Copyright – A Must For Internet Safety
It is a common trend, today, that online content is often found to be republished on other websites without permission being asked from, or credit given to, the original author of the writing. As more professionals make their work available online, protecting it is of primary importance. It is imperative that writers and publishers take steps in protecting their work from people who use it for personal gain. Copyrighting all their online material, gives writers and producers the safety that is needed to protect their work.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, architectural and certain other intellectual works.
Only the owner/manufacturer/creator of the work has permission to:
- Copy the work.
- Create derivative works based upon the work.
- Sell, rent, lease, and lend copies of the work.
- Publicly perform literary, musical, dramatic, a motion picture and other audiovisual works.
- Publicly perform sound recordings.
If you do not own text, graphics, music, audiovisual or other intellectual property that you want to make copies of, or use for your projects (such as Web pages), you need to get permission from the owner. Once the entire process of copyrighting is done, you need to make sure that internet users are aware of the fact that your material is copyrighted. Make sure that your website has a copyright notice as this helps reduce the amount of people using your material without your permission.
What Not To Do When Writing For Children
Yesterday I was going through a book written for children. Interesting, but not captivating enough. Writers make the mistake of underestimating the quality of work when it comes to writing for children. That doesn't make sense, as right from the beginning children should be accustomed to reading quality writing. Hence, I would like to enumerate 7 points on what not to do when it comes to writing for children.
- Never underestimate children’s capacity and use of kiddish language. Remember that you are writing for children who are often more shrewd and clever than what you were as a kid. After all, the internet, television and computers have widened the range of information and knowledge that is available to them. Nowadays, even children expect quality and substance when they read.
When writing for teens, write intelligently
First, let’s be clear about something. Teens are those budding youngsters above the age of 12 and below the age of 20. As you can see, this is indeed a wide range, and books written for someone who is twelve will certainly differ from books written for those at eighteen. Though different maturity levels require books on a different subject matter, all you need to know is that books for teens should be well written and about intriguing topics. There are fa ew tips you can keep in mind while writing books for teens.
Think from a teenager’s point of view
When writing, always keep in mind that you are writing for a teenager; try to think back when you were that age and think about what appeals to them. Get to know teens and ask them what they like to read. Don’t just listen to what they have to say; apply it in your writing. They are generally looking for thought provoking books written on subjects that fascinate them.
Be logical
Teenagers generally enjoy books that are logical. They have overcome the age where fairies and gnomes used to fascinate them. They are looking for well-written fiction and non-fiction books. This is the age when books influence their mind the most, so try to make your book to something that they will remember for the rest of their lives (hopefully for positive reasons!). Keep your writing quality as you would for adults, but try to keep the situations and experiences relevant to teenagers.
CHARACTERISATION AND ITS USES
What is a character?
The writer uses many ways to convey the nature of a character. It’s quite obvious he is unable to attach a photo of his character to a book or manuscript. However, there are ways in which a character can be described and written about that enables readers to visualize the character and create an impression of that character’s behavior. Firstly, when the character is physically described, the writer wants the reader to create a faint picture of the character in their mind.
As an example, I have taken a brief excerpt from ‘Angels and Demons’ by Dan Brown.
‘Although not overtly handsome in a classical sense, the forty-year-old Langdon had what his female colleagues referred to as an erudite appeal-wisps of gray in his thick brown hair, probing blue eyes, an arrestingly deep voice, and the strong, carefree smile of a collegiate athlete. A varsity diver in prep school and college, Langdon still had the body of a swimmer. A toned, six foot physique that he vigilantly maintained with fifty laps a day in the university pool.’
While reading the passage above, the reader imagines that Langdon has an athletic body, toned and well looked after. Now, that was easy, was it not? It didn’t need a model to explain the way he looked and it didn’t need a painting or sketch that would visualize him. We can also identify that he trains quite hard to maintain his athletic look.
The first draft: writing with precision and passion!
Often, potentially brilliant pieces of writing are discarded because they seem amateurish and lack a ‘final polish’. We often end up spending very little time minute details, as silly mistakes can make even an amateur’s work look like one written by an expert, so long as it is edited correctly. Do not let your manuscript be an example of sloppy work, deep down you know that there is always room for improvement, even when you think you have given it your best shot.
Free your work from errors, even if you feel that you should leave your work, you might not notice that blatant mistake on page 54. Typing errors and bad sentence construction can serve as a source of humor to your editor, but it will never make them accept your work. I am sure it is more important to you to be accepted rather than to make people laugh! Hence, make sure your work is free from spelling and grammatical errors. The readability of your work will diminish if your writing is laden with them.
A Mathematical Approach to Writing
With due acknowledgement to Professor DJ Higham
For many years I have used mathematics as a hobby for intellectual stimulation and as something I was not very good at while in school, I find it a challenge. It came as something of a surprise that I found what has become for me the simplest of tip sheets for writing. Professor Higham's list of tips is also proof that mathematicians have a sense of humour and are not square..
The full list of tips is available by clicking on the link above, but some of them are so good they deserve a more detailed consideration.
"1. Every sentence should make sense in isolation. Like that one."
This seems blindingly obvious; however, you will find that writers do not follow this simple rule. I must confess I am one of them, as my thoughts race along faster than my typing speed and the result becomes "run on sentences". These are overly long sentences that do not have a proper structure and do not contribute to making my point. If you're not sure about a sentence that you have written, my basic rule is to split it into two sentences and see how that reads.
"6. A writer needs three qualities: creativity, originality, clarity and a good short term memory"
The Fear of Rejection
Being told "No" just brings you one step closer to being told "Yes"
If you have now put together a writing portfolio to provide prospective clients with samples of your work you're ready for the next step, which is to start asking for paid projects.
Asking for a paid project is for many a step too far.
What if they say "No", criticise my work, or call my bluff on a topic I've researched but don't really know about, to pass myself off as an expert on it?
There are two things I've learned by getting my hands dirty on the keyboard and they are simply this:
One: you will be told "No" far more times than you will be told "Yes" - it's not personal, build a bridge and get over it and better still, try to find out why you've been rejected and see what you can learn for next time.
Two: somewhere there is a buyer who is going to love what you do and your task is to find them. When you are told "No" it is not a sign of failure, it is simply a step along the road to success and having your work accepted.
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