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RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
Copyright 2004, Michael LaRocca

Here’s a question I ask as an avid reader. It’s rhetorical,
which means you don’t have to answer it. Which is convenient
when you think about it, since I won’t hear you. I’m not
talking to you, I’m writing. The floor is all mine.

Why is it that when someone’s in a fight, and someone hits
them hard enough, bright lights always explode behind their
eyes?

I’ve been clocked a time or two. Sows, boars, horses, falling
objects, falling Michael, a baseball bat, a nightstick,
footballs, basketballs, baseballs, kickballs, kung fu cousin,
a bad neighbor, the jaws of a leaping dog. And, never has
light exploded behind my eyes.

What usually happens to me at that point of impact is sensory
overload. I don’t feel it when a hunk of metal pops me in the
mouth hard enough to split my lip and break my dentures and
send them across the room. (The dentures, not the lips.)
Sensory overload. Then a couple seconds later I see the
damage and think, “Dang, what happened?” But in books, it’s
always those darn bright lights exploding behind people’s
eyes.

My advice to authors, then, is this. Before you write a lot
of fight scenes, ask someone to punch you a few times. No,
I’m kidding. No lawsuits, please.

My real advice is, avoid the cliches. Don’t say “a snowball’s
chance in hell,” say “a broccoli’s chance in Bush One’s White
House.” It’s original, see? And if you’re going to write
about something you know nothing about, please do a bit of
research.

This isn’t a rhetorical question, but rather a true story.
You know how in the comic books, whenever someone gets
popped, they see stars? I really did. Once. Readers of RISING
FROM THE ASHES know who “kung fu cousin” is. Clint. The naughty
boy. My hero. He’s in this story. Naturally.

One time, when I was eleven years old, four of us decided to
play a game at Gramma’s house. Clint, Dwayne, Barry, Michael.
Whenever we got together, someone wound up losing blood, and it
was always at Gramma’s house.

In this game, which was safe by our standards, each of us had a
different large plastic ball. We went into the bedroom, turned
off all the lights, and threw them at each other. Something hit
me in the eye, hard, and I saw stars. Then we turned the lights
on, and I saw that I’d been hit by a kickball with stars on it.

Since there was no blood, we turned off the lights and played
some more. The next day, I had a black eye. “How’d that happen?”
Mom asked. “I dunno. I think I fell out of bed.” She didn’t
believe me, but she pretended she did.

To continue on with rhetorical questions, here’s another one.
Who cares? Note how I ended that with a question mark. Always
do that. I see this one so much that I might add it to
“Common Writing Mistakes” one day. I don’t care how many times I
see it. It’s still wrong. I first had this argument in 1980 with
two fellow busboys. I’ll never back down. I’m edumacated.

Next week’s rhetorical question… When the ghosts appear in
the haunted house, how come nobody ever leaves? Okay, I know,
Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy have done that bit already,
but my editor still busted me on that one in THE CHRONICLES
OF A MADMAN. So, I changed it. The dude left the house. If it
were me, I would. Wouldn’t you?

About the Author

Michael LaRocca’s website at http://freereads.topcities.com was
chosen by WRITER’S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For
Writers in 2001 and 2002. He published two novels in 2002 and has
two more scheduled for publication in 2004. He also works as an
editor for an e-publisher. He teaches English at a university in
Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly
newsletter Mad About Books.

Right off the bat, I want to say that there is no right or wrong answer to this topic. A lot depends on your end goal to get a job, garner publicity, build a portfolio, etc. However, there comes a time when every writer should say no to writing for free. Below are some issues that I’ve been pondering about freelance writing.

Issue 1: Content for websites. Content is king on the Internet and everyone wants something fresh and unique on a regular basis. If you are promoting a product/service and write articles to generate publicity, then by all means, give the content away.

However, if what you are selling is your writing skill and are not promoting anything, then don’t give it away. You’d be better off doing a direct mail campaign and spending your time creating pieces for your portfolio even if they are only make-believe companies.

