Writing for an Academic Journal: 10 Tips

 

1) Have a strategy, make a plan

Why do you want to write for a journal? What is your purpose? Are you writing for research assessment? Or to make a difference? Are you writing to have an impact factor or to have an impact? Do you want to develop a profile in a specific area? Will this determine which journals you write for? Have you taken their impact factors into account?

Have you researched other researchers in your field – where have they published recently? Which group or conversation can you see yourself joining? Some people write the paper first and then look for a 'home' for it, but since everything in your article – content, focus, structure, style – will be shaped for a specific journal, save yourself time by deciding on your target journal and work out how to write in a way that suits that journal.

Having a writing strategy means making sure you have both external drivers – such as scoring points in research assessment or climbing the promotion ladder – and internal drivers – which means working out why writing for academic journals matters to you. This will help you maintain the motivation you'll need to write and publish over the long term. Since the time between submission and publication can be up to two years (though in some fields it's much less) you need to be clear about your motivation.

2) Analyse writing in journals in your field

Take a couple of journals in your field that you will target now or soon. Scan all the abstracts over the past few issues. Analyse them: look closely at all first and last sentences. The first sentence (usually) gives the rationale for the research, and the last asserts a 'contribution to knowledge'. But the word 'contribution' may not be there – it's associated with the doctorate. So which words are used? What constitutes new knowledge in this journal at this time? How can you construct a similar form of contribution from the work you did? What two sentences will you write to start and end your abstract for that journal?

Scan other sections of the articles: how are they structured? What are the components of the argument? Highlight all the topic sentences – the first sentences of every paragraph – to show the stages in the argument. Can you see an emerging taxonomy of writing genres in this journal? Can you define the different types of paper, different structures and decide which one will work best in your paper? Select two types of paper: one that's the type of paper you can use as a model for yours, and one that you can cite in your paper, thereby joining the research conversation that is ongoing in that journal.

3) Do an outline and just write

Which type of writer are you: do you always do an outline before you write, or do you just dive in and start writing? Or do you do a bit of both? Both outlining and just writing are useful, and it is therefore a good idea to use both. However, make your outline very detailed: outline the main sections and calibrate these with your target journal.

What types of headings are normally used there? How long are the sections usually? Set word limits for your sections, sub-sections and, if need be, for sub-sub-sections. This involves deciding about content that you want to include, so it may take time, and feedback would help at this stage.

When you sit down to write, what exactly are you doing:using writing to develop your ideas or writing to document your work? Are you using your outline as an agenda for writing sections of your article? Define your writing task by thinking about verbs – they define purpose: to summarise, overview, critique, define, introduce, conclude etc.

4) Get feedback from start to finish

Even at the earliest stages, discuss your idea for a paper with four or five people, get feedback on your draft abstract. It will only take them a couple of minutes to read it and respond. Do multiple revisions before you submit your article to the journal.

5) Set specific writing goals and sub-goals

Making your writing goals specific means defining the content, verb and word length for the section. This means not having a writing goal like, 'I plan to have this article written by the end of the year' but 'My next writing goal is to summarise and critique twelve articles for the literature review section in 800 words on Tuesday between 9am and 10.30'. Some people see this as too mechanical for academic writing, but it is a way of forcing yourself to make decisions about content, sequence and proportion for your article.

6) Write with others

While most people see writing as a solitary activity, communal writing – writing with others who are writing – can help to develop confidence, fluency and focus. It can help you develop the discipline of regular writing. Doing your academic writing in groups or at writing retreats are ways of working on your own writing, but – if you unplug from email, internet and all other devices – also developing the concentration needed for regular, high-level academic writing.

At some point – ideally at regular intervals – you can get a lot more done if you just focus on writing. If this seems like common sense, it isn't common practice. Most people do several things at once, but this won't always work for regular journal article writing. At some point, it pays to privilege writing over all other tasks, for a defined period, such as 90 minutes, which is long enough to get something done on your paper, but not so long that it's impossible to find the time.

7) Do a warm up before you write

While you are deciding what you want to write about, an initial warm up that works is to write for five minutes, in sentences, in answer to the question: 'What writing for publication have you done [or the closest thing to it], and what do you want to do in the long, medium and short term?'

Once you have started writing your article, use a variation on this question as a warm up – what writing for this project have you done, and what do you want to do in the long, medium and short term? Top tip: end each session of writing with a 'writing instruction' for yourself to use in your next session, for example, 'on Monday from 9 to 10am, I will draft the conclusion section in 500 words'.

As discussed, if there are no numbers, there are no goals. Goals that work need to be specific, and you need to monitor the extent to which you achieve them. This is how you learn to set realistic targets.

8) Analyse reviewers' feedback on your submission

What exactly are they asking you to do? Work out whether they want you to add or cut something. How much? Where? Write out a list of revision actions. When you resubmit your article include this in your report to the journal, specifying how you have responded to the reviewers' feedback. If your article was rejected, it is still useful to analyse feedback, work out why and revise it for somewhere else.

Most feedback will help you improve your paper and, perhaps, your journal article writing, but sometimes it may seem overheated, personalised or even vindictive. Some of it may even seem unprofessional. Discuss reviewers' feedback – see what others think of it. You may find that other people – even eminent researchers – still get rejections and negative reviews; any non-rejection is a cause for celebration. Revise and resubmit as soon as you can.

9) Be persistent, thick-skinned and resilient

These are qualities that you may develop over time – or you may already have them. It may be easier to develop them in discussion with others who are writing for journals.

10) Take care of yourself

Writing for academic journals is highly competitive. It can be extremely stressful. Even making time to write can be stressful. And there are health risks in sitting for long periods, so try not to sit writing for more than an hour at a time. Finally, be sure to celebrate thoroughly when your article is accepted. Remind yourself that writing for academic journals is what you want to do – that your writing will make a difference in some way.

Culled from The Guardian

Steps to Writing a Great Progress Report

 

Business Dictionary defines a progress report as “An assessment that takes place during a project or process, that conveys details such as what sub-goals have been accomplished, what resources have been expended, what problems have been encountered, and whether the project or process is expected to be completed on time and within budget”.

When writing a progress report, certain elements are very important. Let’s take a look at them:

The Heading: Like other forms of writing, a progress report offers a title, date, names of both writer and recipient, and their positions. This should be well-written in the right positions.

The Introduction: Basically, this first part of the report should contain the purpose of writing, the timeline, the scope, the sponsor(s), etc.

The List of Completed Projects: It is important you list those projects you and your team havedone in the past showing the date, project name and duration in a tabular form for easy analysis.

Problems Encountered:Even with the best planned projects, challenges are commonplace; hence, these must find a good mention in the report. The writer of the progress report must state what was done to overcome those challenges, and recommend possible actions, if any, or offer advice on sources of assistance in future endeavours.

