Essay Online

This is one of the most important questions that you need to answer if you are looking for a job. Being young and having just graduated from school or just being tired of the job you have at the moment, you will start the job hunt which means that you absolutely must know how to write a cover letter.

In case you have not heard the phrase cover letter before, this is the time to find out. There are two terms that are essential for the job hunt. One is the resume or CV and the other is the cover letter. The cover letter is a small composition that you write in order to introduce yourself. Perhaps more important than that, because the information about you is also included in the resume, is to explain in the cover letter why you are interested in the job. In addition, the cover letter should state why you are the person they are looking for. The cover letter is basically the space where you advertise yourself so the company where you want to work will hire you.

Now that you know what the cover letter is, you should also know when it will be useful to you. Usually, you will send your cover letter when you apply for the job. The companies may ask for a certain type of cover letter. You must also pay attention to that at this stage in your job hunt. You will send in your cover letter together with a resume. The companies will make a first selection on the basis of the CV. In the second round they will read the cover letter for those candidates they have already selected.

While you take the CV with you to the interview, you might not have to take the cover letter. The interviewer will not have time to read the cover letter at this point. They hopefully have read it before and that is the reason why you made it to this stage in the hiring process. The interviewer may take a look at your CV to know what questions they can ask. However, you may be better off if you take all the papers you have with you to the interview, including CV and cover letter.

While using the cover letter might be easy, the difficult question comes before that. How to write a cover letter is the problem that bothers most future employees. Do not be scared by the concept of cover letter, even if there are many rules and norms to be taken into consideration, but be careful what you write because it may make a big difference in your future career. There are many places where you can look for advice if you have reached the point of writing it. There are numerous websites on the topic of how to write a cover letter. There are even classes taken in college about how to write a cover letter. Also, if you are a student in a college that has a writing center, you can go there for advice on how to write a cover letter.

The thing to know when you start writing is what kind of cover letter the company you apply for wants to see. Maybe they want you to focus on yourself, to describe your characteristics and your merits. They may want you to focus on the job that you are applying for to prove how interesting you find it and how you will make the most of it. Maybe they want you to be formal or they may want you to be original. There are many possibilities.

You can get a sense on how to write a cover letter by merely looking at the profile of the company. You may talk to people who work there to see what kind of cover letter has been successful for them, but this kind of search may just be too complicated. The company will probably have some information on their website about how to write a cover letter for them and, if this happens, it is probably indicated to take a look at it.

Once you have finished this preparatory stage in the job search, you are ready to submit the materials you have so hard work for. You can either send them by regular mail or by email depending on what the company wants. You may even be able to fax the papers, in which case you may want to let the company know that you are doing that. It is always good to also keep a direct contact with the company, a verbal one, apart from the paperwork. Your interest will surely be noticed.

If you pass the first stage, the company will get to read the cover letter you have worked so much for. If they like both this cover letter and the resume, the company will call you for an interview. You may have a phone interview at first. These can be interesting because they may catch you off guard. People can give phone interviews while out with friends or while on the bus. If you cannot really talk because you are with other people or traveling it is better to inform the employer of your current situation rather than have a bad interview and not get hired.

Now if you have also had a successful phone interview, you are ready for the grand finale which is the face to face interview. This may be the stage that makes you most nervous. This is the stage for which you have to prepare even the smallest details, like your clothing and haircut and even the way you pose your body. Once you have gone through this, all you have to do is wait until they call you.

So, you see, knowing how to write a cover letter can be very important for the future steps in your quest to find a job. Without a proper cover letter, the situation can change and you might not even get to the next steps and the next worries, but let’s not think negative and deal with first things first.

Have an idea!

If you can’t think of an idea for a book or other product, get some help by asking contacts, colleagues or clients. Failing that, get some brainstorming software such as Mind Manager. If none of that helps - go for a long walk, forget everything and let your subconscious get to work.

Think

Once you have an idea, just let it mull over in your mind. Jot down associated ideas and thoughts. Produce a mind map, if that’s your thing, or a list of ideas and thoughts related to your original product concept. Always have a notebook with you so you can jot down ideas as they strike you. That means keeping the notepad by your bed so if you wake in the middle of the night you can record the idea and go back to sleep!

