7 Places to Find Great Story Illustrations

The stories you tell in your self-help book must have meaning to your audience. What kind of stories will interest them, provide them with hope and motivate them to move forward in their lives? The answer is "stories about people like them."

Think about what your audience looks like, believes, rejects, and values. Remember their age, gender, and other relevant characteristics. Most importantly, get in touch with their more difficult emotions: discouragement, frustration, guilt, shame and so forth. Then concentrate on the feelings you want them to feel: hope, competency, success and pride in a job well done. The more you understand your audience, how they think, what moves and motivates them, the better you will be at selecting most compelling stories.

Where can you find relevant stories?
I've used stories in all of my books and no doubt your favorite self-help book authors have as well. You may have wondered when reading self-help books, where do these stories come from? Stories can be found all around you. Let's start with your story and how you can use it in your book.

1. Your story
If you want to develop a more intimate relationship you're your readers, it's a good to include it at the beginning of your book, such as in your introduction or in the first chapter. In Take the U Out of Clutter, Mark Brunetz and I each told our stories in the first chapter. You can also include snippets of your story throughout the book when your experiences are relevant.

Since your story is about you, it can be one of the easiest ways to illustrate your message. Most readers are curious about the author's experiences. Occasionally, authors get overly obsessed with themselves and turn off their readers. But one of the most effectively way to create a personal connection between yourself and your readers is to describe your own foibles and achievements, and poke a little fun at yourself.

2. Your story in disguise
In addition to including stories about yourself, you can disguise your experiences and present the story as if it happened to someone else. In my first book, When Helping You Is Hurting Me, the clients I described were actually based on my own issues, inner conflicts and challenges. To the extent that the stories reflected my personal experiences, they were "true". But I embodied these aspects in characters that I created.

A word of warning belongs here:Because an engaging story centers on conflict, your story will often include other people. Be careful about telling someone else's story without their permission. Yes, you may have gone through a divorce and you want to draw from that experience. But chances are your ex won't be too keen on you exposing his or her personal life for all the world to see. If you use someone else's story in a way that can be identified, whether it's a part of your story or not, it's important that you get a signed release form that person.

3. Observation
Where else can you find stories? From both your personal and professional worlds. You can include stories from your clients, patients and customers. No doubt someone in your family has had an experience relevant to your topic. Round this out with experiences your friends have had and there's quite a large pool to draw from. As with the previous section, stories that are about other people should be told only once a signed release form is obtained.

4. Interviews
I've interviewed hundreds of people over my career for the specific purpose of getting real stories to include in my books. I bend over backwards to make sure that those I interview are happy with the way they are portrayed.

I've never had any difficulty with using real stories because I work so closely with those I interview, and I have everyone sign a release form. However, it only takes one disgruntled person to file a law suit, and who has time for that? Search online for sample forms, or request that your publishing house provide you with appropriate forms. But it is a good idea to get something in writing as close to the beginning of the project as possible.

5. Someone else's story in disguise
A way to sidestep having to get signed release forms is to disguise the identity of the people in the story. Similar to basing the stories and characters in your own story, you can change specific features such as gender, location, age, and their relationship to you. It's important to change enough of the features so that no one, even those closest to you, can figure out who you're referring to.

6. Composites
Another popular way to get the stories you need while protecting confidentiality and privacy is to combine features from two or more people you know. This can be helpful if the true story doesn't illustrate the point you want to make as well as you'd like. Often, reality doesn't fit into the nice, tidy categories we authors have created. As long as you're up front with your audience about the nature of your stories, you can blend several people into one illustration.

7. Pure Fiction
There is a fine line between creating a composite and writing pure fiction. Basic honesty would restrict you from "making up" success stories when, in fact, no one has ever been helped by your program. It's unethical to claim that Mary lost 50 pounds when no one has ever lost that much weight on your diet, or to report that your conflict resolution program saved Charlie and Pamela's marriage when your clients have ended up divorced. Create your composite stories carefully, with a keen eye on illustrating what is true. You can run into problems if your stories are more fiction than genuine experiences people have had.

Acknowledge your story process
I'm often asked by readers I meet if the stories in my books are true. Since readers often identify with the people in the stories, they are naturally curious about how "real" these people are. I tell them the truth, whatever that may be for the book in question. Sometimes all of the characters are parts of myself, some stories give identifying features and I use people's real names, and some of my stories are based in fact but told in a way that is not exploitive. I've never had anyone express concern about the stories I've used as long as I'm up front with them. To strengthen the credibility of your stories, I recommend that you acknowledge your process somewhere in the book.

