Archive for the ‘Writing for Income’ Category

Free ABC Writing Worksheets

abc worksheetsIt’s an exciting time for children when they learn their ABC’s. Worksheets help them practice their new skills. Educators and parents alike can find an endless number of these ABC worksheets on the internet.

They include pictures, capital and lowercase letters, games and puzzles. There are worksheets available for the entire alphabet or one sheet for each letter.

To make the task of finding such ABC worksheets easier, check-out the following recommended links:

  • first-school: coloring sheets, alphabet word-search, alphabet flashcards, bible-themed alphabet, alphabet mini-books and more.
  • abcteach: abc booklets, dot-to-dots, and abc posters.
  • tlsbooks : abc coloring pages, abc mazes, Halloween letter match, and letter concepts worksheets.
  • beginning reading: worksheets of alphabet sets and abc flashcards.
  • abcschoolhelp: alphabet worksheets 1-6.

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How To Write A Book Review

how to write a book reviewAs someone who gets through a minimum of 5 books a month, I am ideally placed to describe how to write a book review. Not only am I a good reader but I am highly opinionated and I am not afraid to show it. That makes me an excellent candidate to review books.

These days the best place to review books is on Amazon. It is the number one place in the world for buying and selling books of all descriptions and it is the huge traffic that goes there which will give you a very visible online platform to air your views about one of their products.

Read the Book Before Drawing an Opinion

But before you go rushing in to start your first review, some ground rules apply. First it is absolutely essential that if you are going to review a book that you read the whole book first in its entirety. Don’t stop after ten pages then assume that makes you an expert on the work. Don’t read ten pages then start mocking the plot. For all you know, the plot might twist in an entirely different direction on page 11 and throw your entire review totally off track, making you look like a bit of an idiotic uninformed fool.

Hear that flushing sound? That’s your reputation going down the toilet – and don’t expect to get it back. So that’s rule number one – no matter how much you dislike the book, if you are going to review it afterwards, read it all so you can make an informed opinion about it.
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How To Write A Press Release

write a press releaseAs a former journalist and now blog editor, I have seen, and continue to see, my fair share of press releases. Some of them are good but the vast majority of them are mind-numbingly bad. And the ironic thing is that everyone seems to be making the same old mistakes, as if there is an erroneous standard template out there that everyone is using.

When I worked as a consultant to an online e-commerce company a few years back, the first thing they asked me (which endeared them to me) was how to write a proper press release that wouldn’t be ignored or deleted by journalists. Here’s what I advised them to do – stop waffling and get to the point.

You see, journalists are very busy people and the more high profile their newspaper or magazine is, the more press releases that get sent to them on a daily basis. When I worked at a newspaper, they would get hundreds of press releases every day and it would be one of the sub-editors who would have the thankless job of reading through them all, putting to one side all the vaguely interesting ones for assigning to the staff later, while binning the rest.
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Improving Writing Skills - Passive Voice in Your Writing

improving writing skillsAre you interested in improving writing skills? Working as an editor for two large websites, I can tell you that I’ve seen writing that runs the entire gamut - from the most skillfully written prose to the most horrid and grammatically terrible writing I’ve ever seen. The interesting articles and blog posts to edit are those from writers who are supposedly “good writers,” yet they use passive voice throughout their writing like it’s going out of style.

What is Passive Voice?

Before you can avoid this writing faux pas, you have to know what it is. Let me set the record straight. Passive voice is not a grammatical error, no matter how many editors try to tell you that it is. It is a stylistic choice that has a significant impact on the clarity of your writing. Are you “allowed” to write in the passive voice? Yes. Whether you should is a whole other matter. When it comes to improving writing skills for either non-fiction or fiction writing, passive voice is the most important thing you should look at.

Passive voice is when your verb is acting upon the subject of the sentence. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, then take a look at this sentence.

John was hit by the truck as he crossed the highway.

You’ve probably even seen lots of sentences written like this in professionally written novels that you read. That’s because it’s such a easy stylistic mistake to make that professional writers slip up and do it to. The amount that you can keep passive voice out of your writing will determine how “professional” your writing appears - because good style makes your writing much more clear.
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What It Means To Be A Ghost Writer

ghost writer serviceFormer British Prime Minister Tony Blair is about to bring out his political memoirs and rather predictably, he is going to make a mountain of cash out of it. He would probably like you to think that he wrote the whole book himself but nothing could be further from the truth.

In actual fact, that book, published under the name Tony Blair, was actually written by a ghost writer, who will probably not receive any recognition, fame and glory at all.

What is a Ghost Writer Service?

And the thing is that’s OK. Ghost writers don’t write for fame, glory and attention. Instead they write for money. Call them writing mercenaries if you will, or a glorified writing service. Their job is to be a ghost, someone who floats about in the background, completes their writing assignment and then leaves again with their paycheck.

The Pros of Running a Ghost Writer Service

And it’s the same for nearly all celebrities, politicians and anyone else with a busy life who wants to bring a book out. They simply don’t have the time (and quite often don’t have the writing talent). So they hire someone to do it for them, give them a few hours of their time to provide background information (if a biography is being written) and then the person takes full credit for the book, after paying the writer off.
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The 4 Dangers Of Working From Home

working from homeSince 2004, I have worked from home and it has both its good and its bad sides. But despite that I could never go back to working for a conventional employer outside the home again.