One could argue that the reason good writing is taken for granted is so many give it away. I give a lot of content away, but only within the framework of WIIFM (what’s in it for me).

Issue 2: Writing on spec: For those of you who don’t know what this is, see this excellent primer article at http://inkwelleditorial.com/beginnersguideglatzer.htm This established freelance writer explains spec writing brilliantly. The bottom line, once your portfolio is complete with good samples, stop this practice.

The exception would be if it’s a credit from a noted source that you really want. After all, who’s going to turn down Fortune? However, I believe there’s a big enough need for good writers that you don’t have to sell your soul for one credit, even if it is a “biggie.”

How many samples should you have? I advise between five and ten. Try to get them from different sources eg, two newspaper, three websites, two brochure, one sales letter, etc. This will give your portfolio a range. Nonprofits, friends with small businesses, neighborhood shops all are possible non-paid sources to build your writing credits.

A tip: Choose a small business and do the brochure, sales letter, etc. first. Then, send it to your target and ask if they would mind if you included it in your portfolio. I don’t know any small business that would refuse a well-written promotional piece that doesn’t cost them a dime. Bang, a legitimate credit!

Issue 3: Original Content & Rights: I don’t believe in giving away original content again, unless you are promoting a product/service or are just starting out. I am constantly amazed at the number of publications that want original content but don’t want to pay for it.

An example. I write a small business column. An editor saw it and approached me to be a regular contributor to their publication, which is quite noted in business circles. The kicker? They didn’t want my column but wanted me to contribute original content with no pay. I had to turn them down. I offered the column at no charge (since I already write it), but explained that original content outside of this without payment was not possible.

If you write, then you know it’s not easy coming up with original content on a regular basis. Some subjects are so covered that nine times out of ten, new ground is never being broken. We are usually just putting a new spin on it. This costs brain cells! And, trust me, not everybody can do it.

So, the next time you put finger to keyboard, think about your objective. If we all stopped giving away our pearls of wisdom, then the pay level across the board would be raised.

About The Author

May be reprinted with inclusion of the following: Yuwanda Black is an entrepreneur, author, speaker and syndicated small business columnist whose focus is controlling your destiny through small business ownership. Her most recent e-books, How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer and Advice from Successful Freelancers: How They Built Their Careers & How You Can Too! are available for immediate download at http://www.InkwellEditorial.com/bizguides.html Visit her on the web at http://www.EntrepreDoer.biz for a complete list of how-to, small business books and articles.

columnist@EntrepreDoer.biz

Writers are an insecure lot.

It’s easy to understand why. You screw up at work and your boss jumps on your case, quick to tell you exactly what you need to do if you want to keep your job stuffing dough into that pizza press. You screw up your writing … well, ten weeks later you receive a polite, generic rejection letter in the mail that basically says: Thanks, but no thanks. There is no boss to tell you how you screwed up or how to make it better. You’re on your own, Mr. Wannabee A. Writer. Go lock yourself in your bathroom/office until you figure it out.

Unfortunately, this lack of feedback goes against our very nature as homo sapiens. If there’s no stop sign at the intersection, we have to give serious consideration to whether we’re willing to stop or not. That can be a real chore for those of us who are busy trying to dig a dime out between the seat cushions for that double-mocha cappuccino on the way to work. Put in a stop sign and it’s a no-brainer. You stop. Then you start digging for the dime.

But for a writer, feedback comes in only one form … if you sell the story, you did something right. If you didn’t sell it, you did something wrong. There are those who will try to tell you this isn’t true. That you can get good feedback from your spouse or your girlfriend or your buddies. But these are the same people who said you were feeding dough into the pizza press just fine. You can’t trust the opinions, good intentions or not, of people who are only casual observers. So … did your story sell or didn’t it?

Well … no. But why can’t the editor take an extra minute and just tell me what was wrong? you wonder.

Yours is not the only manuscript the editor has to read. There are stacks of manuscripts all over the office, some higher than the desktop, with more arriving in the mail everyday. Editors don’t have an extra minute. Not if they plan to scarf down a sandwich between noon and twelve-fifteen and still have time for a bathroom break. Your story has a page, two at the most, to capture the editor’s interest. After that, well, there’s always another story on the stack.

