Success - Do You Really Have the Power?

Coming up on a new year usually has people thinking of what they've done and what they want to do. And, those thoughts can easily include you and success.

How can I become successful? Do I have the power?

The question in the title has been asked for hundreds, probably thousands of years.

The simple truth of the matter is you have the power. You are in control of whether you become successful or not. Most of it has to do with your thought process.

Zig Ziglar said, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right."

These two men were giants in the business world and they knew the power of positive thinking.

So, it’s easy to see that what you think has tremendous power over you and what you can accomplish.

But, how do you change your thought process?

The Fix

To get on the right track, you have to stop making excuses and playing the ‘woe is me’ card. Stop thinking and saying, “I can’t do it.”

It doesn’t matter what your circumstances are, you have the ability to learn what you need to learn to do what you need to do to be successful.

Maybe you want to be a working freelance writer who actually gets gigs and earns a good living.

Maybe you want to be an author of an award-winning book and make money from that book, or use it to make money from opportunities that arise from writing a great book.

Maybe you want to have a successful business with 5, 10, 100, or 1000 employees.

Whatever you want to do . . . whatever you REALLY want to do . . . is possible to do.

But, there is a second part to the success process.

German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

Ah ha!

Are lights blinking and bells chiming?

You can wake up every morning and say I’m going to make $500 today, but if you don’t work toward that goal, you won’t make a penny.

It’s your thoughts in collaboration with your actions that will give you the ability to succeed.

Below is the two-part success process broken into eight bite-size steps.

8 Steps Towards Success

1. Decide what you really what to become or do.
2. Find out what’s needed to accomplish what you want.
3. Believe you can do it.
4. Learn whatever you need to learn to get started and move forward.
5. Take it a step further and become an expert in one particular niche or industry.
6. Prepare a detailed business plan with short and long term goals, along with actionable steps to accomplish those goals.
7. Work, work, work.
8. If you need help, get it.

Pretty simple, right? Start your success process today.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author, children's ghostwriter, and author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

Check out Karen’s e-classes at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/

And, be sure to connect with Karen at:
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Writers: First Paragraph Essentials

Sunrise, photo by Norm Arnold Photography
Begin your new day and your new opening with fresh eyes until you "get it right."

How many times have you written and rewritten the first paragraph of your first chapter? Ten, twenty, fifty times? Stephen King has said he words and rewords his opening paragraphs over weeks, months, and even years: "If I can get that first paragraph right, I'll know I can do the book." What are the essentials of the first line and first paragraph that will entice your reader to want more?

An Opening Checklist
The opening of a novel must accomplish a lot in as few words as possible. When I'm starting a new book, I prop before me Linda Sue Park's book, When My Name was Keoko, to use as a model. Of course, my book is completely different from hers, but the stage is set for her entire book by the middle of page two, and I work to accomplish this as early as possible in my book, following her example.

Park's book is told in alternating sections by Sun-hee and her brother, Tae-yul.

• Consider the first line: "It's only a rumor," Abuji said as I cleared the table. "They'll never carry it out." Are you in? This first line makes you wonder: Who is Abuji? What is the rumor? Who is 'they'? And what won't they carry out? Without a doubt, trouble is brewing.
• Consider the second line: "My father wasn't talking to me, of course. He was talking to Uncle and my brother, Tae-yul, as they sat around the low table after dinner, drinking tea." The main characters are introduced simply and succinctly. Page 1 to middle of page 2 add more information to explain what the book is about. In the middle of page 2, the main character's problem is expressed in plain language: "Nobody ever told me anything. I always had to find out for myself. But at least I was good at it. You had to do two opposite things: be quiet and ask questions. And you had to know when to be quiet and who to ask."
• By the end of this first section, on page 4, the problem that the book addresses is explained. From page 1-4, the story is told by Sun-hee but her name is given only once, as a kind of chapter heading: 1. Sun-hee (1940), and once is enough. Numbering the chapters alternately, first Sun-hee talks, then Tae-yul, is unique and a great way to tell the story.
• The setting is established early and by the middle of page 2 the reader cares about Sun-hee.  

