January 12th, 2005
The first lesson in our next Pro Write workshop, "Blog Your Writing", will be posted on January 15. Here's a brief excerpt from the Introduction. >>> A blog, also known as a weblog, is an instant-publishing tool. Until blogs burst into the mainstream consciousness in 2004, blogs were known as online journals, because of their content. However, in 2005, it's more useful to think of blogs as an instant-publishing tool, because that's what blogs are. In this workshop, you'll discover exciting ways in which you can use blogs not only to build your writing career, but also to improve your writing. Blogging is constantly evolving. I'm writing this workshop in January 2005. It will be interesting to see what people do with blogs in the next couple of years, because blogs seem to have hit what Malcolm Gladwell calls the "tipping point". With over ten million (yes, million) blogs online, blogs have gone from a so-called fad, to a permanent part of the media landscape. >>> Blog Your Writing has three lessons, with exercises: * Lesson One: Get a blog --- what a blog can do for you and for your writing career * Lesson Two: Blog-slog --- blogging consistently * Lesson Three: Using your blog as a marketing tool, and platform for ALL your writing You're invited to post your exercises to Pro Write's forums. Your Pro Write membership includes help when you need it, so please ask questions if you're uncertain about anything.
January 5th, 2005
Happy New Year! Hope you and yours had a wonderful and safe holiday season. Blogging is the term du jour and will be the big Internet news of 2005, if 2004 is any guide. If you're new to blogging, the Evangelical Outpost is running a great series on the nuts and bolts of blogging. Biggest tip for starting your own blog? USE YOUR OWN NAME. Your blog is creating a platform for your writing, so unless you have a reason to do otherwise, use your own name on your blog. On January 15, we'll start the year's workshops on Pro Write. Our first workshop will be "Blog Your Writing". I've had so many enquiries from writers about blogging, that it can't be anything else. Don't forget to check out our newest blog (see below). I post items to it daily, so there's always something there for you. :-) Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
November 23rd, 2004
I'll be posting Lesson Three of our current novel workshop on December 5. This means that the next workshop should start on December 15. However, that's pretty close to the holidays, and we'll all be busy. Therefore the next workshop will start on January 5, 2005. BUT!! Don't stop writing over the holidays. I'm not going away. I'll be writing every day, working hard on the Nano novel (see the Writing Blog). :-) Since I'm not going away, you can contact me at any time with questions and queries, right over the holiday break. Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
November 9th, 2004
I'll be posting the first lesson in our next Pro Write Workshop on the 15th. Here's an excerpt: >>> You don't write your novel, you build it
The first several novels I wrote, I just plunged straight ahead. I wrote the first sentence, and carried on, looking to neither right nor left, as if I were wearing blinkers, until I reached the end. When I'd written word 100,200 or whatever, I thought I had finished --- all that needed to be done was a little tidying up of the grammar, a few word changes, and I was ready to sell. Needless to say, those novels didn't sell. :-) I did learn from writing those early novels however. I learned enough to finally sell a series of romance novels to an international publisher, some years later. Nevertheless, at a distance of some 25 years, I can say confidently that even then I didn't have a clue. My writing was vivid, my characters had flashes of life, but I had no idea how to develop characters, I didn't know how to plot, and I wouldn't have recognised a plot point if you had threatened me with execution. I was writing by instinct: I'd read enough to understand the structure of the kinds of novels I was trying to write, so I sat down and wrote to that nebulous structure. The structure was nebulous, because although I recognised it, I didn't understand the reasons for the structure. I was like a hobbyist carpenter, building a house, because she'd seen a few houses, and knew how they were put together. Perhaps I'm being a little hard on myself. At that stage, I was doing the best I knew how. One benefit of those years of groping in the darkness was that I lost self-consciousness about writing. I wrote as well as I could, I sent my work out, and learned to ignore rejections. This workshop is the workshop I wish someone had created for me 25 years ago. :-) >>> Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
November 6th, 2004