State Any Future Tasks: Since this deals with a project, it is not sufficient tostop at what has been done without mentioning what plansare there to be executed in the continuation of such project in the future. This, of course, must entail the date, duration, stages,personnel, sponsor(s), project supervisor(s),location, etc.

Summarize the Report: Briefly state achievements recorded, challenges faced, recommendations offered andother outlined tasks in the project continuation. This section should contain information about every stage or sub-section in the report but in short and clear notes.

Note:

Project report writing is an official document prepared in succession and which offers a guide to management decision making, therefore, each stage is represented by a report topic identifying the particular work done, present stage reached, etc. Project report may take the form of memo, verbal account, business letter, email, etc.

6 Ways to Make Writing Easier (And More Fun)

 

Do you enjoy writing – or dread it?

I write for a living, and I also coach writers and would-be writers, so I know just how tough it can be to get up the motivation and the courage to write.

But in almost every job, you’re going to have to do some writing. You might also want to write for personal reasons: perhaps you’d like to write your memoir for your grandchildren, or you’re keen to write fiction or a blog.

How can you make writing seem less terrifying – and more fun?

#1: Write About What’s On Your Mind

This is something which I still do from time to time, even though writing’s usually pretty effortless for me – and I know a lot of other people find it useful too.

Write for ten minutes without stopping (set a timer) about any topic you like. You could write about your day, your worries, your workload … anything. You don’t even need to write in whole sentences. The idea is just to get the words flowing: get used to typing onto a blank page and filling it with your thoughts.

No one will ever see these getting-going pieces that you write. You can delete them if you like, or you can save them so you can look back at them in future.

#2: Try a Writing Challenge

Writing can seem like a big, serious thing to do. It doesn’t need to be that way at all – in fact, writing is an act of creativity and it can be a lot of fun.

If you’re looking for a way into writing, try out a writing challenge which gives you a prompt of some sort. You could give Creative Copy Challenge a go – the idea is to create a short, coherent piece by using all the words supplied, and you can make it as crazy as you want!

#3: Come Up With Ideas Separately

One of the biggest struggles that I hear from the writers I coach is getting started. Often, they end up staring at a blank page for ages, because they’re not sure what to write about. I know just how daunting this can be … but thankfully, it’s also pretty easy to fix.

Instead of sitting down and trying to come up with something to write about, make sure you’ve already got a stock of ideas. You can jot these in a notebook whenever you think of them, or even set aside time to deliberately come up with a list of ideas to write about – challenge yourself to get to 50, and don’t worry whether they’re “good” or “bad”.

#4: Write an Outline First

Even if you’ve got an idea, it can be really tough to write the first few words (and I often advise struggling writers to work on their introduction last). Instead of trying to fill a blank page from top to bottom, write an outline first. It doesn’t need to be in depth – it just needs to give you a framework to hang your writing from.

Your outline might be as simple as:

• A few notes about what needs to happen in this scene of your novel
• Five bullet points which you want to cover in an email to your boss
• Several subheadings for your latest blog post

I like to write my outline into the document which I’m using for the piece itself: that way, the screen’s no longer looking so scary and blank!

#5: Don’t Worry About Your First Draft

When you’re writing, you’ll find that your words rarely come out perfectly the first time. This isn’t because you’re a bad writer – even experienced professionals often go through many drafts. The whole point of a first draft is to get your ideas down onto the page, however imperfectly, so that you’ve got something to work with for the second draft.

No-one ever needs to see your first draft, so don’t censor yourself while you’re writing it. If you find yourself thinking this sentence is convoluted or that’s such a cliché or that’s not quite the word I want, just carry on. You can fix it in the next version.

#6: Experiment With Different Styles

Finally, don’t be afraid to try something new. It often takes a while for newer writers to find their voice (it took me years), so don’t get stuck in writing in just one way.

Trying out different styles could mean:

• Writing something very casual and conversational – this works particularly well for blogging, but could also be great for a first-person novel or even a poem
• Write in a journalistic way – concise and factual
• Write something with lots of grand imagery and metaphor
• Bring more humor to your writing
• Try creating a piece in a similar style to a writer with a distinctive voice

You might later decide that this really isn’t your style, but it’s a great exercise for your writing muscles to try it out.

Culled from Pick The Brain

How Poetry Can Improve your Copywriting Ability

 

Advertising copywriters are often told that they need to get to grips with poetry. After all, the ability to express complex images and emotions in just a few lines is what makes a copywriter great.

Actually, poetry can help writers of all breeds, be they novelists or nonfiction writers, to improve their craft. The ability to play music to the reader through words or conjure some unforgettable images is something all writers aspire to achieve.

Read lots of poems

Of course, the best place to start improving your writing craft is by reading poems, and lots of them. Poetry has the advantage of being short, which allows you to experiment with many different styles. Try to read a few and see what kind of feelings and images they inspire in you. If they leave an imprint on you, ask yourself why, what was it about this poem that affected you so?

For a start, try reading “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Diameter of the Bomb” by Yehuda Amichai, and “Hope is the Thing of Feathers” by Emily Dickinson.

Learn to stimulate the senses

The poet paints pictures with words, but that picture is not limited to images; the poet should stimulate our sense of sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste just as a picture can do. The poet becomes a kind of camera that produces striking, fresh images that remain fixed in the mind’s eye. This line, for example, offers a strong image: “Sunlight varnishes oak trees crimson.”

Try to play around with images in your own writing, or practice writing a poem or two. See what kind of images you can conjure, and try to understand why imagery works well at stimulating the senses.

Learn to use concrete words

Poetry also teaches us that it’s better to use a concrete word in place of an abstract one. An example of a concrete word is “warm.” It’s concrete because you can experience warmth with your senses—it’s a real thing. An abstract term might be “freedom” or “happiness” because you can’t see or touch them.

Using abstract words in poetry bypasses the reader’s senses, meaning they don’t experience your idea to the fullest. For example: “she feels happy,” isn’t as powerful as “her tomato cheeks radiated warmth.” The image of a tomato, strange as it may seem, will last longer in the reader’s memory because it’s concrete.

Learn to convert clichés

Any writing style that relies on clichés loses its impact. Overused phrases are a bit like stale bread—no one wants to eat it. He may be blind as a bat, or busy as a bee, but these clichés are tattered and worn and have lost all their power.

Instead, you can convert your clichés. For example, try listing all the words you associate with being busy and create a new phrase. For example: “Busy as an old lady knitting.” Finding original phrases will inspire your writing with new life.

Learn to subvert the ordinary

The strength of poetry lies in the poet’s ability to see ordinary objects, places, or ideas in a completely new way. You might see a young child standing in line with his mother, but a poet will imagine the boy painting the walls with nail polish and the mother struggling not to be angry. Just try looking at something ordinary and attempt to see it in a completely new way, and your writing will love you for it.

Learn to think about themes

Poets love themes, and your own writing should include them too. Yet many novice writers find it hard to get to grips with themes. A theme isn’t just an idea. You can’t say that your book covers the theme of war because that’s a topic, not a theme. You can define themes as an idea with an opinion attached. Thus, your theme might be: “even though we claim to be peace-loving people, war is a natural aspect of the human race.” This is the poet’s opinion.