Set up an ideas bank

Get a folder or a concertina folder that is divided into sections. Label each section for one of the themes your book or product will cover. Put your notes into each appropriate section of the folder. As you read newspapers and magazines, tear out any useful information and bung it in the appropriate section. As you browse web sites and see useful pieces of information, print them out and store them in your folder in the relevant place. Don’t judge what you collect; if you think it may be valuable, just collect it and file it.

Talk to people

Don’t keep your book idea a secret. Talk to anyone who you know who could help provide you with useful information. Interview relevant experts and chat with colleagues and contacts to collect extra material.

Produce an outline

Having written some notes, collected some background material and chatted to people you should now be able to come up with an outline for your product. At first, start with a broad outline of the main themes you will cover. These will make up your chapters. Now, take each theme and subdivide it into the particular points you want to make or things you want to discuss.

Write

You don’t have to start at the beginning. Choose any of the small parts of any chapter and write as much as you can about it. Don’t worry about the grammar, the spelling or the niceties of your literary style at this stage. Just write whatever comes to mind about the specific subject you have chosen. Once you’ve done that, select another part of your detailed outline and write about that. Let’s say you have 10 chapters each with five sections. That’s 50 sections you need to write. For a 30,000 word paperback of around 120 pages, that means you need around 600 words per section. By taking it a section at a time it is more manageable. If you only did one section per day, you’d have a complete book in only seven weeks.

Edit

Once you have your sections written, you’ll need to pull them together. You will also need to write some connecting paragraphs and sentences to make things flow.

Get some help

Having produced your first draft, get someone else to read through it and suggest changes. Do not be precious about your work. You are seeking their changes; you want them to change things. Otherwise your material will not be from a reader’s perspective, making it less attractive. Once your reader has suggested changes - make them! Then tidy up your work.

Get some more help

Now get someone else to edit your work. They need to go through it with a fine toothcomb, looking for inconsistencies, poor argument and lack of detail or clarity and so on. There are plenty of freelances who will do this from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (.sfep.org.uk).

Check and re-check

You are on the home straight now! All you need to do is check the work of the proofreaders, make sure that your final text is correct. Stop thinking you could have written a different or better book. Just check this one is OK.

In 1865 at the 5th Worldpostkonference in Karlsruhe, Germany there was the first suggestion to induct a kind of “postpiece” with an integrated postmark. But this suggestion was rejected because of moral aspects.

At the end of 1869 in Austria there was an idea of an “correspondence-card” with an imprinted postmark. This card did cost 2 Kreuzer in contrast to a letter with 5 Kreuzer. In 1870 this idea was picked up in Germany. They have educed forms that had to prepay with a postmark though. Particularly in the German-French War in 1870/71 lots of cards were send via field post. These cards mostly showed landscape-motives of the conquered areas.

In 1872 the name “postcard” was born and for the first time firms did photos on the cards. One year later these cards were also available with imprinted postmarks. At the turn of the century postcards were offered in tobacco- and stationery shops.

Types of postcards:

Picture postcards:

The front-side of the postcard shows one or several photos of a holiday resort. On the back-side the sender has space for writing a few nice sentences to the receiver. The first picture postcard was send from a printer and bookseller named Albert Schwartz at the 10th July 1870.

Reply cards:

In 1872 the first postcard with an attached reply card appeared. Later these cards were also sold with imprinted postmark. That meant, that the sender also paid the postage for the receiver. In 1992 the production of these types of cards was stopped.

Film postcards:

On these cards you can find portraits of famous film stars and film-scenes. This idea came from the Ross-publishing house in the years between 1910 and 1920. About 40000 motives were published and today these cards are still popular collectibles.

Serrated postcards:

Since the 1st June 1913 postcards of an ordained series were delivered in form of stripes and later in sheets, too. Because the writing machine was more and more omnipresent in this time, you could write on these stripes one after another without changing the card. Later the serrated postcard was sold with a reply card, too.

