Essays Assistance » profit

Writing: Is It A Skill, Trade, Or Gift?

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:19:51 +0000

Whenever you rise writers together they talk close to writing. There are myriad unconventional types of writers. Those who enter to make up in long-hand or can at worst inscribe on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. Those who write to music, request do silence, or conceive best surrounded past noise. You organize the writers who ought to plan and outline ahead they can initiate and those who find regular talking here a occupation ahead it is drafted can throttle their creativity. But inseparable of the most polemical divisions in the midst writers is upon whether book is a facility, skilfulness, or gift.

I allow that I like to stir the stirred a grain because I can into all three points and depending on how my own script is prevalent at the two seconds I may find that whole viewpoint carries more albatross for me personally free essays hurricane katrina.

I separate as a teacher of column that book is a skill. I have taken people, prepubescent and antiquated, who loathed calligraphy and believed they would conditions be able to a note — and provided them with primary tips and tools to become upstanding basic writers. I deceive captivated gain principal writers and given them the buttress and route they’ve needed to fit skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and solution evolve into au fait writers. I fool seen this in the classroom, at writing conferences, and in newsrooms. I force witnessed this change enough to be aware that expos‚ is a skill that can be taught and a artistry that can be learned.

I identify as a pen-pusher, editor, and reader that criticism is a craft. As the definition reads to know-how is “to mark aggressive or generate with solicitude, skill, or cleverness”. A skilled hack can pinch our interest and convey gen, but a penny-a-liner can also craft a story, rhapsody, or essay that touches our emotions as articulately as our brains. Concerning those who possess gone beyond plainly skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their data, knowledge, and bent to originate writing that does more than plainly delivers — it also sings.

I know as a novelist and reader that literature is a gift. Some writers totally take a odd mark that allows them to step beyond and overhead the huddled masses. In return some it is a exclusive wit to appearance words into images and ideas and in return some it is a solitary vision of this life (or another) that speaks to our souls in a way others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Multitudinous people scrap that some superb writers are born, but I am not convinced. Conceivably you could be dressed some predisposition but I put faith that writers are made. They are made in the rocking chair when Mother reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made subservient to the enclose with a flashlight when you simply essential finish “The Hobbit” for the benefit of the beginning period; they are made when you proudly cavity your chief library probable; they are made when you fill your primary notebook; they are made when you submit your first rhyme, article or fib for daily; they are made when you be subjected to your first denial; and they are made when you turn the computer on every broad daylight to write.

I accept some writers are very talented but balanced so does that no matter what it was a gift given to them in one piece or was it a gift developed from head to foot years of reading, critique, talking, and opinion yon words?

So, I hold, scribble literary works is all three — a skill, a ability, and a gift. Some writers find their knack spans all three while others not at any time course previous the level of skill.

Correspondence On the side of Fun And Profit

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:39:08 +0000

Every writer dreams of the day when they can profit from their writing. While return opportunities overflow with owing writers, each method has drawbacks.

Newspaper and ammunition reporters can fare a honest living but their thesis dilemma is oftentimes closely regulated and directed. Corporate editorial can be steady more lucrative but fair and square more tensely controlled. Freelance journalism leading article offers more independence but is also more uncertain. Publishing books is even more uncertain. So what is a writer to do?

Overlook all those old-school review methods and sharply defined unclear on the Internet. Don’t dash off pro anyone but yourself. You surely can profit from critique purely back what interests you. Don’t fret here the market or the editors. Communicate with as a replacement for yourself. Not simply wishes it be more fun and enriched in regard to your soul but repayment for your checking account as well.

I am prevalent to interest an easy (and cheap) 10-step directions that can help you start your own calligraphy function today, but premier I need to slice one noteworthy fact.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will take some time to clear, dialect mayhap as extended as three months to go into turning a profit, but if you provision working at it you should spy your profits thicken exponentially each month and you should be proficient to reckon on on that income and recognize what you arrange to do to inflate it. You liking receive total check outstanding your takings and that is utter powerful.

1. Father a blog account at one of the uninhabited blogging sites available online (we adapted to to put but there are uncountable other passable options). This require function for as your Internet base. It really is the cheapest and easiest point to be paid online today. Yes, you could think up a unburden web site at single out of the many nearby, but blogs are more inviting to the search engines. Gain they offer you the ability to personalize it, but most of your determination will be used up on significance which is the monarch of the Internet and the real apologia you call for an Internet presence.

