Archive for the ‘Writing (General)’ Category
Why You Have to Write a Good Blog Post or Quit
I used to think it was important to keep the posts coming fast and furious on my blog, letting a few lousy ones slip through every now and then. Actually, I’d let that happen more often than I care to admit. The more I read blogs today and notice the trends in social media and the blogosphere, I have become convinced that it is blog suicide to stick lousy or sub-par content on your site.
The cost of this is steep enough that you’re probably better off quitting rather than dragging out a mediocre blog. Here are a few reasons and then a couple solutions for writing a good blog post:
Competition is Fierce
There are a host of experienced tech-savvy folks who have lost their jobs and are now concentrating their energy on creating top-notch web sites. In addition, the number of blogs out there are growing daily, so the competition for readers will on increase for the time being. They are using networks, offers, partnerships, advertising, and giveaways to attract readers to their excellent posts.
Your Contract with Readers
In posting content online you are asking are offering content in exchange for someone’s valuable time and attention. This is a contract that should not be taken lightly. Violate that contract too many times and readers will stop dropping by—turning you into the little blog that cried “Content!” I like some bloggers out there as people, but I’m not a big fan of their blogs, having been disappointed one too many times. Poor posts take a toll on readers.
Your Reputation
While you don’t want to risk annoying your readers with frivolities, you also don’t want to compromise your position as not only a helpful, but hopefully an authoritative writer. Have a look at Michael Hyatt’s blog. He’s the CEO of Thomas Nelson, the top Christian publisher, and his helpful blog only further seals his place as the leading Christian publisher, if not one of the top publishers overall. Through excellent posts he has become a defacto CEO for many in the publishing industry who look to his lead.
There are other Platforms
If blogging isn’t your thing, you can still advance your ideas and create buzz around your work by using Twitter and Facebook. If you have an idea to share, just post it as a note in Facebook. These forms of micro-blogging are great ways to network and to get noticed without the drag of maintaining a whole blog.
How to Write Good Posts
If you’re in a content slump, but you don’t want to give up, write a post today announcing a 30 sabbatical. With Christmas going on I suspect that your readers won’t mind all that much anyway. Announce that your triumphal return will take place in 3-4 weeks.
Take the following month to list the topics you’d like to blog on, set up Google alerts to send you updates related to those topics, follow a few popular blogs such as problogger.net, make a list of 4-5 ideas to write about each week on these topics, and select a few books to read. Take those blog post ideas you’ve listed and write up one-paragraph summaries of each post or a rough 4-5 point outline. Complete sentences are optional at this point.
The night before your return, write out a good draft of your first blog post. Proof read it in the morning and then post it. Later that afternoon or evening write up your draft for the next day’s post, and then proof and post it the next morning.
Plot out some rough ideas for topics, series, books, or articles. Keep track of your news alerts for blogging fodder and make sure you read at least 5 key blogs in your area of interest. As you plan your return it will be crucial to commit to a 30-day period of posting. You need to develop good blogging habits, and 30 days will be sufficient to send you well on your way.
The next post this week will be: Why you have to market your blog…
How Writers Prepare for Ideas
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld talked in an interview about the importance of keeping a notepad by his bed. Either before falling asleep or when waking in the middle of the night, he sometimes thought of a great line for his comedy routine. If he didn’t write the idea down immediately, he’d lose it.
Seinfeld’s lessons left a mark, as I make a point of having a ready supply of sticky notes and pens around the house and in the car. I have often pulled off the road to jot down an idea, and when I forgot to leave my notepad by the bed, I’ve jumped out of it in the middle of the night for the sake of capturing an idea.
Sometimes you won’t know if the idea is worthwhile until a few days later. Perhaps it would have been better in some cases to opt for the extra sleep. However, writers are in the idea business and something as insignificant as a pen or a piece of paper should not stand in the way of sharing a good idea with others.
Should Writers Give Their Away Their Ideas?
