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John Lemke

The Ten Worst Pieces of Writing Advice You Will Ever Hear (and Probably Already Have) |... - 0 views

  • Take that advice beyond the beginning stages, though, and what you get are stories that really should move the reader but don’t, either because the emotions are all related from the outside or because the narrative doesn’t provide the sort of dense, information-rich substrata upon which complex characters are built.
  • Which leads me to my second point: Your story is about Gina, at forty, deciding whether or not to leave her boyfriend. Are you really going to spend half your story showing us Gina’s white-trash childhood in Elbridge, Michigan (a key bit of backstory)? Or are you just going to cut to the chase, provide a few key details, and move on?
  • But push this advice too far, and again, you’ll get stuck writing mediocre fiction. Because sometimes the things that don’t work are actually important. They don’t work not because they’re the wrong things, but because they’re the hard, ambitious, at-the-very-edge-of-what-you-even-know-how-to-say-things, and the only way to land them is to dig deeper, work harder, and sometimes even (god help you) add rather than cut.
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  • To keep advancing you have to stretch your limits. And sometimes that means writing from the point of view of someone who is super not you.
  • Language is your Swiss army knife, and you can’t do shit like this with just the knife and the corkscrew.
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    I must admit, I have heard most of these. However, I don't fully agree with all the points.
John Lemke

How I Make a Living as a Writer (and You Can, Too) - 0 views

  • If you sit down at a blank screen every day and simply do nothing then you are a writer. If you write one word, even better. Some people will disagree. Maybe you will disagree. That's fine. We also can all disagree. Meanwhile, our DNA is telling us we are pretty much exactly the same.
  • I try to read pieces or chapters in 3-4 books a day or more. I read at least from one non-fiction, one or two quality fiction, and one inspirational. I try to read at the level I want to write. I do this in the morning before I start writing.
  • Destroy every gatekeeper.
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  • Do what you want. Self-publishing simply means you write a book and you figure out how to get it into the hands of other people. It might just be you sell it on your email list. Congrats! You're then a published author. In my post "How to Self Publish a Bestseller" I write about the details and the numbers.
  • This seems opposite of what I said above. But blogging is not such a bad idea. How come? Because it makes you write every day. And it also is fun to build friends and community around your blog. But if you want to blog, don't just register a domain name and start blogging. You won't get any traffic.
  • There's a thousand ways to build community and practice writing on the Internet. Blog is one of them but there are many others. My #1 suggestion: first practice on Quora (cc Marc Bodnick) If you go there, follow me and say "Hi!".
  • If you don't write every day, you won't know what your potential skill level is. You will be producing sub-par work. And in a world where 15 million books will be published this year, your book will have little chance to shine.
  • Do the math: if you just write 1,000 words a day that are publishable then you have a book every two months. 1,000 words a day is not easy. But it's not hard either.
  • No. You used to be able to make a living writing articles. Just a few years ago. In 2005 I made a good living writing about 3-4 articles a day for different publications while I was running my fund and before I started and sold Stockpickr. But those days are over. People just don't pay for content. And there are too many writers. It's a supply and demand thing.
  • ou have to write more than one book. And for most people, you have to write dozens of books.
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    A great article of advice from a published author.
John Lemke

Use Hemingway's Advice to Rewrite Like a Pro - 0 views

  • Hemingway, like all experienced writers, showed a willingness to sacrifice each fresh layer of words in order to stay true to his overarching story.
  • Give yourself some distance Don’t confuse taking time away from a project with slacking off or quitting. A little distance may give you a new vantage point from which to look again. The word revise comes from the Latin revisere, “to look at again.” Tell your story aloud Share your story over coffee (or on the phone) with a friend or acquaintance. If you can, record yourself doing so, using free conference calling or pairing Skype with Audio Hijack or another program. Then listen back.
John Lemke

Use This Simple Tool to Move Forward in Your Writing Career - 0 views

  • It’s a trash can. Not a physical one, but a mental trash can. It’s for discarding advice that doesn’t feel right for you. It doesn’t seem like the right answer. Your gut tells you this advice isn’t for you. It just doesn’t resonate. If that happens, you should ignore that tip and move on. My teacher would say, “Use what feels right and discard the rest.” I think a lot of writers forget to take out their trash can when they’re learning about writing. But it really pays to keep it handy.
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    I see many folks not using this tip.  Truth be told, I am also slow to clean house.
John Lemke

