I recently returned from a fourteen-day cruise to the Adriatic where I visited historical sites in Athens, Greece, Ephesus, Turkey, Dubrovnik, Croatia and Venice, Italy to name a few. On all of these trips, we revisited pages and pages of history in one or two hours of walking tours. Needless to say, I took hundreds of pictures and made some jottings in my little notebook, but when I returned home something very strange happened. In looking at some of the pictures, I couldn’t remember where they were taken. I asked my friend who accompanied me on the trip, “Do you remember where Achilleon’s palace is?”

She shook her head. “No.”

Here I am in front of one of the gates of the Acropolis in Athens

“Do you think it could be in Corfu?”

She knitted her brow. “It could very well be, but I don’t remember what we did in Corfu.”
Neither could I. We burst out laughing. The only reason I could ascribe to that senior moment we seemed to have had, was Corfu was the last place we visited, and by then our brains must have reached saturation point with all the material we were fed over the past two weeks.

Achilleon's palace, dedicated to the god Achilles

This brings me to something I have learned about being a writer. You must write things down. As soon as they come to you. Don’t wait until you get in front of your computer. I have worked out plot points, scenery descriptions, even dialog in my mind, only to remember just a fragment of them when I sit down to write. And try as I might, the words never sound as beautiful or as poetic as they did in my mind.

The old Olympic stadium in Ephesus, Turkey.

So now, after my Corfu experience, I’m going to write things down as they occur to me. Those flashes of inspiration don’t hang around forever. You must grab them now, or consign them to the shredder of your mind.

How do you keep track of those bits of genius the muse throws your way? Leave a comment and let me know about it.

Every now and again I like to draw from the pool of expert writers and entrepreneurs on the net. This article is courtesy of Filbert Publishing. Make your writing sparkle, write killer queries, get published. Subscribe to Writing Etc., the free e-mag for freelancers and receive the e-book “Power Queries.” http://filbertpublishing.com

Enjoy!

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Without a doubt, your headline is the most important part of your sales message. Many copywriters spend hours… days… weeks writing headline after headline, trying to come up with the one magic gem that’ll boost response to incredible levels.

Entire libraries can be filled with tips, tips, and techniques that’ll help you write stronger headlines. However I can provide you a brief overview of this complex subject.

As you begin writing, frame your mind around “benefits.” Benefits should be first and foremost in your mind whenever you write any sales message. (more…)

I received a very distressing e-mail from one of my writer friends and a member of my critique group the other day. She has written a series of three books so far and is working on the fourth, but she doesn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for it. My friend, Yvonne Anderson, is an excellent writer and she has helped me a lot in my development as a writer, so when I read that message, I felt an ache inside. For her, for myself and for all the authors having to deal with rejections and little or no advance.

Yvonne published the first two of her Gateway to Gannah series with a traditional publisher, who doesn’t pay any advance and does not assist with publicity. Therefore, she is left to handle all the marketing herself and as a relatively new author, book sales are slow. Not an encouraging picture, is it? In today’s publishing world where closures and mergers are the order of the day, and agents only seem to accept queries by referral only, new authors are having a hard time cracking the proverbial glass ceiling.

However, every now and again I come across a blog post that gives me a bit of hope. Julie Isaac, author and book coach, whom I follow on Twitter, wrote about Dr. Richard Carlson, now famous author of Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff. One evening, Dr. Carlson was discussing with his wife that he was thinking of quitting writing because he had received such a small advance on his book, You Can Be Happy, No Matter What, when the phone rang. It was Oprah’s producer calling to say that she was just in their library looking for a book on stress management when the book fell off the shelf and hit her in the head. (If I wrote that in one of my novels you would say it was contrived, wouldn’t you?)

But anyway, the lady wanted to know if Dr. Carlson could fly out the next day to be on the Oprah show. And the rest, as they say, is history. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff has sold over 25 million copies. What are the chances of your book falling off a shelf and hitting Oprah’s producer in the head? The same as lightning striking on a clear, sunny day. But if you don’t give into discouragement, doubt and fear and keep on writing, you can eventually succeed in the writing business. Don’t give up!

You can view Yvonne’s blog (and buy one of her books!) here: http://yswords.com.

Have you seriously thought about your About page? Are you happy with it? Is it drawing the readers you hope to attract? If you answer no to any of these questions, maybe you need to go back and take another look at this important page on your site.

