How to … Write Your Articles Faster and Better

Writing can be a tedious activity. Don’t fool yourself. No matter how good you are, there is NOTHING easy about it. Think about it: How many times have you been faced with a blank page and nothing, nada, zip to say. Writing easy? I don’t think so. And article writing can be the most tedious of tasks, even for seasoned writers. So, if you are writing articles and want to have them see the light of day, and get PAID for it, you need to write faster and better. Here’s how:

SHORT ARTICLES Plan on writing a lot of articles? If so, it’s a good idea to keep them short. Quick reads. When writing, keep these articles to 300-400 words. And if you have a lot to say about your subject, break it into more than one article. Think of your blog posts and use that as a guide.

GREAT TITLE If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a THOUSAND times: Write a strong headline!!! This is the first thing your readers will see, so it HAS to be an attention-grabber. Hint: Place at least one main keyword in your title because it is the subject that readers will search under; and, if you publish online, it will help you move up in the search engine rankings.

MAKE IT SCANNABLE Simply put: Make your articles easy to read. Keep paragraphs no longer than two or three sentences. Print and proofread your article. Then send it out to be published.

How to … Write Like an Expert

So you want to write an article, a little something for your local newspaper or maybe a regional or national magazine, but you either can’t come up with an idea (we’ll tackle that in another post) or you don’t think you have the credentials to back you up to get it published.

Not true. All you need to get your article published is a great idea with an even greater hook or angle (again, look for a How to in another post!) and the following: impeccable research; proper format; authoritative writing; and careful proofreading. These are the the four key areas that will make what your writing sound as if you ARE an expert.

RESEARCH IT Research doesn’t have to be hard; it just has to be good. You certainly don’t have to spend hours on end on the Internet or in a library pouring over your subject. First, create a title for your article then Google it. Look through the hits you get and select only those sites that come from reputable sources. Skim through three or four of the top sites and come up with three to five points for your article. Rewrite each one in your own words and NEVER plagiarize.

USE PROPER FORMAT Sloppy writing, just like sloppy research, will kill your chances of getting published. Want to get noticed? Make sure your article has: An introduction, body, and conclusion. These are your foundations.

• Introduction: Keep it short. Get to the point of your article in 50 words or less, then move on.
• Body: Lay out the context of your article, point-by-point. Consider your audience and write to them. A mass market piece shouldn’t talk over their heads. For this audience, take no more than three or four sentences for each point and back up your claims with facts or data.
• Conclusion: End your article with a summary and, this is important, keep your opinions to yourself.

AVOID ADDING FLUFF Get to the point of what you want to say; don’t be wordy! Fluff gives your article a passive tone … the exact opposite of what you want as an “expert” – an authoritative tone. This stye of writing is not only easier to read but it makes a statement, and your readers will react positively to this.

PROOFREAD If you solely rely on spellcheck to check your writing, you are making a HUGE mistake. It won’t catch words spelled correctly but used improperly, i.e. from/form, affect/effect, etc. The most effective way to proof your work: Print it and read it out loud. Your ears will hear any awkward sentences and you’ll probably catch one or two homophone typos or complete mix-ups.

So now you know how to write something that makes you sound like you are the expert: Research your topic. Use proper format. Leave out unnecessary words. And print and proofread by reading out loud … the secrets to writing an engaging article on any topic you choose.

Is Proper English Becoming Obsolete?

Is proper English becoming obsolete? Going the way of the typewriter and liquid paper? OMG, I hope not. But wait! I just short-handed in my own blog, so maybe there is something to this story …

Short-hand via texting and instant messaging is quickly replacing the way we “write” and that lingo is not only creeping into our everyday writing, but in the way we compose our business emails and quick correspondences. Are you serious? Yes. And not only am I serious, but sad to say, I am guilty of it too.

Oftentimes I end a quick internal email to a co-worker with three little letters: Thx. I got into this nasty habit when I started receiving emails from another coworker that signed off in the very same way. Insidious! Then there’s the evil “K” as in “k?” or “k.” Is it really too hard to write “ok” or better yet, “okay?” We have shortened an already short word to one lone letter. And yes, I have to admit that I have done this as well. Shameful.

But this is the danger of short-handing it. It’s quick. It’s easy. And it creeps into our business writing where it has no business. Use short-hand where you should: instant messaging and texting. And maintain the purity of proper English in your written work so you maintain your stellar reputation as a professional who actually has a handle on the English language.

