JO-ANNE VANDERMEULEN “Conquer All Obstacles”

Professional Support Network for Writers……….Nominated: “Real Blogs Real People Award”

Archive for the ‘Tips for Writing’ Category

« Previous Entries

If All Else Fails…LAUGH!

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on January 18, 2010

Can YOU relate?

Your content doesn’t have to come across as boring. Writing articles in your blog doesn’t have to be daunting. I’ve already discussed the importance of:

1.)   Sticking with the topic of your niche

2.)   Keeping the format short and sweet

3.)   Mixing the writing style from conversational to formal

4.)   Creating valuable content

Now I need you to think of something funny…

The last time you read something that made you laugh, did you walk away?

One of the most responsive status update on my Facebook homepage was a one-liner, fill-in the blank:

“I know when I’ve been on the Internet too long when I________________.” Here are a few responses:

I know I’ve been on the Internet too long when I:

-          Send an email to myself.

-          Hit cut instead of copy.

- Hitting the REFRESH button, hoping to wake-up. >Thanks to Nancy Williams from Laurus Books<

Please, please add more to this post if you can help me…:).

I wish I would have copied and pasted the responses (my memory isn’t great) because they were hilarious! I laughed so hard I had a side-pain. (Now I know, I have to remember to capture those funny moments and share with others more often.)

There’s nothing better than a good laugh. Unfortunately, I’m not one whom delivers the jokes…yet, I do like to be involved with the responsive chuckles. If I was…I’d be incorporating at least one funny moment per post.

In my opinion, writing humour is a gift. I envy all who can deliver content in a funny fashion. What a fabulous way to hook the viewer and keep them within the post or article.

So if you are one who can get people to laugh, even if you have an inkling in ‘being funny’, I encourage you to use it!

If you’re more like me, who has problems remembering jokes and one-liners to incorporate into the odd post, (as a crutch) use the tools we have. It’s okay to open a file and paste what we’ve saved or using a quote with recognition.

“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” >Stephen King<

How about selecting a photo that made the corners of your mouth turn up? Did you giggle when you saw what I really look like when I’ve been on the Internet too long? Even tossing in the odd acronym ( …lol) or funny face (…:)) can add a light touch to your article.

You can *conquer all obstacles* and adding humour into our posts by using the tools we have available and adding in that touch of imagination. Relax and enjoy the process…:).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now What?

ShareThis

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subscribe FREE – Posts will automatically be delivered into your email – Click HERE.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Twitter. Click HERE.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

Content is the Key

Successful Blogging In Just 7 Simple Steps

Blogging: A Delicious Post Devoured In One Bite

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne Vandermeulen

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on October 14, 2009

Speaker, Coach, & Author Mark David Gerson

Speaker, Coach, & Author Mark David Gerson

Be entertained! Listening to the dynamic speaker, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen, as she sizzles with energy discussing various promotional and writing topics.

For the second half of the show, she encourages YOU to interact with her. Introduce yourself.

Authors – This is your chance. Deliver your author platform and pitch your book.

Readers - Be ready to listen. Upcoming books you can order and add to your shelf.

Topic: SHARING EXPERIENCES – THE JOURNEY with MARK DAVID GERSON. Mark David Gerson is an internationally recognized author, speaker, mentor and coach whose inspirational writings are read in more than two dozen countries. Mark David is author of the award-winning novel, The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy, and of The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, a book and companion 2-CD set of writing inspiration, instruction and practice.   To listen, click HERE.

Sarah Bash-Gleason - Children's Author & Magazine Producer

Sarah Bash-Gleason - Children's Author & Magazine Producer

Today’s 1/2 hours show features Sarah Bash-Gleason from Skye Designs Inc.. Sarah is on her journey publishing an amazing magazine (http://magcloud.com/browse/Issue/36654) dedicated to authors and artists called Dream Chaser’s Magazine.

Listen to my LIVE show!  Click HERE.

