Writing

There are 321 posts filed in Writing (this is page 3 of 33).

Fairy Tales and Sub Genres

This is a great list. I haven’t heard of all of these, most of them, but not all. As a reader do you like to pin down your style of fiction or does it matter more when you are writing it?

  • Cyberpunk

  • Dystopian

  • Erotica

  • Spy Thriller

  • Southern Gothic

  • Satire

  • Urban Fantasy

  • Space Horror

  • Space Opera

  • Young Adult Contemporary

  • “Grimdark” Fantasy

  • Psychological Horror

  • Hard Sci-Fi

  • Slasher Film

  • Ecothriller

  • Sword & Sorcery

  • Lovecraftian

  • Zombie Apocalypse

  • Superhero

  • Detective

via Flash Fiction Challenge: Fairy Tales, Remixed « terribleminds: chuck wendig.

Logan’s Run Should be Continued

What would your life be like if you had never gotten to be 30 years of age, or older? Maybe you are not yet 30. Do you look ahead and cringe at the very idea of "being old"?

The story behind Logan’s Run is all about human population, available resources and getting rid of people before they get old – old age being 29 in this case. Of course, there is a secret resistance. A sanctuary which no one has ever returned to talk about, but enough people believe in (or hope for) it’s existence that there are runaways/ runners who try to escape their fate. Logan, the hero of the book, is one of the Sandmen/ trackers who capture these runaways before they get far.

Logan also asks questions, which is his downfall. As Logan gets too close to finding out more than he should, his own light comes on and he is now a target for death (an event where people fly in the air as if they were dancing in a spiral around a Carousel, until they suddenly get zapped to death) – but Logan isn’t old enough yet!

Logan runs – he escapes the city and discovers the reality of the ice world, the world of frozen food which has come a little off track. Logan runs farther and does find more, but not really a sanctuary. Instead he finds an old man in an old world which no one in the city of young people knows anything about.

The story is a little sad, Logan’s Sandman friend becomes his tracker, his enemy and things don’t go well between them. Logan finds befriends Jessica along the way, she takes up the run with him and helps him introduce the old and the young worlds to each other eventually.

I wish there were another book with the after story. So much potential for me. I’ve tried not to give too much away of the story – I hope you will read the book, or watch the movie. It’s been a favourite of mine long before I was 30!

Writing for Content Marketing Sites is Too Expensive

How much does it cost to write for other sites, like HubPages and Squidoo? There is a push for writers at these sites to add video along with the content they write and the images they post too.  No one quite dares to make video mandatory (as far as I have seen). However, for me personally, the addition of video to my posts has cost me $20 a month more on my ISP (Internet service provider) bill.

Viewing several videos for each post takes up bandwidth. My account is not one of the huge packages, I live on a budget (as most writers who don’t have money to burn, do). There is also the image added to a post. Some writers at these sites pay for the images they use. I don’t. I use my own photos, create images myself or go to sites where the images and clipart are free to use.

Don’t forget to count your writing itself. No matter how you feel at the time, writers should be getting paid for the content they create. I find many of these content marketing sites don’t pay writers a single cent. Over time a writer may make a pittance or two. However, how much time writing, promoting and researching has the writer spent to earn $10 over the months… years… they gave.

I used to think writing community sites were a good thing for web writers. I don’t any feel that way now. Mainly the cost of viewing video and the push for writers to add video – that is what has me a little angry actually. No big deal for these sites to ask for video added to posts. The sites make money on the farm of writers they keep. Don’t think they are struggling too much. Their success comes from the people they pay nothing to almost nothing. It doesn’t matter to them if the writers are happy, not really. People who write for them are a dime a dozen, cheaper actually.

So why write for them and spend more than you get paid? Pick yourself up, copy your content from the site and put up your own site. It’s not hard and you shouldn’t be intimidated. You don’t have to be a huge success right away. If you can improve your earnings from cents to dollars you’re ahead of where you were before. Plus you can have pride in what you have done, you are your own editor (along with spellcheck) and every penny you make stays in your pocket.