Should writers give away their prize ideas, the very content that becomes their currency? Writers have been struggling with answering this question with the popularity of the internet, the pervasiveness of blogs, and the recent surge in ebooks.
I’ve thought about this a lot, but I think the solution is a both/and scenario rather than an either/or.
Revisit and Recycle Ideas in Various Mediums
Experienced writers learn that they can explore ideas and topics from a variety of angles with differing degrees of detail. If a writer can revisit or recycle an idea for two different magazines, then why not explore your idea on a blog and then later in a book or magazine article?
One author was quite resistant to the thought of charging readers for the ideas of his book, but a friend added some clarity by pointing out that most of his ideas in the book were available at no charge on his web site. However, the material in his book had a higher degree of refinement and clarity that some would be willing to pay for, which leads to my next thought.
Different Mediums Require Different Processes
The book publishing process involves numerous drafts, editorial development of ideas and a team of publishing professionals walking authors through each step of the process. There is a lot of revision and planning involved in writing a book.
Blogs on the other hand are typically the work of a solitary writer or a small team of writers. I look at a blog post as a really good first draft. For a blog post I won’t write a draft, revise it, send it to an editor who suggests major changes, make my revisions, send it back to an editor for additional comments, make additional changes, and then send it off to a fact checker. Even uber-blogger Guy Kawasaki can’t afford to put that much time and involve that many people in a blog post.
That isn’t to say that blog posts are poorly written, only that the content found in books has gone through a different process. We can debate whether the book writing process is worthwhile, and in the case of some books it is not, but the final product often looks quite different from a blog post.
Some Content is Worth Paying For
Content that undergoes a rigorous editorial and design process in magazines and books may carry a price tag, but I still believe it is worthwhile to make some ideas available in these forms. They carry greater authority because they have passed through editorial boards and will tend to be of higher quality because multiple contributors were involved in the production process.
That is not a guarantee that books or magazines will always produce better content than blogs or self-published books and ebooks. There are some rather notable exceptions. However, I guarantee that almost every book produced by a major publisher will have certain advantages over a self-published book or an ebook given away for free. Whether it’s distribution, editorial development, or layout.
The Big Decision
Writers face the big decision of deciding which process works best for themselves and their ideas. If an idea is big enough to merit a long series of blog posts, then perhaps it’s worth working with those ideas for a future book project.
There are a lot of books out there with fairly simple ideas that are not capable of filling a full-length book. In those cases it’s worth it for writers to consider turning them into several solid magazine articles that may well reach more readers than a typical book.
Marketing expert Seth Godin tells writers to spend at least three years working on a blog and developing a ready audience of writers who will buy their books once released. That is a great guideline for writers and one that I have found to be true in my own experience. Blogs give writers great practice are writing regularly for the public and provide a chance to find a particular voice, angle, or, dare I say, brand.
From Idea to Editor Workshop on October 17th in Manchester, VT
The Greater Manchester Arts Council is pleased to announce a fall workshop designed to assist writers with moving their book ideas to book proposals.
Join Ed Cyzewski, author of Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life for a step-by-step journey into the process of transforming your book idea into a book proposal with the necessary research, style and tips that will send your proposal to the top of the pile.
From networking advice, to tips from publishing professionals, this presentation will give aspiring writers the tools they need to take the next step in the publishing process. This workshop will emphasize the nonfiction process, but will offer
valuable advice for writers in every genre.
The workshop will be held on Saturday, October 17th, from 9-12AM at the Inn at Willow Pond on Rte. 7A in Manchester, VT. Cost is $45.00 per person/$40.00 early bird registration. Fee includes a continental breakfast. Please call 802-867-0272 for registration and information or fill out the contact form.