Of course, there’s far more to poetry than this. The best advice is to read a poem at least once a day and internalize the images, the rhythm, and feelings. Study things like metaphor, simile, and other literary devices employed by poets. Once you’ve got to grips with poetry, your writing craft is sure to have improved.

Culled from iuniverse.com

7 Ways Twitter Can Improve Your Writing Skill

 

Imagine a place where you could easily improve your writing by publishing 30, 40 or 50 blog posts a day.

In this place, you’d automatically receive individual feedback for each blog post on whether it touched base with your readers.

You’d be sure that every one of your blog posts would be read, and some of them would be widely shared.

Each blog post you write in this place improves your writing.

Such a place exists and, chances are, you already hang out there.

Twitter launched in 2006, at the dawn of the golden age of blogging. Nowadays, it’s known as a social network, but back then Twitter was a microblogging service. Twitter made sense to bloggers because, in simple terms, it was a blogging platform where blog posts had to be squeezed into 140 characters.

Twitter is a blogging platform and a place to improve your writing skills.

As a writer, here are seven things you can use Twitter for according to writetodone.

1. Practice your writing.

Twitter is a writer’s sandbox. You can be creative, try out new things, see what works and what doesn’t. Because each update is so tiny and transient, your mistakes are quickly forgotten. But when you do something that resonates with your readers, it can reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of minutes.

Some writers use Twitter to share micro poems. (Check out these 100 little Twitter poems, or search Twitter for the #sixwords hashtag). Others use it to tell stories from their day or promote their work.

2. Network with other writers

Twitter is known as a social network because it’s fantastic for networking. You can use it to talk directly with all kinds of writers from established old-school writers to successful self-published writers to superstar bloggers.

Perhaps most important of all are the thousands of all-around friendly writers and editors who are still on the journey and are happy to chat, ask for feedback on their writing, and give feedback on yours.

As you network with other writers, you’ll discover writing tips, new writing challenges, and writing communities where you’ll feel right at home.

3. Keep your writing concise

“Eliminate the non-essential” is Write to Done’s advice on keeping your writing concise.

Twitter gives you only 140 characters to play with, so it squeezes the excess pith from your words, leaving only the nourishing juice. You’re forced to write concisely, to discard the ore and share only the gold.

4. Track your results

I know many writers prefer the romance of poetry and stories to the hard, concrete facts of numbers and raw data.

Yet to succeed as a professional writer, you must take a keen interest in numbers. How many dollars you’re earning. How many books you’ve sold. How many readers are subscribed to your blog?

Twitter allows you to track the success of your writing in hard numbers. You can see whether your follower count is growing, whether your tweets are being shared, and (using simple web apps such as Buffer) whether people are clicking the links you share.

If your follower count is flat-lining and your links aren’t being clicked, that’s useful feedback, and you can start to do things differently.

5. Find out what your readers want

One way of attracting more readers is knowing what your readers want. The simplest way to do this is to ask them, and Twitter provides the perfect platform to fire out questions to your readers.

Also, take note which tweets are most popular with your followers – either through retweets, replies, or clicking the link you shared. When readers share or reply to your tweets, they’re saying “More like this, please”.

6. Learn what entices

In the web age, writing is copywriting. And copywriting means attracting attention.

Twitter, with its built-in systems for tracking results, is ideal for learning what gets attention and what gets ignored. In particular, you can use Twitter to practice writing headlines that get the most clicks. The better you are at writing neck-snapping headlines, the more readers you’ll attract to your blog posts, ebooks, and articles.

7. Improve your writing with creative inspiration and ideas

Twitter is a playground of ideas. Everywhere you look, you’ll find ideas for stories to tell, research to pursue, and people you could interview for your next article.

Whenever you feel stuck for writing ideas, turn to Twitter. In just a few minutes you’ll find an idea or story angle that excites you and you want to pursue.

So what are you waiting for? If you’ve yet to sign up to Twitter, or you’ve allowed your Twitter account to fade away into zombie status, get started today!

How to Write Better: 7 Straightforward Techniques to Try Today

Whatever you write, you want to get your thoughts across as clearly and effectively as possible.

If you’re a novelist, you don’t want awkward word choices or repetitive sentence structures to distract your readers from the story.

If you’re a freelancer, you don’t want your work to seem sloppy or poorly edited.

If you’re a blogger, you don’t want readers to switch off because you’re far too wordy.

Want the good news? Even if your writing isn’t as strong as you’d like, there are plenty of straightforward techniques you can use to improve it.

1. Cut unnecessary words

Here are two paragraphs that say the same thing. Which one is stronger?

In my opinion, the majority of freelancers should probably avoid working for free (or for a nominal sum) unless they are at a very early stage of their career and as yet have no pieces for their portfolio at all.

Freelancers shouldn’t work for free unless they’re just starting out and don’t have any pieces for their portfolio.

The second clearly states a stronger case.

If you’re writing a blog post, most readers will assume that it gives your opinion. You can be clear, firm and direct.

2. Avoid well-worn phrases

Some phrases are so familiar that they’ve lost their impact: they’ve become clichés.

For instance:

• At the end of the day…

• Like stealing candy from a baby…

• For all intents and purposes… (sometimes miswritten as “for all intensive purposes”!)

• Let the cat out of the bag…

 

When you edit, you don’t need to cut every cliché…but do check whether a rephrasing might work better.

In dialogue, or in a first-person narrative, clichés can be a helpful way of characterizing someone’s speech or thought patterns — but do make sure you’re being careful and deliberate.

3. Write directly to “you” (in nonfiction)

Although this isn’t appropriate for every form of nonfiction, bloggers and freelancers often write directly to the reader as “you”.

This is a great way to make your writing direct, conversational and stronger.

Blog posts and articles quite often use “you” or “your” very early on, in the title and/or introduction.

You generally have two options: You can seek employment as a staff member of a publication, or look for freelance writing opportunities.

Unless you prefer your friends to be story nerds or those who lean toward obsessive-compulsive tendencies when it comes to grammar, you shouldn’t necessarily seek to befriend your editor.

(Emphasis mine.)

As in these examples, use the singular “you” and avoid phrases like “some of you may know”. Yes, you (hopefully!) have more than one reader, but each reader experiences your piece individually.

You can also use “I” where appropriate (e.g. to give an example from your own life) – though usually it’s best to keep the focus of your piece on the reader.

 

4. Vary sentence structures

What’s wrong with this paragraph?

You should write regularly (not necessarily daily). You should aim to write at least once or twice a week (I recommend a total of 3 – 4 hours per week). You may find it difficult to keep this up at first (especially if you’ve not written much before).

The advice in it is perfectly reasonable. There’s nothing hideously wrong with the actual words used. But the three sentences are very similarly structured: each one starts with “You” then a modal verb (“should” / “may”), and each one ends with a phrase in parentheses.