Another reason why the editor doesn’t tell you what’s wrong: your story’s a nightmare. It would take more time to explain the problems than it took you to write the thing.

And the biggest reason of all: hell hath no fury like a writer scorned. Offer some helpful advice and the editor has undoubtedly learned that too often what he gets in return is an indignant letter full of obscenities.

Finally, writers need to understand that editors don’t have all the answers. Yes, it’s true, editors are people, too. They have their likes and their dislikes, their stern beliefs, their misconceptions. While one editor may abhor your story, another may find it brilliant.
I mention all this in case you weren’t already insecure enough.

And I mention it because there’s another dead end request editors get thrown at them quite frequently. It goes like this:

Dear Mr. Editor: Enclosed please find my short story, titled “A Story By Any Other Name.” I hope you like it. I think it’s the best thing I’ve written. If you decide not to buy it, could you please tell me why. And could you also tell me if I should keep writing. I’d like to know if I have a future doing this.

If you have to ask, the answer is no, you don’t have a future and you shouldn’t keep writing.

Writing is not a pursuit for those who are weak of heart. Nor those who are thin-skinned. It is a pursuit for those who love doing it.

William F. Nolan used to say that if you want to be a writer then you sit your behind in the chair and write. Charles Grant said that he writes because he has to; he can’t imagine not writing.

You want to be a writer? Don’t ask editors or anyone else if you have what it takes. They don’t know. They can’t tell you if you’ll make it or not. They might be able to tell you if you need to develop your skills more, but you already knew that. Writing is a profession you never stop perfecting. There’s always more to learn.

You want to be a writer?

Persevere.

Go write … and persevere.

David Silva
The Successful Writer
http://thesuccessfulwriter.com

Who are the undisputed experts you can learn from ? Of course, they are the
top Journalists who write Press Releases and always write them in the 3rd
person. You could determine what they do and then follow their procedures.
BUT ! Wait, that is not enough. It is said, that the “information structure”
of a Press Release follows the inverted pyramid in form. That is, most of
the real information is displayed in a “top heavy” manner. (1) Like the Press
Release, the 1st thing to be done is “grab the reader’s interest immediately”.
However, due to this Promotion Article’s size and unlike a Press Release . .
(2) You must “maintain the reader’s interest at a high level” throughout the
entire Promotion Article. Part (2) can be achieved by introducing real people
(by name etc.) and describe their success stories while they were using your
product(s) and or service(s). Either within this description or as a follow up
afterwards, try to come up with verbal quotes related to it and/or printed
quotes from publications. If you can do this “quote” part, it will provide the
confirmation that will make your “descriptive story believable”.
It puts “the icing on the cake”.
To maintain “a high level of interest throughout” follow up with some more
descriptive happenings with real people (and their names) and include
verbal quotes and/or quotes from publications and so on and so on . . .
Here is a Promotion Article: “Read it” and see if it adheres to these rules:

Our NEW Invention Says . . . by J. Bruce Jones ,
Goodbye to . . “Learning is Boring”, and
Welcome . . . ” Play to Learn, have Fun
and Excel”

Say goodbye to Student Boredom in class . . AND a Big Hello to Student
Enthusiasm to participate. Students can get involved and have fun while
“playing their way to excellence”.

Some students become unnerved when they think that they are subjected to
undue pressures that could cause them to fail or do poorly. Ideally, such
students should be encouraged to put forth a “best” effort without feeling
these pressures. Most teachers would likely agree with this, but they might
wonder . . how so? How Might This Be Handled?
page 2 of 3
Educators: Middle School to University and certainly all Chess teachers ,
in Schools and Chess Clubs . . should take a look at what Steve Preston of
Milton accomplished. First, here is one more point to consider. Without a
stimulating learning environment to tweak their interest some students could
become bored or revert to obnoxious behavior.

