My Favorite Expert Advice on Writing the Stories of Our Lives, Gleaned From My Favorite Books on the Subject

My Favorite Expert Advice on Writing the Stories of Our Lives, Gleaned From My Favorite Books on the Subject
 by: Lisa J. Lehr

This outline is adapted from a handout I give to my lifewriting students. The points made here apply to writing in general as well as to writing our life stories in particular.

I. Why should we write?

A. Frank McCourt in Writer’s Digest, Feb. ‘99, p. 19: “But now I realize that everyone has a story. Nothing is significant until you make it significant. It’s not what happens to you, but how you look at it.”

B. Frank P. Thomas, How to Write the Story of Your Life: “God created people because He loves stories.” “Humans are happiest when we are creating.” There is a revival of activity today in search of our roots and family history.

C. Strunk & White, The Elements of Style: Writing is a way to go about thinking.

D. Rick DeMarinis, The Art and Craft of the Short Story: Storytelling is how we make sense of the world.

E. Robin Hemley, Turning Life Into Fiction: Writing is a discovery process. Part of the fun is learning why you wrote what you wrote.

Why Copywriting Is The Secret To Your Online Success

Over the last decade, the number of companies selling their products and services on the Web or sharing information online with their target market has exploded.

It’s no longer frowned upon to conduct your business on the Web, and huge numbers of people are making a healthy living doing just that. Others, however, are not. For every great website out there that grabs its customer’s attention and holds it, there are hundreds more bad ones that don’t. Despite their best efforts, many businesses are losing money daily due to the poor performance of their company website.

Contrary to popular myth, what constitutes a great website is not just fantastic design, but also the quality of the online copy that accompanies it. If you pay equal attention to both sides of this equation, you’ll end up with an amazing site that drives traffic where you need it most, bringing excellent sales or driving great interest as a result. But if you ignore the necessity of simple, effective and clear-cut Web copy, evidence has shown your site will suffer as a consequence.

In a 2002 Stanford University “Web Credibility” survey of over 4,500 Web users in Europe and the US, findings are unequivocal. Whilst recognising the benefits of good design, the report also states:

Secrets to Creating Great Headlines

Secrets to Creating Great Headlines
 by: Catherine Franz

Great! You finished your piece and now need a headline.

Usually headlines are less than ten words and need to be

expressed in short, expressive, active words. This provides

quick focus and pull in. By waiting until you know what you

are ending up with, it will save you time. You can give a

temporary headline while drafting.

If you have a good lead paragraph, you will find the

headline. If you want to intrigue or hook your readers, look

at the significant points instead. Which idea or thought can

you use as that hook.

Here are some tips on how to write that headline:

* Grab a highlighter and underline the nouns and key words

in your lead paragraph.

* From the key words, imagine yourself composing a

telegram, and each word is costing you $10. Avoid articles

– A, An, The — and prepositions — On, Under, Beside, etc.

* Substitute simple but effective synonyms to keywords. Say

“polls” instead of “elections” or “go on” instead of

“continue.”

Surefire Ways to Pack a Punch With Your Ezines & Newsletters

Newsletters, or ezines, can be an extremely effective marketing tool for your business. It puts your name in front of your potential clients, regular clients, and peers while showing your expertise and professionalism. It’s an excellent means to both market and grow your business and also show your existing clients your creative abilities.

What’s an ezine? It’s short for electronic magazine. It’s those e-mail newsletters that you receive on a regular basis. If you are not sending one out now, seriously consider doing so. It can make a big difference in both your business and your bank account. For example, I know one life coach who sends out regular ezines. Lately she acknowledged that she started getting 30+ people signing up every day! When you think about those 30+ new potential clients a day, doesn’t it make sense to utilize this as a regular part of your marketing?

5 Tips for Catching Errors in Your Manuscript

What is your worse fear as a self-publishing writer? For many, it’s finding mistakes after publication.

Imagine receiving boxes of books from the printer only to discover a glaring typo. After countless hours of editing and revising the document, followed by editing and revising the proof, followed by another blue-line final, how did it get by?

How do you prevent errors before they wind up in your book? No matter what editing procedures you undertake, mistakes happen.

But employing these 5 methods can drastically decrease the chances of mistakes finding their way into your published book.

1 - Employ an editing service.

The most common mistakes are minor, for example incorrect word use (their, they’re, there) and simple misspellings.

2 - Get a second (and third) set of eyes.

Even if you don’t wish to pay a professional, anyone who reviews your document will find mistakes you invariably miss. It’s a function of the brain called “cerbrainiumitis.” Okay, okay, that term is made-up - but the truth is, you’re much more familiar with your manuscript than anyone else, and as a result, apt to miss obvious mistakes simply because your eyes glaze over them.

Interviewing Your Characters

Interviewing Your Characters
 by: Sarah Playle

One of my favorite techniques for getting into the head of my characters is, interviewing them. This relies heavily on rapid writing, so be sure you fully understand that concept first. If you don’t, you can read my article “Rapid Writing” on my den. Interviewing characters is exactly how it sounds. You sit down with your characters and interview them, just like you would if you were a reporter.