To learn how to get your book published download my free article, "The 3 Most Important Questions You Must Answer to Land a Book Contract" at http://www.carmenreneeberry.com/untitled16.html

Carmen Berry, MSW is a New York Times bestselling author who has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years. Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It's okay to be a first-time author as long as you don't act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

6 Steps to Easy Story Writing

I've never met a writer who was thrilled to stare at a blank computer screen or piece of paper and start writing. It's always easier to add to, take away from, and modify existing material than to agonize over trying to write the perfect, but ever allusive, first sentence.

With this in mind, I suggest that you start somewhere in the middle with the part that is the easiest to write. Don't make writing harder than it needs to be. My steps will make story-telling as trouble-free as possible.

1. Pick one chapter that is the easiest to write
Writer's block, that dreaded period of time when we writers can't think of anything to say, is often the result of our making the writing process harder than it needs to be. Don't make up rules such as "I must start at the beginning" to be a good writer. Instead, make up the rule, "I will start wherever it's easiest for me."

2. Pick one story in the "easiest" chapter that is the easiest to write.
How do you know which of the stories you want to tell in this chapter will be the easiest to write? That's really up to you. A story might be the easiest because it no longer tags unpleasant emotions. On the other hand, the story might seem easier because it does tag your emotions, making it a dynamic and appealing place to start. Choose the story that is "easiest" for you.
3. Pick one part of the "easiest" story in the "easiest" chapter that is the easiest to write.
If the words flow easily, feel free to start at the beginning and write through to the end. But if you aren't sure where to start, then my advice is to start somewhere in the middle. Pick the least intimidating part of the story and start there. Remember, you're not writing a final draft. Your goal is to write the first draft of a story that your readers can emotionally and intellectually identify with.

4. Write the beginning and end of your story
Now that you are on a roll, go ahead and include the beginning and end of the story. Let the reader know how the story characters' lives were before, during and after your story ends.

5. Plump up your story
It's important to add details that make the story easy to read and hard to forget. This can be done by including details rooted in the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These touches will help readers more fully experience the story for themselves. There's no need to overdo it. But adding an adjective here and there will make the story much more interesting, and more helpful, to read.

In addition to the five senses, the story needs to convey emotions appropriate to the characters' situation. Your readers will more easily identify with a character who conveys authentic emotion. A character who has yet to understand and apply your program can be distressed-through the thick crease between his eyes, slumped shoulders, or loud and angry voice. After discovering the benefits of your system, a character can have spring in her step or hum a song.

6. Smooth it out
Having added words during the plumping stage, it's time to edit your story. Check the lengths of your sentences. Make them as short as you can without sounding like a preschool story book. Take out any distracting detail so that the story can make its point clearly.

To learn how to get your book published download my free article, "The 3 Most Important Questions You Must Answer to Land a Book Contract" at http://www.carmenreneeberry.com/untitled16.html

Carmen Berry, MSW is a New York Times bestselling author who has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years. Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It's okay to be a first-time author as long as you don't act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

How Many Stories Do You Need in Your Book?

As you might suspect, there are no hard and fast rules about how many stories to include, what length they should be or who tells them. A book can include long and short stories, told by you or others. Some authors set up a standardized way their chapters will be structured, and place their stories at regular intervals. Others allow themselves a lot of latitude by using different chapter structures with un-standardized need for stories. We'll take a look at two books that illustrate the difference between these styles:

Take the U Out of Clutter
I will use the book I co-authored with Mark Brunetz, Emmy award-winning co-host of Clean House on Style Network. Our book was divided into three sections and we used a different structure in each part:
Part One: You Make the Meaning / We used the Developmental Model
Part Two: Stories That Hold Us All Back / We used the Modular Model
Part Three: Clear the Clutter from the Inside Out / We used the Step-by-step Model
Even though the book used different types of book structure, our chapters followed a similar pattern, except for the first and last chapters. In the first chapter, we introduced ourselves and told our own stories about clutter to engage the reader. In the last chapter we briefly summarized the book and invited readers to contact us through our web sites.

For the chapters in between, we selected one story to be used throughout that chapter. Usually the story opened the chapter, but occasionally we made a few points prior to starting the story. Each story was presented in the first person by the main character in that story and a client of Mark's and included details of their interaction. The stories we used were based on real clients that Mark or I had worked with, but the identifying features were changed. Our chapters were short and easy to read with a structure that followed this basic pattern:

* Opening Story
* 2 or more points we presented that were identified by chapter subheads
* Practices to Live Out, Follow, or Apply (Exercises)
* Affirmations

Here is the opening of chapter 7: Sort Your Stories, Not Your Stuff
An airline pilot who has traveled the world many times over, Jorge has collected souvenirs from every place he has flown. When we met him, many of these items were still in their boxes, unopened. In addition to his stash of mementos, Jorge's garage held furniture, boxes of photos, gardening tools, and just plain junk.