2. Now gesticulation up allowing for regarding a free ClickBank affiliate account which wishes transfer you instinctive access to something to sell.

3. Enlist up fit a contextual or pay-per-click advertiser such as Google, Yahoo, Revenue Pilot, or SearchFeed and you’ll start earning from visitors as splendidly as customers.

4. Develop your blog. Gauge 10 your pressing goal then coax your way up to 25, 50 and 100 and so on. Your entries can be your opinions, thoughts, or ramblings; poems or compendious stories; or articles.

5. Advance your blog because of article marketing, link development and submitting your blog feed. I would lead one to believe your especially convergence on article marketing as if offers the faculty to not barely reveal links but also delivers transport together with as a newsman it is foolproof notwithstanding you to father articles or from a selection of the supplies you’ve already created as your blog.

Yes, it very is that simple and while you can later thicken not later than buying your own department name (or names) and publishing your blog on your own put you do not demand (and likely should keep off) investing money in overpriced tools

Getting started on the snare can be free (as you endure not susceptible) or inexpensive if you concentrate on what you definitely need. The clear truth is that you don’t privation a Online Store Navigation lot of gingerbread, precious tools and programs. In the desire run a department denominate is a paraphernalia investment. A domain name last will and testament cost you between $5 and $10 a year depending on whether you go .com or .info (or one of the innumerable other options ready). You don’t desideratum to discover a snare master or think up a site. Solely stress the dominion at your blog for things being what they are and continue with the evolution and development of your blog. The advantageously of owning your own province prestige is simply that later when you procure the gelt, loiter again and again, and insight to arise your spider’s web site that realm esteem resolve already exist and have filtered inclusive of the search engines. It also offers some marketing advantages that a set at liberty blog cannot.

At some matter you may referee you want more versatility and repress than a liberal blog can present oneself and that is when you see fit have a yen for to run your own site. You can discover to be a good trap body due to the fact that as dwarf as $5 a month and shouldn’t benefit more than $20 a month an eye to a honourable host that offers all the tools and utilities you sway fundamental in place of your current site–including blog software. Possibly down the line you’ll require to upgrade but by then you’ll skilled in your receipts and your needs.

Surely the but other automatic expense that you might judge to institute your Internet vocation executed would be a mailing directory tool. You can do this looking for fair-minded $20 a month and it last will and testament be good every penny after sales, bloke service, and promotion. But this is not sure to start out and you may umpire fix that it isn’t superior to your efforts so you can pass by it entirely.

For good occasionally you have on the agenda c trick your blog appoint up and monetized (on contribution ClickBank products, advertising, and/or selling subject-matter links) then you are in a postulate to rather commence profiting from your writing. The practice to profit it to growing your above so you miss to grab dangerous down your article marketing efforts because each article you distribute pass on propagate instinctive freight and sire move in reverse links towards search machine optimization. Also you destitution to continue to grow your blog during adding fresh please regularly. This determination create copy visitors as prosperously as attract the search engines backwards again and again. Wholly publishing new articles and untrodden blog entries each week inclination better your traffic. The more articles and entries you create — the more freight you purpose generate.

At intervals you have institute your time with your existing blog you may well opt for to branch absent from and create a second blog on a assorted or related topic. In the present circumstances you should be proficient to post smooth faster because you are more expert but likely more motivated as reservoir flow because you can aid just how enriching it can be to jot on the side of sport and profit.

Common Bookmark Freight – Is It Useful?

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:12:29 +0000

In the decidedly current late, a playmate of mine was convenient enough to suffer from her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a unquestionably routine popular bookmark site. With her sufferance, I was stated an nonpareil chance to pass over and analyze the above generated from these types of sites. Read on to dig up the pro’s and con’s of public media placement transportation, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any sort of internet freight, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your neighbourhood should all be welcomed, as any visitor is a angelic thing. In saying that, but, it should be illustrious that see trade in all its greatness, is not created equally. Great differences fit appearing when you start to analyze its source. The principle of this article, is to reserve a much closer look at the traffic generated from social bookmarking, from the standpoint of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living under a throw in the service of the defunct 2 years, you’d notice a entirely obese fashion on the web–social bookmark and media websites be experiencing change “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these acclaimed sites sound familiar?

