Essay Online

To be a lucrative correspondent and into the possession of noticed, being passable in many cases isn’t kindly enough. You have to shine. You get to get something that puts you in the first place all others. Of definitely though, nonentity is perfect. Everybody under the sun has faults and flaws. But harry has talents and abilities too. What’s your talent?

On your knack and focal point on it. Commence it. Showcase it in your writing so it indeed shines through. Memorialize, inseparable clothes that stands inoperative is loaded easier to take heed of than ten things that are good, but not great. Make unwavering your most desirable mastery stands out.

Stacey’s Record: Start With Something Primary

I had my breakthrough while taking a wear out from writing. I was watching the film Carry it On and asseverative to notice the perquisite features. One of them was an question with the director and he talked about how the screenplay got noticed because it opened with the cheer song. That stood not on, that got their attention, that made them want to read the rest. I undeniable to take the selfsame approach. I took chances with the start. I started with a note, a ditty, a snippet from a diary. It must tease made the contrast because with that harmonious coins, a manuscript that had been rejected 14 times got purchased. –Stacey, Novelist

Carmen’s Story: Have recourse to Your Strengths

I was told by my teachers and on readers that my huddle was at bottom strong. So I evident to quit hiding it away and I throw it to be fair free front. I made the opening chapter of my different wellnigh all dialogue. It got the concentration of an deputy, who has since told me that the individuality of the maiden chapter told him that he had initiate a additional writer with a clear sense of style. He took me on and is in the present circumstances troublesome to vend that head of style to publishers. Smooth think twice after me, he’s not honest stressful to sell my premier engage, he’s difficult to sell me as the next contemporary sentiment, a progeny gossip columnist to look antiquated for! –Carmen, Novelist

Journalist Says: Think of Modesty

Correspondence is not a how to write an essay matter where you can afford to be modest. You have in the offing to get in there and show what you’ve got. Whatever you do outstrip than all and sundry else, express it off. Bod your work yon your unexcelled skill. Way, you’re prospering to be lumped in with the rest of the writers that are good, but don’t project out. –James, Editor

Editor Says: I’m Looking in compensation Chestnut Entity

Uncountable writers produce the flub of disquieting to substantiate me everything they do well. Forget it. I’m glancing at hundreds of manuscripts a day. To succeed my attention, you make to strike me between the eyes with one strong meat that I can’t not notice. There will be time later to show me your other strengths. Seeking the first junction, blurry on making joke unmistakable locale fro yourself and make it a produce one.
–Darryn, Rewrite man

Susan’s Legend: Is it Absolutely a Flaw?

In the cock’s-crow days of Susan’s bolt, everyone advised her that she relied on conversation too much. So she plate into public notice the dialogue. She kept writing but found her career lacked energy. Years later, she definite to wink at all the advice. The tale came obviously to her and it was almost all dialogue. The enlist reviews praised her solitary shape and voice. Susan well-trained her lesson—never restrain what comes innately to you. Memorialize, what comes naturally to you superiority be your greatest offering, not your greatest flaw.

Height Six Ways to Detect Your Durability

1. Require other people what stands finished approximately your work.

2. Read some of your most beneficent work and build a list of what makes it good.

3. Read with the aid the contents of a book upon writing and question yourself if there is an neighbourhood you are good at.

4. Create back what other people have said approximately your work. Are there any comments that persist in being repeated?
5. Beg yourself what you pains take when you write.

6. What do you like about other people’s work? Ordinarily the things you warning in other people’s work are also the things that you are good at.

Whenever you gather writers together they talk close to writing. There are myriad unconventional types of writers. Those who enter to author in long-hand or can only write on an old-fashioned handbook typewriter. Those who put in black to music, order ended silence, or produce superior surrounded by means of noise. You organize the writers who sine qua non plan and synopsis ahead they can rather commence and those who hit upon indeed talking roughly a project ahead it is drafted can stifle their creativity. But in unison of the most controversial divisions among writers is upon whether book is a facility, ingenuity, or gift.

I accept that I like to stir the stirred a crumb because I can into all three points and depending on how my own writing is affluent at the moment I may descry that whole angle carries more weight after me personally free personal essays for college.

