Make a Living As a Virtual Writer

By Lisa Ramsay

Being a writer is something thousands of people aspire to be. However, there will only ever be a handful of authors whose work is remembered in the decades and centuries to come. The rest of us can accept that while we’ll never be Jane Austen or Dan Brown, it is possible to make a living as a writer. Most aspiring writers who want to put pen to paper, or fingertip to MacBook, do it because they love their craft. It’s this passion for writing which means that many writers work for free, or for a very low wage; but it is possible to make a living from doing what you love. Although the romanticism of writing a novel in longhand might belong to the previous century, the digital age means there’s now more outlets than ever before for wannabe writers.

Traditional media

Trained journalists can write for local and national newspapers, magazines, and media websites. Specialist reporters may write about the arts, culture, sport or business. There are also a huge variety of trade journals which provide news to different industries, such as farming or pharmaceuticals. These are called B2B (business to business) titles. The huge variety of printed and online established media means that there’s plenty of opportunity for writers. Most journalists who work for publications such as these are trained reporters, however there are opportunities for writers who are not specifically trained in journalism to get their work published.

Many local newspapers have leisure, sports, and business sections, either in print, online, or both. To start writing for a local audience, why not get in touch with a title to see if they need any help writing features? If you have a specialist subject, such as farming, flower arranging or pet care, then you could write about this, either as a one-off article or as a regular column. You may not get paid much (or not at all) but if the editor knows that he or she can rely upon you to write good quality material to deadline, then you might be the first person they call when a paid opportunity comes up.

Get paid for writing at home

There are more websites than ever before, and the number is growing by the day. Site owners don’t want empty pages so there are lots of opportunities to write online content. Most online writing includes knowledge of SEO – search engine optimization – and there are lots of online courses and tutorials to help you learn the basics about the importance of key words. The Internet is vast, and so the topics you could write about are endless: from business and finance, to arts and holidays. Unlike printed media, there is a greater opportunity to be paid when it comes to writing online content. Website owners want good quality content which attracts readers to their pages, but they often won’t have the time to source this themselves. This means that online content writing agencies have become an easy way to match writers with websites which need content. By writing for wait.co.uk you will have the opportunity to have your work read by thousands of people across the world. It’s a great way to start getting paid for writing. You can even write in the comfort of your own home, at any time of the day you want, so whether you’re an early bird or a night owl you’ll find work to suit you.

Join the writing community

For most people it is a dream to work from home, but some also worry that it will be lonely. Fortunately writers are all in the same situation – and they’re good at expressing themselves! This means there is a lively online community of writers and those interested in writing, all typically sitting at home but connecting with each other online. Twitter is a great place to ‘meet’ other writers, as many well-established and novice authors and journalists have their own accounts. It can be a useful resource for writers who feel they need some moral support, and can also offer practical advice. Accounts such as @writingupdate can offer tips and news about the wider writing community, keeping you in the loop.

Take the first step

Whatever you decide to write, just make sure you fill that blank page. Whether you start by writing your own blog, online content, or features, there is something out there for everyone. The most important thing is to enjoy the process – as that is what writing is all about. 

 

Today's Writing Tip – Close Your Clauses

Often in haste, or without realizing that we need to do so, writers will begin to separate a segment of a sentence and then forget to close it off.

Here's an example – "My brother is bringing his fiancée, Diane to Thanksgiving dinner." What's wrong with that sentence? Diane is my brother's one and only fiancée – one would hope. We start out by separating her first name by a comma, but then we don't add the remaining comma which would complete the sentence.

How should we write it? "My brother is bringing his fiancée, Diane, to Thanksgiving dinner." The way you can tell that the latter is right is that you can eliminate Diane altogether from that sentence and it will still make sense. "My brother is bringing his fiancée to Thanksgiving dinner."

Of course, Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without Diane so we are not eliminating her invitation!