Read this comical article, " Tales of a book-monkey". Loved the bit about Jilly Cooper: >>> Occasionally the routine was varied by a visit from a best-selling author. One day, Jilly Cooper was due to do a signing, and I was assigned to help her pre-scrawl her mountain of books to cut down on queue time for the public. Ronald, our assistant manager (he wore green cords and could never look you in the eye) rushed out to buy cakes and champers for Jilly and instructed me to stand by her pile of books. My task was to hold them open in front of her as she signed, while Ronald oozed round her with the goodies. Like some rogue royal, she was all sibilance and politesse. "What do you do?" I should have thought this was pretty obvious, but to her credit she didn't seem to register that people actually worked in shops and when Ronald's back was turned she would force her champagne into my hand. "Have a sip, sweetheart, two even! How about a little cake? Goodness, what a lot of my books you have!" >>> Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
Interesting article at CFO Magazine, " Blogging for Dollars". >>> Things have changed. Blogs, once the domain of the malcontent, have gone mainstream, thanks in large part to the thousands of Web logs dedicated to celebrities and defunct TV shows ("Buffy" bloggers, you know who you are). In the process, business leaders have come to value what they once feared about Web logs: these online diaries provide an easy way to reach a large audience. Venture capitalists, for example, now use Web logs to uncover inventors and entrepreneurs with promising new ideas. Corporate directors, including those at enterprise resource planning giant SAP, have launched blogs to help them better communicate with stakeholders. And managers at some companies, including Sun Microsystems, use blogs (among other approaches) to talk to employees and let employees talk to one another. >>> Started a blog yet? Blogs don't take much time. Once you're up and running, you can post to your blog in less than ten minutes a day. The benefit? Visibility. :-) Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
November 2nd, 2004
Doing NaNoWriMo? Don't forget that our Genre Fiction workshop will help. Do the " Write Genre Novels (Commercial Fiction) For Fun And Profit" as you progress through this month. I wrote the workshop for beginning novelists, and for novelists who've written a novel or two, but are having a hard time getting published. I'm doing NaNoWriMo too, so check my new blog (URL below) helpful ideas and thoughts each day. Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 30th, 2004
If you're a member of Pro Write, and want to write fiction, take NaNoWriMo challenge and write 50K words of your novel in November. I'm participating too. Pop over to Angela Booth's Writing Blog (URL below) to read about the Snowflake Process to help you get started on YOUR novel. Don't forget to register on the official NaNoWriMo site. It's free, although you can help out with a donation if you wish. NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing Blog
October 24th, 2004
The second lesson in our latest workshop is up on the site. Log in to read it --- and don't forget to do the exercises. Please post them on the forum. NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 22nd, 2004
My ebook writing manual, Tell, Yell And Sell: Marketing Skills For Writers, is packed with information on how to get your writing career off the ground and keep it going. The basis of your marketing skills as a writer is, of course, confidence. How do you build your confidence? Here's a snippet from the book: >>> 1. Your first goal: Sell something: NOW
Aim to sell something every week. It doesn't matter how small the sale is, or how large. Just set your first goal to sell a piece of writing every week. This is because each sale builds your confidence. Years ago I read an article by a writer who created a New Year's resolution to sell as many pieces as he could during the year. His aim was 365 pieces of writing for that year. He didn't care what he sold, how large or how small the sale was, as long as he sold a piece of writing for each day of the year. I wish I'd kept the clipping. I'd love to get in touch with him and ask how this goal affected his writing career. I think it boosted his confidence out of sight. Once he knew that he could sell whenever he wanted, there was nothing to stop him aiming for the heights. What will you sell? It doesn't matter. You can sell an article a week, a tip to a women's magazine, or a recipe. The fact of the sale is what counts. >>> Tell, Yell And Sell: Marketing Skills For Writers, is available for instant delivery, right now. I'm recommending the book to a student of mine who's a fantastic writer, but who hasn't been writing long enough to realize this. :-) If you're lacking confidence, but suspect that you're GOOD, get the ebook. Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 21st, 2004
