Copywriting Information

Re-fresh, Re-hash, Re-write word count: 410You are running out of ideas, you sit down in front of your computer and stareat the blank screen with a blank mind.Your fingers are idly waiting ...

Reading In A Tree Today is like many of the summer days I spent at my grandparents' house in Indiana—except I am writing, instead of reading and I am sitting in a chair on my deck, instead of on a branch in a tree growing in front of my grandparents' house. But the wind is blowing gently under the umbrella, just like it blew through the leaves so many years ago.I don't remember how many hours I spent in that tree...

Refining Your Elevator Pitch Imagine this: You're in the elevator with the producer of your favorite show. The program you've been trying to get on for years. What would you say to this person? Would you comment on the weather? Perhaps lament about the price of gas? Or would you take the opportunity to pitch your story as you glide up three floors? Now, this might not actually ever happen but it's still a good idea to be prepared. That's what I call your elevator pitch. So, how do you get to your elevator pitch? How do you refine your topic down in such a way that it grabs the attention of someone in a matter of a few...

Remote Monitoring Remote working or working from home, that is how a layman would call it, is en vogue these days. Most people want to work from the comfort of their homes and save their travel time. Remote working or remote monitoring provides this wonderful opportunity to individuals and business owners alike. Remote monitoring was designed and formalized by the user community but a major role was played by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Without the help of the Internet Engineering Task Force, this idea could never have been implemented. The proposal for remote monitoring was approved in 1992. Remote monitoring is a standard monitoring requirement, which provides network administrators with more freedom in...

Screenplay Slug Lines - An Important Element Of Screenwriting Article Summary: Over the years, I’ve found that new screenwriters frequently have confusions and misunderstandings on the proper way to write slug lines, also known as master scene headings. This article covers the basics of writing industry accepted screenplay slug lines.Tips On Slug LinesScene headings or slug lines, as they are commonly called, are a widely accepted convention of “spec” or “master scene” screenplay form. Over the years, I’ve found that new writers frequently have confusions and misunderstandings on the subject, despite having read a basic book or two on the craft aspects of screenwriting. Hence, the reason for this article. Every time the “where” or the “when” of your story changes, it’s expected that you’ll reorient the reader as to location and time of day with a new slug line. A slug ...

Seecrets On Writing: Free Requotable Quotes For Internet Writers Original quotes, when used at the beginning or at the end of an article provide a touch of class. At the least, it will make your article different from the thousands of articles filed daily. It can be witty, satirical, funny or just a different opinion on current issues. Perhaps, it could be an outrageous prediction that even no expert will dare to rule out.Famous quotes are often used as templates. By substituting certain words, voila, you have created something worth pondering.If you are the author of an original quote which you want to share with the internet writing community, send an email to this author. Objectionab...

Setting Your Novel: There's Gold In Your Own Backyard I started my first manuscript during my junior year at Virginia Tech. I had a couple of characters in mind, a flimsy skeleton of a plot, and one pressing question. Where to set the book? At that point in my life, I hadn't traveled too far past the Virginia state line. And to me, the rest of the world sounded alluring in a way ...

Seven Secrets Of Writing A Book That Sells It's one thing to write a book, it's an entirely different thing to write one that's a saleable, viable, marketable ...

Seven Ways To Connect Your Writing And Your Life An important question for any artist is: How can I built a career and simultaneously be true to myself? It’s an important question, and during the twenty years I’ve taught writing, hundreds of students have expressed the belief that success and personal integrity are mutually exclusive.The Lifewriting™ approach to fiction suggests that not only do these two qualities overlap, but that the safest, surest, most satisfying path to discovering your true voice, your deepest creative flow, and ultimately crafting the most satisfying career, is to be true to yourself. It suggests that Aristotle’s famous debate concerning the relative merits of plot and character is a trick: Plot and ...