When you have several sentences in a row that follow the same pattern, they stand out…in a bad way.

Sometimes, it’s appropriate to structure your sentences like this — e.g. in a bullet-pointed list — but in regular paragraphs, it’s often unintentional on the author’s part, and it seems artless and poorly edited to the reader.

 

5. Use subheadings as signposts

If you’re writing blog posts, articles or sales copy, subheadings are crucial.

They break up long pieces and help readers stay focused; they also offer “signposts” to readers who may be skimming for specific information.

When you craft your subheadings, think about:

• Making them clear and direct (just like titles / headings) — don’t try to get clever!

• Keeping them short — subheadings have a larger font than regular text, and don’t generally look good when they wrap around the end of a line.

• Being consistent with the structure — for instance, each subheading might start with an imperative verb (as in this post).

 

6. Use direct, straightforward language

It’s very rare you’ll want to write something deliberately indirect! Instead, you’ll want your words to come across clearly and strongly to the reader.

This may mean avoiding the passive voice – advice that you’ve probably heard before! In case you need a recap:

Active voice: John threw the ball. — succinct and clear

Passive voice: The ball was thrown by John. — wordier and less direct

The passive voice allows the agent (the person performing the action) to be omitted from the sentence altogether:

The ball was thrown.

This can be useful; for instance, you might be writing about something where the agent is unimportant, or where you want to conceal the agent. (“Mistakes were made” is a classic example here.)

In general, though, you should write in a direct, straightforward way.

Make it as easy as possible for readers to engage with your ideas or your story.

 

7. Read aloud (or edit on paper)

No one’s first draft is perfect, and the above six suggestions should help you rework yours.

Often, it helps to go through your piece slowly and methodically — many writers find that reading aloud helps, as this highlights the cadence of your words.

If you prefer not to read aloud (or if your colleagues, family or cat would give you funny looks if you tried it), then print out your draft so you can edit on paper.

Using a different format makes it easier to spot typos and repetitive phrasings.

At times when printing isn’t practical, I’ve also found it helpful to convert my draft digitally: that might mean turning a Word document into a .pdf, putting a novel manuscript onto my Kindle or previewing a blog post so I can get closer to the reader’s experience.

Confident, powerful writing will help your message (or your story) have its full impact on your reader.

What will you do this week to strengthen your next piece?

Ali Luke blogs about the art, craft and business of writing at Aliventures (when her 3-year-old isn’t demanding to “write on mummy’s laptop”). Her in-depth post, Your Two-Year Plan for Writing, Editing and Publishing Your Novel (However Busy You Are), explains how to get a novel completed even if you can only spare 30 minutes a day.

 

How to Write for Children

 

Writing for children is quite different from other styles of writing. Some people might even argue it is harder to write for children than it is to write for adults. Writers tend to put themselves in the minds of their readers, but how do you put yourself in the mind of a child? It is possible but can be quite an uphill task.

Here are some tips on how to write for children:

1. Do not be limited: If you are given a project to write stories for children, you will probably need to do some research on what kids like now. So if kids are into video games, you will probably write about that. But this is a very wrong approach. You need to realize that kids are still learning every day and they are easily drawn to new things and interests. Do not be limited. Write about new stuff and you will grab their interest.
2. Don’t treat them like babies: Yes, you can write about deaths and tragedies. There are limits, but children are tougher than you think. As for the vocabulary, do not overthink it as they can easily understand new words from the context. If they don’t, remember they are learning and can easily search for the meaning. Having a glossary at the end will help as well.
3. Do not sound like you belong: You might be tempted to input things they are familiar with, especially pop culture references. Unless this reference is essential to your story, this will simply sound desperate and will make you look out of touch even more. It gets worse when this reference gets outdated. So do not try to act like you understand what kids like just to keep their interests.
4. Help the kids break free: Kids live in a world limited by the knowledge and rules of grownups. Use your character to create worlds of endless possibilities for them. Let your characters cross boundaries, have adventures, learn new things, and build their self-confidence and sense of independence.
5. Be relatable: While you have your protagonist crossing boundaries, they should not be perfect. They should make mistakes children make so that readers can relate. They should make a mess they have to fix and this would help the kids relate to them more and be inspired.
6. Read More Children’s Books: You need to read what others are writing for you to have a grasp of a flexible and ever-changing age group. Do not be afraid you might not sound original because the more you read other works, the more you find your own distinct voice.

 

Finally, you can always contact The Ready Writers Consult as content creation is our forte. We have a record of amazing ghostwriting services including content for children.

 

Samuel Ejedegba

9 Tips For Writing Your Autobiography

 

Writing your autobiography can be a great way to tell your life story and provide a keepsake for friends and family. And you don’t need to be a famous person or a professional writer to do it. Read on to find out how to compose an autobiography that’s both informative and interesting…

You don’t have to be famous to write your own autobiography. Some people create a memoir simply because they enjoy writing, while others want to preserve their life story for future generations. They may not intend it to be read by anyone other than their own family.

Unfortunately, many of those who want to document their life shy away from the project, fearing that composing an autobiography is too difficult for the average person. In reality, anyone can write a memoir suitable for an audience of family members and close friends.

If you’re afraid your life hasn’t been “big enough” to merit an autobiography, don’t worry. Your family will want to know about your personal history and relationships with others. They’ll also be interested in how you felt about events you’ve lived through, and the lessons you learned along the way.

“Look for the times when your life changed the most, and when you changed the most,” recommends poet and memoirist Janice Erlbaum in The Autobiographer’s Handbook (Holt Paperbacks). “Those are the times of peak drama in your life.”

Whatever your motivation for writing your autobiography – and whatever kind you want to write – these tips can help get you started.

1. Get a feel for the work.
One of the best ways to learn how to write your life story is to read some of the great autobiographies that have been committed to print. For example, Benjamin Franklin, Katharine Hepburn, Maya Angelou, Nelson Mandela and Billy Graham all wrote excellent autobiographies that are still read today.

You can find examples of how to write an autobiography in the stories of sports figures, great religious leaders, government officials, doctors, railroad workers, singers and actors, along with ordinary people who found meaning in their lives. Choose a category or person that inspires you, and read several examples of how great life stories are shared with the public.

Reading different styles of writing can also help you get a better feel for how to write an autobiography that will best suit your own story.

2. Understand your intended audience.
The next step in the writing process is to determine who your readers will be. If you’re writing your life story to give to your grandchildren as a keepsake, your word choices and tone will be drastically different than if you’re writing for the general public.

Writing for family members requires less detail when describing familiar settings and people. Instead, provide your own memories and perspective on events, and try to include interesting facts and anecdotes that family members may not already know.

Those outside your group of friends and family will need a more complex word picture to grasp the settings and characters in your story. Think of how you would describe these people and events to a stranger: What would someone need to know in order to understand them?