It's NaNoWriMo time! You'd write a novel if you only had time, right? Here's your chance to make the time, and write a novel in a month. Join the novelists at NaNoWriMo, and from the 1st to the 30th November 2004 you'll write 50,000 words. Not a complete novel, of course, and not smoothly polished prose, but a flying leap over procrastination, fear, and lethargy, resulting in words on the page. Yes, I'm joining too --- I want to get going on a new novel, and 50K words in a month sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to seeing my word count climbing each and every day, and I've started work on my outline and characters. You'll find lots of help on the site, so go ahead and sign up.:-) Angela Booth NEW! General writing blog - Angela Booth's Writing BlogSubscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 17th, 2004
Listing is a form of brainstorming, and it's fun. Listing is an excellent technique to use when you get stuck in your writing, and it doesn't matter what kind of writing you're doing, whether it's fiction or nonfiction. Listing also helps you in the revision process, to add texture to your work. Here's an excellent FREE software program to help you to produce lists, and to save them. Your most useful listing tool is ---- a thesaurus. Keep one on your desk to kickstart your brain. :-) Here's how to use listing for fiction. Let's say you're writing a novel, and it's written from the point of view of your heroine. Make a list of 30 occupations your heroine could have. She could be a: cop, writer, supermarket manager, pilot, taxi driver… Choose an occupation from your list. You've chosen "cop". Now make a list of ten attributes for your cop. Your cop heroine: is athletic, is attractive, but not beautiful, has a bad temper… Make a list of ten ways in which she shows her bad temper. She: is grumpy before she's had her first coffee of the morning, has no problems using force to subdue a suspect… What you're doing here, you'll have noticed, is developing lists from your initial lists --- you're making choices. And because you're making choices on paper, it's fun and easy. Don't try to do this stuff in your head. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 16th, 2004
The best way to achieve your writing goals --- the only way --- is to write each and every day. Never let a day pass without writing. This means setting a goal for the number of words you will write on your current project each day. (If you're working on multiple projects, you can set a word count target for each one.) Here's a process to help with that --- When you start a project, set your daily word count low. Try for 100 words, or even just 50. This is because starting is hard. It's especially hard if you know you have 100,000 words to write. If you aim for a high word count in the first weeks, you're setting yourself up for failure. As you progress, and you're exceeding your word target each day, set the word count higher: say 500 words if it's a long project. Wait until you've doubled that target each day for two weeks, before you increase the target --- to 800 words. If you miss a day, --- DON'T. Do not miss a day. If you only have five minutes on one day, open the file and write one word. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 14th, 2004
Here's a fast way to write almost anything. This technique works if you tend to freeze up or panic when you're required to write to order. You can use this technique at work, or if you're writing a novel (or any long project) on which you have to work every day. Start by dividing your available writing time into two. You'll spend half your time just writing, and the other half revising. (If you need to gather information first, then divide your available time into three, and spend the first third of your allotted time researching.) Writing as fast as you can, write down everything you can think of about your topic. Don't worry about the quality of your writing, or about making mistakes, or about spelling errors, just write. When your time's half over, even if there's more you want to write, change to revising what you've written. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
In the 21st century, we let others do our imagining for us. Half-asleep, we watch TV, listen to the radio, and glimpse a billboard out of the corner of our eye. Using someone else's imagination can lead to living someone else's life. It also leads to second-hand writing. Working with fairy tales and myths helps to revitalize your imagination. Read a fairy tale a day, for at least a week, and ask yourself some questions on paper. Use your journal for this and date the entries. Ask yourself: * what teaching do I get from this story today? (The teaching will change each time you read it.) * what disturbs me about this story? * what happens after the story? What happened before the story? * what does this story tell me about the nature of life and of society? Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 12th, 2004
