A.C.E. Writers

An honest critique of written work is the first step to generating best selling content. Many believe the writer is responsible for generating a bestselling book. Those many would be wrong. Without a quality critique, no matter how well written to book may be, it won’t get past the first publisher.

Writers miss the details of flow and check.

While writers struggle to insert details of the story, they often miss the gentle flow of writing a phrase or connecting a relationship. Those missing verbiages can cost the reader interest and the writer a publication. Publishers want to produce polished product with style that can’t miss the target. A quality critique can pass the muster.

Writers lose story line and misplace characters.

Missing characters and unending roads of storyline capsize the reader and the book in the seas of the unread. Detailed word flows round the curves of storylines and follow characters from start to finish, driving publication, promotion and marketing options for a quality read. Fully developed and present characters keep the readers coming back for more, book after book.

Writers regurgitate destitute titles.

If the title sucks, no matter how wonderful the book cover looks, nobody will read the book. Quality critiques recognize title FAILURES. “Angels” may be an awesome title, but not unless the book is truly about ANGELS. Give the book a real title that fits the contents of the article, book, or item written. If it can’t be recognized by the title, better change it.

Writers capture quality critiques with functional content suitable for publication.

ACE Writers offers quality information about critique groups, publishers, editors, and readers. Register  at http://acewriters.com for more information about how to get your book published.

Niche Manual - Write a Manual For Your Niche Market
By Jan Verhoeff

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you put just a little bit of the wisdom you have from your day to day job down on paper and shared it with anyone who wanted to know about your niche? I can teach you to share what you do everyday.

What you do every day is a niche and there are others who do what you do too. [Read more →]

Recently the question of value from writing seems to have hit an all time high. Writers wonder if there’s money in writing anymore. Those of us who are writing online and have been for a while know there’s definitely more money in writing online that before the market appeared. The profits are soaring for many online marketers who have created a niche market for their work and filled that niche with the one thing they love to do.

Creating Cash Flow Marketing sites means you write about a specific topic and drive traffic interested in your topic to your website using a specific traffic generating kind of writing called “copywriting”. The results are income producing readers who buy what you sell. While this market is a cash driven market, the objective may be different. You could be providing a reader service such as the service this young lady provides in Pages of Parenthood. The objective behind your market doesn’t have to be a cash cow. You can provide a specific service to your readers by giving them your knowledge and helping them by meeting a need they’ve got.

You may become a trend setter, using specific idea marketing and bringing your readers to a specific niche, driving traffic that specifically wants one kind of information. This kind of helping others creates a highly entertaining and affluent group of sites for an industry that requires motivation and leadership. With coaching options for your reader, the opportunity to not only make money from your writing, but also to increase the health and wealth of a generation become climactic. Most of us have no aversion to writing about what we love, and if that is exercise and health, you’ve got a niche easily filled up with words that relate and become relevant to the obsession of a well targeted market.

For more about niche marketing and keyword optimization for your website, please do visit my website and let me share with you the secrets of moving beyond pay per click promotion and marketing.

Listening to Ty Harmon and Erik Stone chatter about Mike Huckabee’s column this morning made me wonder if either of them realize how much personality they bring to the “Anything Goes” morning show on KLMR Radio in Lamar, Colorado? Erik Stone’s professional reporter/journalist personality comes across loud and strong on the show, countered by Ty’s “country boy in the city” drawl. Either could write a column, do a radio show, or even broadcast their humor over youtube.com and have an additional income with just a little effort on their part.

So what does it take to create a column you write for profit?

Whether you’re on the radio or on paper, the first thing you need is personality. I’ve noticed it isn’t so much what you look like in the videos as it that you sound like you enjoy what you do. Up the anti on personality by having a good time. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll sound far better, be more relaxed and get a much better response from others.

Small papers, radio stations and blogs seek columnists. If you’re interested in becoming a columnist, here’s what you do…

1- Select a Topic

This topic should be broad enough to capture a wide scope of interest and narrow enough to have some focus. The best way to do this is to select a topic surrounding your perspective or personality. For instance: if you’re a sports caster and you write about sports already, how about “the Sporty Spin on Life” as your topic. That broadens your interests to life, and gives you a specific focus for dealing with what life brings you.