Write your own Christmas Newsletter

ascii art angelI admit I don’t write and send a Christmas newsletter every year. Often I have it started, get it written, find the art to put inside and then I don’t get it mailed in time. Or, I get stalled out somewhere along the way. So, the best I do is send Christmas cards and try not to feel bad about not getting the newsletter finished and mailed out in time. But, the years I did work everything out and send the Christmas newsletter (inside the standard, yet cheerful, Christmas cards) were good years and I had the feeling of a job well done and having done a good deed.

Who to Send the Newsletter To

The first people I send a newsletter to are those who are a bit isolated among family and friends. Elderly and singles can feel disconnected from friends and family at this time of year. I think it’s important to make them feel included. If you want them to come for Christmas dinner or meet for coffee over the holidays, add a personal invitation to the newsletter.

If you want a newsletter for people who don’t really have a personal connection to you (like business connections or people you know online) send an edited down version, with less personal information about you and your comings and goings.

Consider the people you are sending the newsletter to and decide how much you really want them to know. Why not boast a bit if things are going well? If you don’t go too far, stick to the facts, the people who know you should feel happy for you. Encourage people to write back about their own great moments and events so you can add them to the newsletter for next year.

Never write a pity letter. The holiday season is about good cheer. Find yours before you start to write. The only people you might want to send a whiny letter to are your parents, maybe.

How to Create the Newsletter

Creating a holiday newsletter is fun. It’s a chance to find my Christmas spirit early. I look for holiday images and think up something to write about whatever we are doing for the holidays. Sometimes I find great seasonal quotes too.

In a non-digital way, I like to make the newsletter in the retro zine publishing way: glue, clippings from magazines and I hand write at least some part of them. It’s too much to write them all by hand, but you can stash in a few sentences or at least hand write the salutations for each one.

Add a recent photo of yourself and family. Take a photo in the middle of summer with everyone wearing antlers if you plan ahead that far. Pick something you do, like a sport or a hobby and make that the focus of the photo. There’s no reason the photo(s) need to be seasonal or holiday photos. Make a cake and decorate it for Christmas, get everyone’s face around the cake and use that as a holiday photo. Take pictures of your family (or yourself) making paper snowflakes, snow angels outside or pulling the Christmas decorations out of storage. You don’t need "deer in the headlights" posed photos.

How to Write the Newsletter

If you tend to babble once you put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) read it over the next day, or the next week. Decide if you really want to tell EVERYONE that much about yourself, your plans and what you’ve been doing. Consider the person you least wnat to communicate with… do you really want them to have all that information?

If you can’t think of anything to say, recruit help. As your direct family (husband, kids, parents, siblings) what they have planned for Christmas and include that. Or, interview yourself. Write out a set of impersonal sort of questions and then answer them. Or, include more photos and less text, if you really can’t write about yourself. Add captions or some explanation to go with the photos. Let people know what they are seeing.

Three paragraphs of text should be plenty. Stick to one side of a full sheet of paper, add images and illustrations. If you have kids they can decorate the back of the newsletter with their own drawings. But a newsletter doesn’t need to be continued on the next page, one page with about 200 words is just fine. You may add personal notes to individuals if you have the time and interest. Just make sure you get those sent in the right envelopes.

How to Mail the Newsletter

Sending the newsletter via email is the fact that it’s impersonal and defeats the purpose of connecting with people and making them feel valued and important. There is a very different feeling to having a real newsletter made with pictures glued to it, hand written (versus typed) and opening an email file to see what someone made with their computer. It lacks the personal touch. Email never has been great when it comes to sharing emotion, feeling and atmosphere.

Weight and packaging. If you plan to mail it out you can’t create a newsletter which won’t easily slip into the envelope or cost too much to mail out. Think light if you want to add extras. Also, don’t add anything which could poke a hole through the envelope. Light and flat.

Do you Have to Wait for Inspiration?

Can you write when you don’t feel inspired? Or do you stall, hoping something will come along?