Jorge told us:
I know that Mark has worked with a lot of people with clutter problems, but I think even he was surprised at how many things I was able to get into my garage. My wife, Arianna, is so irritated with me. We just bought her a new car and she wants to be able to park it in the garage. She told me if I didn't have it cleaned out by her deadline, she'd call in an expert. I missed the deadline. The next thing I new, Mark was here
Mark said, "Don't worry, Jorge. We'll get this garage in order in no time."
I liked his optimism but I had one question. "Where do we start?"

So, how many stories did Mark and I need for our book? We needed our two stories and then one story for chapters 2 - 15. Due to the fact that our book was highly structured, it was very easy to determine how many stories we needed. We needed 13 stories.

4-Hour Workweek
In contrast, is the 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Tim writes with high-powered sales energy from start to finish, with a style all his own. Before his first chapter, he includes three introductory pieces that focused on his personal success story. Due to their unique nature, each piece had its own structure. They are:
FAQ-Doubters Read This
My Story and Why You Need This Book
Chronology of a Pathology
The remainder of his book is divided into four steps. The first letter of the titles of each section spell out the word DEAL. His last chapter is three pages long. It starts with an email, has a few remarks from Tim and then ends with a poem.
After the "last chapter" he includes a reading list and 7 bonus chapters. When you flip to the back of the book to read these bonus chapters, Tim informs you that in order to get them, you'll have to visit his web site. Very clever.

Without following the rules too stringently, most of his chapters are short, usually opening with a quote with two or more subheads. He ends most of his chapters with "Q&A: Questions and Actions" in which he gives assignments, answers FAQ and gives a pep talk to the reader. The stories Ferriss includes, and the way they are presented, are as varied as the rest of his book. Some chapters are devoted to one person's story. Other chapters he uses snippets of he tells in the first or third person.

Here's a short sample:
I once asked my mom how she decided when to have her first child, little ol' me. The answer was simple: "It was something we wanted, and we decided there was no point in putting it off. The timing is never right to have a baby." And so it is.

How many stories did Ferriss need? Since he used so many different approaches throughout his book, it would be very hard to predict all of the stories included. If your book follows in Ferriss's footsteps, a more accurate way of determining the number of stories you will need is to walk through a chapter and make a notation whenever you think one is needed.

The choice is yours to make. Will you use different stories in every chapter? Will you use one story per chapter? Will you use the same stories in all of your chapters? Decide upon a story strategy that aids your reader to better understand and apply your program.
Writing stories is my favorite part of authoring a self-help book. They bring a dimension of real life drama into an otherwise "instructional" narrative.

To learn how to get your book published download my free article, "The 3 Most Important Questions You Must Answer to Land a Book Contract" at http://www.carmenreneeberry.com/untitled16.html

Carmen Berry, MSW is a New York Times bestselling author who has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years. Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It's okay to be a first-time author as long as you don't act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

The Right Words Work Wonders!

It's taken me a while to get here but I'm starting to believe that almost everything in life comes down to marketing and almost everything in marketing comes down to how well we use language.

Whether we're selling a product or encouraging employees to take part in an important new program, we choose a goal, select a delivery method and create some urgency around motivating the response we want. Although the process is simple, the approach is an art form. Few of us have unlimited resources and choices must be made: do we launch an intranet marketing campaign or print more brochures? Develop a blog or stage an event?

Results matter.

I have a standard five-step process for organizing my material before I even start the writing part and I use it for everything from speeches to web content. Here it is:

1. Set your goals
2. Define your audience
3. Collect your facts
4. Organize your information
5. Check for what's missing

With that structure in place it's much easier to create the strategic language I need to ensure my work meets a client's need for effective communication.

Strategic language, gainfully employed, is always crucial: good writing might fly under the radar but bad writing never does and your prospective customer, group member, supporter or employee won't hang around if they're bored or confused. What's worse, you won't get the outcome you want. Create a new podcast? Of course! But for pity's sake organize your text properly and make it sing so once you're basking in all that attention your message is credible and convincing - so you will be too.

If hiring a professional copywriter isn't in the plans, learn as much as you can about writing well or designate someone within your organization to take over the important task of getting your message out effectively. The right words work!

Susan Crossman is a career writer who promotes excellence in communication through writing with clarity. With nearly three decades of experience in journalism, PR, corporate communications and marketing, she has perfected a highly versatile skillset that blends visionary thinking with attention to detail.

If you'd like to receive Susan's "Spotlight on Speeches" - a step-by-step guide to writing a solid speech for audience appreciation -- please head to her website and download it from the large "SPEECH" icon in the left-hand column near the bottom of the page: http://www.crossmancommunications.com/

3 Tips to Writing a Sensational Chapter Opening

Life is difficult.

