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Advice for Authors and Writers

Beginning a Conversation with Your Intended Audience

Try to begin a conversation with your intended audience. This isn’t a trick. It’s a way of thinking. When you write, you are intending to communicate a message to someone. But, some writers either forget that basic premise or they just never knew it in the first place.

A beginning writer or one who will never be any good forgets about the audience. Sometimes, they don’t even have an intended message. When writing’s sole purpose is to communicate a message to a certain audience, it astounds me that those two things can slip from a writer’s mind while… “writing.” But, it happens.

A great writer or one who intends to get better at it will actually consider audience and message first. Yes, the message is obviously most important. But, considering the audience offers the guidelines you will need in order to write effectively. The intended audience can be teenagers, women, minorities, the middle class, the rich or any other category you can imagine.

If you read any magazine, you will easily figure out who the intended audience is supposed to be. Without trying to offend anyone, here are a few examples. People is basically for homebodies who like gossip, Time is for the socially aware in about the mid-age range, YM is obviously for young girls (it is right in the name) and Cosmopolitan is for women. Notice how I mentioned who the intended audience is “supposed” to be? Anyone can read Cosmo, but it’s going to be written for the female population.

When you write, think of yourself as someone who is pulling an audience to you and attempting to tell them something very important. Yes, there are writers who write only for the purpose of hearing themselves talk basically. But, think of yourself as an authority on something. You are an authority on the message you intend to communicate.

No, that doesn’t make you the smartest person in the world. Being the “authority” doesn’t have to be some burdensome, all-empowering position. You have a message and that in itself is enough to give you some authority. You have some insight on a topic. You know how to do something. Your message could be as simple as how to bake a pie, but you are the expert at the moment and your purpose is to inform your readers your best practices in baking a pie.

What brings your writing to life is if you can engage your audience and this is where you begin a conversation with your readers. This isn’t a trick, I said it before. But, it is important. It’s a set of techniques. It’s not a secret or it’s not intended to be a secret, but the fact is that many writers don’t know how to engage an audience and draw them into your conversation.

Now that I have your attention…now that I have you expecting to learn a secret…this is to be continued…

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers

What are Features and Benefits?

A feature is something identifiable with a product or service e.g. the new Mondeo has alloy wheels as standard; KPMG provides international tax consultancy services; ERH is a man. Alloy wheels, international tax consultancy and man are all features.

By themselves they mean absolutely sod all!

Benefits are the result of product/service features applied to a potential buyer to solve a problem or satisfy a need they have.

So:

“The new Mondeo has alloy wheels as standard which means that you get a great, racy looking car without the additional cost for optional extras. “

The benefit here is two-fold: a “great, racy looking car” and no “additional cost”.

Hang on a minute!

“I hate alloy wheels and I don’t want a car that says “I’m a boy racer!” – these aren’t benefits!”

You must remember that to be classified as a benefit, the feature must be applied to solve a problem or satisfy a need of the actual customer.

What has this got to do with writing?

[Read more…] about What are Features and Benefits?

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers

5 Reasons to Take a Break from the Keyboard

On a windy Sunday morning, I’m sitting at the PC for the second time of the day. I woke up at 6 buzzing with a slight hangover from the excesses of a boozy Saturday night with my cronies. Several coffees later I sat down to start writing at 8 full of good intentions.

The result was absolutely nothing. I just sat there and fiddled, checking email, checking google, and playing around instead of working.

As an example of gaining ideas to post about, this one is pretty lame – knowing when to leave the keyboard because you can’t write due to a hangover! Nevertheless, sometimes you do need to take a break from keybashing and there are warning signs to look for that should sound an alarm. When writing you need to be mentally and physically on your toes.

#1 Procrastination

At #1, procrastination is a sure sign you need to take a breather. If you’re surfing the internet and getting hooked on topics at a tangent which have no direct bearing on your assignment in hand, this is a sure sign you need to take a break. This is my number one sin as I’m forever getting sidetracked but procrastination takes many more forms than just idle surfing the internet to no effect. Sales people call this “soldiering”; making up chores and tasks in order to give yourself the feeling that you are being productive when in fact you are not.

#2 Not Knowing Where to Start

[Read more…] about 5 Reasons to Take a Break from the Keyboard

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers, Freelance Writing, Websites & Business Tagged With: Internet, writing

Strunk & White – The Elements of Style

In my quieter moments I surf the internet just like anyone else involved primarily in writing web content. I regularly read CopyBlogger which is a mine of writing tips and resources, but I particularly picked up on a post by Brian Clark
bemoaning the adverse comments scattered about blog posts by English usage Nazi’s. I think he has a fair set of points but they are not the subject of this post here. Brian was posting about common errors and by all means read his post, I thoroughly enjoy his blogging but bear in mind this is American writing and grammatical tips.

I followed through the post and picked up on a couple of names – Strunk & White – and clicking on the hyperlink, there we go through to Wikipedia and the entry for their tome. Reading the Wikipedia entry has motivated me to purchase a copy through eBay not least because of the simple, straight-forward advice that Messrs. Strunk & White appear to be dishing out.
[Read more…] about Strunk & White – The Elements of Style

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers, Freelance Writing Tagged With: book author, writing

Fighting Writer’s Block

I wrote about getting started in writing, that sometimes the beginning is the hardest part. But, writer’s block is a completely different monster. See, getting started is often difficult but at least the writer has something to say. Writer’s block is where you hit a mental wall and you have absolutely nothing at all.

Some people would look at you crazy and wonder why you would want to write if you have nothing to write about. But, a writer has a need to write. And sometimes, things just need said even when a writer can’t seem to form the words.

How do you get through it is the question? There are several ways to combat writer’s block. Force yourself through or gradually get back into it, there’s always a way.

Freewrite

 

You may have been taught this before, but it works rather well. Freewriting is a method in which you start writing all of your thoughts down on a piece of paper. You don’t think about grammar or spelling errors. You don’t worry about punctuation. You just write, and write, and write. Before long, you’ll actually have something to write about.

Anything and everything that comes across your mind, that’s what you write. Don’t censor yourself. And if you have absolutely nothing going on in your mind, write about that.
[Read more…] about Fighting Writer’s Block

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers, Freelance Writing Tagged With: Freelance Writing

Planning a Document

Anyone who travels around a lot knows that planning contributes towards making the trip a success. Certainly, the unplanned jaunts and routes taken in a trip come as side-kicks or bonuses— in both ways, making your trip ripe in experience. However, without the bone structure of planning you will fall face-down-in-the-earth.

The foundations of any document are the planning of its “rhetorical strategy”. To get one’s point across to an array of audiences, as wide as possible, is the main focus of most document writers. One needs to be clear in purpose of the message to be conveyed through the project. When the purpose of the writing becomes clear, this becomes easily possible. Some of the major points involved in creating a successful document presentation include the following:
[Read more…] about Planning a Document

Filed Under: Advice for Authors and Writers, Business & Marketing, Resources, Student Writing Advice Tagged With: business writing, student writing, writing

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