3. Develop a core concept.
Many great autobiographies have a central idea that unifies the entire life story throughout the book. Persevering love, faith in the face of hardship, overcoming tough odds, going from rags to riches, or lessons learned over time are all inspiring themes.

What is key to the story of your life? Determining one main reoccurring theme will help weave continuity and interest throughout your autobiography.

4. Jump-start your memories.
Think about all the different periods in your life. You may recall long-forgotten events and people you haven’t seen in years, or discover new meaning in your memories as you string them together.

Looking through family photos and talking with parents, grandparents, your spouse and old friends can help you remember significant events that are rich with details and entertaining stories. Diaries, letters and even emails can help spur your recall.

Ask each family member to bring one favorite story from your life to the next family reunion. The person with the best story wins a prize, and all of the entries can be used as possible material for your autobiography.

Include all five senses in your writing whenever possible. Rich, detailed writing can bring your story alive for your readers. Think of how you will answer the following questions: Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

5. Organize your story.
Determine where your journey with the reader will begin. Will you start with your birth, or skip your childhood and begin with your first true love? Some writers choose to list their story chronologically from their childhood to the present day, while others opt to arrange their book according to themes or major events.

Whichever format you choose, having a written outline will help keep you organized.

Some writers benefit from making notes on index cards and organizing them in a recipe box. Others prefer compiling notes and ideas on a computer – they’re easy to search, and quite a few programs and apps are available to help you keep everything organized.

As with any kind of writing, it’s important to set a firm start date, as well as a weekly goal to help keep you on track. Set a specified daily word count, or decide to write one chapter per week. Determine a date when you’d like to have a first draft completed.

6. Keep your focus.
Find a quiet time to write every day – a time when you can get lost in your memories and let your thoughts flow from your fingertips. Some writers prefer early-morning hours, while other write better late at night. Find a time that fits your schedule and set a regular appointment to write your story.

It may be helpful to surround your work area with inspiring items such as family photos, inspirational quotes and your favorite music.

Staying focused on why you’re writing your autobiography may be difficult as time progresses. Write out a mission statement that describes the inspiration for writing your life story, and refer to it when you feel a drop in your motivation.

 

 

7. Keep it interesting.
After you have written out a particular scene or event, go back and read what you wrote aloud. Check for any awkward phrasing or sentences that are bogged down with too many details. Your story should move the reader smoothly from one scene to the next.

Cutting out unnecessary words and overly long sentences can help your writing flow without being interrupted.

You writing should be descriptive. The best way to do this is to “paint a mental picture” with your words. For example, simply stating that Uncle Joe smelled bad after being sprayed by a skunk is not as interesting as describing everyone’s reaction to Uncle Joe when he walked into the room.

8. Use writing tools.
If you find that you’re struggling, autobiography templates can help you get started. Available in books and online (including on some genealogy websites), these tools present you with a series of questions about your life. You simply answer them, and the templates arrange your answers into story form.

A good dictionary, thesaurus, and word processing program are also indispensable tools when writing an autobiography. But don’t use big or complicated words in an attempt to impress your readers – instead, choose language that best helps you tell your story.

9. Edit your work.
Editing and improving your work can be a difficult process, even for a professional writer. Consider having friends and family read a draft – their suggestions could help you finish your autobiography more easily. And they may find spelling and grammar mistakes that you’ve missed.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to make their suggested changes – as the author, you have the final say.

Before you consider the work finished, you may want to set it aside for a few weeks, then read it with fresh eyes. Does it say everything you want to say? Is it missing important events, or are there stories you still want to recount?

At the same time, don’t fall under the spell of perfectionism. Your autobiography doesn’t have to be the greatest book ever written for your friends and family to enjoy reading it. They want to know what really happened in your life!

Writing your autobiography can be an enlightening and enjoyable process. By following a structured plan and working to keep your focus and motivation, your life story may soon be a reality that will be treasured by your loved ones for generations to come.

 

Culled from Everyday Health

10 Recommended Books to Help You Become a Better Writer

The best way to become a better writer is to write consistently, but another effective way is to read. Thus, below are 10 recommended books you can read if you want to become a better writer.

1. Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin

2. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

3. The Creative Tarot by Jessica Crispin

4. Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant

5. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser

6. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

7. Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

8. About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews by Samuel R. Delany

9. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner

10. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

After reading all of these books, you can always visit a public library and get more similar books to read.

How to Stop Being Overwhelmed and Start Writing

Are you dreaming about writing a book but simply don’t know where to start?

Start with a plan! What message do you really want to pass across and what kind of people do you want to reach? Do you have in-depth knowledge of the subject that you want to address or do you need to carry out more research? These are questions you should ask yourself before you even start writing at all.

These bits of information will help you develop a framework that will help you plan your book. If you have ever wondered why many people never finish their books, one of the reasons is that they did not start with a plan. So they run out of ideas or simply don’t know how to proceed after the first few pages.

Now, as important as it is to have a plan, you also need to create systems and structures that will make your writing easier. First and foremost, you need to see your book not as an end in itself, but as part of a larger plan.No matter how successful your book is, it will not by itself provide the income and security you desire. Your plan should be to leverage off of a successful book, rather than retire on its earnings. Having created your plan, you need to devise an efficient way of executing the writing process.

Here are some tips on how to do that.

Approach your book like a jigsaw puzzle: Don’t try to write the book sequentially from the first to the last chapter. Many authors make this mistake of linear writing. Another mistake is trying to get away from everything and drop all activities so that you focus on writing your book. This is called marathon writing. Both methods are not usually effective for all practical purposes, and they usually come with lots of stress.

Instead of adopting linear writing or marathon writing, approach writing as you would approach a jigsaw puzzle. You will not always get the entire picture at once; it will usually come in bits and pieces; hence, you need to develop an effective strategy for harvesting your thoughts. It is also important that you develop a writing regime that will help you write consistently.

Have a writing calendar and follow it. Like Michael Hyatt would say, consistency is more important than frequency. It is better to write one hour every day than to write three hours today, two hours tomorrow and not write again for the next two weeks.

Develop a framework for each chapter: It is easier to write when all you have to do is fill in the elements in the framework rather than starting on a blank page. Don’t expect your first draft to be perfect; just get it done. After getting it done, you can rework and revise until you’re satisfied with the final output.

And mind you, you don’t really have to write. If writing is not your thing, simply speak your book and record it. Then get someone to transcribe it and hire an editor to finish it.

Editing will usually be your biggest expense and the stage you are most likely to skip. However, you must avoid the mistake of self-editing, poring over each word and worrying over finding the perfect words for each page. That’s the job of an editor.

Getting a good professional editor is worth the effort. Apart from giving you a better manuscript, you will learn new things yourself. See the cost of hiring an editor not only as an investment in writing your book but also as an investment in yourself as a writer.