Breaking Through the Fog to Write
After moving, settling in, and then trying to establish some kind of schedule or rhythm for my writing, marketing, and blogging, I’ve been thinking about creativity killers—the things that create a fog and prevent writing. I’m always aware of the writers block threat, and so I’d like to share some factors that may cloud my ability to write:
Not taking enough down time. My creativity and ability to write depends on walks, quiet moments in the living room, or hanging around at the dinner table when the meal is over. If I push too hard, I create a cycle of frustration and failure. I’ve learned to recognize my own peaks and valleys, and then adjusted my schedule accordingly.
Not reading books, blogs, and articles. Problogger Darren Rowse mentioned this in a post ages ago, but it has kept with me. Writers need to not only learn from published authors, but to also chew on fresh ideas, current events, and new stories. I never know where a train of thought may take me when I’m reading a book.
Not setting reasonable goals. I often create my own failures, stand in judgment as my own worst critic, and set the bar too high on certain projects. The key for me is breaking large and small projects into manageable chunks. For example, plan on writing a first draft of a blog post in the morning, outline an article proposal in the late morning, and work on two to three pages of a proposal in the afternoon.
Not working on diverse projects. While there’s a danger in spreading myself too thin by taking up too many projects at once, I find it helpful to have at least two different book projects in mind at a time, to say nothing of writing articles or blog posts. If one book isn’t coming together, I can usually revisit the other and find something to work on. In the process I once found the less polished, less developed idea to be a much better possibility for publication!
How to Write a First Draft of a Book
Writing a book is a long, drawn-out process. It’s hard to say when you’re “done” other than that moment when the book arrives in your mail box and sits on your coffee table like a long lost friend. Nevertheless, along the way there are certain mile stones to aim for and to celebrate.
Yesterday I wrapped up the first draft of my next book Saving Evangelicals from Themselves. The first draft often entails the lion’s share of the book writing process. There is research, brainstorming, organizing, stream of consciousness writing, editing, reorganizing, more writing, and more editing and polishing.
By 5 PM yesterday I had my draft completely finished and ready for the publisher. It even came close to the 60,000 word count with a total of 61,610 words. I’d like to share a little bit about the process of writing a first draft of a book. I hope this helps as you plunge into your own projects.
Read… A Lot
You don’t need to quote directly from every book or cite everything, but read, skim, or browse as many books as you can in your topic area. You want to communicate your own ideas in fresh ways, while giving credit where it is due.
Research
Set up Google Alerts for your subject areas, read and tag articles using del.icio.us, dig through surveys, and look up articles in key papers and magazines such as Time, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and any other magazine closely related to your topic. For myself I keep a close eye on Christianity Today.
Organize and Outline
You need to know where your book is going, and so a rough outline is necessary. Don’t be afraid to delete, add, or reorder chapters as you set out. Better now than later. Set up a rough idea of each chapter’s trajectory.
Write, Write, Write
I like to just cut loose and write a ton once I have some research and outlines to provide general guidance. I end up scrapping at least 25-35% of what I write, but the core that remains is generally pretty solid. Let your mind wander, write about things you care about, and think deeply about your topic. Always keep in mind your one-two sentence summary of your book from your proposal (you did put together a proposal first, right? If not, do that NOW!)
Fill In Gaps
After you have a good chunk of material together, you need to fill in the gaps with more research, quotes, and stories. Try to get a sense of the flow of your chapter. Are you on target? Can readers follow with you? Are they still interested? Have you backed up your claims? This is the time to ask hard questions and to be critical of your work. I have a scrap folder for each book with a document that matches each chapter. Many scrap documents have at least 7 pages of material in them. That means you need to keep adding content to your chapters, making sure you’ve sharpened your points.
Seek Opinions
When you’re relatively confident you have a solid chunk of chapter, seek out a friend or two to read it. Ask them to point out places where stories don’t work, ideas need to be developed, or the whole thing falls off course. I recommend at least two different readers since people can be very different in how they read something.