Here Are Some Positive Results: This is “How” a teacher with (i) chess
instruction courses and (ii) curricula courses Succeeded beyond his greatest
hopes! Steve Preston, a Middle School teacher in Milton, Ontario, Canada
was able to see the potential of utilizing our NEW invention. . . Chessapeak
Challenge®, the World’s First Successful 4 Player partnership Chess that
uses traditional Chess rules. For more than 2 centuries many attempts have
been made to create a viable 4 player chess game. According to David
Pritchard all attempts have failed because of 2 major problems with pawn
Movement. “Chessapeak Challenge® gets over both problems” as stated in
his published review in the Autumn 1995 United Kingdom Chess Journal.

Back to Steve: At each chess class meeting, Steve designated 4 students to
each Chessapeak Challenge® game board. Chess partners faced each other
and therefore, each player had a partner across from him/her, an opponent on
the left and an opponent on the right. In a clockwise order each player took
his/her turn in order. Since this was a learning mode, players were allowed to
discuss chess moves and chess strategies with each other. Therefore, all
players were learning from each other.

Results: At the Regional Chess Tournament, this Milton School system (for
the 1st time ever) won the Chess Tournament Championship with 4 of their
players named as the best .

“Educators in School Systems” (read this): Concurrent to his chess teaching
Steve Preston structured all his Math classes and all his Science classes
around this 4 Player partnership Chess game. His happy students did so well
in all his newly structured curricula courses that many parents of other
students tried to enroll their children in Steve’s classes for the next year.
AND other teachers went after Steve for copies of his new course outlines.
Just prior to the Chess Tournament (described above) a publication appeared:

page 3 of 3
A full page descriptive review of the 4 player partnership chess game
Chessapeak Challenge® was published in the Fairplay magazine in Berlin
Germany November 1997 by Joshen Corts. The ausSCHACHtungen article
was published in deutch (german). >From the English translation, the review
comments on the origin of the game’s name “Chessapeak”. That it was a
play on words; that came from the name of a city on the Atlantic coast,

“Chesapeake”. Here is the English version of Jochen’s quote “Chessapeak
Challenge is not only a successful play on words, But also a successful
challenge of 4 Player Chess” Fairplay Magazine, Nov”97.

More Positive Results: Adult chess player Denis Chabot lives in the
proximity of Quebec City, Canada on the shores of the magnificent Saint
Lawrence river. Denis introduced and sold Chessapeak Challenge® games
to chess players in the province of Quebec. Denis said that he really enjoyed
playing this game. However, there was one specific player that always beat
him at all the chess tournaments. One day Denis telephoned and said
” I beat him at 2 player chess 3 times. He cannot beat me now. I got better
by playing 4 player Chessapeak Challenge® “.

How Cool is This ! CHESSapeak Challenge® is the instrument.
YES, this Game provides a camaraderie of learning
with your peers. “Play to Learn, have Fun
and Excel”.
Readers, did I follow my own rules ?
Note:
The next step for the Chessapeak Games Co. will be . .”Internet Play”
for 4 player partnership Chess . . CHESSapeak Challenge®.

About the Author

Bruce Jones is the inventor of Chessapeak Challenge® 4 Player Partnership
Chess game that is played with Traditional Chess rules. The company manufactures & sells several
quality models of this Chessapeak game on web site http://chessapeak.com/.
E-mail: info@chessapeak.com

A horror movie has certain rules. If you break too many the audience will be disappointed.

This is a very short, no fluff, blueprint of how to write a horror script.

1. The Hook. Start with a bang. Step right into a suspense scene. (”Scream” opens with a terrifying sequence with Drew Barrymore on the phone with a killer)

2. The Flaw. Introduce your hero. Give him a flaw. Before you can put your hero in jeopardy we must care for him. We must want our hero to succeed. So make him human. (In “Signs” Mel Gibson plays a priest who has lost his faith after his wife died)

3. The Fear. A variant of The Flaw. The hero has a fear. Maybe a fear of heights, or claustrophobia. (In “Jaws” Roy Scheider has a fear of water. At the end he has to conquer his fear by going out onto the ocean to kill the shark)

4. No Escape. Have your hero at an isolated location where he can’t escape the horror. (Like the hotel in “The Shining”)

5. Foreplay. Tease the audience. Make them jump at scenes that appear scary — but turn out to be completely normal. (Like the cat jumping out of the closet) Give them some more foreplay before bringing in the real monster.

