Famous Dead Authors’ Secrets for Writing Success

By Sara, My Web Writers Intern

It has been said that writers are born, not made. Some take that to mean that you are either born with talent, or you may as well not try. That’s probably bunk. If writers are born, they are born out of the sweat and tears of determination and practice. Whether you are drumming up SEO content or working on the next great American novel, writing well and employing the habits of effective writing are essential.

First, it’s important to practice.

Practice keeps you in the habit of writing and thinking about writing. Nineteenth century author C.S. Lewis, most famous for The Chronicles of Narnia, says that “what you want is practice, practice, practice. It doesn’t matter what we write… so long as we write continually as well as we can. I feel that every time I write a page either of prose or of verse, with real effort, even if it’s thrown into the fire the next minute, I am so much further on.”

Another prolific writer, recently deceased Saul Bellow, observed that “somewhere in his journals Dostoyevsky remarks that a writer can begin anywhere, at the most commonplace thing, scratch around in it long enough, pray and dig away long enough, and lo! soon he will hit upon the marvelous.” When you practice the craft of writing and pay diligence to it, you grow. Even if you write tweets for a business firm, you are bound to come up with more unique, interesting, and creative content when you practice. Imagine an athlete who only played her sport at game time — she wouldn’t be good at it and would not be long rewarded for her “efforts.” So practice, practice, practice. Start now. Call it writers’ Spring Training.

Having some “filler” in your drafts is o.k.

It’s certainly tempting for any writer to stop when we have so-called “writer’s block.” Larry Gelbart, though, says “don’t stop.” He wants us to put something there and keep moving. Recently I wrote an article on decade themed parties and decided to employ Gelbart’s advice. I could have stopped and stared at the computer screen when I was stumped on what to write about a 1970s party that wouldn’t be a tired cliché. Instead, I wrote, “too much Footloose not enough Studio 54,” and moved on to the 1980s. Later, while editing and revising, I realized Footloose wasn’t even set in the ’70s, but I understood where my mind was headed. If I had tried to flush that out in the first draft, I’d still be writing it. Listen to Larry. Use filler and keep writing.

Beware of clichés.

“Beware of clichés…. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are clichés of observation and of thought — even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are clichés of form which conform to clichés of expectation.”

-Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer is not dead (here is his website), but this advice was too good not to share. Clichés are death to all that is interesting. I can’t say that clichés are never ok, because writing, like most art, only deals in absolutes for the strict business of breaking them. That being said, clichés are never ok. “It goes without saying” that the “early bird catches the worm” and “curiosity killed the cat” so a true “jack of all trades” would never to “keep up with Joneses” by recycling tired clichés.

If it goes without saying, then please, please, just don’t say it.

Ctrl-F and Delete those Adjectives

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

-Anton Chekhov

Adjectives are not the enemy here (Hint: its clichés). Adjectives can be a crutch, though. I recently read an article about a mama raccoon saving her litter of baby raccoons during a bout of bad weather. It passed through my twitter feed with the phrase, “mother raccoon shields her litter on turnpike from cold,” so of course I read it. I read it and said “awwww… how heartwarming and precious!” If the tweet had falling back on adjective addiction, I probably wouldn’t have clicked on the link following “Heartwarming and precious tale of courage.”

“Don’t say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, ‘please, will you do the job for me?’”

-C.S. Lewis

Reflect on What You Wrote

In Politics and the English Language, George Orwell claims that a “scrupulous writer” will constantly, even after every sentence (so definitely before sending that tweet), ask him or herself four questions. I leave you with those four questions to take back to your own stack of papers and document files (and practice!):

What am I trying to say?

1. What words will express it?
2. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
3. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Other Articles from My Web Writers:

Tweet for ReTweets- Twitter Tips

My Favorite Writer and Online Marketing Websites and Blogs

What Stephen Covey Knew about Marketing

Tell a Better Story: Tips and Tricks from Mark Twain

Overcoming the Beautiful Little Fool

Party Crashers App Embraces Digital Marketing and the American Dream

Annual Essay Contests You Shouldn’t Miss

Guidelines for Writing E-Tail Category Content

by My Web Writers

Photo Courtesy of Geek Philosopher

As shoppers flock to stores for the holidays with their mobile phones, to buy everything from personal care products to electronics to even vehicles, consider the status of your product descriptions and category content.  When you update your e-stores, follow these guidelines for writing e-tail content.:

Inform Customers About the Details

Your first and greatest responsibility should be to inform readers about the e-tailer’s products. Take the time to read about the product you’ll be writing about. If possible, review it in person. Consider it as a potential customer would: what would you like to know? What stands out about the product? What is it made of? Where is it made?

Anticipate questions that customers would want answered, and then answer them. After you’ve written your content, read it aloud to someone. Ask her whether she feels your description adequately described the product. Is anything unclear? If so, address those issues.

