Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 51

How To Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

Writing a novel is seriously tough. But marketing it is arguably harder. Writers write because they have a passion for doing so, and however painful this may be at times, they do it because ultimately, it is something that they want to do.

Publishing, pitching, and marketing your novel, however, may feel like seriously foreign territory, and whether or not you find it intimidating, it is also something that so many writers don't really enjoy. Forcing yourself to do something you don't like means that it will feel increasingly challenging, and might be something that you can't quite motivate yourself to do at all.

One of the essential parts of writing a story is getting the concept right. The concept is the one simple, stripped-down idea that is the driving force behind the story. A terrible concept will create a rubbish novel, so getting this right is imperative.

It is complicated to pinpoint exactly what your concept is, and one of the best ways to do so is by writing your elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is self-explanatory. Imagine you were in an elevator with your dream publisher, and you had the time until they reached their desired floor to pitch your novel. You'd need to be pretty succinct, clear, and captivating, wouldn't you?

In short, your elevator pitch briefly summarises what it is about your book that makes it exciting, unique and something that your desired audience will want to read.

Having a brilliant elevator pitch not only brings incredible clarity to the story and makes it easier to write. It's also something that many publishers ask you to give them before they consider your work. So it could be the difference between finding a publisher or being rejected time and time again.

So how do you create a fantastic elevator pitch? 

Be unique - try to make sure that your story idea is an exceptional one, and include details to ensure a person will understand why it's so original and not something that's been done time and time again. 

Keep it brief. Your elevator pitch should be a couple of sentences. Around 20 words at most. You need to think very carefully about how you craft it and ensure that every word counts.

Make it memorable. You need to choose language that makes your elevator pitch stand out. You need the response to be 'I want to know more.'

What's the reason for an elevatory pitch?

Defining your elevator pitch helps you understand your USP. Whatever it is that helps you to persuade publishers, agents, and readers that your book it worth reading. It will indicate to an interested party who the story would appeal to and how they might sell it to them. 

If you can craft a unique elevator pitch that's arresting, something different and compelling, you will capture the attention of people who have the power to change your fortunes as an author in a meaningful way. If you can't, you won't persuade anyone your book will sell and will have missed a great opportunity - so it's well worth investing time in. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Perfect Your Elevator Pitch appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How Poetry Can Improve Your Writing

There are many different ways writers can try to improve their writing, and it's crucial for every writer, no matter how experienced, to accept that there is always room to get better, and there are still new things to learn. 

It doesn't matter that kind of writer you are, be that a novelist, nonfiction writer, copywriter, or anything in between, poetry can be incredibly helpful when it comes to improving the craft. 

Being a great writer is all about conjuring spectacular, arresting, memorable images by placing words in a particular order. This is something all writers hope to achieve. To help readers imagine or understand or envision something that they might not have been able to imagine, understand or envision by themselves. They use language to create a vibrant and vivid picture, to help people visit lands they've never traveled, to eat meals they've never tasted, and to behold sights from magical lands. 

Poetry is masterful at doing the above. The most successful poems are crafted with such care a precision that the result can be utterly devastating or exhilarating. Reading poetry can help writers understand just how powerful and smart word placement can be. 

Writers should task themselves with reading poetry from all kinds of poets, and to do so extensively.  In doing so, writers can hope to, almost subconsciously, build up a library of metaphors, of descriptive words, of emotions that have been imprinted on you by them.

Stimulating your reader's senses is of incredible importance in any kind of writing. In your novel, you must hope to immerse your readers in the world you have created. In copywriting, you wish to entice them, engage them, make them care. Stimulating the senses is a powerful way to do just that, and poetry is a fantastic learning tool to understand better how to stimulate the senses. Poetry aims to create fresh images that are sharp and clear and produce striking and memorable pictures. 

Poetry can also help writers better learn when to replace an abstract word with a concrete one for a more powerful effect. Abstract words are ones you can see or touch, concrete ones are the opposite and can be better at directing the reader what they should be feeling and resonating with them more easily. Abstract words don't engage the senses and therefore are less compelling and less memorable too. 