Consider your About page as your sales copy. It is what sells you to your readers, your target market. Once you know who they are you should address them with the proper tone and content. So here are some facts to consider:

1. Tell them who you are – your name and your credentials. Whether you write in first or third person depends on the tone of your site. First person tends to be more informal.

2. Show them who you are – You are not a dog, a cat or a flower. As long as you are a human being you should have a photo so people know who they are dealing with.

3. KISS – By this I mean Keep it Short and Simple. Write in simple, concise sentences. Readers don’t have much time to stay on any one site.

4. Infuse your values – Let your readers know what makes you tick, what brought you to this point. It doesn’t have to be an essay, just a few short, simple lines.

5. Include your social media – Let your readers know how they can connect with you on Facebook etc. That way they get to know more about you.

6. Have a call to action – What do you want your readers to do after they have read about you? Invite them to browse your online store, subscribe to your blog or visit your Amazon page.

7. Toot your horn – Potential clients want to know what makes you an expert. Any certificates, honorable mentions, awards etc. should be mentioned on your About page.

I did a major overhaul to my About page and am still in the process of tweaking it. I think it’s still too long and wordy. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Also, if you post your website URL, I’ll check out your page as well.

As writers we are always researching to find information that will help us improve our writing skills and market ourselves. There are many good websites for writers, some of which I subscribe to and receive regular updates from them in my mailbox. I have been greatly helped by some of them and thought I would pass on the information to you. I hope the following list will be helpful:

1. American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI)

This site offers excellent courses – live as well as virtual – in copywriting, photography, travel writing and freelance writing in general. Once you sign up for one of their courses you get their newsletter with up to date information on their conferences as well as other ways to build your business.

2. Bloggerlinkup.com

If you are looking for ways to link up with other bloggers either by posting to their blogs or having them post to yours, this site is a great way to do so. Through the site you can also request sources for interviews and reviews, announce your giveaways, contests and the like. A great resource for bloggers.

3. BookDaily.com

This is a site I recently came across. On this site writers get to post their profile, the title of their book, a short summary and the first chapter of their book and it is seen by visitors to the site. If you want advanced promotion where your information is sent by email to their subscribers, you pay a fee.

4. Book Buzzr.

What better way to buzz your book than by posting regular tweets to your followers? Book Buzzr allows you to do that and more, and best of all most of it is free. When you use the look inside feature, your readers get to read an excerpt from your book on your site or on Book Buzzr.

5. Funds For Writers

This site is managed by Hope Clark, writer and editor, and features articles on freelance and fiction writing as well as a listing of contests, markets, grants and retreats. It has been listed by Writer’s Digest among the 101 best websites for writers.

6. Freelance Writing Jobs

As the name suggests, this site gives a listing of writing jobs, both local and remote. It also gives valuable writing tips and encouragement to writers.

7. Mediabistro.com

No serious freelance writer should be without a membership to this site. In addition to offering some of the best online freelance writing courses available, you can also receive health and dental insurance at reduced premiums, How-to-Pitch articles, tax services and a host of other benefits. The How-to-Pitch articles are one of my favorite features of the site.

8. The Working Writers Club

This is a site where writers get to meet each other virtually, exchange ideas and learn more about the business of freelance writing. I am a member of this group and have benefited greatly from interacting with other members, from the daily hints and tips put out by the coach, Suzanne Lieurance and from the monthly teleclass. This is a good and inexpensive way to learn more about improving yourself as a freelance writer.

9. Writer Beware Blogs

There are so many scams out there nowadays and writers, because they generally operate as solopreneurs, are very vulnerable to these scam artists. This is why you need to visit Writer Beware Blogs to acquaint yourself with the many pitfalls that unsuspecting writers sometimes get themselves into.

10. Writer’s Digest

This post would not be complete without a mention of this giant among writers’ resources. With articles from top notch agents and experts in the business, writing materials, conferences and contests, Writer’s Digest delivers again and again.

So, there you have it. The Top Ten, if you want to call it that. I am sure you have your favorite websites that you frequent. Please drop me a line and let me know, or if any of the above have been especially helpful to you, I would be happy to know.