Seven Books to Help You Build Your Vocabulary

 

If you live and work or study in an English-speaking country, chances are that you’ll find vocabulary building necessary at some point. Whether you’re in the sciences or engineering, whether you’re in sales or only deal with numbers, communication is a phenomenon that transcends all domains. Vocabulary is a key part of communication, and often shows a person’s level of experience and competence in your chosen language.

Just imagine having a big presentation where you have to pitch your idea to potential investors, or you are to speak to a group of people in school or at work. You have the confidence, but then you find it difficult to speak effectively because you can’t find the right words!

A rich vocabulary gives a person room to flow freely while communicating, whether to their peers, colleagues, business partners, employers or acquaintances. It gives you the confidence to put yourself out there and explore new opportunities or optimise new ones!

So, now that we’ve established the advantages of building your vocabulary, an organic way to improve your vocabulary is through reading good books. Therefore, let’s take a look at seven books that can help you in this. 

The Dictionary

This one should be pretty obvious, shouldn’t it? I mean, if we’re trying to build up our vocabulary, we should probably start with the book that contains entries for literally all words in English, right?

The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, is perhaps the world’s oldest and most authoritative English dictionary. It includes numerous varieties of words such as formal, slang, British, American, South American, South African, Nigerian, etc., with real-life sample sentences selected to help you understand the context in which each word is commonly used.

In case you’re thinking it’d be boring and tedious to browse the dictionary, think again. The Oxford Dictionary takes a riveting approach, supplying meanings of words as well as many fascinating ‘usage’ boxes that enlighten the reader on several areas such as frequency in real life usage, appropriateness relative to other words, collocation, native expressions, dos and don’ts, grammatical patterns, etc. It is very engaging and exciting to browse through.

In case you have a thing against Oxford, or it just doesn’t cut it for you, there are a lot of other dictionaries that pack the same kind of engaging content. You could weigh them up and find out which one is the best choice for you.

For better utilisation, you could get a note to record fascinating words, their pronunciations, meanings and usage.

The Harry Potter series

The Harry Potter books are a British series with over half a billion copies sold worldwide. But it’s not the fame or popularity that has caught our eye. It’s the fact that they can help you build your vocabulary by letting you immerse yourself into a world that is just as educating as it is fun. Now those half a billion copies weren’t sold simply because people loved Rowling’s glittering eyes, were they?

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is read as a literature text in many American high schools. The book adopts such a rich use of language that is guaranteed to improve your mental word bank by the time you’re done turning those 284 pages.

Ulysses by James Joyce

In this book, the writer makes use of at least 30,000 unique words. The rich usage of so many different words will ensure that you benefit so much just from reading one book. Plus, Ulysses packs so much pun, parody and humour into an exciting storyline, so that the last thing on your mind will be dropping the book before you’re done!

Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka

It is Soyinka, and he knows his words. Need we say more? But Ake is slightly different from other works from arguably Africa’s foremost wordsmith. The story is an interesting narrative told from the perspective of a child (a pre-adolescent Soyinka), complete with child-like innocence. Hence, apart from being fresh and exciting, it uses a, shall we say, ‘medium’ diction – in comparison to some of Soyinka’s famed challenging works – making Ake: The Years of Childhood a perfect choice for anyone seeking to improve their vocabulary.

Shakespeare’s Plays

Yes, you heard that right – Shakespeare. Now before you turn away, hear us out. Shakespeare’s plays contain a prodigious amount of words; and furthermore, many English phrases which are still in use today. “Lend me your ears”, “the evil that men do”, “wear your heart on your sleeve”, “foregone conclusion”, “method to my madness” and many other phrases all originated from Shakespeare.

So get a play of Shakespeare’s, give it a read, and go forth to show off what you’ve acquired! For optimum enjoyment and understanding, get a version with meanings of difficult words and phrases.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Surely you must have read this one. But even if you haven’t, surely you must have heard the famous expression, “Oliver Twist asked for more”. Well, apart from being a classic, this book is a solution if you are looking to enrich your vocabulary. So while you build up your word bank, you also catch up on the famous story of the famous boy who asked for more.

 

20 Writing Tips from Fiction Authors

 

Writing success boils down to hard work, imagination and passion—and then some more hard work. Fire up your creative spirit with 20 writing tips from 12 bestselling fiction authors.

Use these tips as an inspirational guide—or better yet, print a copy to put on your desk, home office, refrigerator door, or somewhere else noticeable so you can be constantly reminded not to let your story ideas wither away by putting off your writing.

Tip1: "My first rule was given to me by TH White, author of The Sword in the Stone and other Arthurian fantasies and was: Read. Read everything you can lay hands on. I always advise people who want to write a fantasy or science fiction or romance to stop reading everything in those genres and start reading everything else from Bunyan to Byatt." — Michael Moorcock

Tip 2: "Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you." — Zadie Smith

Tip 3: "Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution." — Michael Moorcock

Tip 4: "In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it." — Rose Tremain

Tip 5: "Always carry a note-book. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever." — Will Self

Tip 6: "It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction." — Jonathan Franzen

"Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet." — Zadie Smith

Tip 7: "Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting." — Jonathan Franzen

Tip 8: "Read it aloud to yourself because that's the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out—they can be got right only by ear)." — Diana Athill

Tip 9: "Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." – Anton Chekhov

Tip 10: "Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted 'first readers.'" — Rose Tremain

Tip 11: "Fiction that isn't an author's personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn't worth writing for anything but money." — Jonathan Franzen

Tip 12: "Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too." — Sarah Waters

Tip 13: "The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can't deal with this you needn't apply." — Will Self

Tip 14: "Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!" — Joyce Carol Oates

Tip 15: "The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator." — Jonathan Franzen

Tip 16: "Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful." — Elmore Leonard

Tip 17: "Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong." — Neil Gaiman

Tip 18: "You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished." — Will Self

Tip 19: "The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter." — Neil Gaiman

Tip 20: "The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying ‘Faire et se taire’ (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as ‘Shut up and get on with it.’" — Helen Simpson

Even famous authors sometimes have a tough time with writing; they also go through periods of self-doubt. Despite this, they always manage to come up with the goods. So take a lesson from them and stop putting off your writing plans and get started on your publishing journey today.

Credit: iUniverse

Job Hunting? How to Write a Supporting Statement

 

When applying for certain jobs, you may be required to include a supporting statement. This is a part of a resume that allows you to expand on your qualifications, experiences, and skills. It allows you to sell yourself to potential employers, so it’s important to know how to write a supporting statement that’s polished. Follow these five steps to help you craft a solid supporting statement to include with your resume.

Review the Job Description

Start by reviewing the job description. It might help to print out a copy that you can write on. Then, highlight keywords related to the role and skills required to perform the job.

Consider Personal Examples

With the keywords from the job description, start brainstorming personal examples that demonstrate those skills. Try to get specific, but consider a wide range of examples that cover several skills you possess. The examples should also show your personal actions and the results you achieved.