Purging Your Writing Fear - 0 views

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    Some good advice with exercises to assist the writer.
John Lemke

6 Smart Ways to Find Out if a Magazine Pays for Freelance Articles | The Renegade Writer - 0 views

  • The Writer’s Market and Mediabistro’s How to Pitch guides both offer information on their listed magazines for what percentage of the publication is freelanced out, and of pay rates. If the magazine you want is in there, you’re set with the info you need.
  • Many magazines have their writer’s guidelines right on their website these days. Poke around there and see if you can turn up any “write for us” information.
  • Don’t overlook the insights the mighty search engine might bring you if you do a search on “pay at X magazine.”
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  • Do some searches on job-ad compilation sites such as Indeed.com, or on LinkedIn and see if they’re hiring staffers. If they hire paid writers full-time and do use freelancers, it’s a fair bet that they pay freelancers, too.
  • If you don’t know other freelance writers, you need to. Don’t think of other freelance as the competition — they are your sounding board and may know about magazines you want to try. They can refer you gigs, too.
  • When all else fails, see if you can scare up a phone number for the magazine and call. Barring that, find an editorial email and try that. View lack of response as a strong indicator that they don’t pay.
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    If you are writing for income, you obviously want to get paid.  This article gives some good advice on how to gain the knowledge and avoid the school of hard knocks.
John Lemke

5 Tips for Turning Drab Information Into a Tantalizing Tutorial - Copyblogger - 0 views

  • To get people interested, you need to start with the Why — even when the Why seems obvious.
  • A great destination postcard is inspirational, taps into emotion, and paints a clear picture.
  • Good tutorials mix straightforward how-to’s with stories and examples to both educate and entertain.
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  • Which are the most common mistakes you’d like to warn your readers for? And help them avoid? Sprinkle these mistakes — with advice on how to avoid them — over your tutorial, to keep readers captivated.
  • Your word choice has to be sharper and harder-hitting than the words you use when you talk because in writing you can’t scream, sing, or use wild gestures. Your words have to capture attention, express emotion, and get your message across.
  • To make your writing voice stronger and more dynamic: Choose sensory words like creepy, bland, or dazzling Pick emotional words like mesmerizing, mind-numbing, and captivating Religiously tighten your text; and tighten it more
  • There’s one more thing you shouldn’t forget: A good teacher or mentor inspires her students to implement her ideas. Consider what might stop your reader from following your advice … and take away that final obstacle. When you encourage your readers to overcome their doubts and take action, they’ll hang on to your lips to hear each word.
  • Metaphors help readers visualize an abstract concept by relating it to something concrete. They help people understand a new idea by relating it to something they know already.
  • Problems are like speed bumps — they slow your reader down. They start paying attention again, because everyone is keen to avoid glitches, hassle, and mistakes.
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    While they seem like common sense, think about how often you see tutorials written that ignore these tips... especially number 1.
John Lemke

Brand Storytelling Lessons From a Successful Screenwriter - 0 views

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    Advice from Pilar Alessandra. She is a popular script consultant for Hollywood.
John Lemke

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/writerasimov.html - 0 views

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    If you aspire to write, you should read this essay. Asimov is one of the most prolific writers ever, read this and know that, even he, gets rejections.
John Lemke

Ben Bova Writing Tips - 0 views

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    While many haven't a clue who this author is, he is one of the best science fiction authors ever.
John Lemke