Short Story Writing Tips - Are Matters Getting Worse For Your Character? Things have to get worse before they can get better. This is necessary in short stories.Characters have to struggle to reach their goals. Stories where everything goes right for our characters are dull ones. You can devise several ways to make things difficult for your character. Let’s look at each one…1) By Having The Character Make Things Worse For HimselfThe mind is a powerful thing. If you tell yourself you can do something and put in the effort, you can. If you are pessimistic in your thinking, the obstacles will seem overwhelming.A character can make things worse for himself by his way of thinking.

Short Story Writing Tips - Are Problems Escalating In Your Story? In order to see the character struggling we’ll have to introduce problems. These, your character will solve as they occur and these are going to be problems associated with your conflict.Each of these problems will vary in intensity - some will be easier to solve than others. Some will be less important – but still preventing him from reaching his goal. Others will be enormous. We vary them in intensity for a bit of variety. We don’t want our stories to be dull, do we?Let’s see an example of problems escalating in a story…

Short Story Writing Tips - Does The Conflict Affect Your Character? Conflicts create waves in our calm lives. The greater the conflict the more impact it will have on us. No one likes conflicts. Conflicts require action (we have to do something about the problem that’s been created) or conflict requires decisions (we have to choose something over something else). So the greater the conflict the greater the wave it creates.Think of what state of mind you are in wh...

Short Story Writing Tips - Does The Resolution Of The Conflict Come From The Conflict? The solution is where the problem is. We just have to find it. If in your story the conflict arises from a decision the character has to make, then the conflict will be solved when your character makes a decision.If the conflict comes from something the character must do (from an action he needs to perform in order to solve the conflict) the resolution will come from him performing that action.Let me give you a few examples…A) The resolution coming from a decision the character needs to make…The character loves two women and he has to decide which to marry. The resolution will come from him making the decision of which he prefers.B) The resolution coming from an action the character needs...

Short Story Writing Tips - Does Your Character Overcome The Conflict Himself? Your story belongs to your main character. And because it’s his story, everything associated with that story is his. The goal is his, the problems are his, the conflic...

Short Story Writing Tips - Does Your Character Overcome Each Problem? Think of a conflict you have been through. Why was it hard to resolve? Was it because, beside the conflict itself, there were other problems associated with it? There was a lot at stake for you, wasn¡¦t there? You weighed the consequences of each option and tried to come up with a solution, one that be satisfying, and in which you didn¡¦t stand to lose.Let me tell you of my experience¡KI once worked in a company where I clashed with a colleague. The conflict was ...

Short Story Writing Tips - Is The Conflict Resolved By Another Force? In real life we don't want to deal with conflict and hope it will be resolved by someone else, or something else. As with having the conflict resolved by another character, the same here applies having the conflict resolved by another force. Such as the weather, luck, nature, coincidence, province etc. All are weak devices to use and should be avoided at all costs.Let me give you a few examples of the conflict being resolved by...

Short Story Writing Tips - Is There Something At Stake For Your Character? In your story, does your character have to achieve his goal no matter what? Have you raised the stakes so high that he will struggle because the goal is so important to him?Your character’s goal has to be pretty i...

Short Story Writing Tips - Is Your Conflict Resolved By Another Character? How great is it when we¡¦re going through a major crisis and someone comes up with a solution for us?In real life we hope someone will solve our problems and sometimes that happens. Someone else solving our problems is the easy way out. This won¡¦t do for a story. In short stories, the character has to solve his own conflict. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Let me give you an example of another character solving the main characters conflict¡K.The main character¡¦s goal is to save enough money to buy ...

Short Story Writing Tips - Is Your Character Struggling? A story where everything comes easy to the character is a very bland piece of writing – and not a very believable one either. Short stories, in a way, reflect real life. The characters are real because the characters we think of could be someone in the world. The emotions are real because human beings feel. Some situations and events are real because they could happen in real life. Even if you were to write a story, which contains elements of fantasy such as in horror or science fiction, some ...

Simple Steps Lead To Successful Books Like most first time authors, I figured that once the word was out that I'd written a book, the world would beat a path to my door wanting to buy it. I'll admit I gave little thought to marketing until the day my first printing of Handbook To A Happier Life was delivered. In a panic, I called a published author I knew and asked, "What do I do now?" She suggested several books about book marketing, which I ...

