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In most cases, a work of nonfiction requires some amount of research and interviewing. Whether or not you’re already an expert on your topic, it’s vital that you do all the necessary work to get accurate information.
Even though research is essential, it doesn’t have to consume all of your time—in fact, it shouldn’t. Make sure you leave time to actually write. Take your researching and interviewing seriously, but also enjoy
it. After all, if you’re interested in writing, you’re interested in learning new things and finding answers
to questions.
TACKLING ANY TOPIC
Write what you know? While it seems perfectly sound on one level, living by this mantra can limit and even deter your career. In order to grow as professionals, writers should be taught to write what they
don’t know.
Why take on work in this manner? For one, it builds your repertoire. Second, editors want all-around writers whom they can send on any assignment. Third, it opens doors to other opportunities. If you can research and write about an unfamiliar subject, you bring to the table a fresh perspective. Editors always need new ideas—even new takes on old topics.
Of course, you can’t learn every tiny detail about a subject, or you’ll never stay within your deadline. But you must gain a good working knowledge, concentrate on finding key points, get your facts straight and talk with the right people.
After hours of research and interviewing, you’ll notice when you start to write that your words have a depth, an authority. Suddenly you’ll discover that you’re a legitimate source of information; in short, you’ll have become a kind of expert.

Here’s how to get up to speed on any subject:
• DO A TARGETED INTERNET SEARCH. Study every relevant website you can find. You may have some intense reading to do the night before a big interview, but it’ll be worth it.
• READ ALL ABOUT IT. Read magazines, journals and books related to your subject to pick up the jargon, trends, leads and ideas.
• USE MULTIMEDIA SOURCES. Documentaries and CD-ROMs are fun and quick ways to soak up facts and build a foundation.
• WHEN IN DOUBT, FIND OUT. If you’re not sure of something, ask an expert. Double-checking with an authority is the safest and quickest way to get information, and it’ll save work later.
• LET IT BREATHE. Give yourself time to nail inconsistencies in your story.
While these steps won’t make you a certified expert, they will help you write about even the most foreign of topics. Don’t underestimate yourself: With a little legwork, you can tackle any topic.

Courtesy: Writers' Digest

While study, practice and feedback will improve your technical skills as a writer, some of the essential qualities of good writing are more elusive:

 Empathy – the ability to put yourself in the mind of your reader or your characters. Empathy allows the blogger or freelance writer to connect powerfully with their chosen audience. It helps the novelist create believable characters who are nothing like their creator.

 Imagination – the unique ideas and connections that exist below the surface of your writing. Imagination helps the fantasy writer create unfamiliar yet believable worlds. It helps a non-fiction author view an old problem from a fresh perspective. It gives the short story writer the premise for her next tale.

 Passion – a love of language, a desire to communicate, and a delight in telling stories. Passion is the creative energy that carries you through times of uncertainty and rejection. It’s the voice that says quietly and consistently “be a writer.”

These are the qualities that help you capture the heads and hearts of your audience.
These are the qualities that create a unique and urgent voice that doesn’t need to fight for attention.
These are the qualities that separate the good writers from the tragic wannabes.
But if empathy, imagination and passion can’t be learned, how are they acquired?

To be continued...

Becoming a better writer boils down to three simple steps:
1. Study – you learn the principles of good writing and the conventions of your chosen form. You study the rules of grammar and learn when it’s okay to break them. You seek to understand other elements of good writing, such as tone, pace and structure. You explore purpose and theme. And you recognize that there will always be more to learn.

2. Practice – you write and rewrite until your work is as good as your current skills allow. You create a writing habit and commit to a daily target. You write when you’re in the zone and you write when you’re not. You write when friends are out having fun because you said to them: “No, I have to write.”


3. Feedback – you seek comments and criticism from other writers, friends, teachers, perhaps a mentor. You know these people are an imperfect stand-in for your real audience, but understand that feedback is the fuel that drives your advancement. And when the feedback suggests that your writing falls short, you return to study and to practice.

This learning cycle is essential because it helps you to hone your writing instincts. It trains the internal critic that guides the hundreds of tiny decisions you make each time you sit down and write.