A Day in the Life of Maggie Koerth-Baker | - 0 views

  • I’m a freelancer, but I have a couple of contract gigs that play a big role in my monthly and daily cycles. I’m the science editor at BoingBoing.net, a technology and culture blog with 6 million monthly readers. I also have a monthly column with The New York Times Magazine.
  • The rest of the day really varies a lot, depending on what I have on my plate at that given time. I have ADHD and it’s really easy for me to get distracted and be unproductive, so I have lots of little tricks I rely on to keep me focused throughout the day. I used to use a timer on my computer a lot, just to have something that, periodically, forced me to look up and think about what I was doing and what I had to do next. But I find now that the two hours between breast pump sessions actually does that job pretty well. I also jump back and forth between stuff on my to-do list, depending on what I feel motivated to do. If I just can’t get myself to write during a given two-hour block, I’m better off answering email or sending out interview requests than just sitting there, staring at a blank page.
  • Skype, Call Recorder, and Stickies.
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  • Word docs and/or Evernote
  • Livescribe pen. The Livescribe allows me to record audio and take notes, with the audio linked up to the notes, so that later I can find exactly the audio quotes and information I want quickly, just by tapping on the note that corresponds to what I’m looking for.
  • I’m experimenting with a new organizational system that I’m calling Just Put Everything in Evernote. All my research notes, papers, Livescribe notes and audio, everything … it all goes into Evernote, organized by story, and I can find it easily on my phone or my computer, even when I’m offline. The new Livescribe pen I got even uploads the audio and notes to Evernote automatically, whenever it has access to wifi.
  • I increasingly do my writing in Google Docs. Or Drive, or whatever they call it now. It’s been worth it for the couple of times I’ve already needed to access stuff when I’m away from my computer. And it helps with the nagging fear that I’m going to lose, damage, or destroy the laptop at some point, halfway through writing a story. On the same lines, I periodically save everything to Dropbox.
  • EasyCrop for quickly adjusting image
  • I do all my presentations in Prezi
  • Twitter and Facebook are both necessary for my work and a huge time suck
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    Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor for Boing! Boing!, a freelance writer and a columnist for The New Your Times Magazine. In this interview she discusses her life, motherhood and her work flow.
John Lemke

AJ Kohn talks Hummingbird, social, authority, writing and MUCH more! » SEO Co... - 0 views

  • My mantra is to do it instead of thinking about doing it. If I catch myself doing the latter I just switch to doing instead of thinking. Easier said than done for me, but I’ve gotten better at that. But there aren’t enough hours in the day. Or not if you’re also going to stay healthy and be a part of your family and not get burnt out. So things fall off the table, even more so if you’re hell bent on creating really great work. Yet, I find that quality is what wins at the end of the day and that solves a lot of other problems.
  • People scan and don’t read, so you have to format your content to meet that reality.
  • And if they share it, you gain greater readership. So I encourage writers to think of the entire canvas when creating content. Think about the headers in your piece and about the images you’ll use to enrich the story.
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  • Writers still concentrate too much on the text and not enough on formatting and presentation. Making the content you create readable, portable and memorable is what will gain success.
  • The other thing that I think was important was commenting (with links) on other content.
  • I believe in 90-9-1 participation inequality. Comments are the area on a piece of content where the 9 (contributors) and the 1 (creators) are most frequently found. Those are the people I wanted to connect with because I had a better chance of them carrying my content to other places. And they did.
  • Social media is a key factor in SEO and Internet marketing for businesses and individuals. You rock at social media, sharing across multiple platforms and gaining reach. Social media can be intimidating and time consuming. What advice do you have for managing individual as well as business social accounts? Well you hit on the big issue; it’s time consuming and most people don’t want to invest that amount of time. So that’s the first thing. You can’t half-ass it and expect to do very well. One of the things I try to do is make my content on these platforms consistent, readable and memorable. On Twitter I decided to use a convention for the vast majority of my tweets. [Activity]: [Title] [URL] [Comment] [Hashtag]
  • The last one is to not do work for free.
  • Well, I’m seeing more and more evidence of what I describe happening and believe that Knowledge Graph Optimization (KGO) is going to be more and more important moving forward.
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    Many good points about writing in this new era are brought out in this interview.
John Lemke

5 Ways to Fake Confidence in Your Article Pitch | The Renegade Writer - 0 views

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    Some good points on how to word things when you sell yourself as a writer.
John Lemke

Seth's Blog: Meandering toward nowhere special - 0 views

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    A good list of things that lead you nowhere.
John Lemke

How to Defeat Writer's Block | Writing Forward - 0 views

  • Physical ailments:
  • Mental and emotional stress and distractions
  • Lazy days
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  • You’d just rather do anything in the world other than work on your writing project
  • Avoidance and procrastination: Sometimes we go out of our way to avoid a difficult writing challenge.
  • Eat well, exercise, and drink plenty of water. Schedule time for rest and relaxation. Don’t run yourself down.
  • A Few, Final Writing Tips for Combating Writer’s Block
  • if you have two projects going, you can rotate back and forth to maintain your interest in both.
  • Get advice from other writers. Often, they’ll see a solution where you see no way out.
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    While different things work for different writers, I think this is a great look at writer's block.
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