Now, consider for a moment that you want to write about Mount Rushmore on your vacation. (I am so not a sports writer.) You’d have to put a sporty spin on your tale about Mount Rushmore. Perhaps you hiked your way across Lincoln’s lips or stood for a moment atop Roosevelt’s head. Either way, you’d be telling your sporty illustration of the Mount with figurative language that expressed the breathtaking views and concepts that your athletic type readers would relate to on a daily basis.

The clincher is, your topic doesn’t have to be sporty, but the twist with which you write should be sporty.

2 - Innovate Originality

The concept of originality gets debunked here, because I’m suggesting you use other people’s words to inspire your writing. No, not copyright infringement, but rather as quotes, targeted citations and referenced remarks to base your column upon. The idea is to use a quote or reference and build on that small tidbit of information. You use the concept and grow it to larger proportions in a whole story or idea that you share with others.

Don’t copy another’s work without giving them credit. Once you give credit for a reference, let the reader find the other person’s work to read it, write  your own. Use your imagination and skill to write your own commentary on the quote or concept.

3 - Use Your Voice

Write like you speak. In fact, I often speak into a recorder when first writing a column to get the right voice and tone of speak. I like the speaking tone of a column, as if the person is sitting right there talking to you. Once they realize you’re a personable person, they can almost hear you speaking the words. This isn’t English class - use whatever punctuation is handy to get across your points. If you pause - a short line may do it. If you actually stop talking… You may want to use an ellipsis to bring the reader into your mind enough to capture their interest in what you’re saying.

Don’t use a pellet gun to insert commas on your document, but do use them to make your words come to life. Using a phrase at the end of one sentence or the beginning of the next, says the same thing, using different punctuation. It’s like changing the music to a tune you’re singing. The tune sometimes makes all the difference in the world to the words of the song. Find your rhythm and write what you want to say, the words will come out well, they’ll sound positive and they’ll flow like a river.

4 - Invite Response

The best commentators stir up their audience and rile up the natives. It’s a great way to get people thinking and adding to the story. When your audience has something to say back to you, either in agreement or disagreement,  you know you’ve hit your mark. The best way to become famous is find a controversial subject you agree with and stand your ground. People will come out of the woodwork to agree with you, or better yet, to argue with you.

When your readers get involved in your message, you know you’ve got a hit on your hands. You’ll be carrying off the dollars, so fast, you’ll need an army to budget your money. Go do it. Get response.

5 - Write For Yourself

I’ve heard people say all my life that I should write for my audience… Well, yeah, I should. But I’d probably run out of things to say in a mili-second and then what? Write for yourself. If you’re not interested in what you’re writing, why would anyone else be interested? If you’re really so far out in left field that nobody else is reading you, nobody is interested, you won’t sell much. You’ll know to hit a broader target next time. But in the meanwhile, write what you like and see if you don’t get an audience. I bet there’s more than one person out there interested in sports who will want to see the world through your perspective.

Your family and friends aren’t going to read what you write all the time, so don’t trust their viewpoints. Give them a chance, but don’t trust them to always be on target, they just don’t get it most of the time, so don’t ask. I’ve found even when they do read my stuff, they know something about me so they judge my work according to something I’ve said. Then it’s just frustrating to here them ridicule my work if I don’t write just like I talk. Or worse, you’ve changed your mind about an opinion you said, and then they disagree with you and tell you how wrong you are. ARGH. Love ‘em bunches, but don’t ask them to read your work.

Now you know how the hottest column writers on the radio, or in the paper, or on the net write their stuff. Go out and do this stuff!

Do your words get all bundled up in the paper and you can’t get poop out of them? STOP. Writer Constipation can be terminal!

Midnight calls from writers often tie me up in a ball of frustration because they’re whining and complaining about the dinking words that won’t come to them, when in reality they have the words… They’ve droned on and on and on to me on the phone for an hour, so they’re not lacking words. They’re lacking initiative to park their butts on the chair and poop on paper. I’m 90% certain if the writer who called last night reads this, she’ll be 90% mad at me for a little while, then… Hopefully, she’ll get over being mad, park her backside in a chair and punch a keyboard. [Read more →]

Everyone has a list on their desk telling the best parts of the thing they like to do. Well, this is mine!

1 - I get to express my opinion with the expectation that someone, somewhere will read it.
2 - When I write a word, I’m 98% positive I’ve spelled it right and used it properly in a sentence (this is a really big deal for some writers, like me).
3 - I know the difference between journalism and fiction. I prefer fiction, but I can write either.
4 - When I get done writing, I’m comfortable deleting words and writing them again. They’re not my baby - they’re my job.
5 - No matter how long I sit at the computer staring at a blank screen, I know that when I get up at least one line of absolutely profound words will have escaped my fingers and entered cyber-space with a vengeance due unto none other.