Courtesy: Write To Done

One key factor that separates mediocre writers from good ones (and even good from great) is the quality of their editing.
If you’re working for a big magazine or publishing house, you’ll have an editor who goes through your work, checks for any clumsy or ambiguous phrasing, and fixes any typos – but if you’re working on your first novel, or publishing posts to a blog, you’re almost certainly going to be on your own.
It’s hard to edit your own work. You might end up skipping editing altogether because you hate it – or you might spend hours trying to get a piece right. These eight tips will help you develop your editing skills:


#5: Cut Out 10% of Your Words
Once you’re broadly happy with the shape and flow of your piece, it’s time to cut. Most writers over-write: we use more words than we need, and we weaken our argument or story in the process.
Do a word-count for your whole piece, and try to cut 10% of the words. If you’ve written an 800 word blog post, for instance, aim to cut it to 720. Look out for:
• Repeating the same point several times – unless you’re deliberately doing this as a rhetorical device, it’s probably unnecessary. Trust that your reader will get it the first time.
• Wishy-washy phrases like “in my opinion…” or “it is my belief that…” Occasionally these are warranted; often, you can simply cut them out.
• Unnecessary adjectives. Don’t tell us “John said loudly” if you can say “John shouted”.

#6: Use Spell-Check – but Use Your Eyes Too
Always run your work through a spell-checker. That might mean using a browser plugin, or simply writing in Word or another word processing program so that you can check for red wiggly lines.
Don’t rely on spell-check to catch everything, though. Some errors will slip through – missing words are a common one, as are homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like “which” and “witch”). Sometimes, spell-check will pick up on words that are actually correct – mine has some bizarre ideas about “its” and “it’s” – so don’t blindly follow every suggestion.

#7: Read Your Piece Backwards (or Slowly)
It’s tough to proof-read your own writing: by this final stage of editing, you’re so familiar with the words on the page that mistakes just slide past you. One trick for better proof-reading is to read backwards from the end of the piece.
If you find reading backwards too awkward, then try reading s-l-o-w-l-y. That might mean running a pencil along each line as you read, or increasing the font size so that you don’t see so many words at a time on your screen.

#8: Let it Go
Finally, to edit well, you need to eventually stop! If you find yourself taking commas out and putting them back in, or rewriting the introduction one way then changing it back, then you’re done: it’s time to put your work out into the world.
If you’re like most writers, you’ll never feel entirely confident about your work. You’ll have a nagging sense that it could still be better. But perfection is an unattainable target – so settle for good enough. Even if a few imperfections remain, a published piece is infinitely more useful to your readers than a piece that sits on your hard drive forever.

One key factor that separates mediocre writers from good ones (and even good from great) is the quality of their editing.
If you’re working for a big magazine or publishing house, you’ll have an editor who goes through your work, checks for any clumsy or ambiguous phrasing, and fixes any typos – but if you’re working on your first novel, or publishing posts to a blog, you’re almost certainly going to be on your own.

It’s hard to edit your own work. You might end up skipping editing altogether because you hate it – or you might spend hours trying to get a piece right. These eight tips will help you develop your editing skills:

#1: Don’t Edit While You’re Writing
You’ve probably heard this one time and time again: don’t stop to edit while you’re writing. It’s great advice, though many writers find it hard to stick to.
It’s fine to pause and correct a typo, or restart a sentence, while you’re creating the first draft – but don’t keep going back to delete whole sentences or paragraphs.
If you really struggle to write without editing, try Write or Die, which forces you to make forwards progress by deleting your words if you stop typing for too long.

#2: Put Your Work Aside for a Few Days
Try to build extra time into your writing schedule, so that you can let your work sit before editing. With a short piece like a blog post, a day away from it – or even a few hours – is enough. If you’ve written a whole novel, try to put it aside for at least a week or two before starting the editing process.
By doing this, you make it easier to see your work afresh. You’ll come up with new ideas, and you’ll find that you can spot chapters that don’t fit, plot holes, inconsistent characterization and other big-picture problems.

#3: Read Through in a Different Format
Physically turning your words into a different format can help you spot problems or mistakes more easily. You might want to print out a blog post before editing it, or transfer your novel manuscript onto an e-reader device.
Often, it’s useful to take a look at your work in its published form (or as close to it as you can get). If you’ve got a blog post, for instance, you might use your blog platform’s “preview” function to check it out. If you’re writing an email newsletter, you could test it by emailing it to your own account. Sometimes, you’ll notice problems that didn’t stand out before, such as too many short/long paragraphs or glaring typos.

#4: Edit for Structure and Content First
Too often, writers start their editing by polishing up every sentence – and then end up cutting out huge chunks of their material later. It’s much more efficient to do your big picture editing first: that means looking for:
• Chapters or sections that need to be cut out – perhaps they’re too advanced for the piece, or they’re a tangent to the main point
• Missing information that you need to add in, like a whole new section or chapter
• Scenes or sections that need to be radically revised
Major cuts, additions and rewrites need to happen before you start digging down into the individual sentences and words.