Sigrid Macdonald is an editor and the author of five books including How to Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qdlt9ca

 

 

 

 

Tips for Writers Honing Their Skills Later in Life

Tips for Writers Honing Their Skills Later in Life

 by Lisa Ramsay

We are often in awe of writers who find success when they are very young: after all, there’s something impressive about reaching the top of your game and finding literary success in your 20s, especially if this is achieved without support. We can all reel off a long list of award winning young things, but it’s much harder to list those writers who came to the art and found success later in life. However, there are many, and some of those might come as a surprise. There are many reasons writers choose to come to writing later in life: redundancy, empty nest, even overcoming a lifelong addiction of some kind. 

Famous Late Bloomers

Donald Ray Pollock, author of 2011’s award winning novel The Devil All the Time, was the ripe age of 55 when this, his debut novel, garnered success. Pollock actually dropped out of school at the age of 17, and went to work in a meatpacking plant. He then worked at a paper mill for 32 years and it was only then he began his education, enrolling in Ohio University’s MFA program. He published a set of short stories the year before he graduated, when he was 55, and his award winning debut quickly followed. A similar tale is that of the more famous Raymond Chandler. Chandler didn’t decide to become a writer until he lost his job as an oil company executive when he was 44 years old. He published his first short story in 1933 and The Big Sleep, his most successful and debut novel, was published in 1939.

Another writer choosing to come to the craft later in life is Deborah Eisenberg, who decided to start writing whilst quitting her three packs a day smoking habit by going cold turkey. She went on to become one of the most amazing living short story writers when her first collection was published at the age of 41, and all because she had an addiction she wanted to quit! Writing is a great way to overcome an addiction, whether that be to cigarettes or alcohol, an illegal substance, an eating disorder, or all the above. When you are struggling with an addiction, you tend to be withdrawn and to focus inwards; however, writing forces you to focus your energy on looking outwards and to channel your emotions in a positive way. If you have a dual-diagnosis of eating disorder and addiction, then it's likely that you will have a multitude of difficult physical and emotional problems to process in order to begin healing, and start your recovery process: perhaps even more so than someone facing just one addiction to overcome.  Dealing with difficult emotions is a great, and very common, reason that people choose to begin writing. It is a positive and productive way to deal with any hard or confusing times in your life.

Top Tips for New Writers

If you are, for whatever reason, thinking of coming to writing later in life, then here are some tips for taking up the craft and honing your skills as a serious writer:

Try Not to Procrastinate

Procrastination is part of the human condition. When you decide you want to write, you’ll suddenly find yourself fascinated with the temperature of your coffee, the color of your pen; anything to avoid actually poring yourself onto that piece of paper. Mary Heaton Vorse famously said that “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” And it’s true that if you want to write, the most important thing you can do is sit down and start writing, even if you have to edit out most of what you have written at the end of every day!

Read a Lot

Having told you not to procrastinate, I will now provide this next tip, which will seem odd: sit down and enjoy a good book. One that wasn’t written by you! Read everything you can get your hands on, and read as many different genres of literature as you can too. You can’t write well without reading: the two skills go hand in hand. Perhaps this is why writers who come to writing later in life find success so quickly: they are well read, they know what they like to read, and this makes writing a successful novel decisively a little easier.

Be Honest

If you’ve lived a long and varied life, and seen a lot of things you never expected to see, then why not incorporate this and embellish it in your writing? People love to sense honesty when they are reading: by writing about what you know, you can make the story you are trying to tell seem more real. And say the things that people think but that no one ever actually says. You’ll soon find that you have a novel that everyone will want to read! 

 

 

 

 

Passive vs. Active Sentences by Lisa Ramsay

Many spellcheckers will flag any passive sentence and suggest that you might want to change it into an active one, but there can be good reasons to write in the passive voice. Knowing when you should take the advice of your spellchecker, and when you should keep your passive sentences, can help you to make the right editing decisions.

Active Sentences

Active sentences in English usually follow the conventional sequence of Subject-Verb-Object. The agent performing the action is introduced, the action being performed is described, and then the object being acted upon is named. In some cases, the object will be replaced with an adverb, describing the action, or a complement, which completes the description of the action without being a true object, as in the following examples.