My Ongoing Love Affair

Okay, I admit it. I have had an ongoing, lifelong love affair … with my dictionary. I can’t help it. I love discovering a new word that I haven’t heard of or used before and finding a way to strategically place it a new piece I am creating, or casually slipping it into conversation. What could be more fun than that? Okay, so maybe that are a THOUSAND and ONE things more fun than that, but not for a writer.

Take the following list of new discoveries: how many have you heard of? How many have you actually used in your writing? Would you even dare?

advertent: giving attention

bhakti: devotion to a deity constituting a way to salvation in Hinduism

bewray: divulge, betray

ceinture: a belt or sash for the waist

digamy: the second marriage after the first is terminated

If you’re a writer, your dictionary truly is your best friend, well, next to your thesaurus.

 

 

Project Manage Your Project

I get it. You’re a writer. Words are your life. The way they fit together, the way they ebb and flow, the way they tell a story in vivid detail. But, most writers are of the “work-for-hire” variety. Freelancers. And that means you are responsible for FAR more than just the writing you do. You have a business to run. Finances to deal with. Money to collect (OMG. I could write a blog about that alone!). And of course, the most important thing of all, a project, or if you’re lucky, projects to manage.

So, how do you go about juggling all of these roles while writing stellar copy? Here’s how: You HAVE to have solid project management skills, and you need to put these skills in place asap. So here’s your blueprint to managing your multitude of projects with the utmost skill.

First, PLAN each and every project down to the final detail.

1. Do the right project. Using benefit cost analysis or ROI, look at the project that gives you the biggest value for your effort and is most aligned with your strategy, moving you in the direction you want to go.
2. Define the scope clearly and precisely.
3. Plan the whole project and make a plan.
4. Work with words and pictures to bring people with different perspectives onto the same page, contributing to the project as needed.

Prepare your team in just two steps:

5. Get the right team. Define the skills needed and get people with those skills. Be honest about gaps, and close them by taking time to learn to get it done right.
6. Get the expertise you need if necessary. Know that being an expert in one area does not mean being an expert in other areas.

Cover all the bases with the nine knowledge areas:

7. Scope. After defining the scope clearly, explain the cost involved in making changes to reduce change requests, then manage all changes, adding to the project only when it is essential.
8. Time and cost. Use unbiased, accurate estimation techniques. Set up systems to gather, track, and analyze time and cost information, so you can keep them under control
9. Quality.  At the project level, work to prevent error, then find and eliminate the errors that slipped through. Allow time for rework to ensure you’ve eliminated errors without letting new ones creep in. At the business level, include customers in the revision process, and remember that the goals are customer satisfaction and added value.
10. Risk. Plan for uncertainty; prepare for the unexpected. Perform risk management every week of the project.
11. Human Resources. Help each team member step up self-management and technical expertise. Teach everyone project management skills so that they can improve. Then teach them to work together, until you have a great team of great people.
12. Procurement. Get the supplies and resources you need. If your project involves contracts, be sure to keep the contracts in alignment with project value and specifications.
13. Communications. Have a communications plan, and follow it so that you are in touch with all stakeholders throughout the project. Make sure everyone knows what they need to know to make decisions and get the work done. Analyze status information to create status reports. Be prompt and decisive.
14. Integration. Constantly direct corrective action. Evaluate all events that could change the project schedule, and all scope change requests. Review the effects of any change on all nine areas before making a decision, and then implement a revised plan with re-baselining.

Keep the project on track with stages and gates:

15. Use a life cycle. At a minimum, put a gate at the beginning to clearly launch the project, and then a gate after planning, a gate after doing, and a gate after following through.
16. Every gate is a real evaluation. Bring every deliverable — parts of the product, product documentation, technical documents, the project plan and supporting documents — up to specification. If a project can’t deliver value, be willing to cancel it.

Use feedback with your team and focus on scope and quality in the doing stage:

17. Use feedback at all four levels. Teach workers to stay in lane and on schedule; ensure delivery of milestones; manage project risk; and manage project change. Watch out for continuing problems that indicate a serious planning error, such as lack of attention to one of the nine areas.
18. Focus on scope and quality. Get it all done, and get each piece done right.