By studying poetry, writers better learn that every single word should be carefully selected and it's meaning considered. Poetry doesn't allow for tired cliches and is smart in the way it subverts ordinary, everyday actions and objects and holds them up to the light, examining them in a new way that changes them somehow, and makes them vastly more interesting. It also encourages writers to think about themes in their writing. Poetry almost always has a theme, and writing should too. 

Reading and dissecting poetry is something that every writer should strive to do. So try to incorporate the study of poetry into your learning and see your writing improve dramatically as a result!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How Poetry Can Improve Your Writing appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Make Characters Sound Different From One Another

We all know that every good story relies upon a cast of characters who are exciting, engaging, and relatable. Without this, no matter how good your idea may be, your book will be doomed to fail.

One of the essential parts of creating and developing your characters is making sure that they are unique. If there is no distinction between characters and they all seem to have the same morals, the same interests, a similar temperament, readers will find it hard to separate them, and it will also make your story seem a bit boring too!

So how can you make sure that your characters stand out from one another? 

There are many ways to do this. They can be physically different, come from opposite walks of life, behave very differently to one another, and so on. One of the easiest and most affecting ways to make characters stand out is to ensure the way they talk differently from one another. But how do you do this? Here are some ways to help ensure distinctive dialogue. 

Use different vocabulary

Think about the background of your characters and use that to inform you of the way that they would talk. A professor, for example, would use far more sophisticated language than say, a high school drop out. By considering the level of education your characters would have, and their interest in language, whether they care about going across as intellectual and their profession will help you choose words to suit their personas.

Vary sentence length

Some people talk in long and convoluted sentences. Others use words sparingly or are more abrupt conversationally. You can vary sentence length when crafting your dialogue to reveal more about your characters and make them distinctive from one another. 

Use metaphors, references, and phrases

Everyone has a distinct way of talking, and when you listen to people's speech, you notice the words and phrases they often repeat or their frame of reference. People also tend to use metaphors to express themselves, and these details will all help built up layers in your characters, making them not only more distinctive but also more lifelike and intuiting too. 

Experiment with accents

While using accents in novels is tricky, if you can do it well, it can be an easy way to make character's voices unique from one another. However, it is always best to use accents sparingly as they can sound clunky or overwhelm the reader and distract from the story if not executed well.

Consider the exchange pattern

The exchange pattern focuses more on how your characters deliver their words. Are they clear and precise in how they talk or vague and tend to yammer on. Do they trail off and lose their thoughts, or are they always very measured and thoughtful about what they say? 

Make thought processes distinctive

What your characters say should reflect how they think. If the reader is let in on the innermost thoughts of your characters, the way that they speak should reflect those feelings. If they think logically, they will probably speak more clearly. If they tend to drift in thought or are overwhelmed by their thoughts, they may stutter or get distracted more easily. 

Silence also speaks volumes!

Remember, it's not just the way your character speaks, but also the things that they don't say that can reveal more about them, so don't forget to use silence to evoke different emotions. Silence can be compelling after all. 

By using the above, you can ensure that your characters all sound unique, and this will add color and variety to your story and make your characters all the more interesting to read. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Make Characters Sound Different From One Another appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Create Order Out Of Chaos In Your Writing

When we start writing a novel, it often comes from a place of chaos. We have a brilliant idea that leaves us shaking with excitement, and from that idea comes so many others, tumbling forth so fast that we barely have time to write them down. Then we go back through our gloriously jumbled notebooks. We make mind maps. We write down words and phrases we like. We take pictures of locations, interiors, materials, clothing, anything that catches our eye and seems to fit in with the fictional world that is swirling around in our heads. We start to research and more notebooks and voice notes and jumbled, breathless answerphone messages and garbled barely readable text messages to ourselves pour in.

Then one day, we sit down to write.