Yes, dear, the world does need another writer. Try your hand and leave a comment referencing one of your favorite great things about writing.

When I park my carcass in the chair each morning to write my first “tales of the day” it’s often with a heavy heart, dragging around the weight of the world from yesterday’s trials and tribulations… Much the same as one might feel when they catch the ball in a game, now what do you do with it?

The slippery slope that is life allows us to make choices. What should we do? Once those choices are made we must live with the results of those choices and never again do we get that one moment back to make that choice again.

Do you write? Should you chat with a friend? Did you get done making that all important phone call? Can you redo what you undid and get it all done? Philosophical moments of reparation can’t happen. You must move on and now you’ve got words to write. What can you do?

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The job is what you make it, no matter what job you have… Test the waters, type the words, take time to say what needs sayin’ and hold onto the process of life, because those things you do naturally are what come most important in life. Now and then… Take a moment to just live. Breathe in, breathe out, and sigh when the morning doves are calling because you hear nature as herself, calling you to join in the breaking in of a new day.

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Summer passes all too quickly, take a moment and a friend and stop by the Coffee Clatter, or The Perk, or your favorite other coffee shop and enjoy a diversion.
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Words, are just words, are just words you write.

The message is motivation to put it on paper, say what you need to say and love while you have the chance. Today isn’t forever, it’s just today. If you’re wondering how to get started writing, the answer is simple. Open a page and start typing, one letter at a time, the words are born.

Cliche or not cliche?

Sometimes the question isn’t about the cliche, but about the person. When a new writer starts putting pen to paper, no matter how old the writer is, there’s a gap in understanding from there to DONE writing. Once you’ve published, there’s a consequence and purpose of your written words, but the verbal words become less important, to you.

I’ve noticed many writers offer encouragement and support to other writers, while they’re still learning. Once that learning phase is over and the publication phase begins, there’s a lack of sustenance for others. Published writers begin to see themselves as writers without the obstructions of lack of confidence, ill ease, or insecurity within themselves. So, they misunderstand those issues in others. Often, with dire consequences.

One published writer spoke in haste to a beginner at a meeting several years back. The young woman hung up her pen and ceased to write the melodious poetry and sonnets she’d begun to pen. The world lost a valuable poet. She’s now working in retail and will probably never pick up the pen, because that writer didn’t like her romance with words. Another published author took liberty with humor and made fun of a new writer’s speech. She’ll write again, hopefully, through much encouragement from others.

Taking time to feel the other person’s style gives voice to your own written style. If you can’t appreciate the difficulties and trials of other writer styles, you probably won’t long benefit from your own. Life will bring you back, whatever you give.

If you sow unkind words, they will haunt you.

A new ebook hits the trail. Oris George chatters on about one-eyed red mules, dogs that chase rabbits and boys who follow trails, back roads, and their dreams off into the mountains, until something better comes along.

I always find myself smacking bubble gum, twirling in my puddle skirts and waiting for the boy next door to discover that I like hot fudge milk shakes when I read Oris George’s writings. He has a way with words that make the story sit right there on the edge of your reality. You’ll have to read more, once you start, one won’t be enough.

Click on the picture to arrive on Oris George’s buyer site where you can get a copy of his new book.

Vary sentence structure to make your story interesting. It’s easy. Simply change the structure of the sentence, by moving the verb, adding prepositions, increasing word count or moving around the words. These structural fundamentals keep the paragraphs flowing.

Increase readership.

By including a few short sentences, and one line paragraphs, you capture the readers interest. By including longer sentences, you increase the impact of information on your articles, offering the readers choice. To maximize your efforts, vary your thought patterns. Consider not using commas. Give yourself an option to just write like you think and include some of the single word sentences that come to mind as you put your thoughts on paper.

WOW!

You mean to say, thinking out loud? Yes. I mean think outloud - er… in print.

Sometimes, you may actually want to skip the grammar rules and just write as you would speak. Few people speak in complete sentences. If your thought is complete without a verb - write it that way and change the punctuation to fit your purpose. Who says a sentence has to begin with a capital letter, have a verb and a noun, and end with a period.

—perhaps your sentence is a random thought—

Blogging offers a multitude of sins for grammarians and some of them are forgivable.

Write your best stuff.