Dedicated to Authors & Artists

Dedicated to Authors & Artists

THE NEXT SHOW WILL AIR ON TUESDAY 8:00pm (SK/MTN Time) OCTOBER 20th with

DEBORAH McCARRAGHER.

Deborah is an INSPIRATIONAL AUTHOR and the OWNER/PRESIDENT AT ALABASTER BOX PUBLISHING INC.

Her mission is to encourage women through scripture to believe in God’s Word to transform their husbands, and by challenging women to minister to their spouses in a way that glorifies God.

*BATTLING FOR YOUR MATE’S SOUL ISN’T FOR COWARDS*

Deborah’s newest release –  “MISSION POSSIBLE”

Inspirational Author Deborah McCarragher

Inspirational Author Deborah McCarragher

Listening Link: http://bit.ly/jmVnw

Chat Link: http://bit.ly/uuHfI

Guest Call-In Number: (347) 857-3752

*What do these 3 guests all have in common?

Mark David, Sarah, and Deborah, have all CONQUERED ALL OBSTACLES to fulfill their dreams and share their gifts with YOU.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please follow me on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ppromotionals

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Articles:

TAKE VALUABLE CONTENT AWAY

AUDIO PODCASTS: AUTHORS PROMOTING THROUGH BLOGTALKRADIO

AUDIO PODCASTS: BLOGSITES vs WEBSITES

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Take Valuable Content Away

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on September 15, 2009

It's ALL Yours - Just Take It!

It's ALL Yours - Just Take It!

“Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne Vandermeulen” – You’ll discover ways to *Conquer All Obstacles* by taking away valuable content.

Listen to these 2 most recent recorded shows (1/2hr duration):

1.) Premium Promotional Tips for Writers – Learn practical marketing ideas to create massive exposure and drive traffic back to your site where your book is sold.

Photobucket

2.)   Feature Author, Frank Fiore – Bestselling author with more than 50,000 copies of his non-fiction books in print. Fiore has now turned his talents to writing fiction. His newest release, a science fiction called “Cyberkill”, is rated a 5-star by Premium Promotional Services and has been quoted by my partner, Brian Knight, “Cyberkill” is a sci-fi thrill ride with fast pace action and gripping realism.”

Photobucket

Guest Call-In Number: (347) 857-3752

Click here to chat: http://bit.ly/uuHfI

If you cannot make the LIVE show, click here (after Tues.) to listen to the recording: http://www.joconquerall.com/

**********

Please feel free to post my show and embed this widget into your blog or MySpace pages….and I encourage you to spread the word to others who’ll find this content valuable. Help share the wealth of knowledge.

**********

Announcement: Next show – Tuesday, October 6th

THE NEXT SHOW WILL AIR ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6th with Sarah Bash-Gleason…owner of SKYEDESIGNS for authors and the DREAM CHASER’S MAGAZINE. Click HERE for your copy TODAY!

**********

Related Posts:

MARKETING PLATFORMS

PANTSERS vs PLANNERS

BLOGS vs WEBSITES

IDEATION – STORY IDEAS

SITE APPEARANCE ATTRACTS VIEWERS

Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Ideation – The Journey from Idea to Story from Blogtalkradio

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on August 18, 2009

Ideation – The Journey from Idea to Story

Ideation – The Journey from Idea to Story

Ideation – The Journey from Idea to Story (Click this title to listen)

Duration: ½ hr.

Be entertained!

Listening to these two dynamic speakers, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen and Larry Brooks, sizzle with energy. For the second half of the show, they encourage YOU to interact with them. Introduce yourself.

Authors – This is your chance. Deliver your author platform and pitch your book.

Readers – Be ready to listen. Upcoming books you can order and add to your shelf.