Suddenly the brilliant, powerful, energizing chaos feels a little overwhelming. Like trying to untangle 12 meters of fairy lights that have been gathering dust at the bottom of a box for a year, and we can’t even find the ends, let alone know where to go from there.

To write your novel, you must find a way to create order from the chaos that your once lightbulb moment of brilliance has created. You must sift through everything that you have gathered, compartmentalize it, and learn how to spot and discard things that aren’t of any use to you, even though it might be a little painful to do so. 

The first thing to do is lay it all out, or at least as much of it as you can. If you can gather all your notes together into one big document, it will be easier to work from. So translate your answerphone messages, pull your images in, type out the scrappy bits of paper, and post-it notes until everything is together.

From here, you need to separate which information belongs where. Your novel is a story that has characters driving that story who live in a world that creates the backdrop to the story. Try to divide your notes into those sections that pertain to the story itself, the characters, and the world. 

Don’t throw anything out just yet!

Once you have down this, you can start to take a firmer grip on your organization. Start to create character personas, begin to build the world, what it looks like, what its rules are, and finally start to map out your plot, using the information an inspiration you have gathered as you do so.

From here, it should start to become more apparent what pieces no longer belong in this novel. While you might have had a genius idea or had a vision which is so beautiful, it brings a tear to your eye, if it doesn’t fit in this world, in this story that you are telling right now, you need to let it go. But don’t just cast these ideas aside, store them elsewhere, you never know, they could be the perfect fit for your next book!

Ordering your chaotic thoughts and notes and ideas and research by taking the time to do so methodically and carefully, and having the wisdom to be honest and kill your darlings can help you start your novel on the right foot. So, by all means, embrace and enjoy the chaos at the start, but the learn how to bring order to it and shape it into a novel you can be proud of!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Create Order Out Of Chaos In Your Writing appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Stop Being An Ordinary Writer – By Being An Extraordinary Person

When we are feeling disheartened about our writing, we might worry that we don’t have that spark, that special something, that je ne sais quoi that makes them stand out. When we are feeling like this, it is sometimes helpful to step back and take stock of our lives. 

Writers need to up for experiences. While we can use our imaginations and creative license to write, if we don’t have an adventurous, unique, action-packed life ourselves, it’s hard to find those exciting ideas or inspiration we need to keep finding new things to write about.

So what are some of the ways you can engage in the rollercoaster ride that is life and inject some excitement into your existence? You can become more extraordinary and have more unique experiences by following these helpful tips:

Be fearless

Fear holds us back in so many ways. And while there are certain precautions we all must take to stay healthy and not endanger others, we also all carry around fears that can cripple us and mean that we don’t live our lives to the fullest. Do some soul searching to understand what yours are and consider what you could put in place to help overcome them. 

Take a trip

Travel opens us up to new worlds and experiences. Take the time to travel the world, experience new cultures, and meet people from all walks of life. Down so will give you so many ideas and beautiful things to write about. 

Talk to strangers

Obviously, do so with appropriate amounts of caution! However, being more open and willing to talk to other people means you get to understand human beings better and get to hear their stories. Most people have something interesting to say, so by keeping your ears open and taking the time to talk to people, you could find new inspiration for your book. 

Do some public speaking

Public speaking is something that a lot of people find stressful. So challenge yourself to have your thoughts heard and find a way to do some public speaking. You’ll not only have the chance to say something important or dear to you but also will be left feeling exhilarated and confident as a result. 

Write about your darkest secrets

Writing is an opportunity to get to know yourself better and to be truly honest with yourself. If you want to write something raw, brave, and beautiful, then you need to dig deep and open those doors that you’ve bolted shut for a while. 

Be honest with your feelings

Don’t try to be someone you are not. Be honest and accepting of who you are. Explore your behavior and how you feel and write it all down. Not only will this be so cathartic, but it will also help you connect with readers on a more personal level too.