Even though the month ended yesterday, I am scratching my head trying to remember what happened in February. Where did the days go? Will March vanish in the same way, with hardly a whisper, leaving no trace of its journey here on earth? Well, I do remember some things. For one, it was my birth month, which meant I’m one year older and have one year less to do the things I want to do. My oldest son also had a birthday in February and my car, which has never given me any trouble in the eleven years I’ve had it, broke down. And after months of talking to a travel agent, my plans to cruise the Mediterranean finally went into high gear.

Also in February I continued to work at my day job as an occupational therapist and at home I plodded away at the second in my Egypt novel series. In addition, I’ve been updating this blog and my Christian devotional blog while posting to my church’s website. I’ve also started writing again for Hubpages and participating in a little social media here and there. And, I almost forgot, I worked on a synopsis for someone. Not bad for someone with an almost full-time job. Now I don’t feel so guilty after all.

So here we are in March. A new month with new opportunities. I’m going to try my best to spice up my blog, work on my About page and make a better effort to get myself on the road to retirement. Oh, I also want to read more. I find that when I read good books my writing flows better. How about you? Have you started on your 2013 goals? Are things going according to plan? Don’t beat yourself up if you find you are not accomplishing things as fast as you would like. Just keep your goals in front of you and keep working on them. You may be slowed by other things, but try to do a little every day. Remember, the race is not for the swiftest, but he who endures to the end. Keep at it!

Welcome to my blogsite, a place where I share my thoughts, ideas and materials gained from my research on writing. My goal in posting these articles is to interact with other writers who are passionate about the art of writing and in doing so, elevate the standard of my work and that of others. I firmly believe that writing is one of the loftiest professions there is. After all, this is how news and information were disseminated since the beginning of time and it continues to this day, despite the many other avenues of communication now available. So, feel free to browse the site where you’ll find articles on writing as well as health topics which I hope you’ll find helpful. And please don’t forget to leave a comment.

In my last post, I wrote about how important it is to craft a strong opening. One that hooks the reader and makes her want to continue reading. I also listed three openings that are not very captivating and three from famous, classical authors. Now here are some first lines from contemporary works on my bookshelf:

It was my first day. I had come the night before, a gray-black and cold night before-as it was expected to be in the middle of January, though I didn’t know that at the time –
Lucy – Jamaica Kincaid 1990

Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the green-and-white house.
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison 1994

The day she walked the streets of Silk, a chafing wind kept the temperature low and the sun was helpless to move outdoor thermometers more than a few degrees above freezing.
Love – Toni Morrison 2003

“Any day now!” Anya shouted, as the car in front of her remained motionless even though the other lanes were inching forward.
Joy – Victoria Christopher Murray 2001

After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother’s womb, my brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954.
Cutting For Stone – Abraham Verghese 2009

It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dalarma.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson 2009

I have read and enjoyed all but the last two. I’m in the process of reading Cutting For Stone. The last one I’ve not yet begun, but from what I’ve heard, it’s a powerful book. From the above, you may have made the same observation that I have – that only one of them began with a direct quotation and with some type of action. An impatient young woman shouting at the driver in front of her to move it.

All of the other opening lines seem to usher us gently into the story, but in such a way that even though we may be hesitant to enter, our curiosity still gets the better of us. Let’s look at the first one. It was my first day. I had come the night before, a gray-black and cold night before-as it was expected to be in the middle of January, though I didn’t know that at the time – My first day of what? Where had she come from? Why didn’t she know that at the time? Without posing a question, the author puts questions in the mind of the reader.

I like the first one by Toni Morrison. This author has the gift of getting into the character’s mind so precisely that her words come over exactly as that character would have expressed them. These opening lines make us want to know about this young girl who turns out to be as simplistic as the words.

According to Writer’s Relief, opening lines should do some or all of the following:

Establish tone

• Hint at conflict or theme

• Lure with the promise of some reward (reward meaning: the emotional reward of reading the book)

• Cause an instant emotional reaction, connection to character, and/or fascination with scene

Do the openers above do any of that for you? What do you like or don’t like about them? What are some of your favorite opening lines? Or, have you written a killer opener for your book or novel? Drop me a comment and let me know.

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Here are two books that will help you to craft captivating openings:

Do you agonize over the opening of your novel? Do you rewrite and rewrite until you barely recognize the first paragraph you wrote just minutes ago? With all the emphasis on captivating or hooking your readers, moreso your agent, most writers really sweat over that first paragraph.

