Beginning Article Writing (Quorafied)

Practice:
Choose a book in the public domain—one that interests you and is well written. Find something in the book, just one part of it, and rewrite the story but as an article. Discover your purpose before and while writing--are you informing, entertaining, persuading, or serving some other purpose to the reader? When you are finished, read out loud. Change anything that doesn’t sound right. Read out loud again.

Next, give it to someone you trust and who will follow through. Have them read it and answer questions such as did every word move the article forward, was there repetition, did you write down to the audience, and what did they get from the article—what service did they feel you were serving?

You can do this until you feel comfortable, but the best way is to write articles for real and you’ll know you’re doing a good job when you get that first check.


Other Things to Do:
Read articles

Make a list of subjects you love and write about them

Make another list of subjects that can be entwined with other subjects and write about them

Write articles regardless of having a market or audience

Find online websites, magazines, and publishers that need freelance writers and ask for writers guidelines—this shows you what they are looking for


Get Used to Seeing Your Name in Print:
Write to the editor of your local paper regarding something current that you are also passionate about

Review products—books, movies, etc. and post wherever you can

Write a blog—whether personal or professional

Share your success stories with highly niche newsletters, for instance, your company newsletter, a product or service newsletter


Lastly
Article writing is fun and can be lucrative as long as push yourself—the writers who succeed do not wait for the check before writing—heck they don’t even wait for a green light from an editor or publisher—they write, send it in, write some more, send more in, write some more… and so on

Keep good records, not just on your submissions and paid work, but on your work itself

Do not be afraid to ask questions

Figure out if you are an independent contractor/freelancer and what the laws are about taxes

Page A Day: 8/365

8/365

Page-count check! You should have at least 8 pages.  Do you have more? Less? What makes you work harder (or less hard) now? What is it that makes you work frantically (or procrastinate)? Figure out the answers to your relevant question and you’ll conquer all stumbling blocks.

Final Word

"If and When were planted, and Nothing grew." ~Old Proverb

Page A Day: 7/365

7/365

Are you stuck in a writing rut? Don't fret. Keep writing your page a day, even if it ends up on the cutting room floor. The main idea is simply: to write. One page.

Final Word

"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." ~Stephan Mallarme

Page A Day: 3/365

3/365

Good day to all Page A Day writers! Thank you for staying with us, we are pleased and pray you are as well.

If the Page A Day turns out to be too much for you, try five minutes a day. You will be surprised how much five minutes a day adds up. If it still adds slowly for you, perhaps you will feel how I feel: "At last! I feel like I’m worth something once again. I've been writing daily and I have never felt better."

Avoid the Truth

There are "experts" who believe that in your writing you must please everyone. We don't. If you are too liberal, you will become stuck in a rut and, sooner or later, your work/writing will take second place and being politically correct will take first and is bound to get you into trouble at some point either way.

If you must, put a disclaimer in the front of your book, stating "for ease of flow in reading…" Fear of being a sexist pig is the number one avoidance, according to too many books and writers (thank you Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style).

Pick a pronoun and stick with it. That works and pleases real readers in the long run. If it works for you, it should work for them.

Final Word

If you are writing a page a day for a book, please do reply. Let us know: which day you started, if you have found it to be fairly easy, if you have hope this will work for you, and any tips and ideas you can share with others.

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Page A Day: 2/265

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FreeWriting is the action of writing, without premeditation, freely, as thoughts flow from your mind to your paper (or computer screen). A great way to bypass "writers' block" is via FreeWriting. If you stay on target with your book, all the better.

Set a timer for five minutes. Write ANYTHING until the timer goes off. Do this every day for thirty days until you have formed a new habit. Continue five-minute freeWriting during your entire year of a Page A Day (PAD) and watch the ideas and pages add up faster than a scientific calculator.

Final Word

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." ~Aristotle

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Page A Day: 1/365

Welcome to the second edition of Page a Day



Goal:  a complete book
Accomplishment time:  one year
Steps to reach goal:  write a page a day
Commit to bang out one written page a day (edited or not--these are your rules) and you will have a complete book in a year. It is so simple, you will swear you are cheating.