We need to find our own inspiration or just start writing without it. If you are working on a long project it is a bit easier to pick things up and go ahead and write. It is harder when you have a project to plan and write from the beginning. You may need to stop looking for artistic inspiration and instead think of more practical inspiration.

Practical inspiration is simple to find. We need to write to pay bills. We need to write to finish a project by the deadline. Everyone has this kind of inspiration but we sometimes take it for granted and don’t think it is the kind of inspiration a writer should put first. This is a silly attitude.

Let your own practical inspiration take over when you lack something fancier and artistic. Take a few minutes to get into your writing routine and then plug yourself in there and get to work. In the end, writers are those who write.

What’s Missing from this Blog Post?

whatsmissing

This is the header and details from a blog post I was reading today (October 4th, 2013). I created a screen capture of the title and details of the post, below you can see a partial image which was included with the post.

So… can you find something important missing from this post?

Read and look carefully.

Did you notice the information in the headline about an asteroid hitting the Earth in 24 hours? Well, the first thing I wanted to know is when that 24 hours will be up. I read the post. Well, I skimmed it. I didn’t find a mention of a date for the asteroid to hit the Earth. My first thought is to check the date on the post itself. After all, the post would have been written when we still had 24 hours to pack or hide, or something. Right?

Well, there’s the problem… this post has no date. It is an undated entry in the blog. This site does not date it’s blog posts.

I think this is a big mistake. Not just for the obvious reason above. But, I like to know if I’m reading an active blog. I like to see how often they post or how fresh the posts are. I also like to know how dated the information is. For instance, if you post a collection of links for WordPress plugins, I want to know that the list is fresh and the links still relevant. I also want to know if this post has been updated with new information. (Have you ever added an update to a post? You could leave a note for your readers, tell them it’s an addendum. There’s a fancy word for you).

Anyway, I’ve written about the importance of using dates with blog post before so I won’t rehash the whole idea. However, next time you type in something about 24 hours, make sure you give your reader the full timeline, and the due date.

How to Write a Good Newsletter

We used to make zines with typed and photocopied pages. Those were the old days, before desktop publishing, computers and the whole concept of publishing on the Internet. Now, people are creating email newsletters to promote their online services and businesses. In between are the old, real newsletters which can still be created, written, planned, published and distributed to make money in the real (offline) world.

Consider making money with a real newsletter, in real print (not on the Internet).

Consider how many online newsletters you have actually read lately compared to the actual print newsletter which you pick up while you are out somewhere and likely read during some of your offline down time. I read the same print newsletter every month. It’s distributed through the family restaurant where I like to have a leisurely breakfast out a few times a month. I watch for the latest newsletter there. It’s sponsored by local businesses (it makes money by publishing their ads) and the content is light and simple. If the same content were on a website I would pass it by. But, when I’m just sitting there, enjoying a slow pace, that newsletter gets read and I enjoy it.

The print newsletter is not dead, it’s just a little rusty, dusty and over looked.

Make money writing a print newsletter you can distribute in your local community. Once you have a basic product (the newsletter) get paid advertising to make money from it all.

Open Source (Free) Graphics Editors

Desktop Publishing Software

The Business Plan

Start by looking at what sort of newsletter already exists in your area. You can get ideas from them and decide how you will compete with them. What could you bring that would get new readers, bring new information and attract local businesses to advertise in your newsletter?

Talk to local businesses and see who would be interested in in advertising and what kind of money they would consider fair and reasonable. It would be a good plan to approach them with a mock up of your print newsletter and a distribution plan. This way you will be ready to answer (at least some of) their questions.

Printing and Distributing the Newsletter

You need to find a local printer. Try offering free ad space in exchange for a discount on the cost of printing the newsletter. But, don’t choose a printer based on price alone. You want someone who can print the newsletter on time, without printing errors. One thing you can do is ask about left over paper stock from other jobs they have printed. You could get a bargain on paper someone else ordered and then didn’t use.