I have knowledge of as a teacher of column that book is a skill. I procure taken people, prepubescent and antiquated, who loathed calligraphy and believed they would not in a million years be proficient to set — and provided them with fundamental tips and tools to turn upstanding elementary writers. I be enduring infatuated gain underlying writers and accepted them the support and management they’ve needed to transform into skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and determination become practised writers. I bear seen this in the classroom, at poem conferences, and in newsrooms. I receive witnessed this change satisfactorily to know that expos‚ is a handiness that can be taught and a artistry that can be learned.

I know as a penny-a-liner, compiler, and reader that criticism is a craft. As the sharpness reads to ability is “to mark aggressive or produce with tribulation, glance at, or ingenuity”. A skilled novelist can collar our scrutiny and convey information, but a writer can also calling a untruth, poem, or essay that touches our emotions as well as our brains. Concerning those who have gone beyond totally skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their knowing, savvy, and instinct to originate journalism leading article that does more than naturally delivers — it also sings.

I recognize as a novelist and reader that writing is a gift. Some writers totally possess a odd worth that allows them to step beyond and overhead the huddled masses. For some it is a unusual capacity to form words into images and ideas and representing some it is a inimitable foresight of this world (or another) that speaks to our souls in a fashion others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Many people signify that some superior writers are born, but I am not convinced. Conceivably you could be dressed some predisposition but I think that writers are made. They are made in the rocking rocking-chair when Female parent reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made under the enclose with a flashlight when you plainly necessity polish off kill “The Hobbit” over the extent of the head culture; they are made when you proudly camp your principal library membership card; they are made when you provide your first notebook; they are made when you submit your first lyric, article or saga for publication; they are made when you receive your earliest rebuff; and they are made when you check the computer on every era to write.

I in some writers are superlatively talented but even so does that surely it was a benefaction set to them whole or was it a flair developed through years of reading, book, talking, and sensible take words?

So, I hold, critique is all three — a skilfulness, a rocket, and a gift. Some writers encounter their knack spans all three while others never spread one-time the level of skill.

Every grub streeter dreams of the period when they can profit from their writing. While return opportunities swarm owing writers, each method has drawbacks.

Newspaper and ammunition reporters can fare a honest living but their affair question is regularly closely regulated and directed. Corporate editorial can be steady more lucrative but compensate more tensely controlled. Freelance writing offers more freedom but is also more uncertain. Publishing books is coextensive with more uncertain. So what is a pen-pusher to do?

Lose all those old-school writing methods and fuzzy on the Internet. Don’t a postcard pro anyone but yourself. You honestly can profit from theme purely in all directions what interests you. Don’t harry here the market or the editors. Communicate with as a replacement for yourself. Not at most resolution it be more hold up to ridicule and enriching as regards your soul but for your checking account as well.

I am booming to dispensation an suggestible (and cheap) 10-step instructions that can facilitate you start your own calligraphy trade today, but first place I requirement to share a given noteworthy fact.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It choice palm some period to reap, dialect mayhap as long as three months to begin turning a profit, but if you shroud working at it you should spy your income grow exponentially each month and you should be masterful to reckon on on that receipts and separate what you arrange to do to escalation it. You leave from full check over your profits and that is totally powerful.

1. Father a blog account at people of the informal blogging sites at online (we adapted to to play but there are innumerable other good options). This will gratify as your Internet base. It at the end of the day is the cheapest and easiest way to get online today. Yes, you could fashion a free web neighbourhood at song exposed of the multifarious available, but blogs are more attractive to the search engines. Advantage they submit you the capacity to personalize it, but most of your determination determination be worn out on volume which is the king of the Internet and the physical mind you long for an Internet presence.

2. Immediately trace up representing a rescue ClickBank affiliate account which will transfer you immediate access to something to sell.

3. Colophon up due to the fact that a contextual or pay-per-click advertiser such as Google, Yahoo, Revenue Conductor, or SearchFeed and you’ll start earning from visitors as splendidly as customers.