Introduce Yourself

As you plan how to write a supporting statement, start by introducing yourself. Let the hiring manager know who you are and why you are the top candidate for the job. Remember that this introduction is going to create the company’s first impression of you. You want a positive impression right from the start. Start your supporting statement in a way that will catch their attention while introducing yourself as an employee.

Draft Your Statement

Now you’re ready to work on the rest of your supporting statement. Although some companies may specify how long to make the statement, it’s a good idea to keep it under two pages. You should aim to keep your ideas brief and succinct. Also, use headings, bullet points, and other formatting techniques to make your statement easy to scan.

Revise Your Work

Before submitting your supporting statement, be sure to proofread your work. Look for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting errors. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. Have several people read through your supporting statement to check for any errors. You could also ask these people to critique your writing, ensuring that your examples do a good job demonstrating why you’re the best candidate for the job.

After following these steps and completing several rounds of revisions, you’re ready to submit your supporting statement with your application documents. Knowing how to write a supporting statement, along with the best practices of applying for a job, can increase your odds of getting an interview and hopefully landing the job you want. Best of luck!

Culled from Magoosh

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a CV

 

When applying for a job, the employer meets your curriculum vitae before meeting you; as a result, the CV is usually the first stage of screening. In order to get your dream job or at least make it through the first stage of screening, here are some mistakes you should avoid in your CV:

1. Making Grammatical Errors and Typos

Your CV shows your writing skills and your level of intelligence, so making grammatical errors in your writing can be discouraging. When writing, ensure you have proofread your resume before sending it to your recruiter.

2. Irrelevant Experiences

Experiences that have nothing to do with the position you are applying for should be avoided. Thus, every statement on your resume should be relevant to the current position you are applying for and lead the employer to the conclusion that you have the right qualification for the job.

3. Submitting Incorrect Information

Avoid incorrect information, such as wrong telephone numbers, or even data that are incorrect. You might think the recruiter might overlook such information and may not research it but the person might actually do and find out that you have provided the wrong information.

4. Exaggeration

Don't exaggerate your skills and achievements. At times, you might give some information and it will be clear that it is an exaggeration. The recruiter may be discouraged by this act and simply ignore your CV.

5. Personal Information

Personal information like age, weight, religion or even personal background should be avoided. Information like that is not needed for recruitment and an attempt to give such information might send the wrong signal.

In conclusion, critically scrutinise your CV to avoid grammatical errors and other type of technical errors so you can have a fair chance of being invited for an interview.

Top 10 Tips for Being a Successful Poet

 

Sir Andrew Motion is an English poet and novelist who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.

He has been awarded several poetry awards, including the Arvon Prize, the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. He was knighted for his services to literature in 2009.

Here are his top 10 tips for being a successful poet.

1. Let your subject find you

My parents were not writers and they didn’t really read very much either. My Dad once told me he had only read half a book in his life. I had a wonderful English teacher called Peter Way. He walked straight into my head, turned all the lights on and he gave me my life really.

When I was 17, quite soon after I started tinkering around with poems, my mother had a very bad accident, which eventually killed her. So I found myself wanting to express my feelings about that in ways that were relieving to me.

It sounds a slightly self-aggrandising thing to say, but I’ve always thought that death was my subject. You don’t find your subject, it finds you. Writing poems for me is not simply a matter of grieving, though very often it is that, it’s wanting to resurrect or preserve or do things that pull against the fact of our mortality.

2. Tap into your own feelings

I never quite believe it when poets say that they’re not writing out of their own feelings, and when that is the case, I tend not to be terribly interested in what they’re doing.

I don’t mean to say that they are writing bad poems, but those aren’t the poems that I like most. The poems I most like are where the engine is a very emotional one, where the warmth of strong feeling is very powerfully present in the thing that is being given to us. I think poetry is a rather emotional form and when it isn’t that, I’m not very interested in it.

3. Write about subjects that matter to you

I didn’t always cope with being commissioned very happily as Poet Laureate to tell the truth. The best poems get written, not by going in the front door of the subject, but round the back or down the chimney or through the window.

‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant,’ said Emily Dickinson and that’s always been a very important remark for me. It can be quite difficult to do that if you’re standing in a very public place.

People who live in public, as I very suddenly found myself doing, can get very bruised in the process if they’re not used to it. I found all that public stuff extremely difficult to deal with. I never wanted to cut myself off, but wish I had devised better ways of protecting myself.

4. Celebrate the ordinary and be choosy

Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary. What we very badly need to remember is that the things right under our noses are extraordinary, fascinating, irreplaceable, profound and just kind of marvellous.

Look at the things in the foreground and relish stuff that can lose its glow by being familiar. In fact, re-estranging ourselves to familiar things seems to be a very important part of what poetry can do.

If you can, be choosy about what you do, so that the things you do write are the things that you do best.

5. Use everything in your toolbox

I haven’t written a rhyming poem now for many years, I seem to have lost my appetite for it but I haven’t lost my pleasure in reading them. I think anybody that insists on the presence of rhyme is really not thinking hard enough about what poetry is or can be.

Having said that, it is important to bear in mind that as poets we have a kind of toolbox, in which there are all kinds of different pieces of equipment, not available to any other kind of writer and rhyme is very importantly one of those.

So never to use rhyme in your poetry would be a bit like buying a car and never getting out of second gear. Use everything in your toolbox.

6. If you get stuck, go for a walk or wash your hair

Wordsworth once said that the act of walking was closely related to the creative process. I do love walking and if I get stuck I go for a walk or if I don’t have much time, I wash my hair – it seems to wake my brain up!

Even when I’m on a hair washing day, rather than a walking day, I walk up and down my study, just to get myself going.

Poems are so crucially to do with the movement of words through a line or a series of lines, and that is just as important as their shape and the way that we understand them I think.

7. Let your work be open to interpretation

People will interpret your poetry in different ways, but provided the interpretation that is brought to the poem isn’t plainly bonkers, I actually enjoy that, I rather hope for it.

Your poem can be a world in which your readers can go and live themselves and seek out things which resonate for them. And it would be completely bonkers of me to try to restrict their reaction.

In Auden’s beautiful eulogy for Yeats, he said, ‘He became his admirers,’ and I think that’s kind of what he had in mind actually. You give your work over to your readers and provided they’re not crazy, it’s absolutely open to them what they find in it.

8. Read your poetry out loud

Reading your poetry out loud is crucial and absolutely indispensable because wherever we reckon the meaning of a poem might lie, we want to admit that it’s got as much to do with the noise it makes when we hear it aloud, as it has to do with what the words mean when we see them written down on the page.

In a really fundamental way, I think poetry is an acoustic form and we’ve slightly forgotten that in the last thousand years. Since the invention of the book, the aliveness of poetry has been perhaps slightly pushed to the edge of things.

9. Find the right time to write

Find your own writing time. Everybody will have a slightly different time of day, I have yet to meet the person who thinks the early afternoon is good, but I expect there is someone out there who thinks that that’s a good idea.

