The Easy Way to Write September 2004 Newsletter! From robparnell, The Easy Way to Write™ This issue is kindly sponsored by the American Writers and Artist's Institute I Finally Found A Way To Make A Living As A Writer I'm averaging about $150 an hour and I only work a few hours each morning, leaving me with most of the day to pursue my first love: Fiction. Here's how you can learn the secrets of this little-known, lucrative writing business: Click here for info now! ======================================= Dear Fellow Writer, I hope this message finds you well and happy - and writing prolifically! This month sees the birth of a new format for the monthly newsletter. I very much hope you like it. I've had to change the format for a number of reasons. No least that email is getting increasingly difficult to send out these days, especially if you have as many subscribers as we do at the Easy Way to Write! Hence this experiment - the newsletter is on the website where hopefully, many more of you will end up seeing it, rather than it being 'lost' en route. ======================================================== Recently, the lucky winners of the Easy Way to Write 2004 New Novel Contest got their wonderful ebooks released! If you missed the info, click here Just started: The 2004/5 Easy Way Short Story Contest Get published and receive royalties with the rest of the winners - click here to register for this great opportunity for the novice and professional alike. ======================================================== Short Article: Murder Your Darlings Revisited: Recently, an esteemed correspondent of mine pointed out that the 'Murder Your Darlings' quote that I always attribute to F Scott Fitzgerald (see article here) was actually a phrase used by William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize speech. I wondered at this and decided to do an Internet search. To my surprise, the phrase is originally attributed to Arthur Quiller Couch, and used subsequently by authors from Virginia Woolf to Stephen King. Whatever its actual source, perhaps the most important thing here is that the concept of 'murdering your darlings' is one that strikes a real chord with writers. Always has, always will. It's funny, I've had new writers send me (sometimes quite angry!) emails - appalled by the suggestion that they cut out all the good bits in their writing, complaining that would leave nothing left, etc., or that the process would somehow detract from their enjoyment of writing. I think this attitude misses the point somewhat. You see, it's not the 'good bits' you're taking out, it's only the bits that don't help the writing - and they are very often the same bits you are most proud of - some clever turn of phrase or simile or metaphor, whatever. Because, basically, it's not 'clever' to try and 'look clever' in your writing - it actually makes you look amateurish and self indulgent. Your primary job as a writer is to transfer strong images and good ideas from your head into the mind of another person - a kind of telepathy if you will. The words are the medium you use but in a sense, they are also the barrier that can limit this process. So the next time you're reading through your material, it's wise to remember that the truly great writer is the one who will sacrifice any and all of their words if the point, the image, or the story, suffers. The bad writer is the one who leaves in all those long, pointless descriptions, their 'academic' literary references (that nobody gets!) and insists on telling instead of showing. If you want to write like this, you may get grants from your local state council to develop your work, but I guarantee you won't sell many books! Remember the old adage: If in doubt, leave it out! robparnell 2004 ======================================================== Now available as a real paperback book: The Easy Way to Write a Novel New from Magellan Books. Get your own signed copy now! Click here ======================================================== Writing Courses - now running LIVE all year! Kenyon, our wonderful full time writing tutor is currently holed up in mid Florida somewhere, hiding from those pesky hurricanes that are smashing up property, cutting down power lines and generally making life difficult for people belonging to the electronic age. She apologizes for not being available on the Net this week but assures us she'll be back online soon to continue hosting the current Mystery and Suspense Writing Course. In the mean time, she wanted me to show you how she's planning to structure the LIVE WRITING courses over the coming year. Have a look here. And feel free to make suggestions for more courses to kenyon@easywaytowrite.com ======================================= The Easy Way to Write Children's Stories, now available, written by the author of 49 published children's books, click here to take a peek. ======================================= New: The Easy Way to Write Articles People often ask me how they can make money writing short articles. It's actually relatively easy, once you know the facts. Contrary to what you might think, publishers and editors are crying out for new material from aspiring writers - some of whom pay well for less than an hour's real work. Not only that, even if you don't get paid much initially, you can make lots of money anyway, using some pertinent 'secrets'. If you're at all interested in how this is possible, click here. Go on - it'll be a revelation! It's all part of a brand new e-course that I and a renowned Internet Guru Jinger Jarrett have put together especially for The Easy Way to Write. Click here now: The Easy Way to Write Articles for Publication, Self Promotion and PROFIT! ======================================= Featured Professional: Sarah White Taking the Time to Get it Right Sometimes as a writer, you wonder if you are just screaming into the void or if your words are really touching other people, helping them out in some way or changing the way they think. As a writer who writes a lot about writing, I want my words to help people become better writers, to make more sales and have more confidence in their craft. In the few months since Rob and I first published "Doing the Write Thing: The Easy Way to Self-Edit," I have been lucky enough to hear from some readers of the book and articles I have written about it and discover how the ideas I present have helped them. Many times the comments I have received have had to do with the fact that my advice validates ideas they already had about writing. They are gratified to know they were doing some things right and eager to try other things I suggested. As an example, one reader writes: "Your ideas were really good and I have found the best thing for me is printing it [the manuscript] out and reading it. Sometimes in this high tech world I think I am wasting so much time to do that, but I am more able to catch my mistakes." I love this comment because it's funny how we as writers know that something is good for us, we know that it helps, but we don't want to do it because it takes too much time. We're in such a rush to make sales we don't even want to do the things we know will help us make sales! Others have been thankful that I mentioned the value of taking time away from a manuscript before trying to edit it. If you think it takes too much time to go through these steps, think about how much more time, energy and resources it takes to send out a error-filled manuscript over and over looking for a publisher who is willing to fix it? When you think about it that way, a little extra time on the front end is nothing if it helps you sell your work faster. And that's really what all of this is about. Most of us write because we want to be published, we want to share our thoughts and ideas with others and hopefully get paid for it. That's what this book, this system, is really all about. It's not about making you learn arcane grammar rules or tying your muse up in the closet while you painstakingly rewrite every word of your manuscript. It's about providing you with tools and ideas, all of which will improve your writing and your chance of sales. You don't have to do every step every time, but as you read through the book and think about your own writing, I think you will see the value of these steps and how your writing will improve immediately, even if you don't adopt all of the suggestions. And as your writing improves, your number of sales will improve. And there's really nothing better than that. Sarah White breadbakingwoman@yahoo.com Author, Doing the Write Thing: The Easy Way to Self-Edit: http://www.easywaytowrite.com/selfediting.html