*****Prolific writer of suspense/romance novels, JO-ANNE VANDERMEULEN, is now on the journey toward publication of her first fiction book, “Conquer All Obstacles”. She’s the owner and Internet Manager of Premium Promotional Services where *You Write – We Promote*: www.premiumpromotions.biz the creator of Conquer All Obstacles featuring *FREE Marketing Tips for Writers*: www.joconquerobstacles.com and the creator of Jo-Anne Vandermeulen *Journey to Publication* where I’m building my author platform for the upcoming release on a suspense/romance novel called “Conquer All Obstacles”: www.joconquerall.com

LARRY BROOKS is a bestselling thriller author and well-traveled workshop facilitator with a passion for guiding writers toward the fulfillment of their writing bliss. His proprietary story development model, “The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling” forms the basis of his teaching and drives the content of his recently launched instructional writing blog site: www.storyfix.com

Next show is scheduled for Tuesday, September 1st at 11:00am. (Sask/Mtn Time Zone) at:

Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne and Larry 9/01/2009 – Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on Blog Talk Radio http://bit.ly/22PU0r

Topic: SITE APPEARANCE – ATTRACTING VIEWERS

________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

MARKETING PLATFORM

PANTSERS vs PLANNERS

BLOGSITES vs WEBSITES

__________________________________________________________________________________


Posted in Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne and Larry on Blogtalkradio

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on August 4, 2009

Blogtalkradio

Blogtalkradio

Be entertained! Listening to these two dynamic speakers, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen and Larry Brooks, sizzle with energy. (30 min.)

Welcome…Listen to the recorded ½ hour show, Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne and Larry

1.) The importance of building an author platform and why the marketing strategy must start now.

2.) Planning a Story.

MARKETING PLATFORM

PANTSERS vs PLANNERS

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

AUDIO PODCASTS: AUTHORS PROMOTING THROUGH BLOGTALKRADIO

BLOGTALKRADIO: MANY VISIONS

FLYING HIGHER THAN A KITE

__________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Twitter: @prempromotions

__________________________________________________________________________________

Interested in reading bi-weekly posts, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen “Conquer All Obstacles” automatically deposited in your email? Please subscribe for FREE by clicking HERE.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________


Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

“Read It, Read It, Read All About It”

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on May 26, 2009

newspaper boy

Now you get to be a fly on the wall.

Who’s wall?

Everyone’s wall who’s talking about you.

How?

Sign up for these two alerts and fill in key words. So simple and cool. Automatically, these alerts will provide you with who’s talking about you or your books.

Why is this important?

> This information will tell you whether or not your webcrawlers are working and you’ve chosen wise tags (key words). If the alerts are sending you your own pages that you’ve social bookmarked (added to Delicious, Digg, Bookmarks, Stumble, etc.), it means you’re doing a great job with your internal links.

I’ve been a guest blogger on some other sites and the alerts have sent me this person’s site with my name quoted. I can then send this information back to the presenter and let them know that their internal links are active. Chances are, they are ranking high in the search engines. (The higher ranking in the search engines, the greater the chances your potential customers are going to find you and your books – the greater chances you will be to successfully sell your books).

> Alerts has sent me quotes of mine that I’ve caught others using. Call it stealing or infringing on copyrights, it is wrong. Others should never take words (claiming them as their own) from someone else without making proper reference. GRRrrrrr!

> I use Alerts to prove how affective my promotional/marketing techniques are working. When I’m promoting, my plan is to create massive exposure of the author and their book(s). So if  I’m the author, every day I expect Alerts to pick up ‘Jo-Anne Vandermeulen’, ‘Conquer All Obstacles’, and ‘Premium Promotional Services’. If I don’t see the Alerts picking up my tags then I know I’m not doing my job. I need to reactivate my internal links and social bookmark my pages. This is why linking blogs with other active bloggers is a great idea. When they social bookmark their page, your tags will automatically be marked and sent to Alerts. A double win.

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Twitter Alerts – http://tweetbeep.com/

___________________________________________________________________________________________

wake up Do you keep quotes stickied to your bathroom mirror? Okay, how about around your toilet? In your car? I can practically hear some of you chuckling and see you nodding your heads. See, you haven’t lost your mind…there are others just like you…lol.

There comes a time when I’m feeling down, I need a few reminders. So, I cannot come up with the positives in my brain…I rely on the positive message scrawled on my sticky notes.