So You Need Some Inspiration? Try Some Rpc: Risk, Passion And Creativity! You want to write. You really do. But the passion you feel never gets translated into actual writing. And if it does, it doesn’t last very long. You run out of steam.There are reasons for this. First, you may be writing out of your conscious mind. Another problem for many writers is...

So You Want To Be A Copywriter? Caught you looking! Wannabe copywriters often check out my site for information relating to my services and fees. And quite right too! I still give my competitor's websites a 'gander' every now and then, in case they're doing something that I should be doing.I receive many emails from students working towards their marketing or other media degrees, asking for a few tips about securing work in the 'Copywriting Industry' I didn't realise we had an industry! If we have, it's sur...

Some Faqs For Aspiring Copywriters I get an email at least once a week from aspiring copywriters seeking advice on how to get a foothold in the industry. It's obviously a popular topic, so I thought I'd ...

Space Debris: The Sky Is Falling Imagine yourself taking an early morning walk in Tulsa, Oklahoma only to see a “big bright light, like a fire” in the sky. The object continues to get bigger as it approaches overhead. A few minutes later, you feel a gentle tap on your shoulder. You look around only to find a light piece of charred metal, about the size of your hand. You’ve been hit! Impossible you say? Just ask Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma about her early morning walk on January 22, 1997. The metal mesh-like fragment which hit her came from a rocket that had been used to put a satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force in 1996. After nine months in space, a fuel tank from the rocket crashed into an empty field in Texas. The fragment which hit Williams on the shoulder came fr...

Starting A Freelance Writing Career (or Thoughts About Taking The Plunge) Nike's ad has taken on new meaning for me of late; "Just do it!" runs through my mind like a mantra. Although my dreams have nothing to do with athletic shoes and little to do with athletics (unless you count the long list of ideas I have developed which revolve around my sons and their activities), I have spent a long time avoiding the one thing I've always wanted to do - write.Writing has actually been a part of my work life for a very long time. I've written and edited in the business world. I've taught writing to high school students. I've written countless lesson plans, activities, etc. I have never tried to get any of my work published, until now.Making the decision to write for a living was actually one of ...

Starting A Writing Career (or How I Sifted Through The Muck And Found My Way) So, the decision is final. I am a writer.Actually, I have always been a person who writes, but I have never applied the term to myself in a professional sense. Having pushed aside my financial fears and gained the requisite self-confidence, I began to surf the net in earnest for information about how to begin a freelance writing career. The vast amount of information was daunting enough, but when I realized how much time and effort would go into an attempt to get published, I almost quit.Several thoughts are keeping me going. A lot of it has to do with my personal history and the role that ...

Stimulate Your Senses! When you get stuck for ideas, and the words won’t flow, invariably it’s because one, more or all of your senses aren’t being stimulated. Staring at a blank screen or sheet of paper really doesn’t help. The best way to stimulate all your senses in one hit is to provide an inspirational space you can work with. Lots of Feng Shui arrangements appear in western homes these days, and they’re great, but outside those four w...

Stories And Feelings Many stories are a journey of feeling for a story's audience. As characters overcome or pass through various obstacles to get what they want, they pass through stages of feeling, and readers who identify with these characters or become invested in what happens to them, share these feelings. This makes a story different than real life, where many people struggle to access their true feelings, feel a need to take drugs to mute or control their feelings, or feel unable to express or experience feelings. Some writers struggle with writing about feelings because they t...

Surefire Ways To Get Your Magazine Article Queries Accepted One of my writing discussion groups recently had a topic thread going about the success rate of pitching magazine article ideas. It seems that the standard acceptance rate is about 30% - 40%. In my own experience though, I've had about a 90% acceptance rate and I mentioned that in the group. This inevitably led to a nuts and bolts discussion, and I thought I'd share these tips with you.1. Never send a query without first looking at the magazine's editorial calendar. By looking at the editorial calendar, you can see...

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