To get some idea as to what the experts consider captivating, I took Leads and Story Openings by Robert Walker off my bookshelf. It’s a book I purchased when I first began writing seriously. According to Walker, your lead should

Get Attention
Set tone of the piece
Create an interest factor

In other words, make you want to read the book. Let’s look at two examples Walker gave. The first of each is a poor to average attention getter; the second is the better one.

The last flight to Cuzco was due to leave in an hour and a half. Yet our tickets had not yet arrived. What were we to do?

Here’s the better lead according to Walker:

“No tickets!There are no tickets, no reservation under your name. Please step aside for the next customer,” she said.

Here’s another example:

One night while I was working late at the church office, a man knocked on the door. He appeared distressed and had a woman with him whom I recognized as a member of our congregation.

The better one:
“I’ve just kidnapped this girl,” the man shouted. Waving a gun he stood before me with his captive, a young woman I recognized as Delissa, a member of our church.

From these two examples, Walker seems to favor a lead that begins with some type of dialog. In his own words: Note the techniques: direct quotes, narrative-type lead, clear description of the scene and its people. However, if you take a look at some of the most famous opening paragraphs, you will see that none of these elements are present.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens (1859)

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
“The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger (1951)

Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence. Luster came away from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass.
“The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner (1929)

These are three of the more famous openers that have remained on the iconic list throughout the ages. What do you think of them? Do they really spur you to read the book, or does the opening impress you after you have read the last line? Drop me a line and share your thoughts. Next post I will deal with a few contemporary opening paragraphs.

This question came to my mind the other day as I listened to my car radio while driving to work. The announcer said that all tweets are stored in the Library of Congress. Huh? Why would they go to all the trouble to collect and store all those inane lines we send into cyberspace. According to the announcer, the folks at that prestigious institution want to know our thoughts. Well, I thought, if they want my one-liners why not give them my masterpiece as well?

But seriously, copyright is serious business. Copyright infringement can send you before the courts. As an author, you probably know the meaning of copyright. In case you don’t, here it is: it is the protection of an author’s original work whether published or unpublished. This protection is obtained by registering your work with the US Copyright Office.

You must be aware that anything you create – school paper, books, music, any intellectual property – is automatically copyrighted. You don’t have to write the copyright symbol or the year for it to be copyrighted. However, if you want to protect your work from being used, copied, distributed or infringed upon by others, it is wise to copyright it. Doing so gives you certain advantages under the Copyright Act, among them the freedom to file a lawsuit against the person who committed the infringement. Here are some other facts concerning copyright:

What is The Poor Man’s Copyright

It’s a myth, that’s what it is. When I first began writing, I heard a lot about this. Writers thought it a good idea to do this in order to avoid expensive fees. But as you will see later on, the fees are not at all expensive. The Poor Man’s Copyright involves mailing a copy of your work to yourself and not opening it in order to establish the date of its existence. There is no protection with this method since your work is not registered with the US Copyright Office.

What is Fair Use

According to the US Copyright office, it is permissible to use “limited portions of a work including quotes” for certain purposes laid out in the Copyright Act, such as criticism, teaching, news reporting and research. So don’t assume because something is on the internet it is fair use. However, there are no legal stipulations as to the number of words you can use. Each case is examined on a case-by-case basis to determine whether infringement occurred.

Public Domain

This is different from Fair Use. When a work is in public domain, it has no copyright protection. As a rule of thumb, works created before 1923 are now in the public domain. Other works that are in the public domain are:

Works created by the US government
A work whose copyright has expired
The work was donated to the public domain by the owner
Certain Bible translations

Using Copyrighted materials in my book

If you wish to use someone’s work in your book, you must obtain their permission, preferably in writing. And don’t wait until a couple months before your book goes into print. If you don’t know who owns the copyright, you can do a search at the US Copyright’s website or office. All records from January 1978 to the present are available. For more info see http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf. If you want the staff to conduct the search you will have to fork over $165 an hour for a 2-hour minimum search.

By now you may be thinking, it does make sense to copyright my work. You can now file electronically for a small fee of $35.00 (http://www.copyright.gov/eco/). This is a fast and secure method and costs the least. If you prefer to use a paper form, the cost is $65.00 payable by check or money order. As an author you will request form TX.

As authors we can be easily exposed to liability by being unaware of legal matters. You can find this and more information at http://www.copyright.gov or at www.LegalWritePublications.com.