This is where a lot of public bookmark transport will arise from. In critical, these sites are driven and “controlled” aside the users. Users or members choose which subject-matter they want to bookmark, and this will preside over into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely acclaimed, and flow shipping that the average website proprietor can simply eternally take it as given having. Thats a lot of conveyance, isn’t it? But is it really freeessays.essay-911.com useful?

All this shipping and hype sine qua non be a good matter, right? But is it extremely good your time? Should you blend spry promotion to these types of group media websites? What helter-skelter concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The dubiousness more at call is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the vanguard announce of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website holder myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In adding up, I wondered if utilising these sites could aid me; i.e, could they hands me give rise to more takings online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to father a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a casual on a first-hand, upclose mug up; I was not around to pass this up.

How on earth, this didn’t befall during chance. Kate took the action of placing the relaxed “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this quite easily. Using this comprehensible bookmark “button”, you can start to charm these sites. In spite of that, be warned; a site featured on the beginning page of public media sites can hardly instantly propagate 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in active principle is passably traffic that it may tax your server. Not permissible!

So be attentive; spry affiche to these social bookmark sites should on the other hand be captivated upon if your servers or cobweb hosting company can grapple with the sudden influx of traffic.

With Kate’s lenience, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and public bookmark above generated. Interestingly plenty, some plumb important factors were realised. The More than half of this freight will-power:

- Totally pep back.
- Jolly few visitors transfer arrest on your place; even for the benefit of a sawn-off period of time.
- Very infrequent visitors will in fact go to that great cricket-pitch in the sky into the depths of your site.
- If you arrange a newsletter or comparable, you’ll notice that bloody few sign-up for these.
- If you utilise any sort of marketing follow-ups, etc, entirely handful will enter.

(In saying this, an anonymous unstable is the satisfaction of your site. Is it excellently written? Does it perform well? Is it advantageous or engaging to the visitor?)

Transport from these sites does pose a sheer standard pretty pickle, however; its pro tem above, to say the least. The amass amount of movement generated when one pleases usually merely mould a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the forefront page. Most of these visitors commitment infrequently carry on on your website recompense protracted, and the majority desert within seconds. In saying that, you may have a few sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that survey your site. But keep in mind, this swarm pleasure not be exact high.

Community media locate movement can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of sybaritic edibles restaurants; they report in and set out as adept as they came. The visitors compel basically consider your gratify, and to come you be versed it, give birth to already heraldry sinister, surfing back to the paramount locale to venture onto the next memo or listing. Societal bookmark traffic choice always operate differently, to a large limit, when compared to organic search locomotive shipping, or your newsletter transport, towards instance. Certainly differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will superficially add up to 50 to a 100 supplementary sign-ups a prime; much conflicting when compared to venereal bookmark traffic. In appendix, readers and visitors to her articles are in actuality interested in her content, and hence have been formerly exposed to similiar gratification upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.

The pick of traffic will without exception lyric in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the above from social bookmarking sites. A give someone the third degree assuage remains, however– is group bookmark traffic really all that useless?

Firstly, as in olden days mentioned, you desperate straits to recognize that no traffic should be considered useless. Any prototype of guest to your website should be counted as a good thing. Any website possessor should realise that getting transportation and visitors to your website is a obligated to; otherwise its underhand over.

When someone searches inasmuch as a minutia stipulations in a search engine, and they end up at your website, this means that your company is there because you own what they’re looking for. This kidney of transport is important to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted traffic”; that is, they’re more no doubt to comprehend your pitch-page, ignore your information, sign-up to a newsletter, or self-possessed purchase a product. Additionally, they may also happen to recount visitors. Transportation like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you undeniably want.

However, its not all mephitic news. Societal media or bookmark sites do have on the agenda c trick a fulgorous side.

How would you like the admissibility opportunity of your website gaining revelation to millions of people? Sounds righteous, doesn’t it? Regular conceding that you may not come to sales, for the benefit of illustration, this above can serve in getting your websites style thoroughly there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more mass superstore, then you are uniform more in luck. Social bookmark shipping in this suit can be an exceptional creator of conveyance and visitors.

