love,  the beautiful Roxane.

Edmond Rostand’s play, written in 1897, has been played out time and again, from the 1950 Jose Ferrer film to the 1987 Steve Martin comedy starring Daryl Hannah in the title role, Roxanne.

Rostrand’s play, while ending in tragedy for all involved, does provide a look into the world of ghostwriting.  

Why Hire a Ghostwriter?

Ghosting can take many forms, with contracts varying from no author credit and a paycheck, to payment with full credit for the work.  Today you’ll most often see ghostwritten projects as biographies for sports figures or celebs. However, that particular market is only a small portion of the ghostwriting world.

Ghosting projects can range across the board from crafting  a personal memoir to writing a book for a  businessman who has the savvy but not the words.  You won’t always know you’re reading a ghostwritten book unless the “author” adds a small tagline on the cover that looks something like this: “with Joe Blow”.

For most ghostwriters, myself included, getting that front cover credit isn’t that important.  What is, though, is writing the book in the author’s voice and capturing his thoughts, beliefs and philosophy in a way that actually sounds like him.

Got a Big Nose . . . err . . . . Ego?

If you have a giant ego and need to see your name on everything you write, ghostwriting may not be a good gig for you. A good ghostwriter is a team player whose priority is crafting an excellent book – - whether it’s for a CEO or an aging senior who wants to chronicle his life for future generations.  Like Cyrano, the love of the project (Roxane) outweighs the love of the credit.

Of course, I want your project (and mine) to have a far happier ending than Christian’s (who died in battle), Roxane (who went to the convent) and Cyrano (who died in Roxane’s arms).

Like Cyrano, we will keep our panache intact and our word-crafting poetic.

It’s almost on us again: National Novel Writing Month – - do you have what it takes to join NaNoWriMo, the fun “seat-of-your-pants” approach to novel writing?  Here’s the deal, per the NaNoWriMo site:

Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. . . ”

Join the fun (and thousands of wannabe novelists around the world) and crank out 50,000 words in November.  That’s a little less than 1,700 words a day.

For all the details, and to get signed up, hop over to the NaNoWriMo site, sharpen your pen (or keyboard), and get ready, get set . . . . .

MSNBC had an interesting article on the use of less-than-perfect grammar for Web copywriting.  The trick, the article says is "balancing proper grammar with a conversational tone." Since consumers need to relate to your message, write in the same conversational tone you’d use if you were hanging out at Starbucks with your ideal customer. What grammar rules can you break?

• Contractions.  When’s the last time you said "I had" instead of "I’d"?  1957?
• Dangling prepositions. "You’re going to feel like a pro when you put this on."
• Slang words (if appropriate to your audience). Sheesh, what would my English prof say?
• Sentence fragments. "Got milk?" *Don’t forget, web readers SKIM.  Short sentences are good.
• One-sentence paragraphs.  "See above"

I’m participating (along with thousands of other bloggers) in the 09 Blog Action Day – - the once a year event when we all blog about a specific topic.  By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

This year’s issue is Climate Change.

I decided to write about the issues of food production and greenhouse gases. I know the food choices we make directly impact climate change – - in fact I just read that overall agriculture around the world is responsible for nearly as much total greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together.  In addition, with climate change comes decreased yield in food staples around the world such as corn.

What I want to write about is an idea I read about a year or so ago – that of building climate-controlled high-rise farms that take up a small physical footprint (think a skyscraper with each floor growing a different crop), with the ability to grow diverse crops, keep much of the "rain" from evaporating because it "rains" in a controlled environment, and keeps pests at bay because they cannot get into the skyscraper’s closed environment. Also, think solar renewable energy sources.

As I traveled through Kansas, it was evident that a huge amount of land is devoted to corn, wheat, soy and other staple crops.  What if each of those vast fields was converted to an elevated farm (I’m imagining something like silos)? I believe they would require less water, no pesticides, and certain return more of the land to a natural (unfarmed) state.

Is this pie in the sky? I hope not, as we will be forced in the next few decades, to face the very real problems of an increasingly hostile climate and the challenges of producing food for a world population.