World postcards:

Since the 1st July 1875 it was allowed to send postcards internationally. On these cards the imprints were of another language, for example in French. Later these cards were also available with a replay card. But it was more expensive because of postage increase due to a special handling like airmail or registered mail for example.

E-cards:

The

There are many popular casino-style games, but nothing matches the growth and popularity of poker and how poker influences society. Poker writing covers limitless topics in the gaming world; and poker writing can be a blend of journalism, feature writing, sports writing, entertainment writing, travel writing, food writing, technical writing, and so on, depending on what you choose to write.

WHAT DOES FREELANCE POKER WRITING INCLUDE?

You might think “freelance poker writing” is exactly that: writing about poker games. You might also think poker writing is about writing for one specific market: poker magazines. This might have been true years ago, but not so today. The expanding market of online and offline poker and gaming magazines is one small fragment, out of dozens of paying markets, to find freelance work. The Internet has spawned many online writing opportunities, such as blogging, writing for poker and gaming websites, self-publishing, and writing SEO articles for companies and affiliates. And “poker writing” is more than writing about the games of poker. Poker writing encompasses the influences of poker, such as entertainment, technology, psychology, law, lifestyle, money, travel, and so on. Writing about poker and gaming, along with their influences on society, is limitless.

Many successful freelance writers tap into an arsenal of online and offline media outlets to sell their work, not just to poker and gaming magazines. Their recipe for success is simple: they write varied topics related to poker and gaming that don’t just fit into a specific poker magazine, but also fit (with some reslanting) into many other non-poker magazines and media outlets (i.e. trade magazines, regional magazines, newsletters, tourism guides, newspapers, websites, blogs, ebooks, etc.) that cover varied subjects (such as gambling, gaming, professional sports, sports betting, travel, lifestyle, women’s issues, money, finance, real estate, hobbies, and so on).

WHY POKER IS ON THE MINDS OF SO MANY PEOPLE

To write about poker, you need to know why it is on the minds of so many people. Why all the excitement? What do players see in a little game of cards? Many people fall in love with playing poker because it challenges the mind; poker games are thrilling and competitive; and let’s face it, we love the winnings. The winnings in poker games, even online, can trail with many zeros. What other game can you play with a $40 entry fee and win a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or as with WSOP winners, several million? It’s what lures the crowds to the game. Once players begin to play, everyone is a legend in their own mind. The enticement and excitement of winning drives players to want to play more. Typically, players just play more and more once they discover Texas Hold’em.

Even if you aren’t playing poker for the money, you will quickly become aware of the jackpots of money that poker players play for online and offline. Many people play poker because of the great challenges of the mind. Amarillo Slim (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarillo_Slim), another legendary poker player once said, “Poker is a game of people….It’s not the hand I hold, it’s the people that I play with.” Most of the older players do play with dollar signs glinting in their eyes. On the other hand, if you read some of the articles written about Slim in the past, you’ll discover he enjoyed beating his opponents as much as anyone else.

Guru.com, CraigsList.com and Elance.com showcase job postings for many different freelance opportunities. If you have the skills to write on gambling, specifically poker, then you’ll never be short on writing gigs.

In fact, a search on a handful of job boards produced many writing opportunities, from blog posting, to writing articles on poker games and strategies.

POKER WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

If you want to write about poker and gaming, the opportunities are there. If you are educated about poker and you can write well, the opportunities will be endless. However, you have to be better than average to earn a decent income as freelance poker writer. You must know your “stuff” in this field.

Writing about poker and its players requires you to learn about the games of poker and about the players whom people want to read. For instance, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo “Slim” Preston are two old timers who many consider two of the last living legends of the game. However, Brunson pulls a crowd more so than Preston. People look for articles, books and information on Doyle Brunson because he is still an active player in Las Vegas. Furthermore, Brunson lives where poker rooms are on every corner, whereas Amarillo Slim lives in, well, you guessed it&ndashTexas!

A freelance poker writer has many opportunities. For starters, a poker writer can write from home because of the online games and tournaments. The online poker rooms (the ones offering the large satellite tournaments) are newsworthy as are many of the sit and go tournaments that offer large purses. Writers find ample topics and stories to pull from in this capacity alone. People want to read what’s going on in the online poker rooms. As a new writer, you need to write as much as you can on the subject of poker no matter where people play it.