Sage Advice from Stephen King
When Stephen King writes a first draft, he just writes. So, I understand this to mean that crafting comes with revision. And to draw your reader in, your opening line "should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know this." He doesn't necessarily agree with advice many hear: to open a book in the middle of "a dramatic or compelling situation, because right away you engage the reader's interest."--called the "hook". He says that's true to a point. But the opening needs to accomplish more with few words, as Linda Sue Park's opening first line did. The opening introduces the writer's style, and more important, the writer's voice. King thinks readers "come for the voice." To find out more of Stephen King's advice and many examples that he offers on first paragraphs that he thinks are great, please go to: A July, 2013 article in The Atlantic.

A Personal Note
I started this post believing that the first paragraph of my WIP was finished. I began reading it and, a la Stephen King, wasn't happy. It is now revised for the umpteenth time. Was this the last revision? I can't say. But I must keep working until "I can get that first paragraph right."

Photo courtesy of Norm Arnold Photography: http://photos.normjr.com/Daily-Photos-from-daily-emails/

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 100 articles for adults and children, and six short stories for children. Recently, she has completed her first book, a mystery/ghost story for children 7-11 years old, and is hard at work on Book Two in the series.  Follow Linda at www.lindawilsonauthor.com.

Writing a Premise Statement & More

Creating a good Premise Statement will guide the composition of your story or non-fiction piece. The premise is usually one or two sentences that describe the relevant facts. A Log Line is another name for a Premise Statement. It is a powerful key to what you’re writing about at its core. It gives a sense of the entire article: characters, setting, tone, and consequences.

It is hard to condense the focus and significance of a story or book into one or two sentences, but readers expect a preview to decide whether they would be interested in reading further or not. Readers want a piece to intrigue them enough them to say, “Looks good! I have to read this book.”

The premise or log line describes the main character or idea, the situation or setting, the conflict or risks, and the goal.

Now we can expand our premise to a summary. 


The premise, log line and summary are essential to marketing your article or novel. You will use them for your query letter, your book cover and promotion pieces.

A novel summary introduces the main character, and identifies what he or she wants to achieve. Followed by a description of the obstacles (first, second, third and ending crisis) that stand in her path for success. The summary will likely be five or six sentences long.

The format for an article or non-fiction work starts with introducing the purpose as the thesis, followed by one sentence for each major supporting point, and a sentence to describe that point. The concluding sentence re-states the thesis in similar words. The summary will be six to eight sentences in length for a three-point thesis.

Study movie or TV show summaries to become acquainted with how they are composed. Most summarize the main story line, crisis, and goal in one paragraph.  However, others are laboriously long and are better categorized as a synopsis that covers all from beginning to end.  

Deborah Lyn Stanley is a writer, artist, and editor.  She is a retired project manager who now devotes her time to writing, art and caregiving mentally impaired seniors.  Deborah writes articles, essays and stories. She has published a collection of 24 artists’ interviews entitled the Artists Interview Series.  Careful editing preserves each artist’s voice as they share their journey. The series published as monthly articles for an online news network, can also be found on her web-blog: Deborah Lyn Stanley--My Writer's Life .  Her “How-To” articles have appeared in magazines.
“Write your best, in your voice, your way!”

Preparing for Nano--Writing Tools to Help

Get ready for Nano

Image courtesy of punsayaporn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The real Nano die-hards will have been setting themselves up for success for almost a month now. The plotters will have a flexible scheme of work, chapter headings, a synopsis and maybe even a blurb at the ready for the off on November 1.

The Pantsers will have character sketches of their main protagonists loaded with virtues and flaws--all motivated toward meaningful conflict.

But, whether it's for Nano or any other time of the year that you'd like to challenge yourself, let battle commence.

When Inspiration Flags

Look to writing software for help. Most writers now have heard of Scrivener but despite its wonderfully detailed manual, it has so many bells and whistles that it can seem a very steep learning curve. Find help from Gwen Hernandez, who is one of the renowned go-to tutors when you're struggling to profit from the software. The articles listed under Scrivener Help on her blog include several which focus on the usefulness of the software when accepting the challenge to write the statutory 50,000 words in November.

Scrivener does have a 30 day free trial to give you a chance to decide whether you find it useful or not.

