The Fabulist Flash

Issue 78

Rivers of Sand Framed Print

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Whistle a Writing Tune
3. Write a Better Technical Article
4. Words Worth a Thousand Pictures
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

This must be one of those paradigms related to time, space, and physics that I don't understand: One day the calendar is empty and the next it's full. I've been coasting along the past few weeks working on small odds and ends wondering what the next big project would turn out to be. I'm never without a long list of ideas, but nothing has been jumping off the screen at me lately and I've been going with the downtime.

All of a sudden, we're in the final preparation for the 2006 Las Vegas Writer's Conference (there's still space available if you want to join us in Las Vegas!) and my phone is ringing off the hook and my email inbox is jammed full. This is going to be a great learning event and it's been incredible to work personally with all of our faculty including Eva Shaw, Peter Bowerman, James Rollins, Robert Vardeman, Joyce Spizer, Michael Larsen, and David Zuckerman, just to name a few.

On top of the conference planning, here are just a few of this week's other events: The editor of Nevada Magazine has requested a short piece (how nice to get an assignment without pitching!), I a meeting about a possible ghostwriting project, (it's a memoir that's pretty racy!), a television project that was put on hold is now moving forward again, and one of the cities profiled in my book, 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live, is interested in bringing me in for a special event.

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. It's wonderful to be in demand and I guess I should be thankful for the past few quiet weeks.

The articles in this week's issue offer plenty of information and inspiration including Whistle a Writing Tune by Susan Stephenson, Write a Better Technical Article in Half the Time Christine Taylor, and How to Write Words Worth a Thousand Pictures by Glenn White.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com) is a writer, photographer, professional speaker and author of the bestseller 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live and The Endorsement Quest.

2. Whistle a Writing Tune

Whistle a Writing Tune
by Susan Stephenson

When I was a teacher, if I didn't warm to certain children, I'd change my mindset. How? By acting as if I did like those children: by "whistling a happy tune" until my initial feelings changed.

In 2004, I gave up my day job after deciding to become a writer. Instantly, I discovered a BIG problem. I did not actually know how to be a writer, even though I'd written from the time I was five years old.

What could I do? I applied the same principle I'd used with my students. I acted as if I were a writer.

First of all, I acquired the accoutrements of a writer. I bought a second-hand desk and a comfortable chair which was kind to my back.

My next task was a delightful one. I read all of my local library's books about writing, researched writing books and sites on the internet, bought books about writing, subscribed to most of the free writing e-newsletters and joined a local writing class.

Finally, unable to put it off any longer, I began writing. Our local writing class had a supportive teacher, Julia Ashton-Sayers, who inspired us AND set homework every week. I developed folders of finished documents. What do writers do? They write. Acting like a writer was paying off.

But it wasn't paying. I realized I craved societal recognition of my status: in a word, money. To achieve that reward, I must submit my writing to contests, magazines, eZines, and newsletters. I went to Plan A.

All those hours reading internet advice for writers paid off. I knew how to present a manuscript. I knew I must read magazine guidelines and follow them absolutely. I dared to hope that my chosen magazine editor would instantly recognize the quality of my writing and joyfully pay me $400 for my work. Plan A was implemented and my optimism sky-rocketed.

After three weeks, my optimism waned. After six weeks, I faced up to the writer's anomaly. Most publications wanted me to send clips of my published credits. They wanted to hire proven writers. But how was I to get published if they wouldn't take a chance on me?

Being pragmatic, I decided to lower my sights from $400. Implementing Plan B, I worked my way down. And down. Finally, I reached zero payment but took a stand and refused to stoop further by paying someone to print my work.

Fortunately, I continued writing during this disheartening time. My husband supported and encouraged me. I joined the Muse-it-up Club and networked with others who treated me as a writer and critiqued my work. One day, the Muse's Mother Hen, Lea Schizas, mentioned that Mike Kechula had a story published at Writer's Hood. I surfed over to look, submitted one of my stories, and finally, I was published!

That was twelve months ago. Since that glorious day, I've had several more published credits, including some for pay. All this from simply whistling a writing tune.

Don't you just love happy endings?