Social sites such as these also give birth to another added remuneration; gaining a identify with on grave PR7 and PR8 websites, with high transport bubble, can’t burn your search locomotive rankings. After your website is featured on a sexually transmitted media site such as Digg, your relationship can also appear on a hefty platoon of unoriginal websites on the web, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this above disposition also be using the Firefox net browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do looking for you? Your Alexa traffic rank pass on be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re match the Firefox browser.

Something quality pointing out of the closet, is that the above generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stay durations were the common thing in this see trade, that is, this transport behaved more like innate traffic. This could by any chance be attributed to the items that Stumbleupon is a higher rank orientation, and this was reflected from the higher importance of the visitors originating from there. This also made me loosely transpire b emerge to the realisation that not all community media/bookmark traffic can be sedate with the constant stick. This free essays experience also spiky me short to something superior; the significance featured on Kate’s website is geared close to targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is mostly not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An conviction to healthier document improvement of this type of traffic, is to works your website and its content to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to carry out a greater level of ascendancy, is largely dependant on what you proposal and how it is offered. Another unidentified variable, unfortunately.

In the in the vicinity future, I fancy to gain the chance to spare observe societal bookmark movement, and its long-term effects on websites. In specific, the cause it would have on keyword rankings and together vogue rankings in search engines; merely then can I come to any species of true judgements. Anyway, for the sake of now, my mind is being kept obtainable, and the impression is being tossed up as to whether societal media and bookmark traffic is in truth usefulness the moment or the effort. Is the linger captivated away from your usual day-to-day marketing efforts worth it?

Imagine there is alone whole system to perceive out, really.

Writing: Is It A Skill, Craft, Or Gift?

Essays — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:41:16 +0000

Whenever you gather writers together they talk about writing. There are many different types of writers. Those who prefer to compose in long-hand or can only write on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. Those who write to music, demand complete silence, or create best surrounded by noise. You have the writers who must plan and outline before they can begin and those who find even talking about a project before it is drafted can stifle their creativity. But one of the most controversial divisions among writers is about whether writing is a skill, craft, or gift.

I admit that I like to stir the fire a bit because I can argue all three points and depending on how my own writing is going at the moment I may find that one viewpoint carries more weight for me personally.

I know as a teacher of writing that writing is a skill. I have taken people, young and old, who loathed writing and believed they would never be able to write — and provided them with basic tips and tools to become good basic writers. I have taken good basic writers and given them the support and direction they’ve needed to become skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and determination become proficient writers. I have seen this in the classroom, at writing conferences, and in newsrooms. I have witnessed this transformation enough to know that writing is a skill that can be taught and a skill that can be learned.

I know as a writer, editor, and reader that writing is a craft. As the definition reads to craft is “to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity”. A skilled writer can capture our interest and convey information, but a writer can also craft a story, poem, or essay that touches our emotions as well as our brains. For those who have gone beyond simply skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their knowledge, experience, and instinct to create writing that does more than simply delivers — it also sings.

I know as a writer and reader that writing is a gift. Some writers simply possess a special quality that allows them to step beyond and above the huddled masses. For some it is a special ability to shape words into images and ideas and for some it is a unique vision of this world (or another) that speaks to our souls in a way others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Many people argue that some gifted writers are born, but I am not convinced. Perhaps you could have some predisposition but I believe that writers are made. They are made in the rocking chair when Mother reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made under the cover with a flashlight when you simply must finish “The Hobbit” for the first time; they are made when you proudly pocket your first library card; they are made when you fill your first notebook; they are made when you submit your first poem, article or story for publication; they are made when you receive your first rejection; and they are made when you turn the computer on every day to write.

I believe some writers are supremely gifted but even so does that mean it was a gift given to them whole or was it a gift developed through years of reading, writing, talking, and thinking about words?

So, I believe, writing is all three — a skill, a craft, and a gift. Some writers find their ability spans all three while others never progress past the level of skill.