Printers can fold and/ or staple newsletters for you but that is an extra cost. Consider doing your own folding – at least until you are making money and can afford to spend on a few nice extras.

Is your newsletter being distributed in store fronts or mailed out? Options for distribution need to be considered based on cost, effectiveness and how well you can track the issues you put out versus how many were read by people. You need to know this for your advertisers. They want to know their ads are being seen.

Passive distribution means you leave your newsletter in public areas where people will pick it up. Active distribution means you have to know who you are sending your newsletter to, you will need to create and build up a mailing list of subscribers. If you use active distribution you can also consider having paying subscribers versus free subscriptions. People might pay for a subscription to a print newsletter if the content were valuable to them in particular. A general sort of newsletter isn’t likely to find a lot of people interested in paid subscriptions.

Read More

How to Write a Christmas Newsletter

How to Write a Babysitting Resume

How to Start your own Babysitting Business and Write a Babysitting Resume

Babysitting is a good way to make some extra money and help out a family in your community too. Babysitters can be young people or anyone with some experience who has time in the evening, on weekends and so on.

You don’t need to be a big brother or sister to get some experience as a babysitter. Ask at the school and local library, those are places where you can volunteer and pick up experience helping with children. You can spend an hour reading to younger children at school or library or any other place you find out about yourself.

It will help if you have some first aid training but it is also good to mention you do have adult back up if you run into a problem (if you aren’t already an adult yourself).

Start the resume with an introduction to yourself. Give your name, age, address, how long you have lived in the area and who your references are. These would not be part of a standard resume but this is not standard. You are applying to look after someone’s children so you put the first concerns they would have at the top of your resume. A young person could mention the school they are attending and a sentence about future plans. (If you turn out to be a good babysitter they will like to know how long you are going to be available in the area, or whether you will be moving on to university in the next year). Don’t forget contact information: phone number and email address.

List your qualifications.  Do you have first aid training, have you taken lifeguard training at the local pool, did you take a babysitting course, do you have younger brothers and sisters you have taken care of, have you looked after babies (infants or toddlers), have you been babysitting for other families, are you in any groups like Brownies or Girl Guides, have you volunteered for community events and projects where you may have helped set things up or done the clean up. Take a little time to think about things you have done. Even working within the community at events is a good thing, whether or not there were children involved.

List work experience, if you have it. This is also good because parents will need to know your schedule, when you are available. If you have had a regular schedule for a job in the past (or currently) you can show your reliability.

List your special skills or limitations. What ages of children can you look after? If you have experience with infants, say so. If you can’t babysit past midnight, let people know on your resume. Are you allergic to animals, then you won’t be too eager to babysit at a house with a lot of dogs, cats, birds, etc. If you can cook, then you could mention being able to make dinner and clean up afterwards. Can you help children with their homework? Do you have something fun you like to do with the kids in between dinner and bedtime? Are you able to transport children (if needed), on the bus, or in your own vehicle with child seats?

What do you need when you babysit? You may want to do homework once the kids are put to bed, so you need a place to work. You could also mention pets here, especially if you have allergies or asthma or are just uncomfortable with pets or exotic pets like a rat. If there food for making a snack for the children or yourself later in the evening? Will you need a ride home at the end of the job? How much advance notice do you need?

What are your babysitting rates? Include any extra you charge for later evenings, holidays, etc.

End the resume with a summary. Sum up the best assets you have written about above and give your contact information again.

How to Achieve Word Impact

How to Achieve Word Impact

(Another post among many which Suite101 has deleted from their content. I had linked to this on Creative Writing Inspiration and decided to save it on my own site when I found it among the carnage).

Nov 22, 2011  Karen Newcomb

Three word power secrets that add impact in communication
Writing too often simply sits on the printed page and does nothing. This is because there is a tremendous difference between the potential impact words have and the actual impact they create in a piece of writing.

How many times have you received something written from another person which you had trouble understanding and which you finally stopped reading because you just lost interest? In addition, how many times have you written a letter expecting immediate action and received almost no response. The fact is that written communication often falls flat. This applies to articles, books, query letters, right down to memos in an office. Think about how advertisers use this formula to grab your attention.