6. Evil Attacks. A couple of times during the middle of the script show how evil the monster can be — as it attacks its victims.

7. Investigation. The hero investigates, and finds out the truth behind the horror.

8. Showdown. The final confrontation. The hero has to face both his fear and the monster. The hero uses his brain, rather than muscles, to outsmart the monster. (At the end of “The Village” the blind girl tricks the monster to fall into the hole in the ground)

9. Aftermath. Everything’s back to the way it was from the beginning — but the hero has changed for the better or for the worse. (At the end of “Signs” Mel Gibson puts on his clerical collar again — he got his faith back)

10. Evil Lurks. We see evidence that the monster may return somewhere..somehow..in the future..(Almost all “Friday The 13′th”-movies end with Jason showing signs of returning for another sequel)

Now you can start writing your horror screenplay. Good luck!

While it is clear that writers and self-publishers will never be able to attract the same rates online that they did from offline publications and media, it does not mean that online writers doomed to starvation. If anything a number of them are already proving that many online writers and self-publishers will end up making a lot more cash than their offline counterparts ever did.

Actually already we are starting to see online writer’s incomes grow steadily. However what has confused a lot of folks is the fact that the rules online are very different. It is useful to examine a few of these differences because it will help us understand the online rules better and how to make money as an online writer with less effort.

Why Online Rules For Writers And Self-Publishing Are Different

The offline media has always been fat from the high advertising rates attracted and in some cases from a high circulation on a healthy cover price. The result was that freelance writers could live off a few articles a month. This is in sharp contrast to webmasters looking to pay single-digit figures for 500-word articles.

What all this means is that there are only two ways a writer can make money. Either by selling the same content to hundreds of sites or by finding a way to earn a continuous stream of cash from a single article. The first option doesn’t fly on the net because the World Wide Web is not a local fragmented medium. Rather the feeling is that when an article is published at one site, the whole world has seen it because the whole world has access to it. While this may not be entirely true, it is the general feeling and it greatly limits the number of different web sites you can sell a single article to.

In this article we examine closely what writers and self-publishers online are doing to maximize on their earnings from a single article.

Self-Publishing For AdSense

So far this has proved to be the most lucrative source of revenue for self-publishing and writing online. AdSense are pay-per-click ads from Google that are posted on web sites and blogs all over the net. When people click on them Google shares their income with the owners of the blogs or web sites.

So a writer writes a single article and posts it at a blog somewhere where it attract relevant Google AdSense ads and they will continue aerning money from that single article for years to come. Even if an article earns $ 2 a day on average, it will end up earning the writer $730 a year. Not bad when it has the potential of doing the same for the next couple of years.

The trick with Adsense is to use the right keywords that will attract ads that will pay a lot more when people click on them. It is said that there are some keywords that will attract ads that will pay out as much as $100 per click. My special report provides tools that will help a writer find the highest paying Adsense keywords.

Self-Publishing At A Site That Sells Content For You

The great challenge for any writer is that they have to be good at two very different tasks. At writing and also at selling and marketing their writing. Not any more, web sites have emerged that will gladly sell your articles for you, leaving you with the task of writing them. The particular site I have in mind has experience selling license rights to the same article to various web sites, meaning that the writer can earn again and again from the same single article.

Self-Publishing For Traffic

Self-publishing your article and content at various other sites is a powerful tool for increasing traffic to your site by creating links to it and also causing folks to visit your site for more information.

So the result is that a single article can earn you cash for a long time by simply directing targeted traffic to your site where some of the folks will click at your Adsense ads while others will purchase something, maybe your special report based on some of your articles.