Find adventures in the everyday

To be extraordinary, you don’t have to travel to far-flung lands or jump out of airplanes at the weekends. Instead, you need to find ways to make your life more adventurous right here, right now. There are plenty of magical, wonderful, exciting things in the world, and many of them are right on your doorstep - you just have to open your eyes. 

If you want to be an extraordinary writer, you need to do extraordinary things, and the above will help you to find ways to be extraordinary every single day!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Stop Being An Ordinary Writer – By Being An Extraordinary Person appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Manage Your Workflow Process For A More Efficient Freelance Writing Business

If you are a freelance writer, you may well understand how difficult it can be to juggle all your writing gigs. It's a job that doesn't just require considerable research and writing skills, but also meticulous organization, and the ability to stick to tight deadlines, and always deliver work on time.

Getting lots of work is excellent, more work means more money in the bank after all. However, if you start getting a lot of jobs, you need to juggle deadlines, to consider how long each piece of work will take you, to make sure you have all the resources you need, to make time for rewrites and amends and build this all into a workable schedule.

Having excellent workflow processes will keep you on the right track and ensure that your freelance writing business runs like a well-oiled machine.

 So what are some useful tips to help you get there? 

Here are some things to consider:

A client intake form. 

You might have a contact form on your website, a client might drop you an email, and you have a conversation. The exchange then goes back and forth until you agree on the work required and deadline and payment. However, having a client intake form can make this process so much faster, easier, and more transparent too. Your form can ensure that you gather all the relevant information about the project in one place. It allows you to be completely clear on what is required and acts as a contract between the two of you, so everyone's expectations are aligned before you being working. 

A welcome package

Want to look super professional and stand out amongst your competitors? A welcome package will do just that. Take your time to consider the wording and design and then think about the useful documents you'll want every client to have. You might wish to include an in-depth client questionnaire, a process template, so your client knows what to expect from you, your working hours, how many revisions you offer, a breakdown of the deadlines, and how you wish to be paid. You can also include instructions on any tools or particular software you use, such as Google Docs, so that clients don't have to keep badgering you if they are not familiar. 

An 'end of the contract' package

If you want to leave a great impression and increase your chances of landing a fantastic review or being rehired by the same client, putting together an end of contract package is also wise. Here you have an opportunity to really impress the client and deliver a service that surpasses expectations. Things you could include are an FAQ sheet, a feedback questionnaire, a discount if they choose to work with you again, an information sheet reviewing all the different types of service you offer, and some helpful resources, relevant to their brand. 

By following the above, you can hope to streamline your workflow processes, making it easier for you to work on multiple clients, stay organized and impress those you work with from the very first point of contact to the very last. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Manage Your Workflow Process For A More Efficient Freelance Writing Business appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Get Paid To Write What You Love

Competent freelance writers often pride themselves on being able to write about anything under the sun. Often it is not the case that we can pick and chose work, and we have to take on writing projects that cover topics that aren’t exactly enthralling. However, having the skills to research a topic and to make it sound exciting and engaging means that you will never be short of work.

Saying that, however, it is nice to be able to write about the things that we love. Tedious topics can make progress slow and have us wondering whether we are really enjoying the work that we do in the first place. When you get to write about something that already fascinates you, it doesn’t feel like working at all.

So how do you go about landing these dream jobs? Here are some helpful tips:

Create a fantastic website

A good website goes a long way, and you need to make sure that yours is slick and professional looking. It should be clear from the outset what topics you like to write about and include reviews from satisfied clients and a portfolio too.

Be selective in your portfolio

Only choose your best and most relevant work in your portfolio. If you are serious about only writing about a handful of topics that you are passionate about, you need to prove to clients that you have the experience and knowledge to do so. 

Approach companies that interest you

Don’t wait for jobs to fall into your lap, go out and find them. Research companies that align with your interests and approach them with content ideas. If you can prove that you will be of value to them, they may well bite.