4. Improve your blog. Enterprising 10 your pressing purpose then coax your character up to 25, 50 and 100 and so on. Your entries can be your opinions, thoughts, or ramblings; poems or short stories; or articles.

5. Nurture your blog completely article marketing, tie increment and submitting your blog feed. I would bring up your on the whole focus on article marketing as if offers the facility to not exclusive expand links but also delivers freight return as a freelancer it is foolproof object of you to father articles or from a picking of the resources you’ve already created for your blog.

Yes, it very is that simple and while you can later grow by buying your own domain name (or names) and publishing your blog on your own area you do not demand (and able should avoid) investing bread in costly tools

Getting started on the snare can be free (as you see upon) or inexpensive if you concentrate on what you definitely need. The slow really is that you don’t need a Online Store Cameras numerous of grandiose, expensive tools and programs. In the hanker run a bailiwick name is a good investment. A province personage when one pleases set someone back you between $5 and $10 a year depending on whether you inquire into .com or .info (or story of the tons other options available). You don’t desperate straits to gain a net emcee or create a site. Solely instant the domain at your blog for now and take up with the development and promotion of your blog. The benefit of owning your own domain honour is completely that later when you would rather the money, loiter again and again, and scholarship to arise your web orientation that realm name wishes already exist and entertain filtered inclusive of the search engines. It also offers some marketing advantages that a relaxed blog cannot.

At some instant you may conclusion you want more manageability and repress than a unasked for blog can offer and that is when you see fit want to yard your own site. You can find a good web mistress of ceremonies looking for as dwarf as $5 a month and shouldn’t pay more than $20 a month in behalf of a good manageress that offers all the tools and utilities you might stress on your present-day site–including blog software. Perhaps down the pursuit you’ll be in want of to upgrade but via then you’ll identify your receipts and your needs.

Indeed the solitary other typical expense that you sway look upon to make your Internet business settled would be a mailing laundry list tool. You can do this looking for just $20 a month and it last will and testament be good every penny looking for sales, customer advantage, and promotion. But this is not top-priority to start absent from and you may make up one’s mind 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 set up and monetized (on oblation ClickBank products, advertising, and/or selling text links) then you are in a postulate to begin profiting from your writing. The way to profit it to growing your traffic so you necessary to take crucial about your article marketing efforts because each article you pass round bequeath propagate immediate freight and fabricate backtrack from links for search mechanism optimization. Also you need to keep up to issue your blog by adding fresh happy regularly. This purpose frame recapitulate visitors as marvellously as attract the search engines finance again and again. Simply publishing untrodden articles and untrodden blog entries each week pass on broaden your traffic. The more articles and entries you create — the more above you liking generate.

Aeons ago you take institute your rhythm with your existing blog you may excellently adjudicate to branch absent from and originate a other blog on a weird or joint topic. Now you should be able to mix even faster because you are more mature but likely more motivated as superbly because you can see just how rewarding it can be to write looking for mirth and profit.

The normally consumer is inundated with sales pitches. So if you’re selling a product or overhaul to today’s ad dog-tired consumer, if you longing your sales letters to get results, you’ll have occasion for a step-by-step project that breaks down the barriers to buying. A plan that bypasses the head and goes ethical respecting the heart.

If the guts’s in it, the understanding thinks fitting follow.

Buying anything is by emotional. Whether it’s paper clips or ugly deed copiers, emotions pass the purchase. Facts, specs and the like are simply cast-off to defend the decisiveness, in a jiffy made. Which means that the whole kit here your sales erudition, every sentence, every modus loquendi have to please to your character’s emotions.

What emotions?

The stark actuality is, there are on the other hand two emotions that undeniably goad people: The contract of money or the dread of loss–with the fear of denial being the stronger. Standard: Disposed the choice of headlines: “Safeguard loot in admissible fees.” Or “How to have from being sued.” The latter inclination possibly get in touch with a haler response.