Self-Publishing At Blogs

An increasing number of organizations are paying people to blog. Some will pay bloggers for the traffic their articles attract while others pay writers a commission from the Adsense revenue that their articles generate. There are a host of different programs a writer or self-publisher can use to generate income from a single article for years to come.

Self-Publishing A Special Report

It is very easy to convert your article into a special report, which you can then sell at your site. Even if you charge pocket-change for your special report, over time you could earn thousands of dollars from it.

Conclusion

Now imagine the potential if you were to ensure that every single article you wrote was slightly adjusted so that it was able to earn you a steady income stream from all the 5 revenue generating ideas we have talked about in this article. That’s how a self-publishing online writer can make over $ 100,000 a year.

Christopher Kyalo earns a good living writing online. Get his special report that is a more detailed version of this article from http://100grandonlinewriters.blogspot.com/2005/09/get-tips-from-these-quality-special.html He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com

If you are a serious writer who wants to publish and sell books and informational products, you need to be able to find all of its parts in a minute or less. Filing only the important parts of your book will yield fast-writing your book. With the tips below, you will find any book-related paper within two minutes!

After you decide on your topic, working title, audience, thesis, and “tell and sell” and before you write a single page of a chapter, it’s best to organize your book, its chapters, even your promotion how-to’s.

Five Hard Copy Filing Tips

1. Stop Piling and Start Filing!

Maybe you’re a stacker (horizontal multiple piles), a stuffer (look organized, but can’t find things, a spreader (spread one pile to another place, then another), a slinger (undecided, you sling into a place behind closed doors).

For those of you who want a hard copy of your book’s parts, you’ll want to leave the bad habits above.

2. Make all important files vertical and A-Z. To retrieve your book’s chapters, place the name “all chapters” (table of contents) on the flap of your manila folder; then place each chapter title and number on one manila folder. Here you will also add other parts of your book such as the introduction, the hot-selling points such as the “tell and sell,” and your “audience profile.” Keep these files alphabetical and vertical and you can find them fast.
You may choose a file such as a box, filing cabinet or three-ring binder.

3. File each scrap of paper of useful information on an 81/2 by 11 piece of paper. Give it a category (title) at the top and file it alphabetically. Whenever you see something, a book title, a quote, an article that relates to your book, pop it into the proper file. One may read “useful quotes for chapter one” or “sample working book titles,” or “signature stories and analogies.” When you take different notes on one page, or allow your scraps of brilliance to get into the horizontal piles, one of your great ideas will get lost.

4. Write on one side of the paper only when you want to save useful notes. Again put only one subject at the top of each page and the correct word on the manila folder to retrieve quickly. It’s far easier to read handwriting on one side only. Staple and number pages of related parts for easier retrieval.

5. Keep every piece of important paper vertical and file it in its proper place. The Pareto Time Management Principle says that only 10% of our papers are important. That means those related to your book–it’s chapters, front matter, back matter and the all-important promotion-marketing folder. When you give each paper a special place in your book file you will find it fast and also write your book fast!

Four Computer File Tips

For those who also want to keep files on your computer, you need to think Word folders and files within the folders. If you aren’t savvy, hire a high school or technical school tutor or computer assistant.

1. Put your major topic in a folder. One client gave her main folder the name of her book. Within that folder she kept three other main files–the three 3 sections (can be chapters) of her 70-page book. Now that she has these organized, she can add new material, as she needs in the proper folder and file. And, she can find it within a few minutes. When important information comes your way, immediately file it and add the date to the end of the file to help you retrieve it fast.

2. Put your unfinished work in a file in My Documents. We are not always sure what category or chapter new information will go in. Located right after your folders, these files are alphabetized, and you can skim right to these files over the next days or weeks you want to work on it before it’s ready to re-file into your book folder. This works well for ongoing, unedited work because you can find it fast.

3. Take care to name your files correctly. In one book I wrote three chapters on how to write articles, subscribe to ten opt-in ezines out of 400,000 possible ones, and how to submit them to the ezines and top web sites for the big payoffs of getting into the top ten search engine placements and getting my web site listed on over 900 other web sites. All related, but they each needed a separate file. When you think filing always think specific categories.