• Active sentence with object: The fox jumped over the dog.
• Active sentence with adverb: The fox jumped quickly.
• Active sentence with complement: The fox jumped up.

Active sentences tend to be simple, concise and clear. They are about someone who is doing something. It will be obvious who or what is performing the action described by the verb, since the agent performing the action will also be the subject of the sentence. In these examples, it is the fox that is jumping.

Passive Sentences

Passive sentences focus on an action that is being performed, or on the object affected by that action, rather than on who is doing the action. The object who is being acted upon becomes the subject of the sentence, so that the action is being described from their perspective, as in the following examples.

• The dog was jumped over.
• The dog is being jumped over.
• The dog was jumped over, by the fox.

The agent performing the action may appear in an extra phrase, tacked on to the main clause, but it is not an essential part of the sentence. Passive sentences can easily become awkward and confusing, when too many clauses are tacked on, or it is unclear who the agent is that is performing the action. It is this lack of clarity, together with the less than stimulating nature of passages that overuse the passive voice, that make people and spellcheckers believe that active sentences are better than passive ones.

Choosing the Right Voice

Active voice is often used for the sake of clarity and brevity. It can be used to hold the reader's interest, to create a faster pace, and to ensure that fictional characters appear more active. However, the simplicity of active sentences can be reminiscent of the types of sentences given to children who are just starting to learn to read for themselves, and a passage that overuses the active voice can become just as monotonous as one that relies solely on the passive voice.

Whatever spellchecking programs may believe, the passive voice does have its place, and when used well it does not have to result in a loss of clarity. Cutting out repeated references to an agent can even help to create a more concise, faster paced and varied passage. The identification of the agent may be delayed for dramatic effect, or simply unnecessary once it has been established in earlier sentences. The agent can also be cut out of the sentence when it is the action itself, or the object of the action, that is important. In a story about a long-suffering dog troubled by a pesky fox, we might want to describe how the dog was being jumped over again, rather than focusing on the fox's perspective. As long as a passive sentence does not confuse the reader, and it is creating the right effect, it is no worse than an active sentence, and it can even be better.

Passive sentences can make effective rhetorical tools. They can be used to avoid taking responsibility for an action, or attributing blame, by removing any indication of who actually performed the action. In defense of a chicken thief, we might write "The dog was jumped over at the door of the coop," focusing on the guard dog's failure, and drawing attention away from the guilty fox. Passive sentences can also be used to create a sense of objectivity, particularly in academic and scientific writing. The scientist does not intrude into the work by writing "I measured the speed of the jumping fox," but rather suggests that "The speed of the jumping fox was measured."

The passive voice is often confused with the past tense, perhaps because of the idea that we can only look back passively at events that have already happened. Although passive sentences typically involve the use of the past participle, modified by "be" auxiliary verbs, the passive voice is not restricted to any particular tense. These auxiliary verbs can modify the tense to which the past participle applies, for example by determining whether the dog was being jumped over in the past, or is still being jumped over right now. Examples of both active and passive sentences can be found for all sorts of tenses, and it is worth looking at some of these to understand how both types of sentences can be used in all manner of situations. It is little wonder that writers work so hard to keep times and dates in order, and avoid mixing tenses, particularly when they are writing fictional pieces that flash forward and back in time, but understanding how to use different tenses effectively is not the same as understanding how to use active and passive sentences.

Switching Voices

Once you understand the difference between active and passive sentences, it is easy to see how you can change one into the other, simply by identifying the agent performing the action and introducing them or eliminating them as the subject of the sentence. The active sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and the passive sentence "The lazy dog is jumped over by the quick brown fox" can be switched to make a piece work better. Just make sure that you are choosing your voice for the right reasons, and not because a spellchecking program has told you to be more active.

 

Constructive Criticism about Your Writing

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post because extra time spent proofreading could be time spent watching Dexter!