Here are some of my favorites:

Where one door closes, another one opens.

Go with the flow.

Keep your eyes open for the unexpected. Don’t be afraid. Seize the opportunities before you.

You have your own answers within you.

“Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say.” >Brenda  Ueland<

“Imagination is the Divine Body in every Man” >William  Blake<

“Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate, when you write. Why you are not to be discouraged, annihilated, by rejection slips.” >William Blake<

There are millions of slogans we can use to pull us up from the dark hole, bring us out of that nasty writer’s block, and pick us up off the ground.

Have you got a favorite slogan that works for you? Care to share so we can form a list…?

Sometimes, it’s just great to know we are not alone. It’s okay to have a bad day every now and then. Have you ever caught yourself staring at an empty screen and your mind is completely blank? The creativity isn’t there or you’re unable to ‘think outside the box’?

Here are a few suggestions from famous people:

“Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk.” >Will Shetterly<

“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” >Stephen King<

“Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.” >Norman Mailer<

Enjoy this week with your writing and remember YOU can*conquer all obstacles*.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE

NO REST FOR THE WICKED WRITER

PREMIUM PROMOTIONAL SERVICES NEW CYBER BOOKSTORE

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Interested in reading bi-weekly posts, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen “Conquer All Obstacles” automatically deposited in your email? Please subscribe for FREE by clicking HERE.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Making the Switch

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on May 14, 2009

clock

Do you still comment on other blogs, network, and spend time on chat lines, like you use to?

The idea to network and be sociable will remain strong in my veins. After all, the foundation to ‘promotion’ is establishing relationships. Yet, over the past several months, I’ve noticed I’m dedicating less time to the faucets in my life that use to be my one and only passion.

So the answer is… “no”.

For some reason, I am spending more time on the content (process) and focusing more on the result (production) of my blog.

So when did my posts become more important than interacting with others? And Why?

1.) There’s been a switch in momentum. Not that it’s wrong, but a person must self-evaluate the change. Are there more strengths or positives resulting? Or has the pendulum swung too far the other direction?

2.) The cost (time spent) on interacting has become too high. Because my personal blog has grown to have several hundred RRS subscribers and over 7,000 hits, I know I can reach more people by providing the great content they’re looking for rather than perhaps linking a few more back to my site. Not that I want to neglect newbies, it’s just I have to weigh the odds of what’s best in terms of numbers.

To maintain a balance in your day, it is necessary to ‘conquer all obstacles’. There’s only so much time in the twenty-four hour cycle and it must be divided among the tasks at hand. Evaluating what actions and determining from the results of your enquirer will determine the direction you’ll need to take. This will produce the biggest results. Carefully managing your day will result in making the most from your day. Periodically, re-evaluate where you are. Ask yourself:

Today, where can I connect with the most people?

This will answer your question as to how you should spend most of your time. Effective time management of your day will produce a larger following.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

NO MORE FEAR

MANAGING YOUR DAY

Finding BALANCE In Your Life

__________________________________________________________________________________________

To receive biweekly *Conquer All Obstacle* posts automatically in your inbox email, subscribe by clicking HERE.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Targeting for Mountains Instead of Mole Hills

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on April 7, 2009

blog-ap-7

Targeting for Mountains Instead of Mole Hills

Imagine seeing sharp peaks and welcoming the sight-when sharp vertical slopes brings a smile to your face. Not often in life we anticipate the mountains. Blowing things out of proportion is something we try to avoid. Wouldn’t we rather face the mole hills?

Not when we open our dashboard and click on “stats”. Whether we are talking about our main site where the potential customer can purchase our books or the blog we use to generate our following, the main goal is to keep those viewers coming back and increase our following.

So, how do we ‘conquer all obstacles’ and get that line to keep climbing on the visual graph within our stat page?

Create Great Content:

- Structure, facts, grammar, spelling, and punctuation do play an important role, but there’s more. The content must have feelings-an underlying logic and flow that is easy to absorb.