To start, take out a blank piece of paper or start and new word file. Decide where you are going to meet them; in their house, coffee shop, or somewhere else. Now rapid write about it. Go in and meet them. Say hi. Record what he looks like, how he acts etc. Now the fun part. Ask questions. Ask your characters about themselves, and about the story you’re trying to tell. Get them to tell you their story, in their own words. Let them tell you what happened and how it affected them. You may gain new insights into your story. The important part is to not think or judge what you’re writing - just rapid write. Don’t worry, you’re mind will fill in the blanks. Write until you think you know enough about your characters or stories. If you run out of questions, write about there being a lull of silence in the interview. If you get past the ‘wall’ something else will come. Just don’t stop writing until you feel you have enough new insights to go back to writing.

Writing Articles - Two Aspects Of The Surge

Writing articles for publication on the Internet is, at the time I write this, every Internet marketer’s favourite way to get free publicity for his website. If you are an Internet marketer and haven’t heard the buzz that’s going around about writing articles, where have you been? No, forget I asked, there can’t be a single Internet marketer hasn’t heard that writing articles is an essential part of website promotion.

Suddenly everyone wants to be writing articles. Hundreds of wannabe authors are writing articles and flooding the article directories with items they have specially written for publicity purposes. Many Internet marketers are writing articles to a high standard but there are plenty of others who are churning out poorly written articles or ones that are no more than thinly disguised advertisements for their affiliate programme. I recently saw an article that claimed to be original but where the “author” had taken someone else’s article and added a paragraph or two before putting his own copyright on it. It got published with the result that there are additional links back to his website and that’s all he cares about. Prosecution for copyright infringement is unlikely as this article will quickly get lost in the growing crowd.

My Favorite Errors to Correct (Don’t make these mistakes, and your writing will rise above most other writing.) Part 1

My Favorite Errors to Correct (Don’t make these mistakes, and your writing will rise above most other writing.) Part 1
 by: Lisa J. Lehr

Following is a compilation of the kinds of mistakes I see most often in writing, often by successfully published writers. This article is adapted from a handout I give my lifewriting students.

I base my assertions of what is “right” (or at least “best”) upon the opinions of the authors of writing books such as The Elements of Style. This and my other favorite writing books are listed in the bibliography (at the end of this article).

This list is by no means exhaustive. (Many, many books have been written on the subject.) It simply reflects the tools that I think are most easily used to make your writing as good as it can be, with the least effort. Each mistake I have listed is followed by an example and the best way (or ways) to fix it.

I ask my lifewriting students to look at this list periodically while writing their stories. Which suggestions you choose to follow or ignore is entirely your decision!

Killer Business Headline Templates - So How Do You Write Killer Headlines in Minutes? You Cheat!

According to Branding and Advertising legend, David Ogilvy: 5 times as many people read the headline than they do the body copy in a sales message. This means that unless your headline actually helps sell what you’ve got to offer, you’ll have wasted 90% of your time, money and energy.

Now, you don’t need me to tell you 90% waste isn’t lean! So here are some quick and dirty headline templates that will turbocharge the power of your business cards, websites, sales letter, press releases and spoken presentations! But before we begin - just a few tips to bear in mind…

1. Experience Shows That Simply Surrounding Your Headline With ” ” (quotes) can increase readership by up to 27%. Why? Because when you put it in quotes, people think something important is being said.

2. Use Title Case. ALL CAPS doesn’t get more attention - it’s just harder to read. Sentence case lacks importance so avoid that one too.

3. Tell The Truth. It’s very easy to get carried away writing sensational headlines but make sure you can back up the promise with real results.

My Favorite Errors to Correct (Don’t make these mistakes, and your writing will rise above most other writing.) Part 2

My Favorite Errors to Correct (Don’t make these mistakes, and your writing will rise above most other writing.) Part 2
 by: Lisa J. Lehr

Negotiables: These are rules that the experts largely agree can be broken to good effect. In formal writing (such as a doctoral dissertation), the strict rules would still apply. But in informal writing, such as writing an autobiography, looser rules are acceptable.

Split infinitives: An infinitive is the basic verb form (to be, to do, etc.). “To boldly go where no man has gone before” may not sound as good as “To go boldly where no man.” Yet, many times, there simply is no other good place to put an adverb but in the middle of the infinitive. Don’t contort your sentences just to avoid splitting an infinitive.

Ending a sentence with a preposition: Prepositions are those little words such as in, on, to, for, with, by. The first step is to make sure you really need the preposition. In rise up, enter into, chase after, continue on (and others), the verbs all function without any preposition. Also, if you can attach the preposition to a verb, do so. Example: “I’m going to pick up the kids” sounds better than “I’m going to pick the kids up.” On the other hand, sometimes there is no other good place to put the preposition but at the end. (How else would you say, “It’s freezing in here because the air conditioning is on!”?) Don’t contort your sentences just to avoid ending with a preposition.

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