Write first, sell later

Don’t worry too much about waiting for those perfect writing gigs to appear, write the articles, the stories, the blog posts that you want to write about, and then search for places to place them afterward. So many businesses, newspapers, magazines, and bloggers are looking for great content, and if yours fits the bill, you could see your pieces published before you know it.

Write and publish a book on your subject

If you are genuinely passionate about a particular topic, why no write a book about it? There is nothing to stop you from putting all your knowledge down on paper, and if you do have something valuable to offer others whose interests along with yours, you could find buyers queuing up to read your work.

By following the above, you should be well on your way to creating a writing career for yourself where you only write about topics that are truly interesting to you. So what are you waiting for? Start today and see where your career takes you!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Get Paid To Write What You Love appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Find Great Proofreading Jobs

As a writer, you’ve no doubt spent plenty of time looking over your own work and trying to weed out errors, spelling and grammatical mistakes and inconsistencies in your story. All those hours spent painstakingly going through your manuscript means that you’ve probably gathered some pretty impressive proofreading skills. 

So if you are looking for a way to earn some money doing what you already do, why not consider offering your proofreading services out for hire? You might wish to consider taking a course to brush up on your skills and investing in some helpful resources such as programs that teach you all the grammar rules (no one can know every single one after all).

You should also build up a portfolio and may have to do a bit of proofreading work for free to get a robust portfolio and some glowing testimonials together. 

But once you have done this, where do you find proofreading jobs?

Here are some great places to start looking.

Upwork

Upwork is a fantastic place for proofreaders of all experience to land jobs. They have a considerable number of listings, and you can easily apply for the work that most interests you. It’s also a great place for newbie writers to build up a reputation before they start going for the more prominent, higher-paid positions available.

Fiverr

Fiverr is another useful site, particularly for those just starting their proofreading role. You can become a seller and offer your services out as well as browse for job listings at the same time. The more projects you complete and receive excellent feedback for, the more you’ll end up being selected. It’s not the best platform if you are hoping to get paid the big bucks, but worth investigating, particularly if you are looking at doing proofreading as a side gig. 

Scribed

Scribendi has a comprehensive application process, but it is worth persevering with it as if accepted, you don’t have to pay any percentage of your earnings to the company (unlike the previous two). The jobs offered cover a broad range of topics so you should be able to find satisfying work and earn around $20 per hour. 

Reedsy

If you are hoping to read full-length manuscripts, this is the site for you. However, one of the requirements is that you have ten published books that you have previously proofread before you can join. So this is one for those who are more experienced. The payoffs, however, are high as the percentage cut is only 10 percent and you can find some well-paid jobs on there as well. 

The Editorial Freelancers Association

The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) is a little more controlled than others. You have to become a member to gain access and pay an annual fee. However, doing so means that you can have access to some exciting and highly paid projects and also their broad range of online classes, which can help to build up your skills. 

The above are just five great places to start searching for proofreading gigs, and once you get going, there is no reason why you couldn’t begin to approach businesses yourself, join proofreading networks on LinkedIn and earn some serious cash in return. So if you think that you might enjoy workings a proofreader, why not get started today? 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Find Great Proofreading Jobs appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Know If You Are A Talented Writer

Every single writer, at some point in their career, asks the question, am I a talented writer? The truth is it can be a difficult one to answer.

You might love to write; you might be extremely prolific; you might have published many novels and have a good following. But was it all a fluke? Will you be able to replicate your success the next time around?

On the other hand, you might find the writing process rather painful, you might procrastinate and take years and years to write a novel, and you might have been rejected over and over. Does this mean that you are wasting your time, that you are wholly talentless, and that you should give up before you spend any more years doing something that will never get you anywhere?

Writing talent is so subjective. Have you ever read a bestselling novel and struggled to enjoy it? Have you ever heard of an author shooting to success but can't for the life of you understand what all the fuss is about? 

The thing is, the question of whether or not you are a good writer could easily be the thing that is holding you back. If you are constantly questioning, fretting over whether you have any writing talent, you may not commit fully or take the steps necessary to get your novel finished, let alone submit it for publication. 