About the Author
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Susan Stephenson enjoys the challenge of communicating with different audiences. She has several publications, both fiction and non-fiction, to her credit. Susan is editor of the Muselings column in the Muse Marquee, reviewer of The Muse Book Reviews, and director of guest appearances at the Museitup club http://museitupclub.tripod.com . She can be contacted at muselings@yahoo.com.au

3. Write a Better Technical Article

Write a Better Technical Article in Half the Time
by Christine Taylor

Good technical articles are challenging to write. They're time-consuming, demanding to research and hard to organize. But they're valuable weapons in the PR and marketing arsenal, and you need them.

If you can outsource the article, great. That's what writers like me are here for. But if you can't - or don't want to -- then read and apply the tips below to save time and energy on research and writing, and come out with a much better product.

Get Ready 1.Review your resources - hard copy like books and articles, Web access, interview contact information. 2.Arrange for interviews if you need them, it always takes a while to track down the interviewees. Note: If you're ghostwriting an article for a company, you may not have an interview past the initial meeting. 3.Make sure you know the following: a) the reader's challenge, b) the key message relating to their challenge, and c) the type of reader you're writing to. 4.Understand the main message the client want to communicate. Many technologies are similar, but your client will have a defined slant on their implementation. (If they don't, they should - this is your chance to offer them your strategic message building services.) 5.Even "vendor-neutral" articles are written with a point of view - either the writer's or the company the writer is working for. This is only a problem if the article bias makes for a misleading article, or tells a whopping big lie.

Outline 6.Never skip this step, for your own or your readers' sakes. Outlines speed up your writing, and readers will follow your argument much better. 7.Organize your research into three themes. Some thematic organizations are obvious - for example, I wrote an article on three steps to optimizing your storage. In other articles, there may be several possibilities. There is probably no one right choice, so if two or three seem fine to you, just pick one and go with it. 8.Remember your junior high school/high school/college outline lessons? They apply. If you don't remember your lessons, here's a reminder: I. Introduction (Outline problem, introduce solution, state theme) II. Body A. 1st major point B. 2nd major point C. 3rd major point III. Conclusion (short case study/example, restate solution, concluding paragraph) 9.Put your outline on paper and let it guide you as you go. It's not iron-clad - if a new organization presents itself while you're writing you can change it - but don't do it too much or you'll defeat the outline's purpose.

Writing the Rough Draft 10.Here's the key to writing your rough draft: Just Do It. Write without thinking about it. Paste in random chunks of text from your research. Write some more. Write in any bizarre, random order. All you want to do at this point is get down large masses of information onto paper. 11.Keep going until you've got 2-3 times the words you actually need, then you can stop. 12.Once you have your mass of information on paper, you can organize it into your outline. No big deal - just cut and paste paragraphs under the points they best fit. 13.Now that you've slapped all of your rough text and research into your outline, guess what? The draft is done. Congratulate yourself and take a break.

Subsequent Drafts 14.Now it's time to whip this rough mass into shape. Start by saving your rough draft under a different name. You're going to be doing a lot of deletions in this stage, and you don't want to accidentally delete something you meant to use. 15.Working with the new copy, start your edits. Paraphrase the notes you have from other sources -- memos, product briefs, other articles, brochures. (Journalists do it all the time. It's called "research.") 16.I'll often download online research but mark it in a different color, so as not to commit the embarrassing - not to mention illegal -- mistake of repeating someone else's writing. When I've learned what I need to from the research, I capture the facts in my own words and delete the original notes. 17.Borrow freely from your client's Website and other materials. Don't repeat the text - that's bad policy and bad writing - but you're not going to be accused of plagiarism. Laziness maybe, but not plagiarism. 18.Music can be helpful on writing assignments. Personally, I like Vivaldi for drafting and movie scores for revising. Quite the combo. (As I write this sentence, The Last of the Mohicans is playing. Baroque is better for the draft stage.) 19.You might find that dictating works better for you at the rough draft stage. Probably not the old-fashioned kind, where the hard-bitten boss called in his trusty secretary to "Take a memo!" You're more likely to use an application like Naturally Speaking. This type of application needs a lot of training beforehand - the application, not you - but can be very helpful for writers who try to critique themselves out the gate.

