Do you have problems finding ideas for articles and speeches

There's a television commercial, I believe it's for E-trade, that talks about how nobody wants to be an ordinary...fill in the blank. Supposedly we aspire to be better. Nobody wants to be an ordinary athlete, nobody wants to be an ordinary investor. A photo of Hemingway flashes across the screen and it says "nobody wants to be an ordinary writer". That made me pause. I wasn't so sure about that. You see, I am struck by how often I hear from writers who want to know if thei...

As a writing instructor and coach I work with writers every day who are not reaching their full potential. What holds them back

I once read that if you were a writer, it wasn't enough to just write. "You must publish what you write" was the given advice. I believe that's true and it's great advice. But when you do that, you have to know at least three things are going to happen: 1.) Someone will like your writing. 2.) Someone will dislike your writing. 3.) Someone won't care! If you allow all these reactions to make or break you, you'll be on an endless emotional roller coaster ride. You can smooth ou...

The following cover letter sample gives an idea of what most job hunters should do when composing these. It consists of only a very few paragraphs, and is therefore short and easy to read. The reason for this sample being short is simply because hiring managers are extremely busy and will not read long letters. They may glance at them, or skim them for statements that jump out at them, but they probably will not have time to read them. Use this sample when composing your own ...

The interview follow up letter can make or break your chances of becoming hired. For that reason it should become an essential part of your job hunting tool box, right in there with the other tools you use: resume, cover letter, thank you note, reference sheet and salary history. Think of the letter as a second chance. Some people don't interview in person as well as they can write. Living up to the standards your resume set for you may be difficult. If that is the case, t...

Using a cover letter template when job hunting is a logical and time saving measure. Your time is limited, so writing one basic one and using it as your template will simplify the application process, making you more efficient and hopefully employed all that much faster. A basic template can be either bulleted - sometimes called an Executive Summary - or in paragraph form. The paragraph form of cover letter template is more traditional and preferred by many for the neat ap...

What's the first step to becoming a writer You'd think it would be "write", but it's not. In speaking to other writers and from what I know of my own journey to becoming a writer, I've come to realize that the biggest obstacle for new writers is that they don't think of themselves as writers. They have trouble developing the belief that they are writers and yet it's something you have to do. When you haven't developed that belief, that conviction, it becomes a source of sabo...

It really is that simple and it really isn't a secret. Most successful writers know the BIC method is key to their success.

Many writers have tried electronic style checkers, such as Grammatik or Correct Grammar, which are sold either as standalone utilities or are included as components of word-processing programs. And most who have tried them have given up on them: their advice is more often wrong than right, and the "errors" they perceive often aren't errors at all.

Every writing student has heard the rule that you should show, not tell, but this principle seems to be among the hardest for beginners to master. First, what's the difference between the two Well, "telling" is the reliance on simple exposition:

There was a cartoon in The New Yorker many years ago in which the female host of a posh party accosts one of her guests: "I've just learned that you wrote a novel based on somebody else's screenplay. Please leave my house at once." It's true that novelizations are the antithesis of literature, but when I was a teenager, desperate to learn how to write, I read dozens of them.

Psst! Wanna hear a secret The people in most stories aren't really humans -- they're robots! Real people are quite accidental, the result of a random jumbling of genes and a chaotic life. But story people are made to order to do a specific job. In other words, robots!

New writers are often baffled when trying to choose a point of view for their stories and novels. But, actually, the choice is easy. Over ninety percent of all modern speculative fiction is written using the same POV: limited third person. "Third person" ("she did this; he did that") means the story is not told in first person ("I did this"), or the always-irritating second person ("you did this"). That's easy enough. But what does "limited" mean

Writing convincing dialogue is one of the hardest things for new writers to master. In fact, it's so rarely done well in any form of fiction that when it is done right, people rally around it. The movie Pulp Fiction, Terry McMillan's novel Waiting to Exhale, and the TV series My So-Called Life were all remarkable in large part because of how believably the characters spoke.

Understanding what a plot is creates a foundation for an ability to create one. Unfortunately for most writers, they are consumed with the idea of creating the effect of what a plot does without first understanding what a plot is. What a plot does is raise dramatic questions a reader or viewer will follow a story to its conclusion to get answers.

“Why reinvent the wheel” your boss may ask. “Use a template instead. We're running a little behind schedule, and we need that thing up right now.”