Here are some of the things people might think means they are a good writer:

They get paid to write

The get published

They receive x number of positive reviews

The sell x number of books

The problem with all of the above is that you are reliant on other people's opinions for confirmation that you are good enough. That hardly ever ends well. 

By letting other people determine your worth, you immediately lose control. If you write something that doesn't get published or gets published and no one reads, or does well initially and then flags, or you only get paid pittance for - does any of this mean that you must, for sure, be a talentless writer? Of course it doesn't! 

There are plenty of bad books out there, and there are plenty of people who get paid to write and don't do an outstanding job of it. There are also plenty of people who managed to find a niche audience and go on to have massive success but are considered terrible writers by those in the industry. 

You have to be the one to decide that you are a good writer. Here are some ways to help you decide:

You have received both positive and negative feedback. Not everyone will love your work. Even the most celebrated writers of all time had their work slandered by other people. The trick is not to focus on them. Instead, find ones that do like what you write, and then write more of the same for them.

You can see yourself improving. All good writers go on a journey and have to practice their art form. If you are a much better writer than you were five years ago, a year, a month ago, a week ago, or even yesterday, you know you are doing something right.

You finish what you started. Successful writers finish their books - it's as simple as that. If you want to become more talented, write more, write every day, and get that book done. 

Being a talented writer is about a vast number of factors. The most important thing to remember, however, is that you have to believe in yourself. If you don't, no one else will!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Know If You Are A Talented Writer appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Find Your Writing Passion

Writers are creative and passionate people by nature. However, sometimes finding what it is that truly makes our hearts sing when we sit down to write is more challenging than we might expect. 

Yet, what’s even more frustrating is that if you aren’t writing about what you love, it’s pretty damn impossible to write well.

It is every writer’s dream to be fortunate enough to make a living doing what we love. But before we can even set this as a goal, we must get to the heart of what it is that we find fulfilling and joyful and effortless and exciting. 

So how do you do this?

To understand your writing passion, you need to understand yourself. You must be able to tap into your own innermost thoughts and feelings, to discover what makes you tick. You are a complex and ever-changing being, and you owe it to yourself and to your writing to get self-inquisitive and figure out who you are and what you stand for. 

It is your experience of life, your pain, pleasure, your greatest adventures, those moments of beauty that come from the most mundane and ordinary situations, the anger, embarrassment, outrage, the love, kindness and compassion, the sympathy, empathy, the laughter, and the tears - these moments and occasions are what make up your life story, and by reviewing these and acknowledging them and examining them you will connect with yourself, find your passion and resonate with your readers too. 

Writing is an art form, and any experienced writer knows that to create great art, you have to get up close and personal, sometimes uncomfortably so, with your own thoughts and feelings. Taking the time and making the space to do this is valuable work indeed. Within you, you have an unexplored reserve of inspiration, ideas, and if you are willing to do some digging, you’ll be able to bring authenticity and emotion to your work in ways you weren’t able to before. 

It takes a little time, a little work, and the ability to be both vulnerable and truly honest with yourself that will ensure you gain the most significant rewards. Doing so is like embarking on an essential journey of discovery, one that could open all sorts of unexpected doors. 

Once you understand what makes you tick, what motivates you, what energizes you, your view of the world, and your unique personality, you should be able to define your specific qualities, and doing so can help lead you to your passion. Determine what values you have, the skills you possess, how you like to spend your time, what you find fulfilling, what moves and drives you. Answer these with complete honesty, and you’ll be able to create a vision of how you can use all of these to start a writing career that’s genuinely abundant in joy, passion, and satisfaction for many years to come. You may find there are challenges and obstacles you have to overcome (both actual and emotional), but by removing these limiting beliefs, these issues and doubts you can shift your mindset and realize that there is nothing that can stand in the way. Create an action plan, set your goals, and then go for it and become the passionate and motivated writer you always knew you could be! 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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