“It has never been easy for me to understand why people work so hard to create something
beautiful, but then refuse to share it with anyone, for fear of criticism.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
- Leonardo da Vinci

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to
paper.” - E. B. White

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
- William Wordsworth

“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
- Gloria Steinem

“If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.” – Natalie Goldberg

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
– Stephen King

“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the
heart.” – Maya Angelou

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
― Robert Frost

Using the all time classic by Dickens, A Christmas Carol, below are eight very important tips every budding writer must employ to create a masterpiece;

1. Write a story that resonates. Dickens hits on all of the factors that drive a good story. A complex main character (Scrooge). Timing (Christmas time). Setting (London). Values (kindness, forgiveness, repentance, restitution). Uniqueness (The Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future). Conflict (Scrooge’s internal struggle to choose between love or money). Crisis (His impending death), Climax (His moment of decision). Resolution (His change of heart). Conclusion (Restored relationships, Tiny Tim survives).

2. Start with a memorable character. Who could be more memorable than Ebenezer Scrooge? Read the first few pages of the story. See how Dickens describes him. Incredible. Scrooge has left an indelible mark on all of us. We love him despite his flaws.

3. Write what you know. Dickens knew London; he lived there. He knew poverty; his parents were sent to debtors’ prison while he, at 12, worked in a warehouse for six shillings a week. He drew on the experiences of his life to depict the plight of the poor.

4. Write with passion. Dickens’ sister-in-law wrote that she had never seen him write with such fervor than when he wrote A Christmas Carol. In just six weeks he wrote a story for the ages. Within two months of its debut, eight theater companies adapted and mounted the story on stage. Critics hailed it “a national institution” a year later. It would become his most memorable work. He was 31.

5. Set your subconscious to work. Like so many writers, Dickens got away from his work—to do his work. His sister-in-law once reported that he “walked about the black streets of London, fifteen or twenty miles, many a night” while plotting this compelling story.

6. Introduce an innovative element. Dickens used common literary techniques such as flashback and flash-forward devices. Yet, he did it creatively with the Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

7. Maintain a disciplined writing schedule. As I mentioned earlier, Dickens wrote steadily and fervently and completed it in six weeks. While there is not much detail concerning his actual writing schedule, it’s clear he pushed himself to achieve a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. His masterpiece was published on December 19, 1843. It has gripped us for 168 years.

8. Give the reader something to chew on. This is perhaps the crowning achievement of this classic tale. It gives us pause every time we read it or see it. A question always lingers in my head. How can my life benefit others?

Courtesy: The Writer’s Refuge

Reading? Uh, no thanks
Let's face it. Not everyone is fond of reading. However, one cannot deny the importance of knowing how to read in our everyday life. Even if you sometimes fall asleep during your English literature class (that I can proudly say, I have never experienced), you have to know how to read in order to pay your bills, to apply for a job, and even to cook food-if you fancy yourself a bit of a budding chef.
As a child, I was initially not fond of this practice, although things changed when I was in fourth grade. Just like an actor being bitten by the acting bug, I was bitten by the reading bug during this time. I'm grateful to my English teachers who have seen and tapped into this potential. I wrote my first script and directed my first play during the fifth grade-and I think I still have that paper lying around somewhere today. So profound was my love for reading that I read almost all of the books at our quaint little library.
Since then, I have carried this passion for books up to this day, although I am very particular now and tend to gravitate towards certain genres. The greatest reward of reading for me, apart from gaining knowledge and wisdom, is that I can travel to many places without ever leaving my home or my country. Truly, the human imagination is limitless. And being a history buff myself, travelling back in time is such a fun bonus.
Here are my five favourite books (in no particular order) of all time.
1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K Rowling)
3. Sadako Sasaki and the One Thousand Paper Cranes (Eleanor Coerr)
4. Timeline (Michael Crichton)
5. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

WHAT ARE YOUR FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME?
Please share them with us

Shakespeare has had a huge influence on the English language. Some people today reading Shakespeare for the first time complain that the language is difficult to read and understand, yet we are still using hundreds of words and phrases coined by him in our everyday conversation.
Phrases Coined by Shakespeare

You have probably quoted Shakespeare thousands of times without realizing it. If your homework gets you “in a pickle”, your friends have you “in stitches”, or your guests “eat you out of house and home”, then you’re quoting Shakespeare.

