Writer/teacher Holly Lisle has this excellent advice, which works for non-fiction as well as for her fiction-writing audience:

Only write the good stuff.

That seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?  Clearly you don’t want
to write bad stuff.

But I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read a post or a
blog or heard a writer say, “I can hardly wait to get through
this chapter so I can write the one I’m excited about.”

Have you ever been there.  Found yourself dragging through a
scene you’ve told yourself just HAS to be in the story because
if it isn’t, the story won’t make sense… but you’re not having
any fun at all writing that scene.  The good stuff is up ahead
somewhere, and you’re writing toward it.

Here’s a little secret.  What you’re hating to write, your
readers will hate to read.  If it’s dull for you—who in
theory at least love your story because it belongs to you—
it’s going to be twice as dull for them.

Your readers can only love what you have loved first.

If you’re having a miserable time writing the scene, stop yourself.
Look at the scene.  Something is wrong with it.

Write this somewhere in front of where you write:

If I’m not having fun with this scene, neither will anyone
else.

Write with joy,
Holly

P.S.  If you’re really struggling with scenes, I can help you.
Here’s the link to the system I use to create scenes I WANT to
write and have fun writing:

http://hollylisle.net/courses/GreatScenes

Holly Lisle

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http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/plot-outline1.html

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I’ve mentioned Copyblogger.com before; it’s full of worthwhile stuff. Here’s a little gem.

An elderly man stormed into his doctor’s office steaming mad.

“Doc, my new 22-year-old wife is expecting a baby. You performed my vasectomy 30 years ago, and I’m very upset right now.”

“Let me tell you a story,” the doctor calmly replied.

“A hunter once accidentally left the house with an umbrella instead of his rifle. Out of nowhere, a bear surprised him in the woods… so the hunter grabbed the umbrella, fired, and killed the bear.”

“Impossible, ” the old man said. “Someone else must have shot that bear.”

“You got it,” the doctor replied.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

My wife and I came back from a great hour-long walk in Shoreline Park in Mountain View, California, and saw the truck. It had hand-painted lettering on it: IdeaFarm.com. and a few other things.

There was a sunshield, the kind with reflective foil, unfurled behind the windshield. The whole get-up looked like the rolling home of a wandering prophet, or someone who thinks of themselves that way.

He was sitting behind the truck, in the shade of a raised panel, on an old aluminum-and-plastic-mesh beach chair. He looked weather-worn, late forties. The American-flag suspenders holding up his shorts were soiled almost black, but his clothes were cleaner.

His auburn hair and beard were reasonably groomed. His smile was warm.

So we stopped and greeted him. “What’s the IdeaFarm?” was the thrust of our inquiry.

The man–his name is Wo’O Ideafarm, having been changed in 1999 from whatever it was before, answered us happily and clearly. His answer was not totally satisfying, as you’ll learn if you visit IdeaFarm.com; it’s positive, humanistic, and optimistic, however.

I won’t go into his message here; you can get from the site about all I managed to get from him beside his truck. I want to make a point about his methods.

Wo’O was a distinguished student of economics–ABD, University of Chicago; many honors–when he realized that he needed to communicate his uplifting idea to all. He’s been driving around for years doing just that.

Currently, he has–and I hope he’ll forgive me if I’m misremembering some details–a six-week course of messages, delivered in five-message blocks, one each day of the work week. Stuff short enough to read, especially if you stop at the light on the corner of Castro and El Camino Real, where he’s perched in recent weeks. The one he showed us: “Be an immigrant, not a colonist.”

He sees himself as a seed-planter. Without going to the New Testament metaphor, you can see the point: Some will “get it,” and carry it forward.

This long preamble was to point out an important lesson: Short sentences, even slogans, can take root in people and change the way they think. Not sure how successful Wo’O has been, but there’s something powerful in the approach.

So what’s the takeaway for the aspiring writer? Simply this: Words are a way into people’s minds and hearts. Carefully chosen, they can have the impact you want them to have. You needn’t use a lot of them; a few, properly delivered, will do.

So what do you think about this? Write to me: joel@joeltrainsauthors.com.

There are many careers that involve writing, but none that offers as clear a path to good income as copywriting Six-figure annual incomes are not uncommon in this profession.

But note: It is a profession, not a job. You learn a set of skills, and are forever improving them. You (generally) must find your own work, keeping your own “pipeline” full. And many gigs are one-time affairs.

So learning copywriting is not only a matter of learning the special kinds of wordsmithing used in the profession. You must also learn where to find engagements, how to price your services, what your contracts should contain and exclude, and how to run an independent business.