For me it’s very early in the morning, partly because the house is quiet and partly because I feel I’m stealing a march on things and that makes me feel good.

I think there might be some kind of hook up between what happens in our minds when we’re asleep and writing imaginative material. I think good poems get written, as no doubt good paintings get painted, as a result of these two things coming together in an appropriate way.

10..Read a lot, revise and persevere

Read lots, write lots of course too, but assume that your first thoughts are not your best thoughts, so revise, revise, revise and don’t expect every poem to work, because it won’t.

Don’t go live in an ivory tower. Read the newspapers and involve yourself in the world – where do you think subjects come from if not the world?

Persevere. I think right at the beginning of your writing life you really have to accept that within a few years, or possibly even a few months, you are going to be able to wallpaper quite a large room with rejection slips. But don’t let that put you off – if you’ve got it, you’ve got it!

Culled from BBC

How to Overcome Writer's Block

 

How do you overcome writer's block? Writer's block is every writer's nightmare. You sit down to write only to discover nothing is forthcoming. You rack and rack your brain to no avail. Worry no more. I've got some tips that will take away this nightmare called "Writer's block".

To overcome writer's block, you need to identify the causes.

What Are the Causes of Writer's Block?

1. Inconsistency in writing and reading.
2. Lack of knowledge in the field you intend to write on.
3. Lack of adequate words/vocabulary to express the subject matter.
4. Lack of creativity.

How to overcome writer's block

Be consistent in writing and reading

Waiting till you have a job to write or publish something is a bad habit. Farmers don't wait till harvest time before they plant. You need to be consistent in writing and reading. Someone would ask, "How do I get topics to write on?"

Keep a notepad (soft or hardcopy)

When an idea or a topic strikes your mind, write it down and build on it later. It can be a word, a phrase, a sight anything that catches your fancy at that point. If you do not write them down you might forget. Don't just note them. Go back and expound on them later.

Read other people's work and write your own ideas on the topic

For example, a writer writes about "the sun's beauty", how the sun is so beautiful and gives light to all. You can decide to write about the same sun in another way, like "someone's sun is set", telling of how the success of something, someone, or a situation has ended. It is still the same "sun" idea.

Do a writing/reading challenge

You can set goals. For instance: thirty days writing/reading challenge on selected or random topics. The challenge could be reading at least two chapters a day or writing at least five hundred words a day for the stipulated period of time. However you wish to do it, make it feasible. Get an accountability partner if need be. Be disciplined. When you do these consistently, you are building your writing skills.

Gather knowledge in the field you intend to write on

Little or no idea about the topic or field you are writing on gives you writer's block. Make some research on the topic and familiarize yourself with it. Be open to learning and unlearning. Do not be rigid.

Learn new words and vocabulary to express the topic

In linguistics, there is the term "register". It is language used in a particular context. There is a register for whatever field your topic falls into. Limitation in the vocabulary of that field causes a block. Throw off some of your limitations by learning new words and vocabulary.

Be creative

Trying not to make mistakes or not trying out new things will give you a block. You need to be creative. In a bid to be creative, you will definitely make mistakes. And that's OK. Learn from your mistakes and bring out the best. As a story writer, you can not afford to be boring. Play with words. Use your poetic license to write unique and beautiful stories.

Try all these out and say bye to writer's block.

 

Ajimuda Evelyn Temitayo is a writer, poet and blogger. She is a creative who brings imaginations alive.

 

How to Write First Thing in the Morning

As I write these words, it’s a little after 4:00 a.m. and my wife and kids are sleeping. The house is dark and quiet, with no TV or music playing, no conversation to distract the voice in my head.

It’s the perfect writing environment, for me at least.

When we write, we are speaking with a voice in our heads, and that voice is communicated through our fingertips and onto paper or the digital whitespace. The more noise that’s around us, the more difficult it is to hear our voice.

That’s why the morning has always been my favorite time to write, before anyone awakes, before traffic starts up or the chickens start making crowing noises. It’s the still of early morning that allows my voice to come through.

 

Why Write So Early?

Sure, it can be done at any time of day. For some people, noise is a welcome relief from the heavy silence. For others, the quiet of late night is preferred. I won’t argue with these people, as everyone has to find a writing time that works for them

 But here’s why “first thing in the morning” works for me (and that doesn’t have to be 4:00 a.m. — it can be whenever you awake):

 It’s quiet. For me, that’s super important. There’s no better time than when the world is still asleep.

Work hasn’t gotten in the way. By mid-morning or afternoon, a ton of stuff has come up that must be done now … pushing back the writing. First thing in the morning, nothing has come up to push back my writing.

Life hasn’t gotten in the way. It’s not just work that pushes back writing, but everyday stuff, like errands and paying bills and parties and family and kids. If you wait until the evening to write, what happens when a social engagement comes up that evening? Writing gets postponed.

Tips for Writing Early in the Morning

So you want to write in the morning … but need some suggestions? No problem. Here are my favorite tips:

Wake earlier. If you normally wake up just in time to start getting ready and then head out the door, you’ll need to wake earlier to make time for writing. That’s why I wake at 4:00 or 4:30 … it gives me a good two hours. Wake just a little earlier at a time — see my tips on doing this here.

Topic. Don’t wake up in the morning with no idea what you’re going to write about. Have your topic chosen and give it a little thought the night before. It’s great to sleep on it anyway — let your subconscious do the work for you.

Research. Do your research the afternoon or evening before. That way, you’re ready to write and don’t have to be distracted by going online to look something up. Just look everything up the day before, and save it all to a text file, so you can write without having to go online.

Start with an outline. It’s hard to just start writing with a blank screen staring at you. So I start typing out notes or an outline, so that it gets my brain and my fingers moving. Once I’ve done that, the actual writing is much easier.

Don’t check email. Whatever you normally have the urge to do first thing in the morning … resist the urge. For me, that’s email. But that can take an hour of your time, and then your morning writing time has been pushed back again. Instead, close your email program and just have the writing program open. Resist the urge!

Have it open. I like to have my writing program open (I use WriteRoom, for its lack of distractions) so that it’s right there when I wake up. I put the title on the screen, along with any research I might have done the day before. Then everything is ready to go … I just need to start writing.

Get a glass of water or coffee. Before I start writing, I make my coffee and drink a glass of water. The water gets me hydrated, and the coffee makes the morning writing experience that much more enjoyable.

Focus. While you’re writing, resist the urge to go on the Internet or play games or watch TV or get up and do something else. It takes a lot of practice, but with practice, you’ll get good at focusing on the writing at hand. Practice makes perfect.

Check email (or another reward) when you’ve done an hour. If you tell yourself that you will be able to check email (or whatever it is you have the urge to do) after one hour of writing — or until you’re done with the thing you’re writing, whichever is sooner — you’ll be motivated to get your writing done. Then you can reward yourself with email (or whatever) and feel good about it.

I think you’ll find that writing early in the morning is a habit that will make you a better and more productive writer.

 

Credit: Write to Done