Proofreading is boring. If you're a new writer I may as well give you the bad news now. It doesn't get better with age. It's boring even though I've been writing online for six years. It was boring when I began. Well, maybe not that first week when everything was new and wondrous.
Ugh! Why can't we just get it right the first time? Is it some kind of brain blockage? Are our fingers not nimble enough? Do the words change so quickly that we can't catch them fast enough? Is grammar really all it's cracked up to be? I go with the nimble finger theory.
My fingers are complete klutzes. So often they aim for two keys at once. They miss the letter completely. Worst of all is when they think I mean 'whole' when I really meant to say 'hole'. What's wrong with fingers these days? I'd send them to school but I know they did that, I was right there with them, sort of watching over their shoulder. It didn't seem to help. In fact, I remember crying over my fingers during a typing test in grade nine. We failed that course. It was the only one I didn't pass that year. I blame my fingers.
There was that time when I had typed a whole essay for English class and my dratted fingers hit some strange key that deleted the whole thing. It wasn't the delete key because that always gives you the chance to change your mind. I would have changed my mind, trust me! What can you do? We only get 10 fingers, no replacements, no warrantees. Basically, you're stuck with the fingers you've got.
So, proofread. Proofread till it hurts. Yes, it's boring but you look like a fool if you can't type. You see, everyone assumes the fingers are innocent and it's YOU who can't handle grammar or spelling. Yes, there's the rub. No one ever assumes your fingers are the saboteurs.
Create Yourself in Your Own Image
We know about presenting a good, professional image and using effective body language. If you work in fiction you’ve likely used body language, style and first impressions to create a character. But, do you present a good image of yourself?
If you are in a professional situation do you know how to appear professional and confident. Do you look at people when you speak to them? If you look at someone’s eyes while they speak they will feel you’re really listening. Don't sit or stand with your body scrunched or folded up. Good posture counts. Also, don’t sprawl and have people tripping over you, but - don’t be afraid to take up some space. When sitting, standing or walking don’t appear small and intimidated, talk with your hands a little, rest your arm on the arm of the chair.
Is your conversation full of slang, do you tend to use any bad language (anything you wouldn’t say in front of a 4 year old)? Coach yourself to speak clearly and avoid pauses with "ummm" and related phrases. If you find yourself stumbling over your words, sounding nervous, stop. Take a breath, a sip of water and remember you’re talking to a fellow human being not a rabid skunk, relax.
Can you carry a conversation, do you have some prepared chit chat? Avoid talking about the weather, politics or religion, come up with something a bit more interesting and uniquely you. If you have hobbies try working them in. Don’t go overboard talking about yourself, just enough to break the ice is fine. Ask questions about their own interests to pull them into the conversation. You don’t have to be full of yourself, you don’t even have to be genuinely confident, but you should appear to know what you’re doing and be at ease.
Take a look at your wardrobe. Do you have at least one ‘interview suit’? If so, do you feel confident when wearing it? If you don’t go shopping for something that flatters you and makes you feel good when you have it on. It should be comfortable to wear so you aren’t distracted by a tight jacket, a colour that makes you feel mousy or any other of a hundred problems that can come up. Yes, you want to be dressy but you don’t want to feel unnatural or inelegant. If your style of dress is casual try finding something casual in a dressy fabric. Or something dressy, like a tailored suit, in a casual fabric.
Of course, you are groomed, have brushed hair and teeth, lathered up (recently) in general. Make sure your fingernails are clean. Give yourself a check over just before the get together. Anything stuck in your teeth? Did that garlic at lunch stay with you? Any dirt, strings, or very tiny aliens, hanging from your clothes?
Writers already have a small image problem. People tend to assume writers slack off and have it easy. We work at home, may not even get dressed or out of bed all day. We don’t work at a ‘real’ job. Don’t assume another writer or editor or publisher will know better. Dress for success. Create the image you want people to have and then be there.
If you are in a professional situation do you know how to appear professional and confident. Do you look at people when you speak to them? If you look at someone’s eyes while they speak they will feel you’re really listening. Don't sit or stand with your body scrunched or folded up. Good posture counts. Also, don’t sprawl and have people tripping over you, but - don’t be afraid to take up some space. When sitting, standing or walking don’t appear small and intimidated, talk with your hands a little, rest your arm on the arm of the chair.
Is your conversation full of slang, do you tend to use any bad language (anything you wouldn’t say in front of a 4 year old)? Coach yourself to speak clearly and avoid pauses with "ummm" and related phrases. If you find yourself stumbling over your words, sounding nervous, stop. Take a breath, a sip of water and remember you’re talking to a fellow human being not a rabid skunk, relax.
Can you carry a conversation, do you have some prepared chit chat? Avoid talking about the weather, politics or religion, come up with something a bit more interesting and uniquely you. If you have hobbies try working them in. Don’t go overboard talking about yourself, just enough to break the ice is fine. Ask questions about their own interests to pull them into the conversation. You don’t have to be full of yourself, you don’t even have to be genuinely confident, but you should appear to know what you’re doing and be at ease.