4. Save your files with first the name, then the date you last worked on it. Including the date shows me and my assistant the latest revision fast for easy retrieval.

Without organizing your files, you will waste a lot of time looking for the correct one. One figure is over 150 hours a year time wasted looking for misplaced paper. You will also waste money because unfinished projects that don’t get shared, don’t make you money.

Without organizing your book folders and files, you will waste a lot of time looking for the correct one. You will waste money because unfinished projects that don’t get shared, don’t make you money.

Part two of this article is available at http://www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-65.shtml.

Judy Cullins ©2004 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says…,” “Business Tip of the Month,” blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

===============
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743

Writing better is critical for students. But it’s even more important for business communicators.

Let’s face it…if you write succinctly, you can (a) win promotions, (b) lead people with your creative ideas, and (c) create instructions for your employees to follow.

Therefore, here are five secrets about business communications you must know:

1. You must write simply - We all want simple instructions that are easy to understand. Choose words that everybody knows, and offer analogies that are clear and precise.

2. Use action verbs - Passive verbs like is, are, was, and were simply exist. Active verbs jump, run, explain, and covey information.

3. Learn from the best - Read Mark Twain’s brilliant short stories. Study Ben Franklin’s short quotes and aphorisms. Lean about headlines and copywriting from researcher John Caples.

4. Compressed messages - In the fast-paced 21st century, readers demand information in short, easy-to-absorb form.

It’s been said that the average adult attention span today is a mere eight seconds. Can you deliver the theme of your message in that short time?

5. A word about headlines - Researchers say most of us look at headlines four times more often than we read anything else. Therefore, that headline - or the heading on your paper - should capture the reader’s interest immediately.

Bottom line: Learning to write clearly might be the most important skill you’ll ever acquire.

Rix Quinn’s book “Words That Stick” offers simple ideas for both students and business writers. It’s available from your local bookstore, or from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580085768/qid/

Today it begins.

I have always known I was a freelancer. The phrase my family uses to describe me is “not a nine-to-five-er.” That said, nine-to-five does carry some not-so-romantic but comforting benefits. Health insurance. Travel reimbursement. Gas mileage. A regular paycheck.

But alas, I’m the daughter and granddaughter of entrepreneurs, and I’m also of the “ownership society.”

I love to write. No such thing as retirement–writing is who I am. But with that ideal and that passion comes every writer’s downfall. Running a business. Getting paid.

We right-brained people with our horrendous filing cabinets and hard drives/Zip drives full of e-mails have to spend time organizing, like any businessperson. I had a conversation with a fellow writer/content provider in which we both confessed neither of us knew how to charge for our services. Although University of Southern California master of Professional Writing Program does give great training in the business side, most writing programs in my experience don’t teach marketing, recordkeeping, fee-charging, and work-for-hire contracts, let alone publishing contracts.

Today while tracking two possible freelance jobs (I’d like to give a plug to David Copeland’s Freelance Daily, http://freelancewriters.blogspot.com/, a terrific daily newsgroup with tons of freelance leads, also PayingWriterJobs, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PayingWriterJobs/, AbsoluteWriter, http://www.absolutewrite.com, Writers Weekly, http://www.writersweekly.com, and of course, my local paper, http://www.thedesertsun.com/), I found my e-mail inbox inundated with back and forth e-mails. While I admit my e-mail organization system resembles my filing system at times, I finally wised up.

On my computer, in Windows, I have a folder with subfolders for e-mail. I created a separate directory, “freelance”. Then I assigned every potential or actual freelance job its own folder with a client identifier number where appropriate and otherwise the name of the client/publication.

I also created a Work For Hire agreement today. My own–usually when I work with a publication I’m required to submit an invoice. However, a publication you have a relationship with is different from a client that doesn’t know you and vice versa. This is new ground for me. I’ve signed three book contracts, entered into three royalty agreements and two bona fide collaboration agreements, signed screenplay, magazine, fiction, and poetry release forms, sent more contest applications than I can count…but my own Work For Hire agreement…now I feel I’ve passed the “novice” mark and can proudly call myself a full-time freelancer. Freelance entrepreneur.