In addition to the newsworthy opportunities online, web content is a huge marketplace for freelance writers. Writers who can write content-rich articles related to poker and gambling are in high demand.

To succeed as a poker writer, you will need to find your niche. However, you don’t necessarily have to stay within your niche market. Many writers will write on poker and cover online and offline games. They’ll cover the World Poker Tour for an offline gambling magazine one day and write an informative “How to Spot a Poker Cheat” article the next day for an online website. Poker writers like the ability to remain diverse but it pays to have a niche.

For example, there are several writers on Elance.com who write web content for gaming websites but still pick up a couple of writing gigs offline in magazines and for newspaper articles. Respectively, several notorious authors and professional poker players write primarily as book authors and authorities on their game but occasionally they will snatch a writing column for an online poker website.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking the gigs you have online will allow the offline writing jobs to fall in your lap. You have to keep your options open. You will need to apply for most of the work you get, even after you become well-known within the industry. However, if you’re good, you’ll very seldom face competition for the writing jobs you want.

When you become established in your niche, clients, editors and colleagues will willingly generate referrals for you. In fact, if you are well-informed and can stand out as a leading authority on poker, you can create your own jobs if jobs don’t randomly come your way. You’ll be able to query an editor with ideas and convince the editor to publish your articles. You may be able to query a book publisher with a manuscript idea and have it accepted for publication.

In addition, the offline writing jobs on assignment are often lucrative. Most of the writing jobs on assignment will allow you to live like a high roller, or at the very least, a low roller with some great perks. Poker writers normally stay where the action takes place, which is commonly in a casino. If you’re covering a World Poker Tour event, you’ll likely stay in upgraded casino accommodations; after all, the casino knows you are writing on the event and they’ll likely want you to plug their plush rooms and their many amenities.

On assignment writing jobs will enable you to eat in marvelous dining restaurants, stay among the upper echelon of poker players in suites or upgraded rooms and enjoy hosted parties among poker players. Writing on assignment as a poker writer enables writers to stay in some of the most elegant resorts in the world while enjoying the lifestyle of the pampered poker player. And trust it when you see it in magazines and hear about it online, these professional players are pampered.

Before you obtain your first job assignment as a poker writer, you need to learn all you can about poker. Read everything there is to read. Listen to everything and anything you can on the subject. Flip on the TV set and watch some live game coverage and learn the terminology. Poker tournaments and poker coverage are constantly on TV, especially in the evenings and on weekends.

PERKS OF A FREELANCE POKER WRITER

Poker writers who travel to some of the casino destinations hosting world events such as the WSOP (.worldseriesofpoker.com) or the WPT (World Poker Tour &ndash .worldpokertour.com ) find they can enjoy a lifestyle many freelance writers dream about. Not every freelance writer can endure the schedule of these writers. However, if you are a writer who can face the unpredictable scheduling of events in the World Series of Poker, have a great personality and excellent people skills, then your chances to live a jet-set lifestyle in the world of poker is better than what many writers might think.

Life is better as a poker writer than it is in most areas of writing. You will be rubbing shoulders with people in Sin City and many other casino destinations where money is no object. Remember, money is no object to a great number of poker players. Stakes are always high. With that in mind, remember who you are and where you are. Remember to capture the story, and not the party.

You will get a free ride pass as a poker writer if you can achieve a name for yourself in the poker world. You will have the things only high rollers can get just because the right people want YOU to remember their name. Naturally, this will only happen after you become recognized as a poker authority. If you strive to achieve it, you will know what the inside of the suites at the MGM and Paris Las Vegas look like because you’ll be staying in them. You won’t walk or hail a cab in Vegas. You’ll be riding in a limo, free of charge. Best of all, when you are on a job, you will drink and eat what you want and never see a bill. Welcome to success. Revel in it and know you’ve worked hard for it.

If you want to sell something on the internet you might need to write a salesletter. A salesletter is a one page website which tells people about your product, and why they should buy it.