Follow through to success:

19. Deliver customer expectations. Seek to exceed them while leaving customers happy with every encounter with your team. Use every success and every error as a chance to learn to do a better job.
20. Remember ROI and lessons learned. Compare actual ROI to planned ROI, so you can be honest about the degree of your success. Compile project historical information and lessons learned to make future projects easier.

Eminem: What His Writing Can Teach You About Yours

That’s write, I said it. Eminem can teach you a lot about writing simply by listening to the tight lyrics he writes. It can be said that Eminem is a complicated artist, one who provokes pages of arguments – positive and negative – and his overall impact on our culture is for better or worse. But as a writer, few can touch what he’s managed to accomplish.

So pay attention: here’s what you can learn.

Read and Write Everything

Eminem started writing as a child, sanding the rough edges of his craft, knowing without doubt that the only thing that would get him out of the trailer park and into a better life was disciplined effort and endless practice.

He familiarized himself with the greats until storytelling was as natural to him as breathing is to everyone else. He may have started by imitating the pioneers, but he soon blended their legacy into his own style creating something that was like nothing else.

Edit Ruthlessly

Eminem’s best tracks harbor some of the tightest writing ever written. One has to wonder just how long he spends on each song, considering how securely each syllable is cemented in place.

Not only can he craft a compelling argument in prose, he can also rhyme words that shouldn’t rhyme, and pack more poetry into a verse than should be technically possible. Only fastidious editing can pull the written word so taut.

Write What you Know

One of the things that makes Eminem so powerful, so polarizing, is that his message is delivered without any filter whatsoever. Listening to his music is like tuning into a live therapy session. That’s why it’s easy to believe that he is writing directly from his heart and his unique set of experiences.

Start Strong, Finish Stronger

The best of Eminem’s songs achieve something rare in commercially produced music – they realize a powerful climax prior to their conclusion. Many of his songs are written as arguments, and it’s usually in his third verse when he drives his point home, often with a lyrical sledgehammer.

Be Concise and Use Powerful Sentences

Eminem pares his arguments down to the bone. His intuitive sense of flow allows him to seamlessly drift from the measured cadence of ordinary speech to an unrivaled intensity of verse, but it is always the power of his writing that enables him to drive his point home with such precision.

My advice: go out and listen to what he has to say. You will definitely learn something about the craft of writing.

For the Love of those Pesky Little Homonyms

Recently I was asked to clarify what a homonym is exactly. I was taken aback, but just momentarily. I mean, come on, don’t all kids learn about these fun little word games in the second grade? And aren’t they drilled into our developing brains throughout our academic career? Yet, I couldn’t answer the question. WTF?

So here it is, plain and simple: homonyms are those words, like “caret” and “carrot,” or “rote” and “wrote,” that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently, and that have different meanings. Simple enough, right? Well, not for everyone.

I know of someone who constantly confuses the use of: to, too, and two. I know, I know. What the hell, right? That’s what I thought too, yet this person uses the wrong word all the time, as in “I want to go two.” What I want to say is “Seriously, I don’t think that’s what you mean, but here, give your fabulous writing to me, and I will happily fix it for you.” Grrrrr.

Now, I will be the first person who will say that EVERY writer needs an editor, but to correct a mistake for word usage that we all learned in second grade, that’s where I draw the line. Because really, everyone should know the difference between to, too, and two and use such simple words correctly.

My advice to you: if you really are struggling with this whole homonym issue, get a book that lists them, or look them up online. You will find plenty of sites that will set you straight.

Instant Career Killer: Missed Deadlines

OMG. This always surprises me, especially in this economy, when freelancers are practically crawling on top of each other to get to the next project. Any project. If you’re going to commit to the job, you’d better be able to meet the deadline. And if you get in over your head, you sure as hell had better have a back-up plan to save your butt … and your client’s good name.

Look, you never take on a job that you can’t handle; you have to know your limits. And you have to know what you can reasonably juggle; no one can take on the world, do it all, and do it well. And while passing on work sucks, it’s better to let if go, than to crash and burn and destroy your reputation in the process. I mean, the end goal is to have a nice long freelance career, right? No faster way to destroy that dream than to burn a client.

Bottom line: if you take on a job, do everything in your power to meet your deadline. If you know this isn’t going to happen, go to plan B and fast. And you better have your plan B established ahead of time!

