Welcome to the Easy Writing Newsletter, a weekly blast of inspiration to help you and your writing – creatively and financially. ============================================ The Easy Way to Write a Great Resume: http://www.easywaytowrite.com/steph.html ============================================ Greetings I hope this message finds you well and happy and that your writing is rewarding and fun for you - as it should be! Writing - especially full time - can be a lonely business. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in what you have to do you can end up hiding yourself away for days, weeks, months even. Sometimes I look up from several solid hours and realize that it's a beautiful day outside - and I hadn't even noticed! Some good advice: take some time out every now and then. Do things that have nothing to do with work or goals. Just chill. It'll do wonders for your long term sanity - and will make you more creative when you need to be. As always, contact me for any reason at: rob@easywaytowrite.com ======================================= 9 Rules for Travel Writing I think the following scenario has appealed to all of us at one time or another: Go on holiday, relax, soak up the atmosphere, take a few photos, write up on some of the more interesting aspects of your trip and get published in a travel magazine or the local paper. Sounds like money for jam, doesn’t it? Well, maybe, but if you want to stand out in this competitive crowd, there are several ‘rules’ to take into account. Rule One: Do Not Write Like a Tourist. You know the sort of thing. ‘We went to see the cathedral/waterfall/show etc and it was fabulous. We couldn’t believe our eyes. The people were so friendly and the food was delicious.’ Editors of travel writing articles do not want this kind of empty enthusiasm. Telling people you had a good time and should go there is not enough. People want to know if they can have a good time, yes, but you have to pique their interest, get them excited at possibilities, and make them want to see and do things for themselves. Rule Two: Be Objective Unless you are a famous name, try to keep yourself out of the writing. Your opinion will be respected more if you are seen to be fair in your assessments and impartial in your judgments. If you do have a strong opinion about a place, especially if it’s bad, measure it against something more positive. Places are rarely all bad. Rule Three: Be Informative If you want to sell articles to, say, in-flight magazines or travel books like The Lonely Planet, it’s your job to tell as much as you can about a place in the possible shortest time. Don’t waste wordage on flowery language. Keep everything succinct, factual and interesting. Rule Four: Be Well Researched Don’t take the local guidebook’s word for anything. Tourist guides will always try to put the best spin on a place and are frequently inaccurate. Research facts later (or before) at your local library or on the Internet. Similarly, if you’re quoting what somebody told you, no matter how authoritative, make that clear in your article. You don’t want to get caught out relating some old wives’ tale or local urban legend as fact. Rule Five: Keep Your Writing Structured Your travel articles should read as strong as any other kind of article you might put together. Keep the writing tight and upbeat. Have a common theme that outlines the points you want to stress and don’t get sidetracked into relating information that weakens your writing. Rule Six: Have An Angle Editors will love you if you take some time before you write to come up with an angle. Instead of saying a particular place has a good fishing industry for instance, you could find out what a few fisherman have to say about that, whether they agree, or not, and perhaps explore their differences of opinion. Rule Seven: Use A Good Camera The snaps you take on holiday are rarely good enough to print in a magazine. Digital cameras, though they look fine on a computer, do not usually have sufficient definition – even for newspapers. If you’re sending in photos with your articles – and it’s a good idea – use the best quality camera you can get, use fast film and perhaps take a few black and whites, which can look very good in print. Rule Eight: Think Outside the Square You don’t necessarily have to travel to be a travel writer. You could quite easily write about your own town and sell articles about it all over the world. Just because you live there doesn’t mean other people won’t find it fun and fascinating. Rule Nine: Be Prepared. If you’re going away, take everything you’re going to need. Pads to make notes, files to collect information, tape recorders to interview people, and film and batteries for your cameras. Plan ahead and tell hotels, tour organizers and places you intend to visit that you are a travel writer. Even if you never come away with anything to write about, you’ll be amazed at the improved service you get! robparnell 2004 ======================================= Featured Resource Deviant Minds is a web-based horror fiction magazine with a long and much acclaimed pedigree. I’m very proud to now host it. If you’re a fan of good horror fiction, take a look now: http://www.deviantminds.org If you’re a writer of horror stories and would like to submit some for consideration, take a look at the ‘Guidelines’ section. I'm now the fiction editor too. Send your fiction submissions to: rob@deviantminds.org http://www.deviantminds.org =========================================== Inspiration, Which Rock is That Under? Imagine you wake up after a long sleep and you’re not at home in bed. Make a short list of the worst, best or most bizarre places you might be. Pick the most compelling scenario and open a story with it. ============================================ Till next time, thanks for reading, Keep well and happy, Yours ever, Rob@easywaytowrite.com Your Success is My Concern http://www.easywaytowrite.com ============================= One-Click Safe Un-Subscribe http://secure.MakeBuyingEasy.com/r.cgi?ID=55591 Powered by MakeBuyingEasy.com http://MakeBuyingEasy.com/x.cgi?id=730