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That Editing Thing

That Editing Thing
By Tom Howe

There is no great writing, only great rewriting.

~ Justice Brandeis

I’ve been a writer for many years, since I’m so old and everything, so have spent many and many an hour editing. A lot more hours editing than writing, actually, so it’s well into the thousands of hours by now. I had become as good at it as any non-objective person could be, I thought. Not that I figured I could make something of mine perfect at all. But I did think I had mastered most of the tricks of the trade, at least, and knew my own mind well enough to realize it when I felt something needed to be changed from the original words.

I was wrong, again. Learnage ho.

You see there’s this thing, this feeling. It’s very subtle, at least in me, and hardly even there at all, unless you know to look for it. It’s the kind of thing you only learn after countless similar experiences, because you can’t even see it unless you’ve been looking in that direction so long you are almost blind and have to use your ears to see.

It’s a way to tell when something is wrong. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article

Getting Your Writing Edited - Resources and Reasons

Writers - Getting Your Writing Edited - Resources and Reasons
By Meggin McIntosh

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, speakers, and of course, authors, know that we need to get our writing out on the internet and in print where people can find us. It’s possible that you have had questions similar to these:

“I’ve been doing more writing lately and I would like to have articles published in magazines and on the internet. However, I worry sometimes that my grammar, punctuation, and other “mechanics of writing” knowledge is lacking in some areas. Should I be overly concerned about this? Before something gets published, I’ll need to have an editor look at it anyway. Isn’t that what editors are for? Correcting grammar and punctuation? I’ve heard about using college students who are English majors to edit our work. They will probably be a lot cheaper than a professional. Any advice on this?

Regardless of whether you are writing as an English teacher, professor, or professional writer, we all need to have someone else edit our work. We are too close to what we’ve written and we always need (at least) a second pair of eyes to take a look at what we’ve written.

Part of why we need to be concerned about additional editing ‘eyes’ is because if there are words misspelled in our articles or on our websites, there are people who can’t focus on anything else except our mistakes! I work with super smart people so I know this to be true! So before you send an article into a publisher, you need to have someone else read it and find/fix any typos, misspellings, incorrect grammar, etc. If you are sending something to a refereed journal or to a book publisher, they will clean it up even further if the article/manuscript is accepted, but we always want to put our best foot forward to make a good impression.

There are a number of places where you can get assistance on this:

1. A good friend (who is also a great editor) who is happy to do this for you for free.
2. A good friend or colleague that is happy to do this - and will be happy to have you do something for him/her. Just a trade/barter situation.
3. Someone you hire (top notch high school student, college student, stay-at-home mom/dad who wants to earn a little extra money and will do proofing & editing for you, elance.com or some other service where you can find copy editors, etc.) Just search the internet and you’ll find a multitude of folks who can help you. I would recommend making sure that they are native speakers of whatever language you are writing in, however.

So see if you can find someone to take a look at your work before you post it on your website or submit it to a publishing house, magazine, journal, etc. It’s worth the effort and the minimum expense it may involve.

And if you want additional ideas for moving your small business forward, be sure to consult the Life of E’s blog:

http://meggin.com/lifeofes/wordpress/

Topics ranging from money to productivity to speaking to writing to coaching to business set-up and more are featured there.

And, to make sure you are productive in your personal and professional life, you’ll want to access the resources at

**http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.

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Article Writing: Writing For The Internet

Article Writing: Writing For The Internet by Roberto Bell

Here are the most pertinent instructions for selecting right approach for writing extremely good pieces of writing on Internet. You have to put up your articles on sale in case you write for money. You must understand your business better than others who are not required to sell their writings. Our focus here will be on skills needed for writing articles instead of qualities required for selling them.

The Foremost Rule You should write according to the taste of your intended reader, not according to your own personal taste. This means that you need to explore, identify, and target your message towards specific readers with specific interests. For instance, in an article on the financial market you can’t target grandmothers looking for designs of knitting. You need to write your message according to the comprehension of target readers. No one will understand even correct stuff until and unless it is presented properly.

Keep in mind that people who browse the Internet are impatient. They click off the material once they read something that is not pertinent to their cause, and they only linger on an article that they consider important and pleasing. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article

Writing Skills - 5 Ways to Effectively Present Yourself With Words

Writing Skills - 5 Ways to Effectively Present Yourself With Words
By Jan Verhoeff

Printed words intimidate the most fluent speaker. Redundant as the concept may be, a speaker who must present himself with words on paper often steps back from the podium and takes a double look. Who wants to write it down?

But, sometimes you must write.

When those times smack you in the rump, these tips should help you get the most from your words.

1. Write in your own voice.

Nothing bores more than reading a writer who isn’t sure who’s speaking. I don’t mind seeing the word *I* if it means something. Give me substance I can relate to and information that means something to YOU too. I don’t need a scientific report, and if I do, I can find that research too. Get personal, use your own voice to present your message.