So starts one of the best self-help books ever written, in my estimation, The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck. I've heard dozens of people quote this opening line, as if everyone who has read this amazing book were part of a special club. When anyone says, "Life is difficult," other members of that club smile and nod in agreement. It doesn't get much better than this.

As you can see, the first few words of your book will influence whether or not you will turn a book browser into a buyer and ultimately into a reader and fan. If a prospective buyer is reading your first chapter, he or she has taken a little tour of your book-first a perusal of the front cover and then the back cover. If there's interest, the table of contents is often the next thing to be read. If after looking over the book's contents the prospective buyer's interest is growing, the next step is often to turn to the first chapter.
A good opening will draw you in. You find yourself thinking, "Oh, yes. I want to know more." A great opening can consist of a few words, a long story or anything in between as long as you persuade the reader to keep reading. Books with ho-hum beginnings are often returned to the shelf. Books that grab the reader in the first few lines are books more likely to be bought.

3 Kinds of Chapter Openings
Most self-help books start with one of these three beginnings:

1. Dramatic statement
Starting your chapter with a dramatic statement can draw a reader right into your book. Dramatic statements come in several varieties:

* A statement that you write
Let me quote M. Scott Peck's opening in its entirety, starting with the chapter title: Problems and Pain
"Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."
Most of us who read self-help books expect good news-a new way to conquer the old troubling situations, so Peck first statement surprises us. Being told that life is difficult is not what we expect. But he doesn't stop there. In the next paragraph, Peck flips his first statement on its head by describing the paradox of what happens when one accepts that life is difficult-it is no longer difficult.

Here's another example of a surprise opening taken from Taking the U Out of Clutter, a book I coauthored with Mark Brunetz, Emmy award-winning co-host of Clean House on Style Network:

"Don't buy another organizer bin! Don't plan another yard sale! Don't call a local charity to pick up more donations! In fact, don't do anything but get a cup of tea and sit with us for a little while."

Most de-cluttering books promote the activity of de-cluttering. But our book didn't. Since we believe that the stories we attach to each item keep us stuck, not the items themselves-our hook. Until the reader understands and accepts our premise, there's no point in sorting through one's belongings. Traditional approaches simply do not work. Our opening lays the foundation for the rest of our book.

* Quotations
Many authors open their chapters with quotations from other people. They give the reader a preview of what the chapter is about, and serve as support for the author's view. Match a great quotation with your own awesome first line, and you'll have a dynamite opening to your book.
Quotations are easy to find-there are sites online that allow you to search by category. If you choose to use quotes, you might want to invest in a few quotation books that target your particular topic area. You can also find usable quotes in other books you've read.

* Statistics
Statistics are the least personal, but can be an equally effective way to open your chapter. The strongest statistics are those that surprise and even shock the reader like these:

* It's believed that over 50% of women in our society were sexually abused as children.
* China has more straight A students than the United States has total students.
* While we used to measure progress by decades, and then years, changes in technology are now measured in months. Before you can learn how to use a new gadget, it's already out of date.

2. Story
Starting with a story can grab a hold of your reader from the first word. We are naturally drawn into stories, especially if it's about someone like themselves. Your opening story can be about someone who is struggling with problems, or a success story. And don't feel constrained to use just one story. In Who's to Blame?, a book I co-authored with Dr. Mark Baker, we used a short story to get the chapter rolling.

Allen watched from his car as Janie walked into the restaurant. Through the window he could see her as she sat down with a handsome man at a table for two. Fuming, Allen leaped out of his car and stormed into the restaurant. How could Jannie go out on him behind his back like this? He had every intention of breaking up her little rendezvous.
Who's to blame? The man who creates an embarrassing public scene or the woman who betrays his trust?

I use stories to open many of my chapters. It's a great way to engage readers and draw them into the rest of your material.

3. Have you ever...
Another common way to start a chapter is to ask the reader questions that will get them thinking about their problem, or imagining what their lives would be like with their problem solved. You can fill anything you like into the sentence-have you ever wanted to make a million dollars? Or be healthy and fit? Or make the best pasta outside of Italy.

You can change the question to whatever fits your book style. There's:
Do you...?
Did you...?
What if you...?
Have you dreamed of...?
And so forth.

Now that your audience is defined, you can subdivide it into smaller groups and target those people directly. If you add a second question, you can throw a wider net to catch as many kinds of fish possible.
Do you... or maybe you...?
Did you...or maybe you...?
What if you...or if you...?
Have you dreamed of...or maybe of...?