- The content must be filled with emotions that challenges the reader and can lead to a powerful call to action-provoke an emotional response from the reader.

- Discover that balance between challenging the reader to understand your message, creating the truth, and producing facts without coming across as ‘dry’. We want to product content that is interesting, challenging, and informative-something the reader can take away with an ‘aw’ or ‘wow’ experience. Don’t hide important information, thoughts, or steps; but, don’t toss it in their lap either. Reread your post before publishing and omit unnecessary words. Try it and be amazed at the results.

- The most important thing in content marketing is reliability. You must produce the goods or content consistently or the readers just won’t show up-the mole hill will prevail. The plan is simple. Schedule your posts, be genuine to your followers, and get the content out the day you promised.

Simple Strategies That Will Generate New Readers and Keep Your Original Readers Coming Back:

- Remind the reader to subscribe. Remember, there are newbies coming to your site all the time. Sure you posted the directions initially, but it sure doesn’t hurt to post the simple instructions again. I do this at the bottom of the odd post:

“Interested in reading bi-weekly posts, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen “Conquer All Obstacles” automatically deposited in your email? Please subscribe for FREE by clicking on the button on the side widget on this blog.”

- Send or post an invitation to subscribe and to invite a friend. Please refer to my envelope in the previous post. Viral promotion generates readers.

“Send this to a Friend…Please, email this to a friend (place your photo of the envelope). Got a friend that could do with some tips on marketing and promotion themselves and their books? Forward this email on and help grow ‘Conquer All Obstacles‘. If you receive this email from a friend, subscribe to ‘Conquer All Obstacles’ HERE (link you site).”

All of this sounds incredibly easy, but it works. My stats looked more like mountains rather than mole hills. You can ‘conquer all obstacles’ by using these tactics in your next post. So simple.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

TURNING NIGHTMARES INTO PLEASANT DREAMS

CREATING A BUZZzzzz

TURNING FIRST IMPRESSIONS INTO LOYAL FOLLOWERS

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Interested in reading bi-weekly posts, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen “Conquer All Obstacles” automatically deposited in your email? Please subscribe for FREE by clicking on the button on the side widget on this blog.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Marketing/Promoting, Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

TARGET THE AUDIENCE

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on January 22, 2009

blog-wagon-wheel-pic

gr5mom2.wordpress.com

Have you ever wondered how students score 100% on their exams? How writers’ query submissions entice agents to request partials? How authors sell so many books?

YOU can ‘conquer all obstacles‘ once you:

1.) Target your audience – Know who you want to recognize your writing. No grey areas. Only black and white…must be specific.

2.) Define the audience’s objectives - Know exactly what they want. Follow their requirements.

Contests: Check out the judges’ score sheets. Does your entry meet each requirement to score the highest possible score under each category?

“A cheesy hook drives me nuts. They say ‘Open with a hook!’ to grab the reader. That’s true, but there’s a fine line between an intriguing hook and one that’s just silly. An example of a silly hook would be opening with a line of overtly sexual dialogue. Or opening with a hook that’s just too convoluted to be truly interesting.” >Daniel Lazar. Writers House<

Agents and Publishers: Research their websites and read books they already represent. Does your book reflect the same criteria or content?

“Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written.” >Andrea Brown. Andrea Brown Literary Agency<

Drop the prologue. At the beginning, this was very difficult for me. This was the section I dumped all my background information for the rest of the story. Definitely a no-no. Once I discovered this wasn’t what they wanted, I followed their advice. Not only did this objective make my story stronger; but also, attracted more partials to be submitted.

“Prologues are usually a lazy way to give back-story chunks to the reader and can be handled with more finesse throughout the story. Damn the prologue, full speed ahead!” >Laurie McLean. Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents<

Fans and Followers: Discover groups on the Internet that already read your genre. Does your story entice their already hungry appetite so they will buy your book?