The “copy” referred to is advertising copy, writing to support sales. Now, before you curl your lip and sneer, let me point out a few facts about ad copy:

• Many famous writers, including Mark Twain and Joseph Heller, wrote ad copy.
• Almost nothing is sold today without the use of ad copy.
• The Web has opened up vast new markets, all needing good copy.
• You can learn to write ad copy through relatively brief courses from organizations that have substantial track records.
• The best copy is respectful of readers, authentic, and honest.
• People commonly pay tens to hundreds of dollars for brief ads, and hundreds to thousands for longer copy. Copy writing masters often receive thousands of dollars plus a percentage of sales for their work.
• Many copywriters expand their business by promoting their own products or those of others, using their skills to benefit their own sales.

Happily, there’s a lot of excellent free information about learning to write good copy on the Web. Some of my favorites are Copywriting-101 and its CopyBlogger.com site; AWAIonline (Michael Masterson’s company site, with excellent articles by leading copywriters); and Michel Fortin‘s blog. Through these, you’ll find many more links of interest.

Brian from CopyBlogger lists both his own course and a couple from competitors here. (Michael Masterson’s course, noted there, seems to be the most popular one around–and has the graduate testimonials to back it

The amazing Kurosawa film, Rashomon, is a study in and of ambiguity. I’ve experienced it a couple of times, and have been left amazed, perplexed, and unsatisfied. This analysis by Matt Shepherd, complete with powerful diagram, doesn’t bring ultimate satisfaction–but it does fascinate and edify. Enjoy!

Like a monstrous snail, a toilet slides into a living room on a track of wet, demanding to be loved.
It is impossible, and we tender our sincerest regrets. …

From “With Sincerest Regrets,” Russell Edson

I came late to “Writing Down the Bones,” by Natalie Goldberg (1986)–just this year, in fact. I was enchanted by it, edified and refreshed by its joy and candor. (Read it.)

One of the many things for which I am grateful to Natalie is introducing me to Russell Edson’s poetry. (Click above to read the rest of the poem on a site that has permission to reprint it.) Its allusions and imagery are bizarre, yet weirdly intimate.

And unforgettable.

Do you want your book, your prose, to be unforgettable? Find and read unforgettable writing. Think about what makes it special. Talk about it. Adopt its ideas, if only for an exercise, and write some of your own, “in the style of” the author.

Your uniqueness is not in question. Own it. Learn to express it. Make your writing unforgettable.

If you’d like the hard-copy version of “Joel’s BookProgram™: The Simple Secret To Writing A Non-Fiction Book In 30 Days Or Less, At 1 Hour/Day!” just click on the title to order it!

And if you want to talk to me about writing your book, email me for a free 15-minute consultation.

Despite the fact that Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson’s latest book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, wasn’t released until this week, it has still managed to generate much pre-publication discussion about the future of the digital economy. Anderson found himself enmeshed in a pre-publication plagiarism scandal two weeks ago when the Virginia Quarterly Review found that some passages in the book directly matched Wikipedia entries. (Anderson quickly apologized, blaming inaccurate citing and overall carelessness.)

Then, of course, there’s the actual content of the book, which has been received by journalists and business-minded folks in decidedly polarizing ways. Malcolm Gladwell unleashed a scathing review of Free in last week’s New Yorker, scolding Anderson for adhering to the freeconomy as an “iron law” and writing, “The only iron law here is the one too obvious to write a book about, which is that the digital age has so transformed the ways in which things are made and sold that there are no iron laws.” (Plenty of responses followed.)

But for Anderson, Free is indeed the ultimate destiny of our economy. “Sooner or later every company is going to have to figure out how to use Free or compete with Free, one way or another,” he writes in the beginning of the book. This assertion will probably look depressingly familiar to journalists who’ve watched their traditional business models fall apart in the wild west of the web, where “free” is the gold standard.  Read more

My focus is non-fiction, and especially the kind that serves the needs of individual professionals–”solepreneurs.” But I encounter many people who want to write fiction. If you are such a person, I highly recommend you sign up for the ezine of Randy Ingermanson, creator of the “Snowflake Method” for writing fiction. Follow the link in this blurb:

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the
Snowflake Guy,” publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 16,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

That’s a quote from one of the attendees of the Book Writing Intensive I held at my home in Mountain View, CA, yesterday. She told me the Intensive gave her what she needs to complete the 2 books she’s working on. I had promised the attendees that, regardless of where they were in their book projects, by the end of the day, they’d be fully equipped to complete their books following whatever timetable they chose. The group assured me before they left that I had kept my promise.

The group had some fascinating people, including a forensic psychiatrist, an MD who is also an African shaman, a documentary filmmaker, and a psychotherapist. The resultant group dynamics were wonderful–energetic, engaging, encouraging, and uplifting.

We had a buffet lunch in place, so we were together for about 7.5 hours, continuously. By the end of the day, everyone was inspired–and ready for a nap…:-)

The next one will be toward the end of August. Watch for an announcement.