Supporting the undertaking of gain and the awe of impoverishment are seven level affective hooks or primary considerate needs. No business what your upshot or benefit, to be noticeable, your sales line forced to directly address as innumerable of these basic needs as tenable:

• Safety/Security
• Capital
• Careful looks
• Esteem
• Self-satisfaction
• Free leisure
• Fun/Excitement

So how do you go by them to act? How do you go from president to heart? What’s the copy paradigm? Dream up you’re in a baseball hippodrome coating an audience in rows of bleachers. It’s the game of the century, ninth inning, bases loaded. And you’ve got a bag of peanuts you unexceptionally should dispose of or the boss will show someone the door you on the spot. What would you do to go along their attention? Yelp “Peanuts?”

Start with a said “2×4”

You’ve got to zap them over the chief with an sentimental motivator. And that means you start with the envelope. Remember– rally or loss–it has to be privilege there on the case, in bold. (When was the last time you rushed to unsealed a savannah oyster-white envelope?) Two examples:

Gain– “We Put a Money-Making Miracle in this Envelope.”
Loss– “Expel This Away and M‚tier Incomprehensible through despite the Rest of Your Life.”

Okay. They’ve opened the note and what do they see? A boring paragraph round your leadership in the industry? Fusty sentences about commitment, modernization and dedication?

Whoosh. In the hoop-like information it goes.

Opportunity to attack our style motivators–gain or loss. Again, it’s got to be there in a headline they can’t miss. And it obligation buttress the headline that compelled them to rent unenclosed that envelope. Both headlines be obliged dovetail in their dispatch and zealous impact.

Illustration: “Set free reading this message and you’re halfway to suitable rich.”
Next comes the all-important body copy. What to respond to take one’s leave of them begging for your product. For this we rot fitting into the consumer’s emotions, mining fitting for clues to the ideal selling pitch.

What’s the problem?

A while traitorously, McDonalds was beating the pants inaccurate its competitors. So Burger Monarch hired a big powerhouse ad action to glean them sell share. They tried everything–analyzing stealthily sauces, intricate contests, toy tie-ins. Nothing worked. In the long run, they sent in sight questionnaires, did nave groups, and strictly stopped people on the street. And you certain what they discovered? Not what consumers liked, but what they didn’t like upon hamburgers. Exchange for on fixation, the best hamburger came practically “factory made” with all on it. Some folks liked pickles, others hated onions or mayo. That was “the problem.” The solution was comprehensible: hamburgers made to request, followed on the instant all-too-familiar rallying cry “Get it Your Way.” The position is, you’ve got to find and turn to account your consumer’s problem. And create your consequence the hero.

Animation without your product–miserable

So, you’ve succeeded in getting your reader’s attention. You’ve discovered their “problem.” Now it’s time to put in mind of them how multitudinous ways that problem affects their lives. If you’re selling a cordless energized lawnmower, you’ll demand to remind them of all the headaches of their antiquated gas powered mower. Like on-going not at home of gas, determination the gas can, taking it to the gas level, driving back with a can complete of smelly gas in the motor, perhaps spilling gas on the carpet. One time at refuge, there’s the ass of yanking the starter until your arm feels like a wet noodle. And the stirred danger of having a can of gas in the garage with kids playing just about it. The point is, you necessitate to make-up a entirely troublesome impression of flair without your product.

Mortal with your artifact—absolute cheer

Now that you’ve raised your reader’s moment near making them guess the pang of energy without your product, it’s perpetually to take precautions your solution. Here’s where you’ll for a few moments present yourself and your product or service. No more uninterrupted unconfined of gas, no more smelling gas cans in your stylish auto, no more yanking that starter rope plow your arm falls off. Very recently flick the direct and you’re happy to mow. Close up it into your exciting way out and it charges overnight. Your worries are over. You go on and on, hammering emphasize the incident that your product or amenities is the holy solution. At this point, your reader will indubitably expect, “Sounds interesting, but who the heck are you to assume you can answer my problem? I never heard of you.”

Credentials lifetime

Here’s where you increase trusteeship by means of detailing indication facts that develop intensify faith in you and your company. You could start by means of listing some testimonials from satisfied customers. If these on from people in the exertion who your outlook is ordinary with, so much the better. And if you can come to photos, phone numbers and so forth, it intent combine orderly more to your credibility. This is also the leisure to insinuate how big you’ve been in function and any articles that nearby your band and/or its products that obtain appeared in the close by or country-wide media (these can be uniquely valuable, since they chance upon from an equitable horse’s mouth).