You could study a few books to learn how to write great salesletters, but if you are a beginner you might get confused in this way. It’s a better idea to buy one good book and try first learning from it. Then you might get another book. But it takes time, so in the meantime you can read this article and it should be enough to write a good salesletter. To be successful at internet marketing you need to first learn a little bit, and then take action. You will learn by doing it. It’s the best way to learn. So let’s learn the basic steps of writing salesletters.

First, read some other salesletters about similar products as yours. Of course, don’t copy or plagiarize, but you get some good ideas and get inspired.

Second, write an interesting headline. The headline is very important. If the headline doesn’t catch people’s interest, they won’t read your salesletter, however interesting it is.

Write the headline in red, black or blue and use bigger font than for the rest of the page.

Third, tell a story. Tell about some problems people have in your niche. Then tell them how the thing you are selling can solve their problems.

Fourth, using bullet points or lists, tell people about all the benefits of your product. Write about as many benefits as you can.

Fifth, finish your newsletter calling for action. It means that you need to tell people to “buy now”. You need to tell them also why they should “buy now” Try to find some good reasons why they should act now. Otherwise people will procrastinate.

You can also make your salesletter better if you use the word “you” often. Use it more often than “I”, “we” or “us” combined.

Make your salesletter simple. The background should be white. Most of the text should be black. Use other colors to emphasize certain phrases.

Use a lot of “buzz phrases”, in proper context, that are important to your niche. Make these words more visible by highlighting or underlining them, or make them bold, italic, etc. But don’t overemphasize. Be selective. Emphasize the most important phrases only.

Don’t use caps too much. Don’t use too many images either. Better none, than too many.

Offer money back guarantee. It will increase your sales conversion.

To make people “act now” offer some bonuses.

Be honest; don’t over-exaggerate the benefits of your product.

Don’t try to make your salesletter perfect at first. Just write it, and then you can work on improving your salesletter.

To learn more about INTERNET MARKETING go to: .internetgoldmethod.com You will get a FREE e-book “Perpetual Profits” and an access to a lot of internet marketing educational resources.

My, my; what a Question, It truly depends on who the villain (ness) is. Are they related to the character? Have they always been around manipulating from the sidelines? Or are they someone who has recently appeared? It also depends on the type of personality they have. Are they outgoing, possibly highly influential or are they

the type that hides and attacks when you back is turned.

Yes you have to give the villain some type of background without going to far, you also to consider are they misguided and will be redeemed in the end, or are they truly going to get what’s coming to them.

Each story has a different Hero/heroine so also each one has a different Villain/villainess as such it is only when the tale unfolds that you truly get to know all the characters involved.

I will always have to deal with evil and all around bad guys for the simple fact I write fantasy, if I ever branch out into other genres I may not even have a villain at all life itself is demanding enough, not too mention most of the hero’s are jerks we have to reform throughout the story.

So do I ever want to whip my bad guys, of course? They wouldn’t be bad guys if we didn’t.

I never really know my characters until they start to come to life on paper and then they surprise the hell out me. But I imagine for those who know what each character is like or at least a rough outline does the same thing for the villain. And some times a secondary character just becomes too nasty not to be the bad guy.

As far as how real we can make them, unless you go inside their minds you have to depend on the other characters to help you build them and tell their story some throughout and explain their actions in the end. While doing all of this you makes them real and believable while telling there past as well.

I am not sure if I answered any questions or just raised a few more. I do know one thing absolute on this subject, if you ask a hundred writers you are going to get a hundred answers, all will be different the only thing the same will be well aren’t villains characters too?

The Path of Daggers book, penned by the acclaimed author Robert Jordan, is a brilliant piece of work and is a great example of the fantasy category of book. As many of you know, not so long ago the fantasy genre had been the classification that many readers looked towards for new and unique subject matters presented in a most creative manner. This is partially what made the fantasy genre a very popular style that grew its dedicated reader base to many millions of people. To the non-initiated this was quite surprising, particularly because most newspaper book reviews ignored the massive growth in popularity of this type of book.

Unfortunately the fantasy genre’s popularity was also accompanied by a flood of low quality, poorly written works. This in turn hurt the appeal of the genre with many undecided buyers electing to steer clear of the fantasy style novels.