What's your writer's self-image? Our self-image usually forms below our conscious awareness. This can be dangerous, because it means that unless we take action to change it, our self-image will be a mishmash of others' ideas and opinions. Once you realize that you can control your self-image however, you can change it. Who are you? You're who you think you are. :-) However, your thinking may not be as clear as it might be. Before we can jazz up our self-image, we need to discover what's lurking in the depths. Our self-image is built up by perceptions. You can access your unconscious perceptions via sentences which begin with: "I'm someone who…" Close your eyes for a moment. Think of all the times you've said: "I could never do that. I could never write that. I could never...." Free-write 20 sentences, as fast as you can, without taking your hands from the keyboard or lifting your pen from the paper. Each sentence begins with: "As a writer, I'm someone who…" That's your writer's self-image. Is it a help or a hindrance? Now that you know what it is, you can change it. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 11th, 2004
If you've been writing for a while, you know that writing's organic. You can write 500 words today and imagine that the idea's junk, it's not going anywhere. Don't give up. An idea is like a grain of sand in a oyster. Without you even being aware of it, your subconscious mind will work away at that idea, and when you reread it you'll find that you can see possibilities, and you'll write more. And the next day you'll write more. Before you know it, your idea has grown into a pearl. Trust. Write down your idea. Then leave it. When you go back to the idea you may see that it's growing into a pearl. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
Our tenth Pro Write Workshop "Write and Sell an eBook" starts Friday. In this workshop, you'll write your first ebook. In addition you'll write all the marketing material you'll need to sell your book. If you're a new writer, you may feel that writing an ebook is beyond you. I assure you that if you'll work through the three lessons, you'll amaze yourself. You can, and you will, write your ebook and set about selling it. This workshop presents you with a PLAN. Follow the plan, and you can't fail. :-) If you follow all the techniques in this workshop, I guarantee that you'll be amazed at yourself, at how successful you become, with minimal effort. This workshop is in three lessons: * Getting started --- choose a Topic * Lesson Two: Structure your ebook * Lesson Three: Your COMPLETE two-week ebook writing and selling plan Not a member of Pro Write? If your goal is to be a productive, selling writer, Pro Write is your key to success. Each month we present a fantastic NEW workshop to teach you exciting new writing skills. Enjoy. :-) Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 8th, 2004
I'm a great fan of prewriting, especially of a process I call Making Mud. Your first draft of any piece of work is "mud" --- raw material. Julia Cameron refers to your first draft as "laying track", another term I like. If the first draft's awful, great! It's meant to be. It's only raw material. However, if you don't create the first draft, or you wait until you have a really great idea that's worth a first draft, you won't write anything. Make a list of projects you'd create, IF… If you had more talent, time, courage, etc. :-) Pick one, and write a truly rotten first draft. I dare you. ;-) My writing process for long pieces works like this: 1. Idea 2. Exploratory writing, to get a slant on the idea 3. Structural outline; a VERY brief outline, usually less than 50 words, even for a book :-) 4. MUD 5. Rough draft from mud 6. Cut and polish draft 7. Final draft Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
October 7th, 2004
Occasionally magazines will ask you to write on speculation. That is, you write the article, and if they like it and can use it and the month's name has an "R" in it, they'll use it. If you're a new writer, you lose nothing when you write on spec. You get to interact with editors, and you get writing practice. Once you've been published however, there's no need to write on spec. If an editor is interested in the article you've proposed, they can send you a contract and pay you a kill fee if they decide not to use the article. A kill fee is a 'sorry' payment: the article didn't work out, for whatever reason, and the kill fee, usually around 20 to 25 per cent goes to the writer, who is then free to sell the piece elsewhere. Occasionally over the years I've relaxed my no-writing-on-spec-ever-do-I-look-that-s illy policy and have written on spec. It's always ended in tears --- mine. :-) The last time was a couple of years ago for a spa magazine. The editor was sweet, supportive and kind, and rejected the article after I'd rewritten once it and done more interviews --- all on her instructions. So I pass this on to you FWIW: after you've been published, and someone has paid you for your words, never, ever, write on spec. Angela Booth Subscribe to two free ezines for writers at Digital-e. Much more for writers at Pro Write. Join Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets TODAY!
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