Never Stop Researching
Hopefully you’ve been keeping up on your field while you’re doing the heavy part of the writing. By saving key stories and articles on del.icio.us I have saved myself on several occasions. You never know when a crucial piece of information will surface.
The Critical Read-Through
Keeping in mind your book’s focus, reader-benefits, and goals, read through each chapter with a critical eye to anything that doesn’t fit, discredits you as a writer, loses your readers, or doesn’t sound quite right. Kill adverbs without mercy, tighten up sentence structure, delete a lot, insert strong verbs, and make sure you begin and end with bang.
Hit Send, Tell a Friend, and Buy Yourself a Treat
It’s a wonderful feeling to hit the send button when you’re done with a key phase of a book project. Celebrate the moment, treat yourself to something you enjoy, and share the joy of the moment with your friends. Chances are you won’t be celebrating when your editor writes back in two months with the revisions you need to make… 
Switching from “School” Writing to Freelance Writing
This is a guest post from Ashley Brooks of Christian Colleges. She has some great advice for college grads who will soon hit the job market. Enjoy!
Depending on the university you went to, as a student you are typically made to write about ten papers a semester, increasing every year until graduation. These papers may not always cover what you want to talk about, and are simply assigned topics that you have to research extensively. Coming from a previous high school education where you were told how exactly to write the paragraph, does not truly set the mold for much freelance writing either. The switch to writing about what you want to write about is markedly different and much more liberating.
Writing in college has a much more defined rubric upon which to write about. For example, you have to be much more professional, and cite every type of citation imaginable, in every type of style. If you refuse to cater to this method, you either get points deducted or accused of plagiarism. Additionally, you grow accustomed to an individual style of writing, wherein you have to speak to a particular audience and speak in a certain tone. It takes months of writing to fully rid yourself of this type of enclosure, and even then, hints of it still emerge; it’s like the years of brainwashing throughout elementary that got you to write a decent essay using the five methods of construction: topic, main idea, topic sentence, supporting sentences, and conclusion. It took your college professors four years to rid you of this format, and without proper training it could take a similar amount of time to rid yourself of your college format.
Freelance writing can be much more casual, with no apparent audience; although, depending on the type of writing you may be doing, holding on to some of those college lessons will be beneficial for non-fiction or newsworthy topics. It’s helpful to once in a while just put a pen to a paper and see what happens. So often nowadays, everyone types their writing out, instead of focusing on the traditional pen-and-paper method that is so often overlooked. For hundreds of years, this is the way writers formatted their thoughts into words, and every once in a while, a decent writer should try the same tactic. Breaking away from technology and typing is almost refreshing. When is the last time you wrote by hand more than one hundred words? Or even dabbled back into the cursive writing we were trained in during the beginning years of elementary.
Writing should not be something that is dictated or delegated to, unless you are assigned as such for a particular publication. Writing is something that ebbs and flows naturally, and the best fiction writers can tell you as such. Those first endeavors at writing when you are eight years old are some of the most memorable instances, attempting to describe the way in which the hues of a barrel of hay come alive when the sunset hits perfectly after reflecting off the nearby stream. It is this freedom that we need to rehash once we become adults (post-college). While most of the time in elementary, you were still told what to write, it is this child naivety which writers tend to cherish.
The best method to rediscover yourself as a writer is to go into a secluded countryside and just write; perhaps write on what you see in front of you, or even an experience you have recently have. The best writers are able to write with passion, and this becomes truly noticeable to the reader, drawing them into the story as well. Once you fully rid yourself of a previous writing rubric, you will be able to fully appreciate the art that is writing and the many different ways in which you can experience it to the fullest.
This post was contributed by Ashley Brooks, who writes about the top Christian universities. She welcomes your feedback at AshleyBrooks234 (a)t gmail (dot) com
After the Poets and Writers Weekend in Manchester, Thoughts on the Publishing World…
I once again participated in the Poets and Writers Weekend in Manchester. It’s a great event planned on a shoe string, but put together with some great presenters and wonderful hosts. Beth and Clemma did a stellar job organizing the event.