2. Use action words and phrases.

They’re called verbs. USE them. Motivate your reader with action words that tell what you want to say and give them a shove into action. Spot is running may tell you what he did, but who cares, we want to know more… Spot ran home. There’s information. Brad broke the bank tells you more about Brad than Brad is broke. Escape bland and boring - USE VERBS. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article

Using Storytelling as a Tool to Change Your Life

Using Storytelling as a Tool to Change Your Life by Nigel Baldwin

The American poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser said “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” Ursula K. LeGuin has been quoted as saying “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” And yes, alright, they are both quotes by storytellers but these statements would suggest that storytelling is pretty important to all cultures. Elsewhere I have said (and I’m by no means the only one) that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we can use to change our lives. How exactly? How does storytelling help us change our lives more than, say, political action or direct protest? Apart from the fact that political action etc. might not change anything or, even if it does, it might not effect lasting change that sort of process is an external process. Storytelling on the other hand, either as the giver or the receiver, has a hidden internal process.

It can engage us emotionally, intellectually or both and the stories can have a hot line to our subconscious, essentially sidestepping the need to rationalise the narrative. Like insightful music or art it engages us at a deeper level. Profound stories are a lover’s arrow to the heart. And the story is working its magic at a deeper level while we are being engaged, entertained and maybe even laughing heartily. Our willingness to suspend disbelief as we immerse ourselves in the journey allows the story to access our inner being. And since a story will nearly always offer us empathy somewhere it will also be participating in the healing of our wounds. Stories can also help people who are seeking to change their lives by offering different ways of living. They can provide practical solutions to some of our problems and inspire us to great things which, at other times, might astound us. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article

Want to Be a Better Writer? Get a Life!

Want to Be a Better Writer? Get a Life!
By Bobbi Linkemer

There are two approaches to work: one is working to live; the other is living to work. The difference defines a person’s life, especially when that person is a writer. Writing, for many of us, is a love affair, a calling. We didn’t choose to do it; it chose us. Perhaps that sounds overly dramatic, but it is honestly the way I perceive my work. I am one of those who live to work. If I did not have to do it, I would do it anyway. I have friends who take the opposite position and cannot relate to my obsession. “Working supports a lifestyle; it is not a lifestyle,” they insist. “You can love what you do and work hard at it, but its purpose is to let you enjoy the rest of your life.” To such people, working is a means to an end. To me, it is an end in itself. There is no right or wrong here; there are only different perspectives. For many years, I was comfortable with mine. Writing was the center of my universe. Everything else simply revolved around it, like planets. It worked for me, so why change it?As time goes by, though, I am less certain that having my entire identity and all of my energy tied to a single aspect of my life, at the expense of all the others, is either wise or healthy. If a healthy life is a balanced life, mine is seriously out of kilter. Looking back, I realize that I have always been this way, with every job I’ve ever held, and, certainly, since I have owned my own business. It never occurred to me that I was not having a life; to me, writing was my life.But it occurs to me now. Work - writing - is more than a love affair; it is an addiction. Since I am writing to an audience of writers, your response might well be, “So, what’s wrong with that?” Think of it this way: if I said, “My name is Bobbi, and I’m a workaholic,” would it sound quite as enthralling? I think not. Any word that ends in “… aholic” should make one sit up and take notice.Let me respond to the “What’s wrong with that?” question. When one’s life is seriously out of balance, everything suffers, including the thing that is getting most of the attention and energy. If your social life were the dominant theme, isn’t it possible that your health, family, work, and intellectual sides might be getting short-changed?

If you focused on your children to the exclusion of everything else, what would happen to your job, your intellectual or spiritual pursuits, and your creativity? You get the idea.The old cliché, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” didn’t become a cliché for no reason. (I know that is politically incorrect, but it can’t be helped.) Writers cannot afford to become dull. Creativity must be fed. Sitting alone in your office, fingers to keyboard, eyes fixed on your computer screen, is simply not enough. If that is all you do, you run a real risk of getting stale or burning out, both of which spell creative and professional death.I am not advocating distancing yourself from your passion or your work. But I am suggesting that the more attention you pay to all of the parts of your life, the fresher and richer your writing will be.

That is true whether you are working on an article, a direct mail piece, or a book. Your mind is like a computer: nothing new in, nothing new out.If you draw a wheel and put yourself at the hub, each of the spokes represents an important phase of a full and balanced life: creative, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical. They all matter; they all contribute to each other; they are interdependent. What I have learned is this: if I attend to each of them, my writing is better, my work life is more satisfying, and my mind is more alert. My advice to writers, after all these years of not taking it myself, is this: get a life. You’ll be a better writer for it.

Bobbi Linkemer is a ghostwriter, writing coach, and editor. She is also the author of 14 books. Bobbi has been a professional writer for 40 years, a magazine editor and journalist, and a book-writing teacher. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs who want to enhance their credibility and build their businesses. Her articles on writing regularly appear on ezinearticles.com and other top online article sites. Visit her Website at: http://www.WriteANonfictionBook.com

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