Constructive Criticism about Your Writing

Hardly anyone likes criticism. It is rare for someone to say, "Go ahead and insult me. Tell me everything you don't like about me. Bring it on." It almost feels masochistic to be enthusiastic about receiving a put-down. We are social creatures. We strive to please, and we bask in praise and approval. That is why it is often hard to give essays, articles, or book-length manuscripts to someone for a second opinion. We do not want people laughing at us, picking out our faults, or misunderstanding our message. But there are exceptions to this rule. Children and adults accept input from teachers because the latter have more knowledge about a particular subject. We usually accept constructive criticism from a professional because we view them as authorities. So, when should you accept critical feedback about your writing and when should you disregard it?

First, you do not always need a professional to evaluate your essay or manuscript, although sometimes that can be helpful. But much of the time you can present your material to a trusted friend, colleague, or family member; or you can post your short story or parts of your novel on certain writing forums and receive excellent feedback from fellow writers.

Second, no matter whom you choose to share your material with, ask yourself if you respect that person's writing. Are they smart, literate, and kind? Do they have your best interests at heart? Do they understand your genre and audience? If you are writing science fiction and you give your manuscript to someone who has published four books on anatomy and physiology, that person may not be the best judge of your work.

Third, before reading comments about your unpublished work, put yourself in a Zen frame of mind. Detach from the outcome. Resolve not to get upset or be offended. Try to act as though your reader has provided feedback on someone else's manuscript. If this is someone who cares about you, they will not want to hurt you, and as a result, hopefully they will be as tactful as possible. Ask yourself if the criticism rings true. Did you confuse points of view in your story? Are certain parts redundant, boring, or irrelevant? Be honest with yourself. The only one who stands to benefit is you.

Last, do not go to Amazon looking for useful feedback on your published material. Some people on Amazon love to book bash. Ditto for reviewers or certain blogs. Once you have published your book, choose reviewers who are highly rated as impartial and professional. Even then, do not take a negative review to heart. Some bestsellers receive terrible reviews – Fifty Shades of Grey comes to mind – and those mixed reviews have not affected sales adversely at all! That is because I may love a certain book and you may hate it, but our combined opinions have little to do with the objective value of the book.

So, do your best writing your manuscript and when it is time to hand it over for evaluation, choose your readers carefully and establish a confident mindset so that you can hear what they are saying without feeling or hurt or angry, and then just dismiss feedback that is not relevant or helpful.

Happy writing.
Sigrid Mac, Author of Be Your Own Editor

Today's Writing Tip Is When to Use I Think and I Feel

I Feel versus I Think

These two terms are often used interchangeably when they mean completely different things. Feelings are just that—emotions. I can feel angry, sad, wistful or inspired. I can also feel cold, hungry, and sleepy. I can't feel that I wasted my money going to see a stupid movie but I can think that.

Thoughts are ideas in our head. I think about current events. I think the bombings in Boston were tragic. I think I've been sitting at the computer too long.

Be conscious of these phrases. Usually, the term “I feel” is the one that's misused. We’re not likely to say, “I think I'm angry” or “I think I'm cold,” but if we do, it doesn't mean the same as if we used the word feel. “I think I'm angry” means that I'm trying to decide if I'm angry or not, whereas “I feel angry” is a declarative sentence. Likewise with “I think I'm cold.” That sentence implies that I may or may not be cold; I'm not sure. There is an uncertainty that doesn't exist with the simple statement, “I'm cold.”

This is an excerpt from Sigrid Macdonald's book Be Your Own Editor available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Today's Writing Tip Is on Principal Versus Principle

When I was in junior high, we were taught that the way to differentiate these homonyms, or sets of words that sound alike but mean something different, was to think that the principal was our pal (even if he or she is looking for weed in your locker). That way we would remember that principal refers to a person whereas principle refers to an idea.

Thomas Jefferson stood on principle.

A school principal has a tough job.

This one is pretty simple once you remember the rule. I recognize some teens may gag on the pal reference, but if it improves your grade, what the hell?

Sigrid Macdonald is a manuscript editor and the author of Be Your Own Editor. Find her at http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com/.