A very Merry Christmas to all of you who have followed me this year and even earlier. I am truly grateful for your support and I hope you will continue to follow me in the coming year as I bring you news of my latest offerings and those of my fellow authors.

For those of you who are looking for a freelance writer and/or proofreader, you can contact me by leaving a comment below.

And as a token of my appreciation, here’s a FREE copy of my debut novel Coming Out of Egypt. When you click on this link, your name will be added to my mailing list so you can receive regular updates right in your inbox. But hurry, this link expires on the last day of the year.

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/z9skwwcy2t

Ready to start a freelance writing business but you don’t know how?

Have you been looking online for someone or something that will help you?

Then find out more about the Working Writer’s Club in this interview with the club’s founder and president, Suzanne Lieurance, the Working Writer’s Coach.

The Working Writer’s Club might be just what you’re searching for!
Q: Suzanne, as the founder and director of the Working Writer’s Club what is the first thing you would like people to know when visiting www.workingwritersc lub.com?

A: I’d like visitors to know that our club is all about helping freelance writers learn to write better, make more money, and live the writer’s life they’ve always dreamed of living.

Q: Having created your own successful freelance writing career you know what it takes to build momentum. What is one of the most critical steps a writer needs to take consistently to develop their own freelance writing career?

A: The most critical step is to develop your goals – you have to KNOW what you want before you can figure out HOW to get there. Yet, this is the one thing that so many new writers don’t take the time to do – or at least they don’t take enough time to do it well. They may think that “write a novel this year” is a goal. But actually, I think of a goal as something even BIGGER than that. Writing a novel is an action step toward a goal rather than a goal itself. To get to the goal, consider WHY do you want to write a novel? What do you want this novel to do for you or your career? Your answer to that question is closer to your goal (or at least one of your major goals).

Q: What advice would you give to a newbie in freelance writing? And the intermediate freelance writer that has seen some success, but seems to be in a holding pattern at the moment?

A: Whether you’re a newbie or an intermediate freelance writer – or even a very experienced, successful writer – continue to learn from other successful writers.

Join our club or another organization for writers. Then take an active part in whatever group you join. Next, develop a focus for your writing and create no more than 3 major writing/career goals for yourself that you hope to attain within the next 12 months.

Also, constantly evaluate what you’re doing to see if it’s getting you closer to your goals. If it isn’t, then change what you’re doing.

Q: By becoming a member of the Working Writer’s Club what can a freelancer expect?

A: Well, for one thing, you can expect us to help you create a focus for your writing career or your writing business. And, we can help you create no more than 3 major goals – so you’ll get really, really clear about WHAT you want, WHERE you’re wanting to go, and then we’ll help you stay focused so you take the steps to attain your goals and build your writing career and/or your writing business.

Q: With the wealth of freelance writing information available on the Internet what makes the Working Writer’s Club unique?

A: I think the one thing that makes the Working Writer’s Club unique is that we’re not out to get you into our club so we can sell you a bunch of other high priced programs or products. We just want people who love to write and want to build a business or a career around writing to join our club and make use of all the resources, information, training, networking and support they’ll receive for just $9.99 per month. I think another unique thing about the Working Writer’s Club is that we all genuinely have fun helping each other be more successful.
Visit the Working Writer’s Club www.workingwritersclub.com today and explore all they have to offer.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to your visit.

One of my pet peeves as a writer (or a reader for that matter) is coming across grammatical errors, commonly misused words and misspelled words. I am always amazed at the number of  these I find almost everyday on the internet, and sometimes even in print. And these are just the basics. There are others such as clumsy sentence structure, mixed tenses and wordiness that make me tear my hair. Nowadays, there is a trend to what I call casual writing that we didn’t see three or four decades ago.  Using a preposition at the end of a sentence is acceptable in most instances, as is the use of a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence. But there are some forms of sloppiness that are just, well, sloppy, and can mar your chances of having a successful writing career.

Here are some examples of grammatical errors that I collected over a period of time:

I am grateful that he have chosen to visit me. The error here is a glaring dis-agreement of subject and verb, which I’m sure the writer could have avoided if he had proofread his work.

It convicts us of specific actions or attitudes that needs to be confessed. Here we have two plural subjects connected by or. Since they are plural, they require a plural verb.

Your about to learn 10 mistakes the average person makes. This is a common one where the possessive adjective “your” is used in place of the contraction “you’re” which means you are.

Its time for my afternoon nap. Another misuse of the possessive adjective. This time “its” is used in place of “it’s” which means it is.

Each of you have something to offer the world. This is one that trips a lot of people up. Here’s the rule: The pronouns each, everyone, every one, everybody, anyone, anybody, someone, and somebody are singular and require singular verbs.  Therefore this sentence should read, Each of you has something to offer the world.

I was loosing interest in those markets. Loosing comes from the verb loose which means to untie or release. What the writer obviously meant here is losing, which means to fail to keep or to maintain.

Our elderly are always effected most at these times. Effected is a convolution of the noun “effect”. Here it is being used as a verb, which in this case should be “affected.” This is a commonly misused word and brands the user as an amateur.

So there you have them. Some of the most common grammatical errors that can kill your writing and your credibility as a writer. There are many good articles online that can help you improve your writing, or if you want to have your own reference you may purchase the book below from Amazon.com. It is small enough to take with you to the library or to keep near your computer. I have found it to be of invaluable help, and I’m sure you will too.