Here are some of the most popular Shakespeare phrases in common use today:
• A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
• A sorry sight (Macbeth)
• As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)
• Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)
• Fair play (The Tempest)
• I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
• In a pickle (The Tempest)
• In stitches (Twelfth Night)
• In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
• Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
• Neither here nor there (Othello)
• Send him packing (Henry IV)
• Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
• There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
• Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
• Vanish into thin air (Othello)

Shakespeare has had a huge influence on the English language. Some people today reading Shakespeare for the first time complain that the language is difficult to read and understand, yet we are still using hundreds of words and phrases coined by him in our everyday conversation.
Phrases Coined by Shakespeare

You have probably quoted Shakespeare thousands of times without realizing it. If your homework gets you “in a pickle”, your friends have you “in stitches”, or your guests “eat you out of house and home”, then you’re quoting Shakespeare.

Here are some of the most popular Shakespeare phrases in common use today:
• A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
• A sorry sight (Macbeth)
• As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)
• Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)
• Fair play (The Tempest)
• I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
• In a pickle (The Tempest)
• In stitches (Twelfth Night)
• In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
• Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
• Neither here nor there (Othello)
• Send him packing (Henry IV)
• Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
• There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
• Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
• Vanish into thin air (Othello)

by Shanna Mallon

6. Amazing: The meaning of "amazing" is causing great wonder or surprise--but some writers use the word so often that the meaning gets lost. How can something be amazing if everything is? Ditch this diluted word.

7. Literally: When something is true in a literal sense, you don't have to add the word "literally." The only reason it makes sense to use the word is when it clarifies meaning (i.e., to explain you aren't joking when it seems you are).

8. Stuff: Unless you are aiming at informality, don't use the word "stuff." It's casual, it's generic, and it usually stands in for something better.

9. Things: Writers use the word "things" to avoid using a clearer, more specific word that would communicate more meaning. Be specific. Don't tell us about the "10 things," tell us about the "10 books" or "10 strategies." Specificity makes for better writing.

10. Got: Think of all the ways we use the vague word "got" in conversation: "I've got to go," "I got a ball," or "I got up this morning." Though it's fine for conversation, in writing, "got" misses valuable opportunities. Rather than writing a lazy word, look for clearer, more descriptive language: "I promised I'd leave by 9," "I picked up a ball," or "I woke up today," for example.

Whether you've been writing for a few days or for many years, you'll benefit from evaluating the words you use. Cut the filler to make your writing stronger.

by Shanna Mallon

When you want to make your writing more powerful, cut out words you don't need--such as the 10 included in this post:

1. Just: The word "just" is a filler word that weakens your writing. Removing it rarely affects meaning, but rather, the deletion tightens a sentence.

2. Really: Using the word "really" is an example of writing the way you talk. It's a verbal emphasis that doesn't translate perfectly into text. In conversation, people use the word frequently, but in written content it's unnecessary. Think about the difference between saying a rock is "hard" and "really hard," for example. What does the word add? Better to cut it out to make your message stronger.

3. Very: Everything that applies to "really" applies to "very." It's a weak word. Cut it.

4. Perhaps/maybe: Do you want your audience to think you're uncertain about what you're saying? When you use words like "maybe" and "perhaps," uncertainty is exactly what you're communicating.

5. Quite: When someone uses "quite," he or she either means "a bit" or "completely" or "almost." Sometimes the word adds meaning; sometimes it's fluff. Learn to tell the difference--but, when in doubt, cut it out.

To continue...

https://www.facebook.com/trwconsult/posts/10151603999481486

Well written materials, whether they are a resume, memo, school paper, or even a simple email, give their readers a good impression about the writer. They show that the writer pays attention to details. When we talk about good writing, we should note that proofreading is an aspect of good writing. Below are five simple tips you can use to churn out excellently written materials.

1. Leave your material to ‘breathe’ after writing it.
After writing a document, leave it alone for a while, let it, so to speak, ‘breathe. Create some distance between you and the document and take that time to also clear your head a little. With the words still so fresh in your mind, it’s often difficult to spot errors immediately.

2. Don’t be too hasty when you start proofreading
Just because you wrote it and know what is in it doesn’t mean you should read the document quickly or just gloss over it. Take your time to go through it. Reading slowly will help you pick out errors you may have missed before.

3. Take time to analyze your work
Get your mind off the gist of the work and read the material sentence by sentence. Focus on things like spelling and grammar.

4. Revise your work
Now that you have done all of the above, correct all detected errors and revise your work.

5. Read your work all over again
You are through with your revision, now re-read your work. Go through the entire document, and if satisfactory, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

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9. In view of the fact that: This phrase is identical in sense to “inasmuch as.”

