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Good Writers Vs Great Writers – What Does it Take?
A lot of inexperienced writers looking to break into freelance or book writing wonder…how can I become a good writer? What does it take? Is there some kind of formal process I need to go through in order to write well and get my work noticed?
Good writing vs. great writing
The truth is, good writing takes practice. I believe that most people are capable of good writing, and that only a few people are capable of spectacular writing. No matter what the genre (business, creative, non-fiction, etc.), this theory seems to hold true.
Case in point #1
Of all the books published every year, many are good (obviously, or they wouldn’t be published at all right?). But how many become best sellers? And of those, how many actually win literary awards? There are plenty of good book writers, few great ones. This is a trend that goes back to the ye old days of Shakespeare, who in his time never achieved the literary acclaim he has now.
Case in point #2
I have seen non-writing business colleagues create marketing materials or implementation guides that were actually fairly good. But I’ve also re-worked documents from colleagues (including colleagues supposedly specializing in marketing communications – yikes) that lacked flow, structure, and general grammatical accuracy. Good writing exists, great writing is hard to find.
So what can you do?
Practice, practice, practice. Writing with correct structure, and with interesting words. Break out the thesaurus (there is one available in Microsoft Word) and find a different way to describe something. This is one of the best tools you can use to make your writing more interesting.
The importance of good communication
Beyond grammatical accuracy, interesting content and language “rules” (which honestly, good writers sometimes completely ignore), a good writer is first and foremost good at communicating. If you have trouble communicating via speech, you will have trouble communicating via the written word.
Whether you are writing marketing collateral to sell something, training materials to teach something, a book to tell a story, or an RFP for a client…if you cannot get your message across with your words, you have failed as a writer.
How can I improve my writing?
My three biggest guidelines:
#1: Read. And read a lot. You will increase your vocabulary and your ability to craft material. I recommend reading some of the classics, or some of the award winning novels you can find via the New York Times listings. These books will have the best examples of excellent writing, not just good writing.
#2: Practice. In all my years of writing, I still have things to learn. New approaches, new techniques, new presentation. It takes practice to create something truly engaging for the reader. So write, and write often.
#3: Consider a writing class. If you don’t know where to start or are interested in creative writing (novels, poetry, short stories), a class at your local community college can help you get moving.
Facts About Using Cheap Content Writers For Your Blog
With the explosion of blogs on the Internet today, there is an undeniable need for blog content writers today. This opens up a brand new industry for writers like me….write blog contents everyday for clients! And frankly, blog content writers today are dirt cheap! Dirt cheap! But here are a few facts that you might want to consider when hiring cheap blog content writers.
Plagiarism problem
One of the biggest problems with hiring cheap blog content writers is plagiarism. It’s way too easy to plagiarize work of others and earn a damn good income from it! So easy that it’s scary. And you know what’s even scarier? That the writers don’t have to be penalized for it….instead, the blog or the website owner gets the rap! Yes, it’s true. And the writers who have taken your money get away Scot-free. Scary, isn’t it? Something should be done to reduce the number of ‘victims’ of these cheap blog content writers because I have seen some of my clients being penalized for it.
Writing gibberish content for your blog
I am going to be really frank with you here….it’s easy to write about nothing and get paid for it. I know because sometimes I have such requests. But the whole purpose of maintaining your blog is to keep your readers and the content have to create an interest. Without it, your blog readers are going to come, fleet between a couple of pages and leave…never to come back again. The job of the blog content writer is to bring ORIGINAL interesting articles to the readers so that the readers will come back and read more.
Copy and pasting job amongst cheap blog content writers
Listen, if you want to learn a dirty trick, I’ll teach you how. Go to http://www.google.com and search related keywords. Open a couple of web pages. Copy and paste the content from all the sites into a Microsoft Word document. Edit the document without typing out a single word of your own by deleting a paragraph here, a word there, relocate some sentences….there, you’re done. This is how some cheap blog content writers do it. Shocking, isn’t it? How do I know this….I’ve been tempted one time too many to do it myself, that’s why!
Search engines take plagiarism very seriously and will not hesitate in penalizing the blog owner for it. And that is why you should be cautious when thinking about hiring a cheap blog content writer! Go into their background, make sure they’re transparent and they know what they’re doing, professional in every sense of the word and can transform your blog into a reader magnet without plagiarizing other people’s work.
It’d be a shame if you had a great blog going and it all goes down the drain the moment you hire a cheap blog content writer. It sounds really mean but this is just a warning I want to share with all blog owners so that they don’t get penalized for something they didn’t do.
When Does an Amateur Writer Become a Real or Professional Writer?
Many folks like to write and some wish to become a writer, of course first they need to learn how to become a writer right? Yes, this is true, but when does an amateur writer become a professional writer? One would say by definition as soon as you actually sell something, but in reality it is the day you decide to try to sell something.
You see my fellow writer, you are a Writer or an Author when you reach the point that you know. No one can take that away from you and this “Professional” or “Legitimate Author” syndrome and the approval from another is bogus.
The day you feel you are a writer, You Are!!! And the day you get paid for your first article, eBook, short story, essay or whatever you are a Professional Writer or Author and once that happens you are indeed by Full Definition a Professional Writer.