Take a look at your wardrobe. Do you have at least one ‘interview suit’? If so, do you feel confident when wearing it? If you don’t go shopping for something that flatters you and makes you feel good when you have it on. It should be comfortable to wear so you aren’t distracted by a tight jacket, a colour that makes you feel mousy or any other of a hundred problems that can come up. Yes, you want to be dressy but you don’t want to feel unnatural or inelegant. If your style of dress is casual try finding something casual in a dressy fabric. Or something dressy, like a tailored suit, in a casual fabric.
Of course, you are groomed, have brushed hair and teeth, lathered up (recently) in general. Make sure your fingernails are clean. Give yourself a check over just before the get together. Anything stuck in your teeth? Did that garlic at lunch stay with you? Any dirt, strings, or very tiny aliens, hanging from your clothes?
Writers already have a small image problem. People tend to assume writers slack off and have it easy. We work at home, may not even get dressed or out of bed all day. We don’t work at a ‘real’ job. Don’t assume another writer or editor or publisher will know better. Dress for success. Create the image you want people to have and then be there.
Have you got the Correct Linkage?
I'm reading The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood. Among the things worth noting is using your linkage on a website. It's not enough to display links to other sites. What you need to do is click on your own links. That way the webmasters will see you and know you are linking to them. Otherwise they won't know you have links to them unless they stumble across you by some lucky fluke.
So, if you have a blog (or ezine or a site of any kind) and have links down your sidebar or in the blog itself, click them. Go to the sites and get yourself noticed. You'll show up as a referrer site in their web stats.
You can set your own site up to see who refers to you too. There are free scripts on the web, most are simple and painless.
So, if you have a blog (or ezine or a site of any kind) and have links down your sidebar or in the blog itself, click them. Go to the sites and get yourself noticed. You'll show up as a referrer site in their web stats.
You can set your own site up to see who refers to you too. There are free scripts on the web, most are simple and painless.
Sales Technique for Writing
I've never liked being a salesperson, yet as a writer we are in fact, salespeople. You can't get around it. We sell ourselves as credible sources for information. But, we also sell our ideas and our writing itself. If you've ever thought "Why should anyone read my stuff?" You can understand the relationship between sales and writing (even before publishing comes into it). We want readers to buy into our writing, to be believe what we write, take it seriously. So, we have to sell it.
The following comes from: How Stuff Works - http://money.howstuffworks.com/sales-technique1.htm
"The foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five stages of action. These began in the 1950's and include:
Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.
Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of dollars!
Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample or test-drive it.
Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers.
Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business. "
It's not too hard to see how that applies to our writing. Think of copywriting, fiction writing or even writing an instruction manual. The first thing you need to do is pull them in, catch their attention. You do this by surprising them, perking their curiousity, giving them what they want or showing them you have what they need. Whichever works for the writing you are doing. In website reviews a catchy headline is everything. If it's a book you need a great opening line. Magazine articles use headlines and highlighted phrases in the article.
Interest, desire and conviction sort of roll into one theme, keeping your readers reading. How do you pull them through your writing? Some may only read the catchy beginning and then skim to the end for the conclusion. Keeping their interest through the middle is the real trick. This is where your writing style comes in. Don't let them stop reading, keep providing content they need, want and must have. Keep the writing lively rather than droning on.
Then, as with any good sales pitch, you want them to take action. If you are writing fiction you want them to leave the world you created feeling they have left something of themselves behind when they read that last word. If you are writing copy for sales you want them to understand how important the product is. If you are explaining how something works you want them to feel confident enough to proceed and use the product. Even if your only purpose is simple entertainment, you want them to buy that from you. In order for it to be bought, you have to sell it.
The following comes from: How Stuff Works - http://money.howstuffworks.com/sales-technique1.htm
"The foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five stages of action. These began in the 1950's and include:
Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.
Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of dollars!
Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample or test-drive it.
Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers.
Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business. "
It's not too hard to see how that applies to our writing. Think of copywriting, fiction writing or even writing an instruction manual. The first thing you need to do is pull them in, catch their attention. You do this by surprising them, perking their curiousity, giving them what they want or showing them you have what they need. Whichever works for the writing you are doing. In website reviews a catchy headline is everything. If it's a book you need a great opening line. Magazine articles use headlines and highlighted phrases in the article.
Interest, desire and conviction sort of roll into one theme, keeping your readers reading. How do you pull them through your writing? Some may only read the catchy beginning and then skim to the end for the conclusion. Keeping their interest through the middle is the real trick. This is where your writing style comes in. Don't let them stop reading, keep providing content they need, want and must have. Keep the writing lively rather than droning on.
Then, as with any good sales pitch, you want them to take action. If you are writing fiction you want them to leave the world you created feeling they have left something of themselves behind when they read that last word. If you are writing copy for sales you want them to understand how important the product is. If you are explaining how something works you want them to feel confident enough to proceed and use the product. Even if your only purpose is simple entertainment, you want them to buy that from you. In order for it to be bought, you have to sell it.
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