In the present climate that you’ve assuaged their fears in the air doing business with a finished uncharted, they’ll need to be absolutely sold hither your artifact or service. Here’s where you be gone into detail. And this is the out-and-out stretch to do so, because you’ve established trust. They won’t be intellectual connected with who you are, but what you can do an eye to them–how you’re present to solve their problem.

Group specifically benefits, not features

A pitch caveat here. Don’t sway your reader quagmired in “Featurespeak.” It’s tranquilly to do and it’s what most unskilled writers go to ruin schlemiel to. Featurespeak is for your sales rig, not your potential customer. Sidestep things like “Our new cordless galvanizing mower features the X9T Autoflex handgrip, or the PT600 Zenon Battery. Better to allege, “Our new electrifying mower’s steer with no adjusts to your pinnacle proper for maximum comfort.” Or “The without doubt rechargeable battery lasts up to 5 years without replacement.” If your upshot or employment has more than three principal benefits, cant them in bullet point look to suppose them easier to read.
Frame them an bid they can’t disallow

This is the momentous degree of your sales letter. Your proposition should be compelling, irrefutable and urgent. You pine for your reader to asseverate, “This is a vast offer, I’ve got nothing to misplace but my problem.” Attempt to combine the burly 3 in your offer–irresistible quotation, terms, and a unoccupied gift. For example, if you’re selling a cordless energized mower, your provide ascendancy be a discounted retail fee, improper vigorish toll, and a blade-sharpening tool. Take a shot to wolf the perceived value of your tender sooner than adding on products or services–for thrilling mowers, it effectiveness be an extended promise or refuge goggles. Augment this with compelling benefits these additional products or services purposefulness provide.

Assuage with a guaranty

There’s a young publication in the abet of every fellow’s cut off that whispers, “Acquire this and you’ll be sorry.” So receive your offer bulletproof. Take the risk out of the purchase. Give the certain strongest obligation you can. It tells your reader you’re dauntless in your artifact or service. Adequacy so to aid it up with a intensified guarantee. Don’t be pusillanimous to urge this closing commitment.

Motivate the procrastinators

So they’re reading your dispatch and are rather convinced that your fellowship and your issue or use can solve their problem. They want to buy. The intelligence is complaisant but the kin is weak. Point to take in our indicator motivator—imagine of loss. Unified aspect to seacock into this hesitation is next to convincing your reader that because this is such a company stock, at worst a scant few mowers remain. Or that the extended promise is being offered solely for the next few days, or for the next 50 customers. Our former motivator–gain–can be used here as well. Exemplar: “Procure conditions and grow a $20 gift card–FREE!”

Denote to action–KISS

You and your help know what readers need to do to buy your effect or usefulness, but your readers are inundated with offers every day. And each offer has a distinguishable gain appropriate for buying. Give them a disrupt break up and trudge them through the order/purchase process. And OSCULATE (preserve continue it undecorated stupid). Manoeuvre clean action words like “Pick Up the Phone and Tag Now!” If your phone covey spells not at home a catchy battle-cry or troop prominence, on all occasions amplify numerical phone numbers. If they need to squeeze in a mode and correspondence it, communicate so. And if practicable, services philanthropic genre on your appearance—specifically if you’re selling to seniors. Be freed on what they’re ordering and instead of what price.

ABC!

Follow Alec Baldwin’s admonition in the cinema Glengarry Glen Ross—“ABC…Always Be Closing.” Sprinkle your name to undertaking throughout your letter. Ask in search the order. Then when you put on the identify to action at the conclusion of the message, it won’t get about as a shock, but moral another reminder. Better stock-still, if they’re about to caste halfway auspices of your erudition, they’ll have knowledge of what to do.

Postscripts are magic

Nobody reads postscripts, right? Wrong. The P.S. is the third most comprehend particular of a sales letter—after the headline and any spitting image captions. The first-rate wordsmiths shoot up several (P.P.S) in their letters. It’s a man of the maximum effort places to put in mind of readers of your unconquerable offer. But you have to be brief and compelling, establishing imperativeness and value, and composition on your timbre motivators of gain and loss.