No.

Writer always works. To quote Harlan Ellison’s business card, “I write.”

But will I stay organized?

Continued next week…

Kristin Johnson is co-author of the “highly recommended” Midwest Book Review pick, Christmas Cookies Are For Giving: Stories, Recipes and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts (ISBN: 0-9723473-9-9). A downloadable media kit is available at our Web site, http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com, or e-mail the publisher (info@tyrpublishing.com) to receive a printed media kit and sample copy of the book. More articles available at http://www.bakingchristmascookies.com

Suspense

He had never killed a man before. Looking down at the lifeless body at his feet, Harold wondered if it would be the last time.
Want to know more? Good. That’s the point.
So how do you create this suspense? It’s easier than you think. Just keep two things in mind when you construct your story- conflict, and question.
Conflict drives all fiction. There’s no story without it. Let me show you an example of writing devoid of conflict.
Helen sat comfortably in her easy chair. She had a bowl of warm popcorn in her lap and a soda on the end table. A few yards away her television flickered as she surfed the channels looking for something interesting to watch. She settled on a documentary about the Amazon. She’d always like documentaries.
As the evening passed the popcorn ran out and the soda can emptied- but she didn’t mind. She was comfortable.
After a few hours she stood up, stretched, and gathered her popcorn bowl and empty soda can. She set them both in the kitchen sink and slunk off to bed.

So, do you want to read 300 pages of this? I didn’t think so. Now watch this.

She didn’t know he was there.
While the microwave rattled, heating a bag of popcorn, the man moved furtively down the hallway.
Helen waited for the popping to slow. She opened the microwave, and emptied the warm bag of popcorn in a large plastic bowl. She grabbed a soda from the fridge and walked to the living room.
She didn’t suspect anything was wrong when she picked up the remote and surfed the dial for something interesting to watch. There were no suspicious rustles or creaks. No shadows moving in the distance. Just her house, empty and neat- just like always.
On the tube a documentary on the Amazon flashed into view. Helen put the remote down and settled deeper in her chair.
Just another Sunday night. Another cozy, uneventful Sunday night.

From Helen’s point of view- it’s the same scene. From the reader’s point of view there’s a big difference. The second scene is loaded with conflict. Notice that the conflict doesn’t have to be visible to the characters, but it must always be visible to the reader. In the second example, the reader knows that Helen is in danger. As they read, the voice in their mind screams at Helen- “There’s a man in the house! Look out!” The conflict is felt by the reader even if it’s not felt by the character. Keeping the reader in the grips of this conflict creates a “page-turner.”
The second essential element is story question. What does the reader want to know? Why should they read this scene? Why shouldn’t they put the book down?
This is crucial so listen closely. From page one to the finish, the reader must never read a single word without a strong question in mind.
Never.
I mean it.
The moment you write something like the first example of Helen’s evening- your readers have no reason to continue and they put the book down, sometimes for good. That doesn’t mean that there has to be great mystery in each scene. It does mean every scene should be read while a question hangs in the air.
Do you notice how the great suspense authors braid their novels? In one scene we see the hero attacked. The last thing our protagonist sees is the butt of a gun bearing down on him. The scene or chapter ends, and now we’re taken somewhere else. We visit the perspective of another character, a character with their own set of problems. The reader is firmly hooked now. They are interested in the events surrounding the second character because it raises more unanswered questions. More than that, they are dying to find out what’s happened to our protagonist from the previous scene.
Braiding is a powerful technique for creating suspense. Use it whenever you can.
Those of you writing more literary or character based works may not feel these techniques are relevant, but they are. Every good author in every genre uses suspense in some way shape or fashion.
There’s no story without it.

About the Author

Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and novelist. You can see more of his writing tips at www.heislerink.com/writeaway.htm.