~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Writing Etc. – January 15, 2005

ISSN: 1545-5580

Make Your Writing Sparkle. Write Killer Queries, Get Published.

Join the brightest, most ambitious, and talented group of writers on the ‘net.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To subscr*ibe to Writing Etc. and receive the fr*e e-book, “Power Queries,” surf here:

http://filbertpublishing.com

Forward Writing Etc. to all your friends! They’ll be glad you did.

For easier reading and red hot links, surf to http://filbertpublishing.com/current.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In This Issue:

Notes from Minnesota

Are You Mastering Grammar Yet? by Beth Ann Erickson

2005 Action Plan to Jumpstart Your Writing Career

Writing Markets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This issue is sponsored by:

Think It’ll Take Forever To Earn A Great Living As A Writer?

Think again.

With Jumpstart Your Writing Career, you'll discover how easy it is to:

• Think like a writer so you can turn every opportunity into a writing assignment
• Hone your writing skills until they're razor sharp
• Tackle the most lucrative branch of writing
• Learn secrets of fiction to make your story lines sing
• Organize your nonfiction articles so editors will happily publish your work
• Write powerful queries that’ll open new doors of opportunity
• Promote your writing business for little or no money

Absolute Write calls Jumpstart “a marvelous tool for novice writers and often published authors alike. It’s refreshing, easy to use, and applicable”.

If you want to jump ahead of the pack and start snagging great paying assignments, read more here:

http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes from Minnesota:

Greetings from the Ice Box of the USA!

As many of you know, Lucy (my Rat Terrier Wonder Dog) is a schoolgirl. Along with her regular obedience classes, she’s excelling at her agility courses. Nobody tunnels, weaves, climbs, and “hups” like Lu!

Sadly, one of Lucy’s classmates will not attend the next class session.

On January 5, Sugar (a beautiful Golden Lab), followed her six month old black Lab “sister” into the woods surrounding their rural home. Last week, a gravel pit worker found their crushed bodies on top of a pile of tires.

Turns out Sugar and Lily (the little Black Lab) became victims of raccoon traps.

After two wonderful years, multiple awards including a Minnesota State Fair ribbon, and generating more doggie-classroom giggles than I can count, I want to take a moment to remember Sugar and Lily. Their 11-year-old handler is taking this bit of bad news like a trouper.

Life ebbs and flows. Good news enters our lives as does the bad.

And we continue write because that’s what we do.

May your week bring much good news,

Beth

P.S. Here’s our updated best seller list… be sure to pick up a copy of each of these titles. They’re awesome.

1.      Jumpstart Your Writing Career and Snag Paying Assignments by Beth Erickson http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm

2.      Bob Bly’s Guide to Freelance Writing Success: How to Make $100,000 a Year as a Freelance Writer and Have The Time of Your Life Doing It. http://filbertpublishing.com/bob.htm

3.      Weekly Writes: Exercises in Creative Writing by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta http://filbertpublishing.com/Weekly.htm (You’ll get a ton of fr** writing/freelancing tools direct from Shery at http://WeeklyWrites.com when you order this title!)

4.      Timecross’d: A Love Story Out Of Time by Sean Thompson http://filbertpublishing.com/timecrossd.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Advertisement~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to make a great living as a freelancer, you need to include this weapon in your writing arsenal. Check out the special report:

Can You Write Something Like This?

http://www.thewriterslife.com/opportunity1

If you can answer “yes” to that question, you could be in big demand, earning big money, writing just a few hours a day from anywhere you choose to live.

Beth’s Note: This course is not inexpensive, but it’s worth every penny. Where else can you receive hand-written feedback from successful, working copywriters? This company had a big hand in launching my writing career. Maybe they can do the same for you….

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feature Article ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are You Mastering Grammar Yet?

By Beth Ann Erickson

http://filbertpublishing.com

Every now and again I receive an e-mail informing me that a number of the articles on the FilbertPublishing.com website are not grammatically correct.

As helpful as these e-mail writers are, I’m once again compelled to mention this: the writer’s job is to not write a grammatically correct sentence, the writer’s job is to communicate.

Let me explain: 

I memorized a good number of grammar rules while working on my communications degree at St. Cloud State.  Strunk and White and I became good buddies.

However, despite my marvelous education, after I graduated, I had a LOT of trouble landing copywriting assignments -- and when I did get them, the clients weren't particularly happy with the results.

So, I hired a personal copywriting coach -- a professional copywriter who's sold millions of dollars worth of products and services through the mail.  He also holds a PhD in English. He asked me to e-mail samples of my best writing so he could get a taste of my style.

After spending a good part of a week separating the “flawless” samples from the mere “excellent” ones, I whipped together an e-mail, attached the appropriate documents, then waited for his reply.

When it arrived, I wasn’t prepared for his response: “I can tell you’ll be an excellent writer because you write great e-mails. The rest of your writing sucks, but your e-mail text is perfect.”

Boy. Talk about a deflating experience.

He went on to say, "Forget everything you learned about grammar, language usage, and sentence structure.  Your writing doesn’t communicate.  It's too perfect.  You need to speak the language of your reader… just like you do in your e-mails.  If you don't speak directly to your reader -- and do it EVERY time you write -- you won't be an effective copywriter.  Period."

So I began my illustrious copywriting career pretending everything I wrote was going to be included in an e-mail.

After spending considerable time perfecting a conversational tone in everything I wrote, my writing career really took off. Articles started selling. I found a home for my novels. Copywriting assignments started flowing in.

Although it pained me to occasionally break grammar rules, I now find it liberating to know I have the freedom to effectively communicate a message without wondering if I’m allowing a participle to dangle.