The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Yearby Jennifer Louden is a good example of using questions to open a chapter:

"What if there was a way to organize and guide your life that more closely resembled lying back on an inner tube as the current carried you along (with you occasionally adjusting your course because you want to smell a wild rose onshore or because you hit a bumpy stretch) rather that a furious, exhausting upstream paddle? What if self-mercy and listening to your authentic desires were your truest guides, far more trustworthy than gauging how much you accomplish in a day or what you earn? What if feeling confusion and uncertainty was actually a sign that you were on the right path? What if you could erase your sense of never having enough time or energy by cultivating a constant loving connection with yourself?"

Practice these 3 types of openings: 1) Dramatic statement, 2) Story and 3) Have you ever...? So that you will be proficient in all three and can start your chapters in a way that engages your readers.

To learn how to get your book published download my free article, "The 3 Most Important Questions You Must Answer to Land a Book Contract" at http://www.carmenreneeberry.com/untitled16.html

Carmen Berry, MSW is a New York Times bestselling author who has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years. Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It's okay to be a first-time author as long as you don't act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

Writer's Block and the Importance of Chaos

There are many suggestions to help with Writer's Block, but there's one crucial element that is often forgotten. It wasn't always that way.

In the early life of a typical creative person, chaos reigns supreme. Things aren't tidy around the house, the paperwork doesn't get done on time, schedules are ignored and even disdained, many projects are started but not necessarily finished, reliability is not 100% and unpredictability is... well, rather predictable. What fun!
However, once your career kicks in, you find you need to squeeze that overflowing creative personality of yours into a more structured form that fits a manner suited to the commercial world. So now you're aiming for:- even flowing ideas, - on demand, - on time, - as per the client brief.

Now, this can go fine for a while until you get so busy with your commercial work, that the routine starts to drag down your enthusiasm and your creativity isn't sparking like it used to.
So, what's missing? I believe it is Chaos. We need a certain amount of chaos for creativity to thrive.
Jumping on the Wiki this morning I looked up Chaos to find it's original meaning. The first meaning that came up was "a state lacking order or predictability". OK, I understand that.

But the next meaning, from Ancient Greek Cosmogony, was "the original dark void from which everything else appeared". Now, this struck a chord for me. It reminded me how if you ask a clear question, then meditate on it, clearing all intellectual thought out of your mind, the answer comes.
So instead of laying out everything in a predictable order, the only way to get true inspiration for a gob-smacking bright idea is often actually to throw it all up in the air. Give yourself some chaos, some unpredictability, a lack of form and from that, which looks like a disaster to someone else, comes the spark of the idea you need.

Often, when working with creative people in a coaching session, if I have a client with a regimented, ordered mind; a control freak who needs to have everything under control, I need to encourage a little chaos to get things moving and new ideas to come. On the other hand, when I have someone who feels completely out of control, I need to add a little order so the ideas can come to full fruition instead of staying up in the air as dreams.
Somewhere in the middle of these two states, the magic happens. The new ideas appear and can fully develop.

So, where do you stand? Do you need a little order or perhaps a little more chaos than you're allowing to get those great ideas flowing today?
© Copyright 2010 Kitegirlcoach.com, all rights reserved.

Author: Kitegirl Annabelle Drumm
Career coach and Personal Life Coach for creative professionals and celebrities.
More information on her website
http://www.kitegirlcoach.com

Factors Important to Consider to Deliver Competent Website Copy Writing Service

Blending impeccably the style and substance of the content with your client's already existing site is definitely a tough job. For a copywriter, the task not only demands massive brainstorming but also a great deal of time. In this article, we are going to highlight a few important points that you must take into considerations while starting with website copy writing services.

Skip skimming: On attempting to emulate content available already on a site, writers most likely begin to skim at their own peril. On the contrary, before even starting with your diligent website copy writing services, you must read as much content present on the website as possible. Try to figure out if the content is written in one style or has different patterns, which actually means that the content has been created unitedly by multiple writers. If it has different writings styles, ensure to check with your client the style he prefers the most. Your client, in fact may also demand for a complete new writing style.

Take Note of Length: You need to measure everything about the content. From its intensity, style and pattern to length of the sentences as well as paragraphs. The advanced technique of writing writing crisp, concise sentences may not work with all websites that have the need of long-winded content. In addition, take notes regarding the usage of words. As for example, many websites do not prefer to use "wont" in place of "would not". Secondly, check if the content is weighed heavily in terms of SEO and paying lot of heed to keywords, keyword density, readability, etc.

Recurring Elements: For offering experienced website copy writing services, you must look out for consistently appearing phrases in the website. Make efforts to understand the terminology used on the site. It is important for you to be familiar with client's industry terms in order to employ those terms in suitable contexts. While gauging the content, clients actually accept or reject content on the basis of calls to action. It is the most integral promotional element on a page reflects business approach towards getting branded.

