This is a great list! Check it out if you’re stumped on how to get started writing or just need to be reinvigorated.
Take a look at this great YouTube vid that I discovered on Joni Rodger’s blog – which she co-authors with Colleen Thompson. Their blog, by the way, is a great one to read and subscribe to if you want to keep up with two writers who have been there…done that and are willing to share their experiences. Both women are extremely accomplished writers and their blog is really inspiring if you’re a writer.
I truly hope one day when I’m in Houston I’ll somehow bump into Ms. Rodgers and Ms. Thompson and we’ll soon be fast friends! (In Texas, we move fast because you know there are many predatory animals still in fine form, like Rick Perry, rattlesnakes, mountain lions et al so our friendships are formed quick and deep!)
So hit the link and enjoy. When I’m up late at night typing like a whirling dervish working on my own creative pieces it’s always good to find something to both inspire one to keep writing and crack one up at the same time.
If you’ve not read these authors’ books too I recommend em!
And “typing digits up” – rejection comes and goes, but your devotion to your writing should never waver.
And this holds true whether it’s creative, fiction, non-fiction, copywriting or news stories. Toughen up and move on if you get rejected. I’ve had experience in all of the aforementioned pitches/articles being rejected and yet I always managed to move on and find more places to write, get paid to write and do what I love.
Add to that the bonus of being a publicist by day and working to get the word out about all the books I’m blessed to do PR for, whether they be fiction, non-fiction or even an occasional collection of comic strips, there is no greater job!
So don’t give up. Keep going.
I’m a giant and devoted fan of Bob Bly and anything he writes about “writing.” This is a particularly great article in DM News this month on copywriting and how to best meet the challenges in writing great copy where Bob relates a ton of other expert copywriter tips.
Honestly this article alone should be printed and excerpted and passed around to anyone who is responsible for generating sales copy. Fantastic.
And leave it to Bly to find a superb ending quote from copywriter Milt Pierce,”A good swipe file is better than a college education.”
If you don’t know what a swipe file is, find out and start building one. Here’s a good article on swipe files beyond what Bly has in his article.
In PR you can do the same thing with really stunning press releases. Read them, collect them and glean eye-catching nutgraphs from them that you can then apply to your own releases.
A nutgraph by the way is a journalist’s term for the core paragraph of any story. If you don’t know the nutgraph of what you’re pitching – how the heck will the journalist possibly understand it?
Now go and swipe!
I like this recent post that Dan York featured on starting a blog or how to tell if you might want to be a blogger. Excellent. Here’s the link.
Here’s another article that might serve to inspire you to keep writing!
“How To Pitch and Swerve As A Writer”
I had the great pleasure today to present to a really savvy group of freelance writers and editors and PR folks in Austin. One of the things this reminded me of was how hard freelance writers work to keep generating work! I still write and I know it’s tough to keep your spirits high sometimes.
So for all you writers out there I wanted to put this link to an article I wrote for Nick Usborne’s publication titled, “Be Shamelessly Persistent and Unyielding in Your Pursuit to Be A Freelancer.” I hope you get some encouragement from it!
And write and tell me how you’re being shamelessly persistent!
If you don’t have a set reading guide for your book, I encourage you to build one to have available on your blog or web site and to have to send out with book orders of 20 or more to corporations, book clubs etc.
The site below is a great way to feature your reading guide online and it’s only $100 to submit a guide to the site. I think it’s worth it.
Here is the link on to how to do this.
Why should you as an author do a reading guide?
1. It’s a great primer for your book.
2. Makes the book more acccessible to people who are interested in it but might be intimidated by its subject focus.
3. It will empower managers, leaders etc. to bring your book into the office and have a great head start for facilitating a team around the book’s ideas.
4. It will help you identify for potential news coverage the real mission and ideas presented in the book in a brief format.
5. The questions you come up with for the guide and the answers can also be repurposed as articles.
Reading guides aren’t just for fiction books anymore! If you hit the site above and do a search for business books you’ll find guides to books by Jim Collins and other leaders.
Nettie Tips On Interviewing
Keep in mind when you’re doing an interview that it’s usually with someone who doesn’t know you personally and may not get your humor, your personal asides or find your sarcasm as funny and charming as your spouse does.
Now here are some tips for interviewing:
1. Be honest
2. Take a deep breath before you answer each question and give a pause.
3. Journalists like to use uncomfortable silences to get you to fill them first with something juicy or something you might not otherwise say, so be conscious of that and don’t get uncomfortable if you don’t have a ready answer. Take your time.
4. Don’t bellow, belittle or besmirch the interviewer during the process of interviewing with them. (Email me and I’ll tell you about my interview with a hollywood A-lister who made me cry.:>)
5. Don’t be offputting. You’ve said yes to the interview, so don’t spend your time or waste their time giving bad soundbites.
6. Engage your smile. I tell clients to put a mirror in front of them (on their desks) if they’re doing phoners and the whole time they’re talking on the phone, to make sure they’re smiling. It’s amazing how just keeping a smile on your face while you’re talking to someone can positively charge your interaction and openess during an interview.
7. Laugh at yourself. Self-deprecation is funny in small doses. (Anyone watch Al Gore? He’s great at this.)
8. If you don’t know the answer to something, don’t make something up. Say, “I don’t know the answer to that, but can I get back to you?”
9. If the journalist or interviewer is becoming too aggressive, you can politely end the interview early.
10. Research the journalist and what they’ve written prior to the interview so you can really understand their style of writing and glean some good information about their style of interviewing.
I’m really thrilled to have been interviewed by the very talented (and funny) Luke Armour from Blog Forward. The interview focuses completely on interviews and interviewing techniques. (Note to self: Don’t say “um” so much. Drats!)
So if you’re inclined go check it out.
Recent Comments