So do I occasionally break grammar rules?  Yup.  Will I continue to break them?  Yup.

Walking the fine line between creating effective communication and grammatically correct word usage is always an interesting battle, with effective communication winning more often than not.

But don’t take my word for it.

This weekend, take a good listen to the conversations taking place around you.  Try to replicate -- in writing -- what you've heard. You’re about to transcribe some interesting phrases!

After you’ve done this, "capture their language" by writing something that would persuade those same people to do something you want them to do -- whether you're hoping to get them to read one of your articles, purchase something you're selling, or buy a product a client has hired you to promote.

It's an interesting exercise, one that hopefully illustrates the notion that writing that effectively communicates is almost always more powerful than grammatically correct, perfect sentences.  When you speak the language of your reader, you'll be able to capture and hold their interest.  When you capture and hold your reader's interest, that's when truly effective communication takes place.

And isn’t that the goal of almost every writer?

~~~

Beth Ann Erickson is the publisher of Writing Etc; writer of hundreds of published articles; author of The Almach (http://filbertpublishing.com/Almach.htm), HeartSongs (http://filbertpublishing.com/heartsongs.htm) and two nonfiction titles including Jumpstart Your Writing Career (http://filbertpublishing.com/jumpstart.htm) and How to Get Happily Published Without Falling for Scams, Hooks, Lines, and Sinkers (http://filbertpublishing.com/happy.htm); and co-author of a 3 CD set with Master Copywriter Vicky Heron (http://filbertpublishing.com/copy.htm). You can contact her via http://filbertpublishing.com

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Master Copywriter Vicky Heron and Copywriter/Publisher Beth
Erickson prove that when you put two Copywriting Masterminds
together... powerful things happen and you get to reap the benefits!

Recently Vicky and Beth got together at the Filbert Publishing headquarters in Kandiyohi,
Minnesota to work on the new book they're co-creating when something far out happened...

You see, they were taping conversations to include in their book when they started getting
way off track. Suddenly they found themselves talking about copywriting, getting clients,
building their E-zines.  When they played the conversations back they discovered they had…

Click this link to read more:

http://filbertpublishing.com/copy.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2005 Action Plan to Jumpstart Your Writing Career

How many words do you write each day?

During my most productive periods, I shoot for around 2,000. When life isn’t cooperating, I make sure I write a minimum of 1,000.

We’re writers. There’s no reason why we can’t write daily… and I mean every day.

Imagine a plumber who only works when inspiration strikes. Imagine a carpenter who waits for his muse to perch on his shoulder before he begins work.

Our job is no different than any other. We must arise each morning and start writing.

If we don’t do this, we aren’t writers.

Today decide how many words you’ll write daily. Then stick to your schedule come heck or high water.

Next time… I’ll give you another valuable tool for your writing arsenal, one that’ll stop your career cold if you neglect to do this….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Writing Markets

AU Magazine

http://www.aumag.org/contactus/submit.html

Abilities Magazine

http://www.enablelink.org/abilities/writers.html?showabilities=1

Body and Soul

http://www.bodyandsoulmag.com/standard_pgs.asp?iPageID=30

Blind Skills

http://www.blindskills.com/submit.html

Running Times

http://www.runningtimes.com/contact/guidelines.htm

Yoga Journal

http://www.yogajournal.com/customer_editorial.cfm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We Recommend:

Writing For Dollars! The FREE ezine for writers featuring tips, tricks and ideas for selling what you write. Receive the FREE ebook, 83 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING when you subscribe. Email to subscribe@writingfordollars.com -*- http://www.WritingForDollars.com

WRITERS FIND MARKETS EASILY - Worldwide Freelance has a NEW fully-searchable Markets Database. Discover writing markets from North America, Europe, Australia and other places. It's free, so come and try it out here: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com

Are You Ready To Find Your True Calling?  Discover exactly what it takes to create a more satisfying and balanced life doing work that feeds your soul. Learn how you can replace your job with work you really love... and gain the freedom, flexibility, and quality of life you deserve. http://www.ChangingCourse.com

Instantly Download Jumpstart Your Writing Career and Snag Paying Assignments Here:

http://booklocker.com/bookpages/jumpstart.html

Don’t Forget to pick up your copy of The Almach. Reviewers are calling it “Haunting,” and “A Great Read.” http://filbertpublishing.com/Almach.htm

E-Mag And Web Site Owners! Did you know that Filbert Publishing has an entire cache of articles you can use FREE. Copy and paste these articles straight into your web site or publication. Here’s the URL: http://filbertpublishing.com/articles.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feel free to forward Writing Etc. to all your writing friends. Just be sure to include the entire issue. Thanks!

We strive to make Writing Etc. an invaluable resource to writers. If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to mailto:filbertpublishing@filbertpublishing.com

For Easier Reading and Red Hot URLS, read this issue online at:

http://filbertpublishing.com/current.htm

The Fine Print:

You are receiving this free newsletter because you submitted your e-mail address at http://filbertpublishing.com

You'll receive your copy of Writing Etc. on or around the first and fifteenth of each month.

To receive Writing, Etc. surf to http://filbertpublishing.com and insert your e-mail address into the form.

To stop receiving this twice-monthly e-mail… to stop receiving free tips, news, and awesome articles, simply click your personalized link at the end of this e-mail.

Please recommend this newsletter to anyone you know who'd like to learn how to make their writing sparkle. Just click on "Forward" in your email program and send away.

PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will not distribute your email address to anyone. Ever. Period.

Writing Etc.

Box 326

Kandiyohi, MN 56251

Maurice and Beth Erickson, Publishers

http://filbertpublishing.com/

© 2005 Filbert Publishing