Entertain

Your main goal in writing e-tail category content is to inform. But, you’ll also want to entertain. Let’s face it, most customers are more drawn to clever copy than to a dry recitation of facts. What is unique about the product? What is relevant about it today? Pull in those details and come up with a funny or intriguing “hook” that will make customers want to read further to learn more.  Category pages draw readers into the sales funnel of product level pages.  A sense of humor or smile that offers intriguing product uses or customer testimonials can build credibility and time on site.

Create Urgency

E-tailers are in business to sell. It’s great if your copy draws customers to the site, but the ultimate goal is for those customers to make a purchase. You can encourage purchases by writing content that creates a sense of urgency. You might mention multiple ways customers could use a product. You could mention that the product’s sale price is only valid for a limited time. Suggest that customers stock up by buying several of clearance items while they’re still available.

SEO Matters

Even if your writing is informative, entertaining, and creates a sense of urgency, you won’t reach many potential customers if you don’t employ good search engine optimization (SEO) principals.

There are many sites giving good information on how to optimize your content. But some basic ideas involve filling your copy with key words and phrases that potential customers would search for. In your content, link to other pages on the e-tailer’s site. Use popular keywords in your content’s titles and subtitles.

 Research

What if you utilize all these ideas, but your competition is still ranking higher than you in search engines or in sales? Research them! Look around their sites and take notes on what they do that seems to be effective. Try making a change or two on your own site and give it a few weeks to see whether those changes made a difference in traffic or sales. Then, try more ideas. Constantly be aware of what your competitors are doing, and use those ideas that will work for your site.

It’s not an easy environment to do business in. But by following a few basic rules, your e-tail company can achieve success.

~Susan

Nab These Call to Action Verbs

By My Web Writers

Spice Up Your Meta Descriptions

After writing your fiftieth, meta description using the verbs “buy”, “look”, and “find”, you’re probably snoring.  Imagine how customers feel.  If just one of the below “vacation rentals” entries sparkled, it would capture a gold medal for creativity and extra site visits.

Capture Visitors with Enticing Action Verbs

Retailers lose income opportunities when potential customers ignore blah snippets.  Even a lower ranked snippet can capture additional clicks if its meta description and titles are alluring. Bookmark these engaging verbs for use in your web writing efforts.

Absorb	Accept	Acquire
Amaze	Add	Ask
Attract	Bestow	Borrow
Browse	Charge	Claim
Clean	Click	Clip
Collide	Cook	Copy
Create	Deliver	Design
Determine	Discover	Disrobe
Download	Dream	Drive
Earn	Embark	Empty
Engage	Enroll	Execute
Extract	Fall	Fatten
Visit	Flirt	Follow
Fondle	Gallop	Gamble
Gather	Gobble	Grab
Guess	Hobble	Hop
Hurdle	Hurl	Hustle
Inquire	Jingle	Juggle
Jump	Learn	Lease
Lie	Listen	Locate
Lose	Move	Nab
Obtain	Park	Peek
Polish	Print	Publish
Punt	Push	Query
Realize	Redeem	Refresh
Register	Rent	Sample
Save	Search	Seek
Shimmy	Skip	Slink
Smell	Snap	Sneak
Speak	Steal	Stomp
Store	Swallow	Trample
Uncover	Unveil	Watch
Wet	Whisk	Win

Shake up the use of verbs to capture more clicks and entertain your customers!

~Jean

Tell a Better Story: Tips and Tricks from Mark Twain

by My Web Writers

Mark Twain’s writing represents the hallmark of distinctly American literature in the late nineteenth century and also a shift in the writing techniques that constituted literary fiction at the time. Readers and non readers may recall fondly the image of Huckleberry Finn and Jim on a raft drifting down the Mississippi River in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) or Tom Sawyer’s appearance at his own funeral in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). These works, while some of the most famous, are hardly the nostalgic fare that these iconic scenes portray them to be. In fact, at the time of their writing, these works were considered quite innovative and continue to be a resource for writers even today.  Here are a few lessons to learn from the master for your own content development.

Dialog

Dialog is one of the most difficult components in fiction because it must sound like “real” speech without following the actual course of real speech. In daily life, conversations meander. Discussions go on tangents, return later to original topics and lots of comments about weather, current events, and appearance are stuck in along the way. Dialog in fiction must advance more quickly to the point. It must be intentional but not read that way. One method for writing dialog is to free write, allowing characters to talk and say any and everything they might to one another in a given situation. The writer must then return and revise by cutting out the majority of the text until only the essential remains. In Twain’s fiction, the dialog often runs counter what the reader knows to be true. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, two con men present themselves to Jim and Huck as a duke and prince. The dialog moves the men into the position of sharing the raft and soon Jim and Huck are calling them “Lord” and “Your Majesty”.