 Photo attribution:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bree7/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Scenes from my fiction novel

Locales: New York City, Bismarck, North Dakota, Montana Territory
Dates: 1932 and 1876
Genre: Historical fiction/time travel
Premise: Elizabeth Custer is given the opportunity to time-travel from 1933 to 1876, to see her husband one final time before his final battle on the Little Bighorn

Scene: After the birthday party, April 1932

Draft: She sank into the wooden rocker, grateful for the silence.  It was only five in the afternoon, but she was already exhausted, as she was on days when the house bustled with company. 

Birthdays. 

As if a 90-year-old needed another marker of time.  They meant well, she knew, but they could never understand the only thing a birthday meant to her was another year without him.

She settled back in her rocker, relaxing into the peaceful rhythm of its motion.  Outside, an early spring drizzle pattered onto the sidewalk.  If the temperature dropped low enough, the city would march backwards into the last throes of winter.   But she would be warm, wrapped in the soft blue and gold throw, a gift from great-niece Caroline.  Blue and gold.  Cavalry colors.  His colors.

What little light was left snaked across the window sill, barely illuminating the hand-painted scene on her Viennese clock.  Not that she needed it to track the time.  It ticked away as relentless as her heart pumped out the moments of her life.  But what a life.  What a life.  

Would he even know her now, her face grooved with the remnants of smiles and frowns, her skin turned to parchment? 

Reaching up, her bird-like fingers caressed the silver and gold ivy-shaped pin he had given her on her 21st birthday.  Tarnished from years of her constant touch the metal was worn thin.  Just like me, she thought.
   
Earlier, the interviewer had asked “Do you miss him?”

She smiled that girlish smile she had never lost, leaving his question unanswered. But now, in the dark and the silence, there was no denying the question.

As a single tear slipped down her cheek she chided herself for an old lady’s sentimentality. But even now, fifty-six years after his death, she missed the feel of his hand on her face, and the passion his deep blue eyes that made her gasp for air. But those days were gone . . . long gone . . . and she wondered if she would have married "that Custer boy" if she had known the future.  A silly question, but one she couldn’t help but consider.

At the party, they had asked her, when she blew out the candles, to reveal her birthday wish.  She declined, blaming superstition for her silence.  The truth was, her wish was ridiculous and without hope, but wished for nonetheless.

All she wanted, before she died, was one last day with him. 

*This work-in-progress is copyrighted 2009 Nancy Hendrickson. Reproduction is prohibited.

**Note to readers: Be kind, gentle reader . . . . and I do appreciate your comments.

Steal.

Okay, I don’t mean go out and steal someone else’s title.  What I mean is to emulate the format used by some of the smartest sales minds in the world – - people who design magazine covers.

(read to the end of this post for my own technique to laser focus titles for a target audience)

Click the Yoga cover to enlarge it, and you’ll see that everything on that cover is action-oriented: *10 poses to do at home; *build arm and core strength; *come into your power, etc.

Get off the computer and hit your local Barnes and Noble or Borders and spend an hour jotting down titles on magazine covers; these guys really know how to sell a magazine by the cover blurbs . . . so learn from the masters

Check out Men’s Health

One of my guy-pals told me to check out covers of Men’s Health; according to Terry there was rarely an issue that didn’t have a cover blurb about improving your abs or your sex life. Sure enough – I just popped over to their website and what do you think two of the cover blurbs were:

1. Lose your gut
2. 30 Red Hot Sex Secrets

If you’re a 20 or 30-something guy, would these titles pull you into the magazine?

How About Wired?

1. Lo-Fi Tech (when good enough is pretty great)
2. How to Disappear Without a Trace
3. Folding the Perfect Paper Airplane

Think about it.  Why would these titles appeal to Wired readers?

AARP?

1. 13 Cool Ways You Can Make a Difference
2. Best Places to Live
3. How to Boost Your Social Security Check

It’s a no-brainer to see how these titles fit the AARP demographic, yes?

And what do you think about the blurbs over at Wild West?

1. Ten Myths of the Little Bighorn
2. 100 Greatest Western Movies
3. How Railroads Took the “Wild” Out of the West

and the beat goes on.

My Stealth Technique for Blog Post Titles that Reel in Readers

So what’s my Stealth Technique – and the one I help my clients develop for their businesses – simple (as long as you know your demographic)

Get to the bookstore and pull out the magazines that YOUR demographic reads:

• If they’re history nuts, check out the Civil War Times, American History, or Wild West
• If they’re into hard-core business, pull out Forbes and other expensive lifestyle issues, like high-end travel or cigar mags.
• What about the wanna be entrepreneurs:  Entrepreneur, Home Business, Work at Home Moms (online)
• Health seekers? Women’s Health, Prevention, Shape, Weight Watchers, Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, etc, etc!