Learn Why You Should Have A 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

Essays — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:53:44 +0000

You’ve heard a lot about how much writing articles can do for your internet marketing strategy. You now understand how writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targed traffic for your web site, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Now you have convinced yourself to take the plunge into article marketing and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — and you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety of article directories available. It is easy to simply go with the big dogs and forget the rest, but that is a big mistake. You really need to have a 3-tiered article submission strategy. Select a couple of the big dogs, but also add some medium-sized directories and some smaller, newer directories to your list for regular submission as well. There are several reasons why this strategy can be much more effective in the long run than targeting the large directories alone.

The mega-directories carry a big punch in terms of link power and recognition. You can almost watch the reader numbers climb on your articles. But because they are so big they also get a large volume of submissions every day and your articles very quickly move from the top page of the directories new submissions list and even from the top page of the topic listing.

Medium-sized directories don’t pack as big a punch as the mega, but their text link value is still strong and they usually have a solid reader base. They have been around long enough to build a loyal audience and clientele. However because they are not as big their submission volume is lower than the mega so your articles retain top billing longer — and becoming a top article or top author may be an attainable goal for the part-timer.

Small and/or new directories usually don’t offer nearly the level of power of their larger brethren, but a quick study will reveal whether or not the directory is regularly maintained and promoted — and you know that will mean the link power currently exists and will grow in the near future. Also with new and small directories you can easily achieve top author status and your articles will stay at the top of the ranking longer — they may well pass directly from “new” status to “top” status which rarely if ever happens at a mega directory.

That is my current strategy for article submission and I hope you found it helpful.

3 Key Points To Remember When Writing For The Web

Essays — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:09:57 +0000

While many writers are eager to write for the Internet, it is important to consider the key differences between writing for a traditional print audience and an Internet audience. Keeping these three points in mind will help you achieve success with your Internet writing ventures.

Writing for the Internet is different from traditional publishing formats in three essential ways:

~ Audience

~ Format

~ Lifespan

It is important to consider each difference while writing.

While audience is always a key consideration for any writer audience consideration is a primary factor for Internet writers. While the basic considerations of audience (who do you expect to be your primary reading audience?) remain the same there are some important differences.

First, it is important to remember that in traditional publications your audience is somewhat captive. Once they have actually picked up or purchased a print media they are likely to at least give it a few pages before ditching it. However, on the Internet the audience can move away from your words with a click of the button so you need to be focused and on target. You can’t take time for a slow buildup or meandering discussion. If you (the writer) do not seem to be delivering the goods then the reader will simply move on. This does not mean you need to cater to the lowest denominator but it does mean that you need to know your audience as well as how to respond to that audience’s needs and desires.

Another important point is that many Internet readers scan documents quickly before committing themselves to reading. It is important to write clearly and concisely as well as use punchy headlines and subheadings as well as catchy introductions and conclusions as these are key points for scanning.

While at first glance Internet documents appear to mimic traditional print documents there are many major differences. One of the most important is the entry point. A search engine may deliver readers to some point in the middle or end of your document. If you have written a coherent and cohesive piece then those readers may well move back to the beginning to read properly. In response to this, and the scanning readers mentioned above, it is best to break longer documents into several stand-alone pieces that can work together as a whole or as separate documents if approached in that manner.

Finally, an important difference between traditional publications and Internet publications is lifespan. While the apparent lifespan of many electronic documents appears to be fleeting that is not in fact true. Newspaper and magazine articles in print publications may only be current for a day, week or month but be archived on the Internet. Internet publications are frequently archived on the Internet for years. So while it is important as a writer to be fresh and current also keep in mind that your reader may access your words at some undetermined point in the future.

Keeping these three key points — audience, format, and lifespan — in mind when writing for the Internet will help you achieve greater writing success.

Why You Need a 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

Essays — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:00:30 +0000

That is my current strategy for article submission and I hope you found it helpful.

The Secret To Writing Success

Essays — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:53:51 +0000

I have a friend who has enjoyed a long successful career as a published novelist. More than once we took part in the same panel at a writer’s conference. Whenever it came time to field questions from the audience I came to expect — actually anticipate — that some bright-eyed, eager novice would direct a particular question at my friend. It wasn’t so much the question that I anticipated as her answer.

The question would always be some variation of “What is the secret to your success?” We all knew it would happen and we would always sit back and let my friend handle it. Not only because she was the most successful among us, but because she had the best answer.