The standard of fantasy novels has been somewhat lifted with the release of The Path of Daggers. This is Jordan’s eighth book in his ‘Wheel of Time’ series and is a wonderful example of the fantasy genre at its finest. This amazing tale of all that is magical, interwoven with examples of finest swordsmanship, will prove to be truly enjoyable to all those readers who love this style of fictional writing.

The Path of Daggers Audio Book Version

For those readers who enjoy reading The Path of Daggers, there is another way to enjoy the novel and that is through listening to the audio version. The Path of Daggers audio book is available both online and in bookstores at very affordable price. The high quality recording and audio production is definitely a bonus and makes The Path of Daggers audio book a most enjoyable and entertaining product.

What is particularly appealing about The Path of Daggers audio book is that it is not in anyway a boorish reading of the material. Like many good example audio books The Path of Daggers Audio Book is a captivating production that will engage the imagination of the listener and transport them to a far away place. Without doubt The Path of Daggers audio book is a must have for all fans of Jordan’s work, as well as those who enjoy fantasy genre books in general.

If there is one negative aspect to The Path of Daggers Audio Book, it would be that generally the audio book version of the novel is an abridged one. That is, it is not a complete and uncut reading of the novel, but an edited version, We would however assure potential buyers that none of the major plot points are excluded so the story can still be easily followed. If you do want to read the entire story, you need to get your hands on a hard or soft back of the novel. Actually, the best deal would be to go to the book-sore or online and buy both a copy of the novel as well as The Path of Daggers audio book and you will be able to enjoy both versions of this excellent book.

It’s important to keep in mind, that not all ghost writers are skilled in all kinds of writing. Many times, ghost writers earn a quite a nice salary do something they love, which is writing. Ghost writers are more common than you think. Of course, not all people who use ghost writers are going to create books. Ghost writers are no new phenomenon. Ghost writers are drawn from those vast majority writers who do not have big book contracts of their own. In many countries, academic thesis ghost writers are a major industry, providing a nice income for students writing for senior executives. Anyway, ghost writers are also sometimes useful but what is surprising in this case is why so much of prominence was given to his “point of view”.

What Kinds of People Hire Ghost Writers? Many people hire ghost writers, from owners of businesses, college students and the average joe in the street. They may have fantastic stories to tell, but they don’t have the enormous amount of financial capital available to hire any such expensive ghost writers. I’m sure you already know by now that many big companies obviously hire ghost writers to do the job of their website. You can hire ghost writers on an hourly basis or for a flat fee, depending on the scope of the project. There are many places where you can find ghost writer, Elance is a great resource and so is Rent A Coder. Just hire some ghost writers to do the work of writing for you. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t know who writes the material you see, many people hire ghost writers and all the time. Another alternative is to hire ghost writers to produce content specifically for you.

Legitimate book doctors, freelance editors, ghost writers and other professionals exist in publishing. You can also use freelance writers as ghost writers. You don’t have to write full-time to be a freelance writer, and most don’t. Ghostwriters exist in every genre to help with polishing a book, article, speech or writing a corporate publication. You can easily find writers that will write good articles for you by doing a search for freelance writers or ghost writers on the internet. The internet is a great place to outsource your online writing workload.

It’s often hard to tell what ghost writer is going to be good or not. Look at some of the jobs the ghostwriter has done to get a feel of what his/her writing style is like. The best ghost writers are wanted to work for super affiliates to help them sustain there businesses. Ghostwriters are very important to businesses; they help without being an employee or needed to pay for benefits. If you are looking for a ghostwriter make sure you check their credentials to be sure they will do the work for you that are needed.

Here is a common problem that one of my subscribers expressed to me recently…

“I’m 16 and the main problem is, I know what I want to write, but when I do write it down I just think it sounds lame”

Now she’s 16 years old, but I’m pretty sure that this problem transcends all ages.

The truth is, nearly every thing *I* put down I also think sounds lame too… at least at first. We all have to understand that in most cases you will never write a ‘great song’ the first time around. It doesn’t happen that way.

I always jokingly tell those who are aspiring songwriters that “you aren’t in the business of writing songs, but more like… you’re in the business of editing them”.