Once you begin working from home, you can never revert back because almost immediately you are intoxicated by the freedom of being able to get up when you want to, start work when you want to, and take breaks when you want to.

I mean, I highly doubt a normal employer will let me take a one hour siesta in the afternoon, as I do right now. Or let me sit at my desk naked as I sometimes do. Or sit naked at the window waiting for the female blond postwoman to come deliver my mail as I…er….heard some people do.

Sounds good right? However, before you rush to become self-employed, there are four downsides to working from home.

1. Lack Of Human Interaction – When you work in a place outside of the home, you are working with other people. You chat with them, discuss work with them, sit with them in the canteen and discuss last night’s football game. When you start working from home, you don’t have any of that (except via email and IM but that doesn’t really count). The difference is quite overwhelming at first and it takes quite a while to adjust. I know some people who couldn’t handle the loneliness and solitude and went back to working for someone else, just to hear the “buzz” of the office again.
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4 Creative Writing Tips For Writing A Short Story

creative writing tipsOne of the most popular writing genres these days is the short story. In a time when people are rushing about in their ever-busy lives and everything has to be shrunk down into headlines, summaries and bullet points in order to get someone’s attention, the short story stands out as a medium where people can be quickly entertained.

This is in comparison to a novel which takes far too long to complete and which requires a huge investment of time, energy and deep thought. Three values which are becoming increasingly rarer as everyone’s attention span turns into the length of a SMS message.

But its short duration does not mean that a short story is easy to write. Many a person have attempted to write short stories only to end up in the rejection pile of an editor’s desk. As someone with some experience in writing short stories, here’s four creative writing tips to make your short story more attractive to a book or magazine editor.

1. Don’t get too ambitious – Remember, a short story is in the region of 5000 – 10,000 words. It isn’t a novel which can be in the region of 100,000 words. Therefore if you are planning a mini Lord Of The Rings-type epic with wars, fantasy worlds, sword fights and magic, the short story may not be the right format and you should adjust your sights accordingly. If you are determined to make it a short story, scale down the plot and make it less complicated. Otherwise you are only letting yourself in for grief later.
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How The Internet Has Changed The History Of News Reporting

internet and news reportingIf there is one thing that print journalists hate, it’s the internet. And who can blame them right? After all, it’s the internet which is killing their profession.

As everything goes online and everyone expects their news to be free, print publications are rapidly going out of business and those who are still holding their heads above water are having to cut back a great deal in staff and resources. A far cry from the glory days when Fleet Street ruled the world and everyone flocked to the newspaper stand on the street to buy the latest edition to see what was going on.

I was privileged to work in newsrooms in the PI age (pre-Internet) and I can now look back with hindsight and tell you three things which have changed since then.

1. No more phoning in stories – When out and about chasing stories, you obviously had to observe your deadlines. Missing the deadline meant the newspaper would “go to press” and you would miss your chance to get your story in the next edition. So if you were outside the newsroom, you would have to find a phone box, make sure you had plenty of coins, call the news desk and “phone in” the story before the deadline passed.
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5 Ways That a Writer Can Successfully Work From Home Online

work from home ideasOne of the most successful careers available, if you want to work from home, is becoming a freelance writer. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a desk and a chair, and bingo, you have it in you to become the next Ernest Hemingway.

But while you’re waiting for that big publishing deal to come through, you can pay your bills by taking on other forms of writing work, which may be less interesting but still brings in cold hard cash to put food on the table and pay for your Internet connection. Plus, it fattens up your resume a bit, which is always a good thing.

Here are some work from home ideas that you can do to keep your writing skills sharpened and your bank account looking rosy.

1. Write for blogs – When you read your favourite sites in the morning, do you ever ponder for a moment how those blogs are written and put together? No, the words didn’t magically fly onto the page - they were written by a hard working team of writers – and that writing team may have an open vacancy that could be just perfect for you. So go to your favourite sites, find a “contact us” or “write for us” link and see if anything is available. Or advertise on your Twitter stream or Facebook account that you are looking for work. Someone somewhere may see it and offer you something.
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3 Ways Bloggers Prove to Readers That They Are Idiots

businessmanThere are so many blogs out there on the Internet (with even more being set up each day) that it is absolutely essential to get that thing called “professionalism” firmly nailed down. Lose it and people will never believe a word you say ever again. Lose it and you will probably never get it back again.

The ironic thing is that it is not difficult at all to get things right but people just don’t do it, perhaps because of laziness or because of a perceived need to rush out posts to beat the competition. But if you take an extra couple of minutes before hitting that “publish” button, your reputation to the readers will rise monumentally.

Here are the top three things to remember.

1. Check your grammar - The most important one of all. How can you expect anyone to take you seriously if you can’t even spell and write your own language properly? If you are serious about blogging, buy a good dictionary and a style book and keep them on the desk beside you at all times. Or use an online dictionary such as Dictionary.com

2. Check your facts – Print newspaper journalists can be sued for libel if they get their facts wrong and bloggers are no different. Don’t believe for a second that bloggers can say whatever they want and get away with it. If you defame someone online, you will be held legally accountable for it and suffer the consequences that come with that. So check your facts – then check them again. You can never do this often enough.

3. Format your posts properly – Not only do your posts have to be well written and free of spelling mistakes, they also have to be pleasant viewing to the eyes. When someone visits your post, they have to be interested and impressed enough to want to read it, comment on it and share it with others. They won’t do that if the Facebook post is humping the Twitter box and the post image is slapped on top of the text.

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