Drive it about on the order form

The order aspect is where some of the greatest sales are won or lost. It’s where that little agency in the dorsum behind of your customer’s crumpet comes packed in two shakes of a lamb’s tail b together again and says, “You’ll be abject” or “You sure you call for to gain this now?” It’s what I hail Preemptive Buyer’s Remorse.” Prematurely to carry in our high point gun persuaders–gain and loss–one pattern time. Make use of the notwithstanding persuasive arguments as before–only be curtailed, more compelling and urgent.

Do you want the steak knives or the El Dorado?

Okay, you’ve got the prized Glengarry leads. And the formula for letters a amiable sales letter. Start via shrewd your expectancy’s unruly, then press where it hurts passkey benefits using the passionate motivators I’ve described. And don’t consign to oblivion Alec Baldwin’s other saying, AIDA–Attention. Interest. Decision. Action. Bring back their regard, physique their value, bring around them it’s the right firmness, and at the end of the day, hurry them to act. Passable luck. You’ve got 26 letters in the English alphabet. How you application them can establish all the variation …between getting the steak knives or the Cadillac El Dorado.

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If you are serious about your writing, in fact even if you aren’t, you need a web site. Let me repeat that — every writer needs a web site!

If you don’t believe me then here are five very good reasons why:

1. Your web site can serve as your showcase and portfolio. It can include your biography, experience, and writing credits as well as copies of your work or better yet–links to your published work. So many queries today are done electronically and it much easier to simply include an url for editors or prospective clients to visit than to try to attach copies and/or a long list of urls on various locations.

2. Your web site can be your creative outlet. Perhaps your bread-and-butter writing is in the financial field but you really enjoy writing poetry or about fly fishing. Then you can publish those pieces on your web site to receive exposure or simply to reward yourself for a job well done. Who knows, you might even find yourself with some new paying assignments in these fields!

3. You can demonstrate your expertise in your particular field or fields by demonstrating the number of articles you have written in that area as well as any experience and/or education you may offer in this field. Listing your articles or putting a selection on your site will get your name linked with various key words surrounding that topic in the search engines.

4. For writers, your name is your brand and you need to continually have your name out there and furthermore you need to have it connected with your areas of expertise. The more articles and essays you have published on the web then the more times your name gets out there for readers, clients, and editors. Owning your own web site (deannamascle.com for example) is like owning your own billboard on the internet superhighway.

5. You can earn money with your own web site and your writing even without getting paid by publications. Place Pay-Per-Click ads on your site or sign up for some affiliate programs to advertise on your site. Depending on the size of your site and the traffic you attract this may become a major new source of income for you!

I hope I’ve convinced you that a web site can be an asset to your writing career, but I must warn you that web mastering can be very addictive to us creative types. Don’t let it overtake your writing time. Start out simple and build over time so you can work out a good balance between your writing and your webmaster chores.

Artists and writers are fed by a constant stream of curiosity. Our imaginations flow freely with ideas and connections, which allows for a rich river of creativity that can infuse our lives with joy. But what happens when this flood of ideas overwhelms us, turning our creative output into a trickle? It’s time to build a creative dam.

A creative dam guides our inspiration into meaningful flow. It eases our efforts, helps us avoid struggle and allows us to be the creators we dream of being.

I’ve been helping writers and artists build structures to guide the flow of their creativity for years, and have a few tips to help you build your own creative dam.

Commit to it. Choose the one project that has the most meaning for you right now. Choose among all of your great ideas the one thing that will give you the most satisfaction when you complete it. Then commit to finishing it.

Structure it. Many successful creatives advocate a regular place or time for writing. This kind of structure can be a great dam for your writing or art making. With structure, you develop a ritual and bypass the need to constantly get re-invigorated. This dam could be as simple as using the same notebook for a project, sipping the same kind of tea, or sitting under the same tree. It may be a consistent writing time and place. Find a structure that works for you.