10. Now that: This phrase informally connotes cause and effect, as in “Now that you’re here, we can proceed.”

11. Out of: This phrase applies to explanations of emotion or feeling — for example, “She asked out of compassion” or “Out of spite, I refrained from passing the message along.”

12. Owing to: This phrase is equivalent to “due to”; the two choices are more formal than “because of.”

13. Seeing that: This phrase is identical to “considering that.”

14. Since: This alternative to because is informal and is considered inferior because since primarily refers to elapsed time and the usage might be confused, as in “Since it had rained, we didn’t need to water the garden”; the reader might not realize until reading the second half of the sentence that the sense is causal rather than temporal.

15. Thanks to: This equivalent of “because of,” despite the wording, can apply to either a positive or a negative outcome; “Thanks to your meddling, we’re receiving much unwanted attention” demonstrates the latter sense.

16. Through: Through is a preposition; it takes the place of “because of,” as in “Through the efforts of these charities, the city’s homeless services have been reinstated.”

CREDIT: Daily Writing Tips

Many words or phrases can be used to set up an explanation. The most common is because (or “because of”), but others have their uses. Here are alternatives and a discussion of their uses and their merits.

1. As: As is a direct synonym for because (for example, “He opted not to go see the movie, as it had gotten poor reviews”), but it’s inferior.

2. As a result of: This phrase is a substitute for “because of,” not because, as in “As a result of his intervention, the case was reopened and they were ultimately exonerated.”

3. As long as: This informal equivalent of because is used to express the thought that given that one thing is occurring or will occur or is true, another is possible, in such statements as “As long as you’re going, could you pick some things up for me?”

4. Being as (or being as how or being that): This phrase has the same sense — and the same formality — as “as long as.”

5. Considering that: This phrase is essentially identical in meaning to “as long as” and “being as” and its variants.

6. Due to: Like “as a result of,” “due to” is a preposition, rather than a conjunction like because, and is used in place not of because alone but instead of “because of.” It applies specifically to an explanation of why something occurred or will or will not occur, as in “Due to the large number of applications, we cannot respond individually to each applicant.”

7. For: This substitute for because is reserved for poetic usage, as in “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

8. Inasmuch as: This phrase is a very formal equivalent of because, as in “Inasmuch as his account has been discredited, I wouldn’t believe anything else he says.”

To be continued tomorrow.

CREDIT: Daily Writing Tips

You're welcome.

yemi2plus2: Nice tips. It was helpful.

Follow these stages of preparation and production to assemble a first draft of written (or spoken) content.

1. Identify Your Purpose
What is the reason for writing the content? Are you objectively presenting information? If so, is it for educational purposes, or for entertainment — or both? Are you writing to help someone make a decision, or encouraging someone to take action?

Identifying your goal for the content will help you shape the piece.

2. Identify Your Readership
Who are your intended readers (and your unintended ones)? What is their level of literacy, and what is their degree of prior knowledge of the topic?

Imagining who your readers are will help you decide what voice and tone to adopt, how formal or informal your language will be — though that factor also depends on your approach (see below) — and how much detail or background information you provide.

3. Identify Your Approach
Should your content be authoritative, or is it the work of someone informally communicating with peers? Are you offering friendly advice, or is your tone cautionary? Are you selling something, or are you skeptical? Should the content be serious, or is some levity appropriate?

Determining your strategy, in combination with identifying your readership, will help you decide how the piece will feel to the reader.

4. Identify Your Ideas
Brainstorm before and during the drafting process, and again when you revise. If appropriate, talk or write to intended readers about what they hope to learn from the content. Imagine that you are an expert on the topic, and pretend that you are being interviewed about it. Write down the questions and your answers to help you structure the content. Alternatively, present a mock speech or lecture on the topic and transcribe your talk.

Draft an executive summary or an abstract of the content, or think about how you would describe it to someone in a few sentences. Or draw a diagram or a map of the content.

Using one or more of these strategies will help you populate your content with the information your readers want or need.

5. Identify Your Structure
Craft a title that clearly summarizes the topic in a few words. Explain the main idea in the first paragraph. Organize the content by one of several schemes: chronology or sequence, relative importance, or differing viewpoints. Use section headings or transitional language to signal new subtopics. Integrate sidebars, graphics, and/or links as appropriate.

Incorporating these building blocks will help you produce a coherent, well-organized piece.

CREDIT: Daily Writing Tips