Dialect

Twain is considered a master of dialect and one who pioneered its use in literary fiction. While dialect is not necessary for all types of writing, it can be a useful tool when creating character and place. The contractions, odd spellings and strange pronunciations in Twain’s work have posed a challenge for some readers, and that is something to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to use it. But dialect also contributes to the sense of place and adds a flavor to the text. Likewise, Twain even uses dialect as a way to break up Huck’s voice and to introduce new perspectives.  Twain also uses a technique called eye dialect, where a word is misspelled, but still pronounced correctly—for example, “becuz” versus “because”—to delineate education.

 Show Don’t Tell

While Huck Finn, as the first person narrator, recounts his adventures in detail, effectively telling the story, the reader is constantly situated within the story through use of scene. Rather than dramatize all the events in the story, Twain glosses over travel scenes and dramatizes and slows down the scenes with the most action. Though Huck Finn is “telling” the story, the reader still experiences it. Details are one of the best ways to show not tell. When searching a wreck for supplies, rather than say, “we found a lot of gear,” Huck says, “We found boots, blankets, and clothes, and all sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three boxes of seegars.”

Situational Humor

Situational humor is often created in Twain’s work using dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something that the characters do not. For example, when Huck and Jim’s raft is boarded by a king and a duke, who command the boy and the runaway slave to serve them in a variety of different ways, the reader quickly realizes that these supposed nobility are actually con men. At first, this knowledge creates a sense of danger, but as the storyline progresses, the behaviors of all the characters grow comical, specifically the fighting between the two con men. This type of humor is often more successful than jokes told in dialog or with a humorous tone. Remember, when dealing with humor, it is best to avoid clichés, and readers are more likely to be amused by scenes they can envision.

 Mark Twain continues to influence and inspire with his large volume of work. And these lessons only the scratch the surface of what can be learned from him. Probably the best advice he gives is to start out with a good story that will capture your readers’ imagination and then let these tips guide you along the way.

~Lindsey

Descriptive Writing- The Texture of Everyday

by My Web Writers

Descriptive writing can take your copy from boring but functional to a sensory experience that draws readers in. By using description in your business or marketing copy, you can make a bigger impression on readers whether you’re trying to develop a following or sell merchandise. We all know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but you can actually create a picture with your words to get more impact from your writing.

Descriptive Writing Isn’t Just for Essays

In keeping the tone of professional writing formal, description is often minimized or left out altogether. That doesn’t have to be the case. For example, make your “About Us” actually tell the customer something about you. Instead of simply listing the basics of your company history and accolades, show the reader what the company is really like. Tell the story of the company, including details about the people who founded it, the offices where you work, the atmosphere of the organization. Creating character can help people feel loyalty to your company. If you describe what the company is like in such a way that people can picture working or visiting there, they’re more likely to perceive doing business with you as they would with a local business, rather than a large, characterless corporation.

If you’re writing marketing copy about products, you often have just a paragraph or less to get the main selling points across. Use your words judiciously and you can still pack a lot of description in. At first using more description may slow the writing process down, but once you get in the habit of thinking about using your senses, you may find your work is a lot more creative and more enjoyable to write. Here are some ideas to get started:

Engage the Senses

Thick description goes beyond the basics, the surface level descriptions, and creates images that evoke texture, aroma, and the way a person, place, or thing makes you feel. Using thick description in your writing can produce copy that uses your creative skills and makes readers want to do more than skim

Close your eyes and picture what you’re writing about. Often we focus primarily on what things look like on the surface, but our other senses are just as important in creating an impression of an object or a place. Brainstorm words or phrases you would use to describe your subject. What does it smell like? Feel like? How does it move? If it’s an object, where would it look best? What sorts of uses best capture the object’s appearance, texture, etc.? People don’t just want to know what something does; they want to experience using it. Engaging more senses in your marketing copy can help customers feel more drawn toward your products.

Describe with Purpose

Zero-in on the details that matter. Why are you describing the person, place, or object? If you’re writing marketing copy, what are the main selling points? Once you get going, it can become easy to get carried away. Focus on what details in your description are crucial to the motive of your writing. This strategy is especially important if you have a tight restriction on words. The more focused your description is, the more powerful it will be in serving your purposes.

Pay Attention. Practice.

Before you start work for the day, spend a few minutes describing your surroundings. Jot down some notes. Get your brain actively thinking about descriptive language. If you work at the same desk each day, take a mental journey. Think about the details of your childhood bedroom, your last vacation, the best or worst meal you ever ate.

Practice outside of work. If you’re stuck in traffic, describe the scene to yourself. In an especially good life moment, take mental notes. Write character descriptions of your friends and family. Get a little practice capturing the textures, sights, and smells of every day. It could take as little as five minutes, but make a big difference in your writing.

~Kasey