How to improve your writing – Quick tip 3

Say what you mean – as clearly as possible.

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How to improve your writing – Quick Tips 2

Cut out the fluff.

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Improve your writing – Quick Tips 1

Use active verbs. Continue reading →

Just a quick post today to let you know about some additional things I’m adding to the website.  Thinking of adding some 2 minute video clips plus downloadable pdf on how you can improve your writing.

I’ll keep you posted.

Yippee ay aeeee and jumping jehosophat!

I know that Monday is normally my day to send you a useful link but I’ve been so excited by what happened at the weekend I hoped you won’t mind if I give you some follow up to the workshop.

I’m not sure what I expected to happen, since it was the first time I’d facilitated the workshop and I’m not sure what the attendees expected.

Whatever our combined expectations, they were exceeded.  We all left realising what a powerful process it had been in generating ideas, settling people’s fears and pointing them in the right direction for them.

We videoed some comments from the attendees who didn’t mind appearing on film and I’ll be putting those up on the site later in the week.

But to give you an idea – one of the attendees came in with two vague-ish ideas and during the first exercise, that’s less than half an hour into the workshop came up with an idea that had her almost jumping into the air.  She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t thought of it before!

And of course since the whole workshop was classed as confidential, as laid out in the guidelines the group put together, then she was happy and comfortable to share the idea with us knowing nobody would pinch it.

It’s given me the impetus to go on and offer what I really want to do – A TWELVE WEEK PROGRAMME with workshops, support and a group forum.  I’m going to go full steam ahead now to put this together so I can offer it starting September.  More details as it comes together.

What a revelation to all of us!

Yours in a state of extreme jubilation!

What stops you from writing?  Is it the fact that you actually have to write?

I love words.  I’m a word junkie.  I can’t remember learning to read and seem to have fallen into it without any problem at all.  And I was brought up on radio not TV and they say the pictures are better on radio.

So though I’m much stronger on words I do like pictures and like most children I probably started off with picture books. And that’s fine for children when there aren’t many words in their books. 

But what happens when you grow up and the world seems to have so many words in it that they overwhelm you?  Even with adult comics there are still acres of words out there.

Now with most word processing programs these days you have sophisticated forms of grammar and spell checking tools.  And I know more than one person who manages to hide their fear of words, by using the tools. 

I had a boss once who was dyslexic and used to run his letters past me before he sent them out.  It was a bit of challenge sometimes because he had a very individual way of putting things and I never was quite sure if he meant to use a word that looked odd to me.

He developed his own strategies for not having to deal with the words too much and I’ve met other word phobics who have their ways of dealing with the challenge. It’s said that’s why dyslexics are often innovative because they have to find new solutions that work for them.

What happens though if you know you should write a book?  Maybe people keep saying “oh that’s so good you need to put it in a book”.  Telling them you’re too busy at the moment to tackle it is one way.  Or saying it’s not quite ready to be in a book yet.  Or even better is “I’m working on it”.

“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”

Stephen Wright

Well you know there’s a lot of computer technology out there that can make life much easier for you.  I’m about to launch out into using voice recognition software.  For me it’s more about saving myself from RSI than anything else.  But as a tool for avoiding the problems of too much typing it could work for you.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you want to write a book enough, we can find a solution for you whatever your challenges.

I was talking to a prospective client yesterday about the problems he faces trying to use his website.  He’s faced with parameters set by the organisation his business is part of.  And he’s faced with parameters concerning the business he’s in(financial).

So how to make the best of his site?

He can personalise it – at the moment that really only extends to details about himself and a photo.  Any other changes he has to get permission to make.  Quite a challenge.

I haven’t worked in his sector before and can understand that he might have difficulties about what he can say or promise.  But it seems to me that the approach has to be the same as with any other business.  Which is tailoring the text to the clients’ needs.

After I met up with him I had a look on the web at various financial companies and by and large they were on the boring side.  Agreed they need to underline how secure they are and how long they’ve been in business but with many of them on the home pages there wasn’t really anything focused on the reader.  There wasn’t anything that showed they understood the depth of the insecurity we feel at the moment about our finances.

In fact I bet that many sites hadn’t been changed for a long period.  Which in search engine terms could be as short as a month.  I talked to him about blogging to find that while he’d like to have a go, his organisation is against.  Presumably because they believe like many people still, that blogging is the preserve of the teenager writing weird things in their bedrooms.