Indeed, that is the truth of it. To take that away from anyone who writes articles online and submits them to one of the top online article websites or who works hard to author quality articles is not fair.
Currently, at just over 10,000 articles if I wish to call myself an Author, I have the right, without my other eBooks that have over a 3 million views each on my websites since 1999 or the co-Authored Franchise Book, published by Dearborn in 1998 and still available at Barnes and Noble today and god only knows how many of those have been sold.
Indeed if I wish to call myself a hobby writer in my retirement, I may do that too. It works both ways. I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.
Good Writers Are Sensitive to Other People
When it comes to writing tips, there are a great number of them out there and while they are very useful, most focus on grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and even ideas, organization and other fundamentals. The basic rules and fundamentals are very important but one thing that many writers miss is that good writers are sensitive to other people.
No matter what type of writing you do – fiction, non-fiction, books, articles, poetry – it’s important to learn to be sensitive to other people. This awareness of other people is what makes your writing speak to the audience. It helps you communicate in a way that others cannot. It helps you touch people, inform people and connect with your readers. Writers with sensitivity to other people will excel in areas that other writers cannot reach.
This doesn’t mean you have to love everyone that you meet or that you go through life as a “softy” or a pushover, but it does mean that you should learn to turn on that inner “sixth sense” that helps you understand people and relate to them.
You have to learn to get inside the mind and heart of the other person, even the people you don’t really like so much on the surface. You have to be able to relate to them and their unique situations in a way that other people cannot, or do not take the time to do. You don’t have to condone their every action or their behaviors but you should attempt to understand them.
You will learn to relate to people, even the ones who are different from you or who seem to rub you the wrong way. You will learn a greater respect for people in general, even those who you never thought you could like before. A good writer is compassionate and tolerant of all people of all types. You don’t want to change the other person because then he would no longer be who he is.
Instead, you observe with a patient and understanding eye and use this sensitivity to other people in your writing to make it more real, more touching, more thought-provoking and more impactful to your readers, whoever they may be.
SEO Writer – An Essential Part of Your Website’s Search Engine Marketing Strategy
Why hire an SEO writer? What can an SEO writer do for you?
On the World Wide Web, it is not only your potential customers you need to convince that your company is the best. You also need to convince the search engines that bring your website to the customers’ attention in the first place. An SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writer is an expert in the inner workings of these search engines and knows from experience and research how to strategically create content that increases your website’s ranking.
The higher your website’s ranking with search engines like Google or Yahoo, the higher your website will appear on a list of search results. The consumer will rarely look past the first or second page of those search results – so coming up on the tenth or eleventh page is almost as bad as not coming up at all.
The goal of the SEO writer is to get your website to appear at the top of all relevant search results so that more potential customers are driven to your website – which means more potential income for you!
The Tools of an SEO Writer
The experienced search engine optimization writer has a wide array of tools in his or her arsenal to help increase your website traffic:
• Well-placed, relevant keywords: Using just the right amount of relevant keywords in the right places in your website content will also draw the right kind of attention from search engines. What these search words are, where they are placed and how often they are used are all crucial in yielding the desired results.
• Avoiding outdated and overused keywords: The lack of relevant keywords or the use of outdated keywords can demote your website in the search engine’s eyes – as can the overuse of the right keywords. If you have broken any of these rules, search engines will disregard your website as junk and push it right to the bottom of the pile – no matter how beautifully designed and informative your website may be!
• Proper formatting of keywords: Strategic formatting of keywords can also be used to help draw even more attention to your site and further improve your search engine rankings.
• Meta Description Tags: For every website, there is a 200-word description of the site which search engines may use to determine whether or not your site is relevant to a particular search string. The SEO writer knows how to phrase keywords properly within this description for maximum results.
• Articles, Press Releases and Newsletters with Deep Linking: Generate even more interest in your website by hiring a search engine optimizing to produce a series of articles, newsletters and press releases for distribution on the Internet. The writer will include many links back to your website, which will help bring potential customers right to your door!
• Taking Advantage of Current Events and Trends: The savvy writer knows that bringing current events into the mix is a sure-fire way of generating even more interest in your website. For instance, after a certain major event, the writer might write an article which references this event. This way, your website will benefit by being included in a search string executed by millions of Internet users.
• Keeping Web Content Fresh, Accurate and Up-To-Date: Search engines like websites with quality, dynamic content. The experienced writer knows how to capitalize on this fact by updating the site regularly with new, informative and relevant information, as well as making sure that all basic content is accurate and up-to-date.
• Website Analytics: By studying the activity around your website, the writer can better determine what is working well – and what is not. What consumers want can change on a daily basis. Keeping abreast of these changes is easier to determine by studying these analytics.
When so much of today’s business world is conducted over the Internet, hiring an experienced, quality SEO writer is an essential ingredient for your success!
Famous French Writers
Many famous works in literary world have come to us from the French. You must have read one of those books written by these authors. Many of may have read books written by famous French writers when were children and then got lost in the vivid picture painted by words woven by these writers.
Here are two of the most famous French writers:
Victor Hugo — Who can forget Les Miserables, Notre Dam de Paris? He was born in the year 1802 in Besancon and he lived in France for majority of his life. He was greatly influenced by Fran