“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly, so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”  >Joseph Pulitzer<

I’m a graduate from university. Never did I fail or drop a class. My record of achievement isn’t a secret. My method of high standard and success is simple. As soon as I sat down in lecture hall, I read the professor’s stated objectives. Internalizing their requirements, I applied the content from the lectures and reading materials to meet and answer all the objectives. Once I had the entire content organized under their objectives, I answered the questions from the exams the way they wanted.

I taught for twenty years. During this time, I followed the same format as my professors. Handing out the subject’s objectives to my students, I later based the entire exam on these requirements. The students who followed these objectives received perfect scores.

I’ve been a full time writer for almost three years. The world of writing isn’t any different than being a student in university or a teacher. I discovered if you want to have high scores in contests, your submissions accepted, and generate a large number of followers to read your work, you must follow the objectives stated by the audience.

No use reinventing the wheel. YOU can ‘conquer all obstacles’ by putting your own ideals aside. Follow your audience. Give them what they want. You have the ability, determination, and specific direction and guidance to be successful.

Other Related Posts:

THE SECRET TO PROMOTION

SO YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR BOOK

LEARN FROM THE BEST

Important Announcements:

Tonight – Thursday, January 22 at 7:00-8:30 Promotional Workshop by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen @ Kissa’s Karma Korner – yahoo loop

Jo-Anne Vandermeulen will be away from January 26 – February 23rd. Welcome all comments during this time.

Posted in Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

HANG ON AND ENJOY THE RIDE

Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on December 23, 2008

Conquer all Obstacles by Learning the CRAFT OF WRITING

How do we enjoy the writing journey?

JOKE:(author unknown)

A writer died and was given the option of

going to heaven or hell.

She decided to check out each place first. As the writer descended
into the fiery pits, she saw row upon row of writers chained to their
desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they were repeatedly

whipped with thorny lashes.

“Oh my,” said the writer. “Let me see heaven now.”

A few moments later, as she ascended into heaven, she saw rows of
writers, chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they
worked, they, too, were whipped with thorny lashes.

“Wait a minute,” said the writer. “This is just as bad as hell!”

“Oh no, it’s not,” replied an unseen voice. “Here, your work gets
published.”

Change your attitude and expectations.

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” - Andrew Carnegie

So get comfortable in your chair. See your time spent learning the craft of writing as being a kind of apprenticeship; a time for education. Remove the notion of instant gratification. You are unlikely to be a star overnight. An actor doesn’t just stand up and act to produce a number one film, just as a teacher doesn’t just instruct a curriculum for students to learn.

“You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft, then you can add all the genius you like.”
Phyllis A. Whitney

All takes time so you might as well be content with a steady, productive learning curve.

Jessamyn West wrote: “Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.” Be proud of your self, of your commitment to your writing and let that propel you forward.”

Suggestions:

1.) Set plausible goals. Keep focused on the moment.

2.) When writing the rough copy, you don’t have to reach a certain standard. Discard the negative thinking of the ‘should have’, ‘would have’, ‘could have’.

3.) Turn the learning into fun. See each learning curve a challenge. Highlight important information, and practice applying them to your work. See your writing improve and smile.

4.) Get ready to meet new wonderful people.

“Getting published is a long and arduous road.  Do not think of yourself as an ‘unpublished writer’ who is somehow inferior to those gods of the world who are published.  Think of yourself as a ‘pre-published writer’ who simply started later than those folks who are already published.  A college student who wants to be a doctor calls himself a ‘pre-med student’ not an ‘unmed student.’  Figure out where you are on the path to graduation and then every day take some action that will move you closer to your goal.  If you have the slightest bit of talent, that plan will see you through to publication someday.  It will probably take longer than you want, but that is the nature of the beast.  Write on!” >Randy Ingermanson< http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/blog

Today, I know I will be the winner in the end. When I first began my writing career, I wanted to be the hare. Oh, how I’ve changed my thinking. Now, I see myself as the tortoise. Steady and sure, I venture down a journey of discovery, conquering all obstacles in my path.

Posted in Tips for Writing | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

« Previous Entries