The basic word power formula consists of three things:

Keep it simple
Get your reader’s attention
Talk directly to your reader
Keep It Simple

This is a basic rule that should be applied at all times. One of the main problems is that people often use too many words to say what they’re trying to say, and the writing itself is too complicated.

You can greatly improve your writing if you look at everything you write and ask: Is this the simplest way I can say it and still include everything I want to say? If it isn’t, rewrite it.

Here are some examples of complicated sentences and how they can be made simple.

 

Complicated

We would be very happy if after thinking it over you would reply.

Simple

Please reply.

Complicated

I got the right address when my first letter was returned with another address which I see is correct.

Simple

I got the right address from the envelope when my first letter was returned.

Complicated

Your suggestions will indeed be discussed during the next Publications Committee meeting.

Simple

We will discuss your suggestions at the next Publications committee meeting.

Get Your Reader’s Attention

Much writing simply starts without giving the reader any reason to read on. As a result, the first couple of sentences get read then the writing is put down. You should always do something at the beginning of each piece of writing to attract attention. In the beginning, you can improve your writing tremendously if you remember that reader will always read on if you offer him some future promise. How? By changing the sentence around so the reader feels you are offering him something he can use.

Here are a couple of examples:

Poor Beginning

This summer at King Memorial Library we had a Creative Writer’s Workshop.

Attention Getting Beginning

Let me tell you about the Creative Writer’s Workshop we had at King Memorial Library.

Poor Beginning

Paris is lovely in the spring.

Attention Getting Beginning

I’d like to share Paris in the spring with you.

Poor Beginning

The high school carnival was a success and we got marvelous response in our call for donations and help for the Country Store…and a lot of people helped in phoning and in putting in a lot of long hours…thanks a lot.

Attention Getting Beginning

Thank you very much for helping to make our school carnival a tremendous success. This was due to…

Talk Directly to Your Reader
Of course not every type of writing will allow you to talk directly to your reader, but where you can, you’ll increase your written effectiveness 100 percent. In fiction writing you talk directly to your reader through viewpoint, in non-fiction and article writing you simply insert the word “you.”

Some examples:

Indirect

Special thanks to those people who helped us.

Talking to Your Reader

A special thank you for helping us.

Indirect

Those who use this method will find out how to lose five pounds easily.

Talking to Your Reader

Using this method you can easily lose five pounds.

Indirect

There are probably many people who would like girls chasing them.

Talking to Your Reader

Would you like girls chasing you?

There are many types of writing in which you can’t talk to your reader. But when you can it will improve both the communication and response many times.

Copyright Karen Newcomb. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Read more at Suite101: How to Achieve Word Impact | Suite101.com http://web.archive.org/web/20120128063313/http://karen-newcomb.suite101.com/how-to-achieve-word-impact-a397272#ixzz2JoRrCICP

What Can Writers Offer as a Live Performance?

There are few options for writers, artists and musicians when it comes to protecting your work in the days of the computer and Internet. It seems there is not much to be done once you fire off the initial legal mouth piece paperwork. Then sit back and wish you could hire someone to really do something.

All that work and in the end it can’t pay the bills, created for art, not money.

I was thinking about that this afternoon. I came to the conclusion that musicians have the best chance at still making money from their art. Musicians have live performances which they can sell tickets to and collect a profit. They can use the event to sell music too. Not to mention the gadgets and accessories like T-shirts which they make something on from the work of others.

What can writers and artists do as a live performance? I can’t think of anything really useful or reliable as a way to make money from your art in the modern world. Yes, writers can read their poetry or fiction and hope to sell a few books. Live readings don’t make the money a live music performance can, no T-shirts either.

I’ve seen artists as street painters – temporary work which people watch and may chip in a dollar or other spare change while they stand around and watch the artist at work. No rent money on that plan.

So, what can writers and artists offer as a live performance with the plan of making money from their work without the problem of having their work ripped off and sold by someone else?