In general, we will share one short note here each day, written to remind and inspire you to sit down and write--just a page a day.

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Fantasy is not for paper only. Use fantasy to your advantage. Consider this: You are a real writer. Imagine it. Now fantasize you are a rich writer. Add to your fantasy that you are a well-known writer.  Lastly, imagine your writing changing lives for the better.  Makes you want to work, doesn't it?

... are you still hanging around?  Get out of here and write, will ya?

Final Word
Instead of MAGNiTUDE (noun) try:  extent, abundance, and consequence

Start Date: September 1, 2011
Pages:  1/365

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Please, if you are committing to a page a day, let us know so we can share your progress!

It's a New Day

Each day you wake, you have a golden opportunity: You can make the day better than the day before. Meet and exceed goals you have yet to meet,  relax and enjoy your family, you can make a meal that you've been wanting to try for years... it's all up to you.  We don't need "New Years' resolutions;" we need day to day resolutions. 

For those of us working from home, it can be difficult to separate home and work.  Those are the best days, because they remind you of how flexible you and life can be.  Don't take it as a frustration, take it and make it work for them and YOU.  Take that time, rest your thoughts about work and lists and goals, and hold your angel.  Listen to them. Give them undivided attention.  Hear them. Respond to them. Love them.

When all is said and done, aren't they why you choose to work from home?  And honestly, when all is said and done, aren't you in a better frame of mind when you come out of that moment and get back to work?  Aren't they?

By the way, if you can't get back into your work, take the time to sit down and read a good book. For direct sales, it's always good to study tried, true, and proven methods.  For writing, there are thousands of books and it's hard to select only a hundred, so I'll give you a couple of my past favorites. Anything from the late great Gary Provost is a good read and informative.  Screenplay writing... you can't go wrong with Syd Field, he'll show you how to get into your screenplay and propose it so you have a fighting chance.  I'm saving my favorite for last.  I LOVE, love, love William Goldman.  There's no better screenplay to read than one of his. I've read quite a few, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but my all time favorite to read (for my learning purposes) is Absolute Power. I could understand the acts, the direction, the characters, and the words quite easily.

The Skinny on Direct Sales: Your first 100 days

 

 

Be a Party Plan Superstar: Build a $100,000-a-Year Direct Selling Business from Home

The Screenwriter's Workbook (Revised Edition)

Screenplay Workbook: The Writing Before the Writing

  

Absolute Power: The Screenplay (Applause Books)

Making Money from Home: How to Run a Successful Home-Based Business

Complete Downer

Tomorrow my kids get to see Harry Potter at an advanced screening. Though I'm not at all a HP fan, I was going because they are older and there's not a lot they don't mind me doing with them.

When I found out the very first At Home America Specialist to join under me was having her party the same day, I cancelled the movie even though I normally will not cancel on my kids for most. But this was her first party and there's no one here in Hawaii having a party we can see. One that we can use to train by.

But the joke's on me, and the sadness is for AH (the specialist) and probably not so much on my kids, because I have bronchitis and it's hurting pretty bad, besides being contagious.  I can't even concentrate on a book.  Murphy's Law?

Ideas

It's hard to sleep when you have ideas swirling through your head.  My latest is that I'm going to write up a presentation for the At Home America friends who have never hosted a party. I'm going to write up exactly what you can do before, during, and after a party and include etiquette and conversation help.  Each time I am at a party, my own, anyone else's, and any other company, I'll read it again and tweak it until it works perfectly in general.

Yah, I'll do that.  And I'll finish my book and screenplay tomorrow, right? I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I'm trying to help someone who isn't helping herself (that's always a no-no!), and I am pretty sure I'm in a lot of pain - strep throat?  I love my cousins, they came all the way from the Mainland to bring me something that resembles strep throat. Ah, the memories!

Let's see if I actually get around to doing this.