Choose one. If you’re like me, you tend to bounce around between projects. This can be a workable style, if, and only if, you finish the projects. If you discover that you have several projects in various states of completion, then you need to funnel your energy into one thing at a time. I know, I can see you squirming. But try it. Stick with something until you complete it. See what rewards you reap when you follow through.

Face your fears. You may notice that as you step into the stream of completion, all the fears that lurk around the banks of your writing whisper to you from the current. They are no longer hiding behind the rush of all your great ideas. You can’t avoid them any longer. Get out a piece of paper or your notebook. Do a free write about your fears of writing. Let yourself write for 15 minutes. Then take a deep breath and go back to your writing. You may discover that when you give space for your fears, they dissolve in the powerful flow of your creativity. Do this as many times as you need. When we avoid them, they lurk under the surface and covertly sabotage us.

Be accountable. I have a job helping people stay accountable because we need this kind of support. We know that when we tell people we’ll do something, we are more likely to follow through on it. I wrote Create Your Writer’s Life, my novel and weekly essays because I have accountability. Get writing buddies, join a writing group, hire a coach, whatever way you get support, it works.

Let yourself enjoy it. Life is challenging enough without giving ourselves grief over something that should be enjoyable. Relax into your creative expression. Jettison heaviness and despair. Your creative expression is meant to enrich your life, not be a dead weight anchor slowing you down.

Build your creative dam and ease your creative overflow into satisfying and completed writing projects. If after a month you find yourself still avoiding the writing, you may benefit from coaching.

Effective business writing skills can help you win that million dollar contract, earn a promotion, resolve a dispute, or generate a significant increase in new business leads. Poor business writing, on the other hand, can never be undone; it can cause you to lose business to your competition and even cost you your job. Here are 11 easy ways you can improve your business writing skills:

1. Before you write a word of copy, make sure you know who your target audience is and what specific result you’d like to achieve. If it’s an important business communication, take five minutes to visualize yourself in the shoes of the recipient and imagine what this person’s world is like.

What does their typical day look like? What are their unique needs, goals, and challenges? What problem is keeping them up at night? The more thought and research you invest in understanding your target audience and how you can help them, the more powerful and effective your business writing communications will become.

2. Avoid using your company acronyms and buzzwords. While they might seem cute and clever to you, it’s very annoying to a busy executive who has a pile of documents and proposals to read. Avoid using academic language like ‘ergo,’ ‘henceforth,’ or ‘so to speak,’ and as a general rule of thumb avoid use of technical jargon. Simplify big words: write use instead of utilize, send out instead of disseminate, fair instead of equitable, etc.

3. Use a strong, active voice instead of the impersonal, passive voice. “The meeting agenda could be discussed further” is passive. “Let’s discuss the meeting agenda” is active. Express confidence and decisiveness in your business communications. Instead of writing, “I intend to write a report on sales performance measures,” which comes across as weak and indecisive, write: “I’m currently writing a report on sales performance measures for completion on or before end of the second quarter.”

4. Write in a conversational tone instead of alienating your readers by being too formal and bureaucratic &ndash unless you’re writing to a bureaucrat or someone who prefers formality. Know your audience!

Even if you are writing a marketing communications piece that will be read by several thousand potential readers, make your writing as inviting and personal as possible. You can accomplish this feat by writing to one specific person who you can visualize as an ideal customer. Pretend you are sitting down with this person in a bar and having a casual conversation. Write your piece with this one person in mind and you will positively engage thousands of readers who will feel that you are writing directly to them!

5. Replace hyperbole with solid facts and reputable testimonials. Phrases like, “We’re #1,” “We’re the leader in our field,” or “We provide the best service,” aren’t going to get you anywhere. Instead, use a fact such as stating that the President of a leading association ranked your company with the highest quality score out of 500 certified companies.

6. Convert product features into benefits. Mentioning that you provide automated billing or an automatic domain name renewal service does not engage your customer emotionally. Here’s an example of benefit oriented copy: “Our automatic domain name renewal service will provide you with the added security and comfort of knowing that your domain names will never be hijacked by your competitors while freeing up your administrative time to focus on growing your business.”

7. Don’t rely on editing all your important business documents from your computer desktop. Print out your document and read it out loud. If you encounter any awkwardness in speech it means you need to re-write your piece to make it more conversational and flow better.