The Black Listed items: Ask your clients thing or elements he does not want to have on his website. Every client has his "black list" of prohibited words. In addition, various companies have their own quality control rules regarding stuff that can and can't be placed on the website. As for instance, many businesses do not believe in superlatives, such as, "the best" or "one of the top companies." On the other hand, few choose to live by the rules of SEC regulations because of their status as a publicly traded company. Hence, ensure to have a meeting with your client to sincerely crosscheck all these points that if left unnoticed, can create troubles later.

These are some of the points that a sincere website copywriter must take into considerations before starting with nay project. Absolutely, the job of delivering quality website copy writing services is tremendously daunting and hence, one must focus on all its aspects primarily to stay safe from making mistakes.

SEO Content Writers (SCW) offers cheap SEO Content Writing Services. Request a quote to get the best SEO friendly copies which are targeted to your customers and defines your service in its best.

7 Tips to Jazz Up Your Writing

When you take the time to make savvy tweaks to your writing, you add pizazz to your prose. You can transform your writing from blah to colorful, from humdrum to fascinating, from monotonous to engaging. These tweaks improve all types of writing, including business articles and reports.
Once you have completed your first draft, read through your writing using these seven tips as your guide. Then make changes appropriate for the type of writing you are creating.

1. Use specific action verbs. Select verbs that describe the specific action that is happening. For example, walk is an action verb but a general one. When you choose a specific action verb, you help your readers envision the action that you want them to see. Compare these two sentences:
John walked into the store.
John swaggered into the store.
The general verb, walk, in the first sentence leaves much to the reader's interpretation. The specific verb, swaggered, in the second sentence evokes a descriptive image. With specific verbs, you exert more control over your reader's experience. And your reader finds the writing more engaging.

2. Use specific nouns. Choose nouns that specifically describe a person, place or thing. For example, building is a general noun. It could be one of a variety of structures: a barn, house, skyscraper, garage or even a school.
Each of these nouns creates a different image in your reader's mind. When you use a specific noun, you help your readers see the image you want them to see. In addition, specific nouns enrich your writing and the reader's experience.

3. Use objective adjectives. When you use objective adjectives, you provide descriptive details that paint a detailed picture for your readers. For example, compare the following:
lush, green lawn
lovely lawn
The first description creates a detailed image with the specific adjectives lush and green. The second description uses a subjective adjective--lovely. Is it lovely because it's green? Shaded with trees? Well-tended? Edged with flower beds? The writer has abdicated control by leaving the interpretation to the reader. And like it or not, the reader must fill in the details.

4. Avoid adverbs. Adverbs are words that end in ly, used to further describe a verb or adjective. Typically, adverbs indicate that the writer failed to select a verb or adjective whose description could stand on its own. For example:
The lizard moved quickly across the sand.
The lizard skittered across the sand.
The first sentence uses the adverb quickly to describe how the lizard moved. The second sentence uses a specific, descriptive verb--skittered--that shows the lizard's action. The result of replacing a verb and adverb with a well-chosen verb is tighter, colorful writing.

5. Use the active voice. Sentences that use the active voice have the following parts of speech sequence: subject, verb, object. In comparison, sentences that use the passive voice start with the object, followed by the verb and the subject. Notice how the passive voice slows down the pace in the example below.
Active voice: John threw the ball. (Subject+Verb+Object)
Passive voice: The ball was thrown by John. (Object+Verb+Subject)
The passive voice does have some purposes. One example is when the object is more important than the subject, such as "The law was enacted in 1732." But passive voice tends to get overused, especially in business and academia, and misused everywhere.

6. Remove unnecessary qualifiers. Qualifiers drain the effectiveness of your writing. Typically, they serve as a means to avoid taking a firm position on a subject or to escape searching for the appropriate descriptive adjective. Check out these examples:
I'm kind of sure this is correct. The writer wants to avoid being wrong by using the qualifier kind of.
He was very upset. The qualifier very suggests that upset does not adequately describe his reaction. Was he upset? Or was he mad? Angry? Outraged?

7. Vary sentence length and structure. When you mix a variety of simple, compound and complex sentences, you can orchestrate the pace and rhythm of your writing. When you don't, you risk creating monotonous writing that turns readers away. How does the following paragraph sound to you when you read it out loud?
The store opened in January. It sells men's clothing. It caters to executives. It has 5 employees. First quarter sales surpassed projections.
Boring, right? Every sentence is a simple sentence. The paragraph would be just as monotonous if it used all complex sentences or all compound ones. Mix them up!
When you fine-tune your drafts with these seven tips, you will enrich and enliven your writing. And, better yet, you will engage your readers' interest in what you have to say.

Rose Muenker, founder of Get Great Results, is a writing coach and award-winning writer who specializes in helping solopreneurs, small business owners, writers and creatives promote their services with effective writing. Sharpen your writing skills with coaching, classes and resources available through her website, Get Great Results.