Stop Abusing Me

I love the movie “The Princess Bride.” Absolute classic, right? And here is my favorite line from the movie, though choosing a favorite really is difficult; there are far too many:

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” ~Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

You’ve got to love that! And I bet you can completely relate to it as well because we are all guilty of it. Every one of us. I still have to check myself on certain words (though I’m not going to tell you which ones!). The fact is, I don’t have an editor on stand-by to set me straight so I have no other choice than to self-edit.

And now you can too. Keep this list of commonly misused and abused words nearby so you can check it when in doubt and stop the cycle of word abuse.

Adverse / Averse

Adverse means unfavorable. Averse means reluctant.

Afterwards

Always wrong in American English. It’s afterward. Skip the “s” if you want to use it correctly.

Complement / Compliment

Most common of all abused words; so common, you will actually see it in products that make it to print. Get clued in: complement is something that adds to or supplements something else. A compliment is something nice, hopefully, someone says about you.

Criteria

Criteria is plural. Its singular form: criterion. If someone tells you they have only one criteria, simply laugh and tell them to either get some more or to get a clue.

Farther / Further

Here’s an easy way to remember this one: when you use farther, you are referring to physical distance. When using further, you are talking about an extension of time or degree.

Fewer / Less

If you can count it, use fewer. If you can’t, use less.

Historic / Historical

OMG. I see these poor little words misused and abused almost every single day! Historic — an important event. Historical — something that happened in the past.

Hopefully

Hopefully is abused so much, it should just be considered a lost cause. I hope (not hopefully; that would just be wrong, right?) this will help you appear smarter: only use hopefully if you’re describing the way someone spoke, appeared, or acted.

CORRECT: I hope she says yes. NOT: Hopefully, she says yes.
CORRECT: It is hoped that the weather cooperates. NOT: Hopefully, the weather will be good.
CORRECT: She eyed the diamond engagement ring hopefully.

Imply / Infer

Imply means to suggest indirectly — to send a subtle message. Infer means to come to a conclusion based on information — to interpret a message.

Insure / Ensure

Unless you are talking about insurance, insure is always incorrect. Ensure means to guarantee, and that’s probably what you mean, right? Of course it is!

Irregardless

I’ve told you this before: irregardless is not a word. Use regardless or irrespective, but never, ever irregardless. (Regardless of what your friends or anyone else may tell you!)

Literally

“I’m literally starving to death.” Really? Unless you live in a third-world country, I doubt it. When you use literally, you mean that what you are saying is exactly true, completely accurate, and not an exaggeration. Quite honesty, in the world that most of us are fortunate enough to live in, everything is figurative. Or relative. Take your pick.

Premier / Premiere

Here’s is another lowly abused word that I see every day. And here’s how to tell them apart: premier is the first and best in status or importance, while premiere is the opening night of a movie. The two are not interchangeable no matter how hard you try.

Principal / Principle

Once and for all:

Principal — as a noun, the top dog; as an adjective, the most important of any set. Principle — always a noun meaning a fundamental truth, a law, a rule, or a code of conduct.

Towards

Just like afterwards always wrong in American English. It’s toward. Skip the “s” if you want to use it correctly.

Unique

This one always surprises me because unique literally means one of a kind. Nothing can be very unique, or truly unique. It either is or it isn’t. Period.

Who / Whom

The mother of all abuses, and one that should be written off as a lost cause. I mean, really, I’m not even sure why bewildered high school English teachers even bother teaching this to their students anymore.

But, if you want to get it right, here’s how: use a simple substitution method — who for subjects and whom for objects.

Now you are ready to rule your writing with an iron fist. Or like an editor.

Of Writers and Tangents

I’ve been remiss. I admit it. But when you’re a writer, you often go off in a thousand different directions, and sometimes your pet projects, the ones that don’t actually pay the bills, fall to the wayside.

Poor little allyah’s INKWELL — my pet project; not a paying gig. Therefore, when the day job kicks into overtime, and the freelance work heats up … and let’s not forget about everything that always interferes with the writing life, that little thing called reality: kids, chores, bills, doctor appointments, run-me-here-run-me-there, playdates, and other types of dates. WTF? Let’s just say I lead a very complicated life.

But, this year, with all of the changes I’ve gone through now behind me, I expect to be able to get back to my favorite pet project. At long last …

It may be slow in coming; after all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.