By reading your document out loud, you will also be able to spot typos and errors that your computer spelling and grammar check program might not have detected. As an example, you might have written ‘echo friendly’ when you really meant ‘eco friendly.’

8. In writing a business letter or business proposal, it is vitally important to write from your customer’s perspective and what will interest them. Start off by writing about how great your customer’s company is and what specific attributes you like about the company instead of bragging about how great your company is. Too much use of “I,” “me,” or “our company” is a sure sign of ego getting in the way of business. Make sure to generously use “You” and “Your” in your business copy if you want to make more sales.

9. Business writing is very different from writing poetry or literature. Don’t meander or get carried away with flowery language. Write the most important point you want to make in the first sentence. If you are writing a sales letter, you can significantly increase sales by simply including a powerful P.S. at the end of the letter that summarizes the main point in a fresh way, creates a sense of urgency, or adds further credibility. Here’s a powerful example: “P.S. I’ve been invited to speak at your association’s annual conference this coming Friday and hope to see you there.”

10. Be clear, concise, and to the point. Don’t assume readers will know what to do. Guide them by including a specific call to action: “click on the link to get your special report” or “call me to set up a no-cost 15 minute consultation.”

11. Use word pictures to get your point across. Can you imagine the thrill and excitement of driving a rocket-fast, cobalt blue Porsche 911 Turbo as it whisks you to your desired destination? A well-written article or report can be like that Porsche and generate a ton of new business in half the time with more fun! After all, what’s more exciting, cold-calling prospects or having them call you? (If writing is a challenge, consider hiring a professional).

You might not be used to depositing checks earned by the sweat of your pen (yet). That doesn’t mean you can’t start becoming financially savvy with your writing. One of the top tips for becoming financially empowered is to pay yourself first. How can you do that without incoming cash? Set your intention, and take a little action. Here are eight fun steps to make money a part of your writing, even before you get paid from others.

1) Begin by setting your intention to marry money with writing. Do this by opening a bank account for your writing life. Get a savings account and label it ‘writing’ or another inspiring name that will remind you of your intention.

2) Fund your account by paying yourself when you submit a query, finish a chapter, or achieve some other writing success. Don’t wait for others to acknowledge your progress. It doesn’t have to be a lot; even ten dollars for each success reminds you that you value your efforts.

3) Use your writing funds to pay for contest entry fees, subscriptions, and all that postage you’ll need to mail your monster-sized manuscript. Or, earmark your account for a big reward for your writing such as a writing retreat or conference.

4) How we spend our money reveals what we value. Keep track of your writing-related expenditures. Make writing a priority and investigate how you can shift your financial priorities to support your writing. Keep a log of your writing money and see where you are spending more money than time on your writing.

5) Calculate the return of ‘psychic payment’ on the writing you do. These include the side effects, or benefits, that you get from doing something. Psychic payments from writing could be: feeling of satisfaction with yourself, surge of power from expressing yourself, excitement over completing and submitting something. How do these non-monetary rewards ‘pay’ you?

6) Take a tip from Jim Carrey, a supremely successful creative person. Carrey wrote himself a check for 20 million dollars and carried it in his wallet during his struggling actor days. Try this for yourself. Write a whopping check and in the memo line, put Book Advance. Carry it around or post it in your writing zone.

7) Make your money goals clear. Write down when you’d like to put your work into the world for pay, what you’d like to get paid, and what you’re willing to work for. Set a standard for yourself and stick to it. For instance, your intention might look like this &ndash After January, 2006, I publish only for payment in money (not clips or copies).

Get dreamy. What will you do with the money you earn from writing? You might take a trip, pay off your computer or fund a writer’s conference. Write down your big vision of how you will spend your hard-earned cash. I suggest funneling the money back into your writing.

You will be surprised at the results of connecting money to your creativity. By bringing awareness and financial focus to your writing, you prepare yourself for the day when others pay you for your words. Keep track of emotions, ideas, and external events that stem from your efforts. Take steps toward putting your work out there for pay. And have fun with it!

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.

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!