By that I mean, you’re not necessarily ‘song writing’, but rather ‘song crafting’. That’s why they call it a craft, and that’s how you should be thinking. It’s about constantly editing and re-arranging your song until you see it fit to be heard by other listeners. When you have a song down, don’t just let it stop there. Trust me, it ain’t finished.

There may be exceptions to the rule, but mostly - you will still have work to do.

Listen to the verse… could it do with a change of melody? Does it tie in well with the chorus or Pre-Chorus? Does the song make sense lyrically? Step out of the song for a moment… would you dig the song if you were an outsider listening in? Does the song bore YOU? What could you do to change that?

Now, you don’t have to go mad here. Don’t nit-pick every little knock and cranny - that will only drive you crazy. Take in the first instance of what you feel could do with re-working, then DO IT. Change it up… and make it better.

Critiquing your own song is probably one of the most difficult things to do in songwriting - but it CAN be done relatively easily. It involves you really having to stand apart from your song and looking at it a little objectively.

By listening to the song from other people ears can do wonders for your songwriting.

After you have done this, it’s time to let the cat out of the bag… BUT only for a limited audience.

What do I mean by that?..

…I mean, you should now play your song to a fellow musician, singer or songwriter. All three if you can. If it’s somebody you respect, then even better. Here’s the ticket: There is no better way to drastically improve your songwriting then when you actually begin to listen to your song though another songwriters/musician’s ears - of whom you respect. That’s the ultimate.

In fact, I’ll say that one more time so you can engrave this phrase in your mind…

There is no better way to drastically improve your songwriting then when you actually begin to listen to your song though another songwriters/musician’s ears - of whom you respect.

If you don’t have a friend who’s a songwriter or a musician that you admire and/or respect, then go get one. Honestly. Befriend one. Develop some sort of relationship with one. FIND one. It will be the greatest move you ever make in songwriting.

Eventually, you won’t have to keep asking for feedback from them because you will soon be able to listen to your song ‘through his/her ears’. That’s why the above paragraph is so crucial to your songwriting success.

I’m convinced that should you follow the advice in this article that your songwriting will reach to it’s highest degree. Not only that, but you’ll achieve a higher level of songwriting in a shorter space of time.

Finally, remember you will get better as you write more and more. By definition, if you do something more than often, you will get better at it. So keep at it and for goodness sakes, ENJOY it

Like most creative professions the question of a qualified success in writing is not easy to concentrate into one definitive answer.

Just as there are a multitude of writing styles, so too are there many examples of writing success.

Examples

1. “If I can just finish my first story, I will have success.”

2. “If I can just work up the courage to submit this to a publisher, I will have success.”

3. “If I can actually receive a check in the mail for a magazine article, I will have success.”

4. “If I can just publish my first book, I will have success.”

5. “If I can just have my book published by a major publisher, I will have success.”

6. “If I can just get my book in the bestseller list, I will have success.”

7. “If I can just keep up with all the writing work I have been commissioned to do, I will have success.”

8. “If I can only be thought of in the same way as other literary giants, I will have success.”

“The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.” Lin Yu-t’ang

There is a difference between contentment and complacency. In the first case, we learn to be happy in the circumstances we find ourselves in. In the second case, you simply settle for where you are without an interest in doing something more.

“A man will never be content with what he wants until he is content with what he has.” - Bill Gothard

As writers we should always reach for our best. It is a good idea to set a small attainable goal for the short term with perhaps a one and six year plan in place for where we would like to be. This goal can be readjusted annually.

The problem many writers have is they set their goals so high they may not be able to reach them, or they make the goal sacrosanct they miss out on life in pursuit of the goal. Should they actually reach the goal, the effect of reaching the pinnacle often serves as a pin to pop an inflated balloon. For some, the ultimate goal they have chosen leaves them feeling hollow because they never understood the need for contentment. Once the ‘ultimate goal’ is realized the author has nothing more to look forward to and they struggle through issues related to their overall motivation.

By learning the fine art of contentment while refusing to be complacent will serve you well as you wrestle with issues of personal writing success.