Freelance Invoice Template: A Basic Necessity

Before going for freelancing; as a writer or graphic designer or Auto CAD designer etc. The first and foremost thing you should keep into mind is; be sure about your work. It is a kind of surety to both the parties. Some small but important things which should be kept into mind are:

- You have liberty to make any document as invoice by inserting necessary details into it.
- The contract between both the parties should be precise.
- On the top of the document you can write contract or service terms in bold letters in order to highlight them.
- Enter your contact information like name of the company, address of the company and contact information.
- It is mandatory to write date so that validity of your invoice stands.
- The project which you are assigning to your provider should have a unique project number with it.
- Specific dates with the work associated with that date should be added.
- Do mention payment cycle in your invoice in order to avoid any discrepancy in future.
- A separate section for expenses should be added in invoice template. As many a times it happens that there is a requirement of downloading software or attaching hardware.

Though if you have a proper template then you would not face any problems. As in freelancing there are not many changes in invoices all are almost similar in nature. The main things which should be remembered are company details with which you are working. And the main benefit of freelancing is once you received your first payment then it makes you sure that you will get your future payments without any difficulty and problems. Because dealing in freelancing is for long term and no one prefers short term dealing.

If you need more information, please read my latest articles about invoice form template and printable invoice templates.

Freelance Writing Jobs - Some Basic Info

You must be wondering how to make money by writing. There are many websites online that offer freelance writing jobs, short freelance projects and other writing opportunities. Anyone who can write in pretty good English can earn from writing online. There are projects for a variety of skills and levels of expertise. Practically anyone can write online and earn from it.

If you want to start with your freelance writing jobs, you have to write about something you have a passion for. Find out what topics you want to write about. You can write web content for an environmental activist site, or do SEO articles for products and companies that sell things online. You can even write reviews about movies and books and earn from that.

Some interesting freelance writing jobs are writing for news sites or activist websites. If you have a passion for the environment or what's happening around the world, you might find this to be a pretty interesting career. Find out what topics you have a passion for. You can write in the environment section for a news site or write about world news. There are many small news websites that need fresh writers.

Other popular choices for freelance writing jobs are blogging or writing reviews. Many companies set up a blog to supplement their main website. Sometimes blogs are used as an informative forum for a company or its products. It can also boost SEO for the website. Blogging for someone or for a company is a profitable way to make money from writing. Most companies need daily entries into their blogs to keep up with tough competition to stay on top of search engine results.
Writing for article directories is also one of the most common and in demand freelance writing jobs. As with blogging, article directories also produce very good SEO that puts a website on top of search engine results. Every article directory has their own quirks too. You have to learn which style works with which article directory. Sometimes you will also need to do some HTML and create backlinks to support your article and the main website.

If you want to find a lot of freelance writing jobs, you have to know which legitimate websites offer good projects. There are things to do before signing up at a freelance writer's website like setting up your payment system and knowing which projects to bid for. You could initially start with short term projects and then move on to longer term stints.
Writing for a living can be a gratifying career. It's something that allows you to work from home at your own time. As long as you can keep up with deadlines, you will do fine. It doesn't matter if you prefer to work during the day or during weird hours after midnight. You can write while the kids are at school or asleep. Be wary of these sites that ask for money before you even get a project. If there's any exchange of money, it should be after you get a project.

Find a mentor in the writing business, someone who can give you the right information, websites and tips. It will save you a lot of time and prevent you from getting hooked up with the wrong type of freelance writing websites.

How To Keep Your Writing Simple

As a writer, be it an author, a blogger, or a journalist you want to attract people to your texts, you want them to read what you are writing. That is pretty simple logic. What is not necessarily as easy is to get them to actually do the reading. Keeping your writing simple is how you can get readers attracted to your texts. That is if you want to reach many readers. If you want to reach a certain, smaller, group you might need to use other tactics.

There are some writers who are masters at catching their readers attention, but there are also many writers who tend to make things unnecessarily complex. How then can you keep your writing simple?
1. Focus on the core point in your text. If you write about a topic you know really well you might have a lot to say about it, but your reader might not have as much knowledge as you and if you give him or her too much stuff he or she might get lost.

2. Keep it short and well structured. There is so much to read out there today so if your text is very long people might skip it for some shorter text. Also if it is very tight and with small letters it will make people turn away from it. There are for example some pocket books on the market with very small text, and although the subject might interest me the layout makes me choose another book instead. On the internet a text should be easily skimmed through and preferably with a lot of spacing throughout.

3. Make it a list. I have been sceptical about lists myself, but I have had to change my mind. Especially on the internet this is an effective way to get your message through. It means you can divide your text into well structured parts.