Maybe so a few years ago and even then I know of some innovative entrepreneurs who were using it to make themselves quiet fortunes.  But I’ve found it a great way to get the search engines interested and it’s also a lot of fun.  I’m now on the lookout all the time for events I can pass on and tips that I think will be useful to people so for me it’s a good idea stimulus.

Putting together my workshop (How To Write A Book Workshop) I’ve been researching quotes to pass on.  I love quotes and they fire up all kinds of ideas for me.  I’m not good at jokes but I love quotes.  Here’s just a couple.

“I’m writing a book.  I’ve got the page numbers done.”  Stephen Wright

“My most important advice to all you would-be writers: when you write try to leave out all the parts that readers skip.” Elmore Leonard

Oh so true both of those!

Hi

Finally I’ve worked out all the subjects I’ll be covering in the How To Write a Book Workshop. Details are up on a special page on the website but to give you a quick look here are just 5 of the topics I’ll be helping you sort out:

1. Looking at the purpose and market for your book – I’d call this vital if you want an easier writing process.
2. Finding out how you can research what that market might be looking for – and is it the same as you want to tell them.
3. Why you must divide your writing stage into 5 separate stages.
4. Sorting out strategies to start your writing, keep going, (always more difficult once the enthusiasm has worn off) and then knowing when and how to stop.
5. When to involve other people… and the type you want to keep away from your project at all costs.

I’m putting as much into it as I can fit in within the 2 days, 28/29th June in Nottingham. Oh and I’ve sorted out pre and post workshop segments to give you the best possible chance.

So if you know anyone who keeps saying they will write a book, someday, this is probably going to be right up their street.

See the separate page How To Write a Book Workshop for more details.

I thought I’d give you a sneak preview of just one part of the workshop in June.Many of people’s problems with writing happen because they don’t distinguish between the different stages in a writing project.

Muddling those stages can slow you down or even worse stop you completely.  In the workshop I’ll be helping people work out the different mindsets you need for each stage.

Let’s look at the stages:

1. Research:

One of the unmovable bricks in my writing house is research.  Now this isn’t always popular with clients or writers come to that. But the more I work with clients, the more I realise that doing research about your project is key to smoothing the writing process.

Where and how you research depends on your project, your target audience and your understanding of your market.

2. Writing:

This is the fun stage.  The stage where you can let your creativity run riot and not censor it.  Of course you have to start and that’s a problem many people I meet tell me about. 

Fear of the blank page.  Even professional writers have it sometimes.  The difference between the professionals and the rest, is that they know how to beat it into submission!

3. Pause:

Can this be said to be a stage?  Yes I believe that you have to factor in a time when you’ve reached the end of a chapter, a section or the whole book and you stop. 

Rather than it being simply a time between the bits or the stages, you can learn how to use it to give yourself a flying start with the next stage.

4. Editing:

Ah editing!  Writers often hate this stage because they can’t bear to read over what they’ve written. 

I often think about what the sculptor Michaelangelo said about sculpting.  That it was a case of allowing the figure to emerge from a block of marble.

In the same way when you edit you’re allowing the book to emerge from the words you’ve written.

As always, when you know how to approach editing then it can be a much easier and more fun stage.

5. Reviewing:

And a scary stage for writers when you have to show other people what you’ve written.

But as you’d expect me to say by now, there are ways you can tackle this stage which help reduce the strain on your nervous system.

That’s it in a nutshell.  Doesn’t mean you don’t have to put some work in, but using this kind of structure helps reduce the time and gives you a process to work through.

Happy writing!

The longer I’m a writer and the more clients I talk to the more I think choosing what you write is vital.  Why?  Because…

if what you write about is of no interest to the reader then you waste your time writing.  But it’s worse than that because if you’re in business and you’re writing to try to sell then if you are choosing the wrong topic you’re also wasting your money.

Of course at the moment I’m focused very much on the subjects I’m covering in the How To Write A Book workshop I’m holding in June.  Having ideas for your writing is important.  But having ideas that sell is more important.  That’s why I’ll be spending most of one day talking about researching the market the delegates want to reach.

And the same system will work if you want to find a publisher.  Sticking your finger on a list of publishers while your eyes is closed might work occasionally.  You’ll have a better chance of success if you research what the publishers are looking for and if your proposed book matches what they need.

After all they are in business and each publisher has their own criteria for the books they choose.

More research still! Most publishers will have advice and information on their websites.  And if you don’t know where to start then the Writers and Artists Guide will help.  Stocked in libraries so you don’t need to buy it.