The Care and Feeding of Writers

By Beth Jones

When it comes to launching a writing career, there are many choices to make.

Will you be a freelance writer or will you write books?

Will you write on your own blog or will you write for other websites?

Will you mix-and-match your writing endeavors or will you focus on one specialty?

Whether you're a veteran writer who wants to start making money or you're new to the entire writing experience, Beth Jones shows you what it takes to move your writing career forward.

You'll learn:
Why you should branch out in your writing
Why you should take risks
Why you should focus on building your confidence
Why you shouldn't avoid writing just because you're a parent
Why you shouldn't work for free

Beth Jones is the author of more than 150 eBooks and 3,000 articles. She writes full-time from the comfort of her living room. Learn how she does it and how you can, too, in The Care and Feeding of Writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth Jones
• Release date: Jan 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524270926

Book preview

About this Book

BECOMING A WRITER ISN’T easy. Anyone who tells you that launching a writing career is simple either doesn’t understand the world of authorship or is lying to you. In actuality, there are many decisions any new author has to make – some of them very quickly.

For example, will you write books? Will you blog? Will you freelance? Will you do a combination? How much time do you have to dedicate to your artistic endeavors? How much do you have to learn about marketing? Are you willing to work hard to make money? Are you willing to grow and learn what it takes to become a stronger writer?

This book is broken into four sections: The Art of Writing, Writing Books, Freelance Writing, and Blogging.

Each section is broken into short, quick chapters you can read all at once or slowly, if you need time to ponder what each section means to you as a creator. By the time you finish this book, you’ll know exactly what it takes to develop your writing skills, discover ideas for managing home and family life with your writing career, learn how you can pitch literary agents effectively, discover where to find freelance writing gigs, and learn how to market any blog.

Best of luck!

The Art of Writing

3 Keys to Better Writing

IF YOU WANT TO BECOME a better writer, you might feel overwhelmed with information. After all, there are hundreds of blogs, books, and websites dedicated to helping people learn to write. Whether you want to become a blogger, an author, or a short story writer, it's important that you take the time to hone your craft and improve your skills. Fortunately, no matter what type of writing you want to do, there are a few things that you can do to become a better writer.

1. Write every day.

If you want to lose weight, you probably work out every day. You log your calories at every meal. You get plenty of sleep. To successfully lose the excess weight, you can't cheat. You have to be diligent, strong, and dedicated. Becoming a better writer is not unlike losing weight. If you don't write every day, you can't improve your skills because you'll have nothing to edit. Remember that you don't have to write perfectly. You don't even have to write well. You just have to write. Once you've written something, then you'll be able to work with that. You'll be able to edit your words, modify your ideas, and change your scenery. You have to actually be willing to pick up your pen, though, and to start the writing process.

2. Read as much as you can.

One of the best ways to become a better writer is to read. It doesn't really matter what you read. Just read something. If you're a genre writer, it's a good idea to read works by other authors in your niche. Ask yourself what works about their stories, what doesn't work, what interests you as a reader, and what turns you off. Exploring the work of other writers will help you learn to improve your writing skills, but it will also help you develop your ability to meet the needs of your readers. It's also a good idea to read grammar books and stories about writing. These will help you develop your language skills, as well as your ability to tell a good story.

3. Put yourself in your reader's shoes.

When you're writing, it can be easy to make the story about yourself and to write things that you want to read. At some point, though, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your reader. Ask yourself if you're writing something that another person would want to read. Would a teenage reader really want to know what you ate for lunch? Would a retired woman really be interested in reading about what color shoes your character wore? Identify your audience and try to figure out what sorts of things they would be interested in reading. While you should still be true to yourself and write about the things that you want to, it's important to realize that without readers, you'd be out of a job. At some point, your work needs to speak to the people who are buying it.

Rules for Writers

WHILE BROWSING FACEBOOK the other day, I came across a meme. The statistics presented in it were a bit iffy, and when someone asked for the creator's references, she quoted Wikipedia.

In case you don't know this, that's a huge no-no for writers.

Wikipedia is considered an unstable source because anyone can alter it. While Wikipedia is a good starting point to find other sources, especially medical journal articles or information on specific topics, it's important to know that Wikipedia itself should never be quoted in professional or academic writing.

A better bet is to stick with .org, .gov, and .edu sites when you conduct research. You can easily filter your Internet search results to bring up these specific sites.

Here's how:

Say you want to search for information on pediatric dentists. You could bring up .gov sites by typing this into your search engine:

pediatric dentists site:.gov

If you wanted to search for information on how many students attend a specific college, you could bring up .edu sites by searching for:

students University of Kansas site:.edu

That's it! This is one of the best ways to simplify your searches and save time browsing through blogs, random websites, or sites that have an obvious bias. Remember that your ability to use professional websites and news articles will do nothing but add to your credibility as a writer. For readers who don't know you and understand your writing history or credentials, using references goes far in developing rapport with your current audience.

3 Things to Write About (When You Don’t Feel Like Writing)

EVERYONE HAS DAYS WHERE they don't feel like writing.

For some of us, these days are few and far between.

For others, it might feel like every day is a struggle.

Fortunately, there are a few go-to topics you can use when you need to write but you just don't feel like writing.

Write about your day.

Sound boring? It might be. The trick is to write about something you might have experienced that your readers will find interesting or to write about an ordinary experience in an unusual way. Did you go to the store today? Instead of writing about walking the aisles, consider tackling the topic from the perspective of someone who was going to the grocery store for the first time. Another way would be to talk about going to the grocery store without mentioning what kind of store you were at. Challenge yourself! Be creative, be interesting, and be bold.

Write about a childhood memory.

Maybe you hated your childhood. Lots of people do. This doesn't mean, however, that you should avoid thinking about it. Childhood memories are powerful things. Consider grabbing one and writing about it. Maybe you remember opening presents on Christmas day. Maybe you remember not having money for presents. Maybe you remember finding out, that snowy morning, that your parents were getting a divorce. Pick something, relive it, imagine it, and write it.

Write about something you want to accomplish.

Make a list of goals. Maybe you just have one goal. Maybe you have twenty. Write them down and pick one to explore in writing. How will you accomplish this goal? Do you think you can actually do it? What about the people around you? Will they believe in you even when you don't believe in yourself? Again, pick it, think about it, and write it.

No matter what you write about, remember that the important thing is to write. The more you put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard), the better you'll