If you are a visual learner you may find yourself opting for the new  program on the block. StoryShop developed by the Indie legends who make up Sterling and Stone has a strong visual base to help you see your story develop as you write. it has a 7-day all access pass but you can keep using the writing tool for free after that.

Scapple from the Scrivener stable is a beautifully easy mind mapper/text editor where you simply drop and drag items to connect them. Another helpful notebook and list organizer is WorkFlowy which comes highly recommended by many writers although I have not myself used it.

Another great book writing tool, which has been noted by Reedsy and Nanowrimo as one of the best tools to write books, is 
Squibler.

Speed up Your Writing

Image courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Voice recognition software has come a long way since the earliest versions of Dragon. It does depend on your training it to recognize your voice and vocabulary. I suggest you read your articles or writing if asked to do this while training rather than giving access to your emails or documents.

For the writer on a budget, the new Google add-ons for Chrome are amazingly good--at least they suit me. You can upload the printed text to Google docs then download from there to your own computer.

Windows 10 has its own Speech Recognition option built in. Click on Ease of Access in the Control Panel and you will find the option to start it and to set up  a microphone if you wish to do so.

It certainly speeds up the writing, saves fingers and muscular strain.

What are your favorite aids for writing? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

Anne Duguid Knol

A local and national journalist in the U.K., Anne is now a fiction editor for award-winning American and Canadian publishers. As a new author, she shares writing tips and insights at her very new Author Support blog: http://www.authorsupport.net

Her novella, ShriekWeek is published by The Wild Rose Press.

Publishing Requires Advanced Planning

by W. Terry Whalin

I started my writing career in the newspaper world. The deadlines were steep but it was an exciting experience as a writer. We’d have editorial meetings in the morning, get our story assignments, have an 11 am deadline to write and  turn in our story. Then we would read it in the afternoon newspaper.

Magazines are a little slower with working two to six months ahead on the various issues. As a writer you should understand that December issues are generally put together in July. You have to plan ahead for such issues—and the writer has to know about it to pitch appropriate seasonal stories.

Books are the slowest. Sometimes a book will take 18 to 24 months after it is contracted to get published. As a writer such information will feed into the planning of your publishing.

For Writers on the Move, I write once a month. I want to give you an opportunity to help me celebrate an amazing milestone. Billy Graham will turn 99 on November 7^th. For the last six decades, Mr Graham has been on the list of the most admired men in America. He has mostly disappeared from the public eye except for rare occasions. I’m encouraging you to wish Mr. Graham a Happy Birthday and I want to give you some tools and ideas for those wishes. I’ve prepared a series of social media posts and some images that you can use at:

http://BillyGrahamBio.com/HappyBirthday.html

Beyond this advanced planning to celebrate Mr. Graham’s birthday. I’ve been working on the audiobook version of my book. You can hear the retail sample of the book here and even use this link to encourage your local library to order the book.

If you hear this sample, you will know that it is not my voice but Andrew L Barnes, an experienced audiobook specialist. As I wrote about recently here, audiobooks continue to explode in the book world and I’m happy to announce my book’s availability in audio.

How is advanced planning affecting your writing? Let me know in the comment section below.

Tweetable:

How do you plan in advance for your writing? Celebrate an amazing milestone here.  (ClickToTweet)

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W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written for more than 50 magazines and published more than 60 books for traditional publishers including his latest Billy Graham, A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist. Terry is active on Twitter and lives in Colorado. 

The Small Home-Grown Book Publisher - The Pros and Cons

I'm thrilled to announce that I have an article up at Writer's Digest!

It's about the pros and cons of working with very small book publishers. What I mean by "very small" is the publishers that are primarily one-man or one-woman businesses.

While these home-grown publishers can be a life-saver for the new author and certainly do have benefits, there are a few things to be aware of before jumping in.

Here's the very beginning:

As a new author or even if you have one or two books under your self-publishing belt, you may be thinking of entering the traditional publishing arena.

I’ve been there and have had my share of rejections from the larger well-known publishing houses.>

But, I didn’t let that discourage me … well, not entirely.

While disappointed, I dug in my heels and attended writers conferences and joined writing groups. In one of the online conferences I attended, small publishers were on hand to take pitches from authors. Naturally, I took advantage of this opportunity. I gave my pitch and the owner of the publishing house asked to see my manuscript.