4. Know what you write about. You might lose people if you have much more knowledge than them about the topic, but you might also lose them if you know too little about it. If you don´t have a clear picture of what you want to say your text might become very confusing. Usually the more clear your picture is of what you want to say the easier it is to write a simple, understandable text.

5. Know your point. Everything has many angles and can be seen from many perspectives, and you should know what your point is with the text. If you try to cover all angles you will most likely end up losing not only your readers, but also yourself. If you cover one angle this time you can cover another angle next time.

6. Put yourself into the text. Using only facts and figures is an effective way of boring your reader. Well, there are some people who get turned on by these, but most people like a good story and like to get a humane view of the subject.

7. Talk to your reader. Don´t talk above your reader, talk to him or her. Think of your writing as if you were having a dialogue with the other person. In a dialogue your partner learn something, but you learn something too. Try to picture your reader and his or her questions to your writing. If you show an interest in your reader you will catch his or her attention.

How do you keep your writing simple?

Tom Sorhannus is writing and blogging about personal development and life at Experience And Grow ----> go there experienceandgrow.com

Professional Editing Services

Your article writing business should represent the principles and values of your organization. Professional editing services may be an old profession, but contemporary business observations have made it a necessary part of business statement.
Professional editing and proof reading spotlight on a diverse feature of article writing. Professional editing is the process of evaluating information in a company manuscript to perk up and ensure organization and readability, flow constancy and clearness of pitch. Professional editing involves glancing at an early summary of a piece of business article, closely scrutinizing each statement, and making certain decision that each word is serving a purpose.

Habitually, businesses have given up appointing professional editing services; deciding instead to have all alterations checked by the article writers themselves. This self-editing practice cleanly does not work in a business atmosphere. As there are factually hundreds of "self-editing checklists" available, these step by step guides are not easily practical to time limited business documents. Time is money and article writers simply cannot squander company resources thinking the mistakes they commonly make or hunting down linking verbs in the passive voice.

Professional editing services stages
1. Satisfaction:
Satisfactory editing will help in guaranteeing that details are offered time after time and that your argument is well supported.

2. Structure:
An editor will check to make sure that your content is offered in a reasonable sort, changes have been undoubtedly completed, and every paragraph is related to the argument.

3. Structure:
Every paragraph in your business manuscript should have an obvious topic sentence, as well as a main argument or thought. A qualified editor will make sure that every paragraph is properly developed.

4. Clarity:
Significant terms will be clear and word practice will be amended.

5. Style:
A style edit will guarantee that your manuscript is written in a pitch suitable to your spectators, that gendered words are correctly used, and that your use of the inactive voice is partial

Novel Writing Software: Does Novel Writing Software Inspire Works Of Creativity Or Formula Fiction?

If you have held back from trying novel writing software for fear of losing your creative edge, that is an understandable concern. After all, the great writers of the past achieved a form of immortality through nothing more than their own mastery and the written word.
The image of a writer pounding out the final words of the next breath-taking novel to take the world by storm has a romantic feel that we, as writers, cling to. As hard as it is to accept, that romanticism was no more real then than it is now. In fact, many of the greats came to sad and lonely ends.

Hang on to the tragedy of life for the sake of your stories and characters. Allow your characters to struggle through misery and sleepless nights in order to achieve their goals. Feel the depth of their heartache. For, that is the way to bring their agony and grief to the readers.
Go to the place where your character is, in your mind. The romanticism is in your story, not in the way it finds itself onto the page.

I cannot tell you whether novel writing software is right for you, or not. I can, however, tell you what it can do for you. I can also tell you that many well-known authors use this technology consistently. It is difficult to create a well-crafted multi-viewpoint novel without the use of software produced with that purpose in mind.
Most novel writing software programs come with guarantees that allow you to try them, and return them if they are not the best fit for you.

This brings us back to our original thought. What will novel writing software do for your creativity?
As any writer knows, there is a mechanical side to writing, and a creative side. The best novel writing software help writers with the mechanics of plotting, as well as structure and organization of scenes.
I know of one program that actually determines the approximate word-count of your novel. You will find this to be an invaluable feature. Character development, and naming your characters is also a vital and time consuming task that the best novel writing software performs with ease.

When you find the software that's right for you, you will know it. It frees you to remain in the creative mode of thinking while the novel writing software takes care of the technical side.
Enter your ideas into the software, and allow it to create a complete template for your story, thereby inspiring your creativity, rather than squelching it.

With the help of novel writing software that takes care of the menial tasks of writing for you, you will find yourself creating a solid, compelling novel in record time. What's more, you will have fun doing it.

Pick up your free Fiction Makeover ebook at http://www.writeyournovelfast.com, and learn how to create a more spellbinding, publishable novel. Then, bring your writing to the next level. Create fascinating characters, and intricately woven plots in record time, with novel writing software that practically writes your novel for you.