Writing the Final Draft 20.You've done the rough draft, 1st draft, and are into the 2nd draft. You've put everything in your own words and are observing your outline structure. The article is starting to sound less like something you'll get blamed for, and more like something you might actually claim. 21.Edit for readability, grammar and style. 22.Use active voice in all your writing. "Active voice" is a sentence construction where the subject performs the verb action. Don't go to sleep on me, this is important. Example: "The dog bit the boy." Quick, active, easy. Here's an example of passive voice: "The boy was bitten by the dog." Yikes! 23.Technology writing is full of hideous passive voice construction. Here's another example from a technology marketing document: "This successful vendor interoperability was demonstrated at the Summit in Chicago." Ack! Instead, write: "Vendor teams successfully demonstrated interoperability at the Summit in Chicago." See how easy that was? PLEASE use active voice. Everyone will be so much happier. 24.If you learn nothing else about business writing in all your born days, learn to write in active voice. Subject all of your sentences to this simple little exercise and you will improve your writing 100%. 25.Please don't be boring, but don't get too cute. I will stick in something funny every once in a while -- mostly because I get a big kick out of myself -- but don't get too chummy.

Final Draft 26.You're almost there - you see light at the end of tunnel, and it isn't a train. Now is the time to polish sentence structure and word choice, and punch up your paragraphs. 27.Polish your opening paragraphs. Add a snappy lead, define what you're talking about and why it's important, and list the three or so points you're going to make. 28.Read through your article and make sure you've made those points. If you did an outline, the main points should already be subheads. (See why an outline is so great?) 29.Polish your conclusion. The conclusion doesn't have to be undying prose, but do restate your points and conclusions. 30.Read through one more time for overall readability. 31.Run your spelling and grammar check. 32.Save and send - but be careful to send the right file! I accidentally turned in my rough draft once instead of the completed final. Luckily this was with one of my oldest clients, so they contacted me and asked me for the real article. A new client would simply have assumed complete incompetence on my part. 33.And for the final tip: everything gets easier with practice. Good thing, too.

About the Author
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Christine Taylor is president of Keyword Copywriting, which helps marketing and PR pros leverage their relationships with technology clients. E-mail her at chris@keywordcopy.com, call her at 760-249-6071, or check out Keyword's Website at www.keywordcopy.com.

4. Words Worth a Thousand Pictures

How to Write Words Worth a Thousand Pictures
by Glenn White

Our Image-Driven Society

We live in a new image-driven society. It can be hard on writers unless they learn to connect with today's readers. Writing that connects is easy when you keep a few basic writing principles in mind. Let's face it, as a writer you are competing with the greatest influence in our image-driven society, the film and television industry. So, let's take three well-known words in film making as cues for effective writing. Ready? Lights! Camera! Action!

Lights!

Catch the reader's attention. You catch your reader's attention when you know who they are and what holds their interest. Yes, write what you know but also write for who you know. For example, avoid using abstract words and concepts when writing for children. Kids won't understand and you won't grab their attention.

The effective writer writes about what interests the reader using words the reader relates to and understands. When you write fiction or even creative non-fiction; develop catchy titles, contemporary themes, strong heroes, good plots, intense conflict, and create interesting characters. When you do, lights go on for your reader.

Camera!

Describe, describe, describe! Use specific, concrete, and concise words. Write to describe but avoid using too many adjectives. Mark Twain said: "When you catch an adjective, kill it." Strong words from Mr. Twain but when you cut out adjectives and use descriptive nouns, your writing comes to life. Instead of writing "big, beautiful house," try writing "mansion," "villa," "castle," "palace," or "chateau." Use a thesaurus and find image-driven nouns to replace superfluous adjectives. Sorry, I couldn't find a noun to replace "superfluous adjectives." But you get the idea.

The contemporary writing advice, "show, don't tell," echoes in the ears of most writers. And for good reasons. The writer must "show" readers rather than "tell" to grab their image-driven attention. For example, use vivid detail instead of vague generalizations when describing emotions. Write, "sweat dripped from his forehead," not "he was nervous." Let the images come alive in your story.

Action!

Use action verbs, avoid "to be" verbs. Put your reader in the middle of the action in your story. Describe the action with the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel by using action verbs. Use moving images and carry your reader along, don't let your story become a study in still-life. Don't sprinkle your story on your readers; dunk 'em in over their heads! Go ahead, get 'em soaking wet with the action in your story. They will love you for it.

Lights! Camera! Action! will connect your story with your readers. Go ahead, give 'em pictures theyll never forget!

About the Author
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Glenn White is a freelance writer, editor and content manager at his web site for Inspirational and Christian writers at: http://www.WriteToInspire.com. Email: editor@writetoinspire.com

5. About The Fabulist Flash

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Make plans now to attend the 2006 Las Vegas Writer's Conference March 30-April 2, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.