Excitement, excitement.

Check out the full article - it has very helpful information and insights into publishing with a home-grown publisher:

The Pros and Cons of Publishing with a Small Publisher

HEY! While you're there, please SHARE!

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author, children's ghostwriter, and author online marketing instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

For writing tips or help with your children's story visit Karen Cioffi Writing for Children

Freelance Writing - How to Tell if It's Right for You

If you love to write, your own freelance writing business probably sounds like the best job in the world.

And it can be.

But it's a good idea to find out if you're really cut out for the freelance writer's life BEFORE you invest too much time, energy, and money starting your career as a freelance writer.

Here are six questions to ask yourself if you're thinking of starting a freelance writing career.

1. Can you juggle?

No, I'm not talking about throwing things up in the air and keeping them from falling to the ground.

Although, that isn't too far off the mark for freelance writers.

What I'm talking about is managing a variety of different tasks during any given workday.

Full time freelance writers are always looking for new assignments and working on current assignments.

This means they need to manage a variety of tasks each day.

If they spend all their time working on an assignment, with NO time searching for new assignments, pretty soon the work dries up and the paychecks stop rolling in.

They have to be able to balance their time so they complete assignments on schedule and always have a steady stream of new assignments coming in.

If you want to become a successful freelance writer, get good at juggling!

2. Do you like to spend a lot of time alone?

Many people SAY they want to write a book.

But when it gets right down to it, very few of these people are willing to sit down at the computer and spend the hours and hours it takes to complete such a big project.

It's just too lonely.

Yet, if you want to earn a substantial income as a freelance writer, you will probably need to get used to spending at least several hours alone at the computer each day.

But you can take on smaller projects that take less time than books.

Write articles for magazines, become a professional blogger, write short children's stories and picture books.

Set aside short time frames throughout the day to work on your assignments.

Then, schedule an hour or so with friends or family during the day so you don't become a total recluse.

However, if you just can't sit still long enough to even write a grocery list, then freelance writing will feel more like constantly having a homework assignment hanging over your head than a dream job.

3. How do you handle deadlines?

If you can't handle deadlines, then freelance writing is probably not for you.

Editors generally tend to take their time getting back to writers with assignments.

But when they do finally give a writer an assignment, they usually want it fairly soon.

As a writer, you need to get used to fast turnaround of your work.

You also need to get used to working on many projects—all with different deadlines—all at once.

If you don't like deadlines, then freelance writing will drive you nuts!

4. How well do you take direction?

Many writers long to tell their story.

But professional writers learn to work with editors who can help turn these stories into marketable manuscripts.

If you think everything you write should be published AS IS, then professional freelance writing won't make you happy because you'll constantly be complaining about having to make an editor's requested revisions to your articles and stories.

5. How do you handle rejection?

Freelance writing is a business.

As such, your writing is a product.

To make a living from writing, you have to see that your product finds its way to the right customer or buyer.

It's as simple as that.

Sometimes your work can be well written yet it still does not meet the needs of a particular publisher.

Professional freelance writers quickly get used to constantly submitting a variety of queries and completed manuscripts to publishers, fully realizing that any or all of these materials will probably be rejected at least a few times before they make their way to the right buyer.

If rejection makes you take to your bed for weeks, then you'd better toughen up—or find another line of work.

6. Does talking about money/payment make you squeamish?

Like I said, freelance writing is a business.

As with any business, you expect to be paid for your products or services.

Yet, many writers have an underlying belief that writing is a noble profession and it's wrong to ask for and expect to be well paid for such a service.

If you believe this you'll be taken advantage of as a writer.

You'll either end up writing for free or you'll be underpaid all the time.

You'd be better off working at something you feel comfortable getting paid for.

As you can tell, freelance writing is NOT a dream job for everyone.

Yet, for people who like to juggle and revise, don't mind deadlines or spending time alone, can handle rejection, and feel they should be well paid for their work, writing can be a great way to make a living—and a life!

Suzanne Lieurance is a freelance writer, the author of over 30 published books, and a writing coach.

Visit her online at www.writebythesea.com.