Don’t know what your demographic reads?  If this is a field you’re passionate about – what do YOU read? Your reading tastes should closely mirror what your target audience is reading.

Leave a comment if you’re stumped and would like some suggestions . . . it doesn’t take much to get me to the bookstore

Blatant commercial pitch: Need an hour’s brainstorming to kick your business into high gear? E-mail me and let’s talk about how I can help.  I do as little as one (1) coaching session – - sometimes that’s all it takes.

When Darren Rowse of Problogger ran his (I hope annual) 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge, I immediately jumped into the fun. Because Darren is one of the most financially successful bloggers on the ‘net, I knew his advice was 1) valuable; and 2) valuable! I stayed with the challenge through the whole 31 days, even though there were days I had to play catch-up, and days I had to miss altogether. And even though I’ve been blogging for a long time, Darren had brilliant ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of–at least not in the near now. Because Darren received so many requests, he put the entire 31 Days to a Better Blog into a PDF workbook form, and is currently selling it for $19.95.  I bought a copy today, ran through the entire 94 pages, with these thoughts. (and if you’re asking why I would buy a workbook when I already have all the information, here’s why: I’m printing the workbook, then popping it into a three-ring binder with tabs for each of the 31 days – that way I can go through the workbook daily, checking off daily tasks, and at the end of each month, wash, rinse, repeat.

Review: 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook

I like that Darren began by telling readers the purpose of the workbook (sold in PDF format): "The idea is simple. By the end of this challenge you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging but also give you some concrete things to do to actually DO something with the knowledge." Each day consists of a blogging technique, examples, and a task. Some days the tasks will take you a couple of hours, other days only a few minutes. I like that Darren gives solid, concrete examples for each lesson.  For example, on day one (write an elevator pitch), he tells you the exact

short and long versions of his own elevator pitches. If, at the end of the 31 days, you want to continue the challenge with more advanced techniques, Darren has a link to a newsletter that has occasional updates on the most important developments in terms of tools and resources to help you improve your blogging. In addition to the lesson, samples and tasks, Darren also includes a Notes section; this section typically includes more tips, other examples – - generally a place for more detailed information about the day’s lesson. Would I recommend the 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook? I found the daily lessons to be valuable resources for building my own blogs, improving my blog techniques, and crystalizing my brand. The Workbook closely followed the lessons, but in putting the Workbook together, Darren cleaned up the lessons, added new material (and bonus material) – - even adding 6,000 new words of content. I think the Workbook is well-worth the $19.95; if you have a blog and want more traffic, exposure, or readership, I believe the Workbook is invaluable. Darren is one of the most respected bloggers around, and when he tells you how to improve your traffic and readership, you know his advice is based on real-life experience, not theory. So, if driving traffic to your blog is your goal, pop over and pick up the Workbook today. I suggest printing it out, getting it bound, or putting it in a 3-ring binder.  But don’t stop there – - actually DO the tasks daily – - and I bet if you check your analytics on day 1 and your analytics on day 31 you’ll see an increase.  I’m tracking my own traffic through the month of June – and will post a report in 30 days.

Back in the day when putting bread on my table depended on my ability to write articles quickly, I developed an easy system that I use to this day.

1.  Decide on the number of words in your article.  For illustration, let’s say you want to write a 500 word article on collecting political campaign buttons.

2.  Next, figure out how many sub-topics you want to write about, i.e. Republican, Democrat, Third Party, and value. So you have 4 sub-topics of the main topic: How to collect campaign buttons.

3.  Assume you’ll write 75 words in your opening paragraph and 25 words in your closing paragraph (this is an estimate – but close enough).  Opening and closing graphs take up 100 of your 500 words.

4.  Take the remaining 400 words and divide them equally among your sub-topics.  That means each of your topics will get 100 words each.  Writing 100 words is a breeze.  (This article already has 154 words)

5.  Write your article!

Here’s the deal. Once you follow the formula above, you know exactly how many words you need to write about each sub-topic. This will keep you focused and concise–and if you use this technique consistently, writing an article in 15 or 20 minutes will become second nature.

Try this article writing technique next time you’re facing the blank page and let me know how it works for you.