I’d like to share a few observations about the weekend from my end of things, especially as a panelist on the changes in publishing and as a presenter.
Jumping to self publishing too fast: Self-publishing is a wonderful option, and with the machine at the Northshire Bookstore, it’s a great option. However I noticed far too many would be authors, who couldn’t find a publisher on their own, jumping right to the self-publishing option. First of all, self-publishing, in my view, should either be a strategic move because you’ll have the right publicity channels and resources to get the word out or because you’re plain out of options. Secondly, it is very, very hard to get a book published without an agent who not only has the contacts, but will hone a writer’s proposal into the right stuff for publisher. Before self-publishing, every writer needs to look long and hard for an agent who can put their proposals into the hands of publishers. Keep in mind that agents should only take a cut of your book’s sales. If an agent wants money up front, don’t go for it.
From Idea to Editor: We didn’t spend too much time talking about the particulars of working a book idea into a winning proposal that will wow an editor. I think a workshop on that next year would be a great help. There is so much research that needs to go into a proposal, and I can’t stress enough the importance of finding a good editor to polish it. Good editors will bring your most important ideas to the front, cut away the unnecessary junk, and make your writing shine. You can’t afford to not have that when you hand in your proposal. Can you imagine how terrible it would be to bore an editor?
Doom and gloom in the book world: The publishing panel offered a very sobering assessment of the publishing industry, one that is fraught with uncertainty as blogs, e-books, and a down economy eat up profits. One of the things we didn’t get to cover too much was the possibility of books as art in and of themselves—merging art and word together in the pages of books may create an experience that cannot be duplicated on a computer screen. We didn’t have time to get into all of that, but as far as a new direction for publishing, check out books such as Jesus for President and Refractions. They mix art with the written word and may be the kind of books customers will still want to own in a physical format.
Lessons from the Past Six Months on Writing
By the time Coffeehouse Theology was released in September 2008, I was well on my way with my next book project—writing stories, searching for articles, and testing out ideas. I had one foot in marketing and the other in a new project on evangelicals: Saving Evangelicals from Themselves: Where We’ve Gone Wrong and Why We Have Hope. Without the head start seminary afforded on Coffeehouse Theology, I learned a few lessons in the course of writing a first draft for a book completely from scratch.
Using del.icio.us to not only tag and organize links, but to also set aside material worthy of a quotation made the research process much easier. At first I just tagged everything that looked relevant, but soon I realized that it helps to read the articles first rather than assuming I’d read them later. I rarely did that! So I read through, highlighted the section I wanted to quote, and then tagged them. By highlighting a section, I could then find it on my del.icio.us bookmarks without have to reread the whole article.
Small sticky notes make it much easier to find quotations from books. I had a system of using small sticky notes as tabs sticking out of books. I’d typically stick the note to the page, make a bracket around the relevant text, and then jot a few words connecting the quote with a particular chapter. I later found that many of my quotes didn’t fit, but without taking the time to mark everything that seemed important, I doubt I would have been able to find enough helpful quotations to pull from the many books I read.
Lining up readers for your drafts is absolutely essential. I received invaluable advice from my readers who soldiered through my early drafts. One chapter needed to be deleted, while another began with too much intensity. In both cases my readers helped prompt significant changes to my book that I believe will make it more successful.
Writing down many of my stories and anecdotes months before I began seriously working on the chapters helped me sort through the most important topics to be covered in the book. This book could have taken a couple of different directions, but I wanted it to unfold as organically as possible, letting my stories direct and shape the overall direction and point of the book. By starting with a solid core of stories totaling 30,000 words, I quickly ruled out certain chapters that would not have enough substance to work within the parameters I had established for the book.
Anything written can be deleted. I have found that I am continually amazed at what ends up working and what ends up being tossing into the “scraps” folder. Never tire of using the delete button.
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