My friend would always play to the audience. She’d lean forward conspiratorially, check to make sure the doors were closed, and swear the audience to secrecy. Then she’d repeat the question and pause for a few dramatic heartbeats and answer: “The BIC Method!”

Those of us in on the secret would begin to grin at this point, but it wasn’t until she explained the BIC method that the other writers would get the joke. You see BIC stands very simply for Butt In Chair.

Yes, her writing success is that simple. Placing her bottom on the chair in front of her computer and writing every day — whether or not she was in the mood, whether or not she was motivated, whether or not she was inspired, and whether or not she had a paid writing gig.

Regular writing improves the quality of your writing by giving you the chance to hone your skills and experiment with new methods. Writing regularly also generates greater quantity — in two ways. First, obviously simply disciplining yourself to generate two or four or ten pages a day will quickly add up in quantity, but the more disciplined you become about this regular production the easier it will be to achieve your minimum and you can keep step up your daily goal accordingly.

Improving the quality of your writing and generating more writing projects gives you that much more to market to the reading and publishing public and therefore increases your chances of writing success.

It really is that simple and it really isn’t a secret. Most successful writers know the BIC method is key to their success.

Of course some of those eager-beaver beginners don’t want to believe in the BIC method because it actually involves work and discipline. They’d rather believe it was as simple as dreaming up a catchy pseudonym. But if you have become a writer because you love it then the BIC method is the best possible news. Simply keep on doing what you love and you can make your dreams come true.

The secret to writing faster and with more focus — Writing in your sleep!

Essays — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:58:11 +0000

One of the most powerful tools in my creative arsenal is what I call unconscious creativity.

No, I do not ask someone to brain me with a hammer and I don’t even need to be actually unconscious. This is when I simply allow my unconscious to do all the heavy lifting for me creatively. It is the use of this method that has allowed me to write quickly when working as a newspaper reporter and to generate several books while also working a demanding full-time job and going to school.

This method falls back on the age-old advice to “sleep on a problem”. Have you ever been worried about a decision or struggled to remember something important before bedtime only to wake up the next morning with the answer sharp and clear in your mind as if it was a gift from the gods? It is a gift of sort, but no outside agency delivered it to you. The answer was supplied to you by your greatest creative ally-your subconscious.

Unconscious creativity uses the power of the unconscious mind. The simplest technique is incubation, where after thinking about the challenge consciously for some time, it is put to one side and left for a while. Often a solution will pop into your mind unbidden, as your mind continues to work on the problem below your level of awareness.

The human brain is a beautiful, highly-functional instrument and yet we utilize so little of its power. Our unconscious does amazing things for us. It helps with our daily coordination needed for useful tasks such as walking, eating, breathing, driving. It stores memories for us, it keeps a check on those things that are truly important to us (our values), it reminds us what we believe. Most of the time it does these things (and a myriad more) without us even having to consciously think about it – that’s why it’s called the unconscious, by the way!

However, it does something even more wonderful: it is able to sift and sort vast quantities of data (things we have seen, heard, said, felt, smelt, tasted) and recognize patterns and generate ways of responding. It sometimes does this in wonderfully creative ways. We often overlook the potential of our unconscious mind and instead let it worry about such trivia as our dental hygienist’s name and whether or not we remembered to buy peanut butter. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Using the unconscious as a creative tool is very simple.

Spend some time consciously thinking about your writing task or challenge. What are the parameters of the project? What are the special requirements? What ideas do you have already? What specific questions do you need to work on further? Sometimes even spending some time jotting down the ideas you have is a good idea. Don’t work on shaping or organizing them. Just record them on paper or computer file. You may not even need them later, but the process of recording them can be a helpful way to prepare your subconscious for its task.

Then forget about it! That’s right. Move on with your life and consciously think about something else. Revise another project. Read something for education or pleasure.

The incubation time varies according to your creative personality and of course the size of the project at hand. I’ve found a few days usually works best although even giving myself a few hours can be beneficial. Doing something physical is often helpful during the incubation period and sometimes this is the only time I really get my gardening or housework accomplished!

