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An SEO Copywriting Makeover – Turning “Not” Into “Hot” Part 2 of 2
by Karon Thackston © 2003 http://www.copywritingcourse.com In part one of this article series, I outlined a recent project I undertook for a Web site that sells gas logs. The site had a lot of potential, but in its current state the sales...
How To Find Freelance Copywriting Jobs
Your goal is to land a few nice, secure freelance copywriting jobs, but how do you get them? The most important factor in finding these jobs is that you pursue the job you are looking for with all of your ducks in a row, so to speak. Here are a...
Segmenting Your Target Audience Through Your Copywriting
by Karon Thackston © 2004 http://www.copywritingcourse.com Ask any copywriter what the first commandment of copywriting is and they’ll quickly tell you “Know Thy Target Audience.” In order to write effectively you have to know this one group of...
Top Seven Tips for Writing Articles on the Internet
Top Seven Tips for Writing Articles on the Internet Judy Cullins © 2003 All Rights Reserved. Online readers love information, but be sure your information is crisp, clean, clear and concise. 1. Keep your paragraphs short, even a line or two....
Writing a Page Turner
What's going to happen next? You turn the pages as quickly as you can. Agitated, you read on, lured by the sense of dread that's pulsing through your veins. You don't realize it, but you're holding your breath. Something's going to happen....
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Are Writing Exercises Effective?
It was reported that the great American author Sinclair Lewis was once asked to give a lecture on writing to a group of college students: "Looking out at this gathering," he said to the assembled students, "makes me want to know how many of you really and truly wish to become writers?" Every hand in the room went up. Lewis looked at them for a moment and then folded his notes and put them away. "If that's true," he said, "then the best advice I can give you is to go home and start writing." He then turned and left the room.
If the first secret of writing is to write and if you've set up some sort of writing schedule, the next step is to figure out what to write.
Opening a brand new file and looking at a blank screen often results in a kind of brain-freeze; we feel as idea-less as the empty screen we're staring at. Writing exercises can help us thaw our idea bank. The goal of a writing exercise is to open your mind and allow you to hone your skills and experiment. The joy of such an exercise is it's not 'for real.' That is, there's no thought of pleasing an editor or finding a publisher or meeting a deadline or getting paid. You're just writing, with your internal editor turned off.
Some freelancers find writing exercises so effective and
freeing they actually begin every writing session with a 10 or 15-minute exercise. Others use them more sporadically. But however you do it, writing exercises will help you with your writing. Use writing exercises in your writing schedule, as a natural part of your writing discipline; use the exercises often and watch your writing improve.
Ideally, a writing exercise is short, requiring you to spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes writing, thinking and feeling about something that's unrelated to the rest of your writing work. In a way, they are like mini-meditations and mini-vacations because they clear out the cobwebs and give you a new view.
It's that new view, that different way of seeing, of expressing, that's the key to a good writing exercise. Naturally, not every exercise blows your mind every time. Sometimes you are just not ready for the challenge presented, but even then, the seed is planted. Sometimes you are simply not up for doing a writing exercise, which is okay too. Again, simply reading can set some new thoughts in motion.
About the Author
Lana Hampton makes it easy to improve your writing skills. Visit http://www.yowswriting.com today for the latest writing tips and information.
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| Guide to Grammar and Writing |
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| Purdue University's Online Writing Lab - The OWL Family of Sites |
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| OWL at Purdue University: General Writing Concerns Handouts |
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| Writing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| Writing.org - Advice for Freelance Writers |
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| Writing HTML |
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| National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month |
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| BBC Get Writing |
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| Dictionary.com: Writing Resources |
| Free online English dictionary and reference guide. List of sites writers can use. |
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| WritingFix: Home of Interactive Writing Prompts and 6 Trait ... |
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| Advice on Academic Writing |
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