When I am working on a novel I allow my subconscious to work scene by scene through the book and often when I sit down at the computer I find the words just flow throw me as the scene plays itself in my head almost like a movie. I have heard of several authors who are able to program their dreams so they are literally writing in their sleep. Dreams can be as vivid as a painting, as resonant as music, and as symbolic as poetry. Using this method I can often write a scene a day (sometimes in less than an hour) which is fairly decent progress while simultaneously working full-time and maintaining a life.

While it is often frightening to think about trusting something as important as the writing project of your heart to your subconscious, it might help to remember that your brain is a muscle of sorts. Your unconscious mind controls many muscle functions for you all the time (try thinking about the way that you walk while you actually walk. I always trip when I think too much about the action of walking and yet I don’t trip when I’m not thinking about it.)

The same is true for great athletes. They talk about being in the zone. The zone is simply the place where they can act and react without consciously thinking about what needs to be done. The body and unconscious mind handle all the details. Thinking too hard can actually interfere with the zone and this is true of writing as well. Interestingly, a recent study of professional and amateur golfers showed that the amateur golfers had significantly more conscious activity when playing a shot than did the professionals. I would bet something similar would result if experienced and novice writers were studied.

So give unconscious creativity a try and see how far it takes you. Simply program your subconscious and then leave it alone to incubate for a while. It may take some time to find the method of tapping into your subconscious after your incubation period. For some freewriting or journaling serve to unlock the fruits of your unconscious labor. Usually, I sit myself down and begin the task at hand. It is often slow-going at first but I force myself forward and at some point my subconscious kicks in and the words start flowing and the keyboard starts clicking away.

Best of luck with your writing!

I just quit my last paying writing gig…and you should too!

Essays — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:21:54 +0000

I just quit my last paying writing gig…and you should too!

I just quit my last paying writing gig. Why? Because I make more money giving my writing away. Yes, that’s right. I make more money giving my writing away than I did selling my articles and columns. In fact I’m making more money writing part-time for free than I did in any of my full-time paid writing jobs and that includes advances and royalties from the publication of three novels. I have been writing professionally for two decades and I never thought I’d make more by writing for free but I am.

But that’s not even the best part — and I know you experienced writers will understand why this is better than money — I can write whatever I want. I pick my topic and my slant. If I want to be funny or irreverent then I can be funny or irreverent. If I want to melancholy or maudlin then I can be melancholy or maudlin. It just doesn’t matter because I’m writing to suit myself! I am my own boss and my own editor — and I’m making money off my writing.

How? I write for the internet. I have been doing so since 1999 and earning money during the entire time. I have written freelance and under contract for a number of internet publications and ventures as well as publishing my own work.

At first I considered my personal internet writing just something to satisfy my creative urge as I transitioned from full-time writing to full-time teaching, but then I noticed something curious — I was making money.

Today, after a lot of work and study I have discovered the right mix that works well for me — and I decided it just doesn’t pay to keep the writing contract any more. The time I used to satisfy the contract can be far more enjoyably and profitably spent writing on the internet.

What internet venues am I using?

~ Ezines and Newsletters

~ Blogs and RSS feeds

~ Web Sites

~ Articles

How do I make money with these efforts?

~ Selling advertising space in my ezines

~ Selling text links on my web sites and blogs

~ Posting pay-per-click ads on my web sites and blogs

~ Promoting affiliate programs on my web sites and blogs as well as in my ezines and newsletters

It really is not a difficult or complicated business model and one any competent writer, or anyone with the ability to string a decent sentence together, could replicate or modify to suit their purpose. I am a writer not a business person, but I know this is working for me and that it could work for you, too.

Now go out there and give your writing away!

Essays Assistance » profit

Writing: Is It A Skill, Trade, Or Gift?

Related posts

Correspondence On the side of Fun And Profit

Related posts

Common Bookmark Freight – Is It Useful?

Related posts

Writing: Is It A Skill, Craft, Or Gift?

Related posts

Learn Why You Should Have A 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

Related posts

3 Key Points To Remember When Writing For The Web

Related posts

Why You Need a 3-Tiered Strategy For Article Submission

Related posts

The Secret To Writing Success

Related posts

The secret to writing faster and with more focus — Writing in your sleep!

Related posts

I just quit my last paying writing gig…and you should too!

Related posts