Writing Inrochester

Do you use teleclasses to market your service? Would you like to increase your clients to your ideal number?

Avoid these 7 mistakes and count your new profits! You…

1. Don’t give yourself enough marketing time before your teleclass. It’s best to send two, three, even four email sales letters before your event. With two months of marketing, you can spread the word to other ezines and pros who will send to their lists.

2. Don’t charge anything. Your audience only values what they have to invest in. Freebies attract lookie loos. You put a lot of effort into your teleclass–don’t dilute your efforts with people who run the minute something costs. Quality information deserves quality payment. If you are just starting, make the price low, maybe under $15. If you are the guru, charge more, maybe $30-$40. For interactive small group coaching , where you give feedback on submissions, charge about double. Maybe $70 or more.

3. Don’t charge what your expertise defines. If you offer stress management, you probably won’t charge as much as for writing a book, copywriting, or what’s specifically needed for online marketing? Think about article marketing. Your articles need a pro’s feedback so all the web article directories will love them.

4. Don’t include a free book, bonus report, or workbook with the teleclass. When people see an offer they can’t refuse, they won’t. Seeing added value, they will commit. Some people aren’t good listeners and will depend on the printed information to learn your top points or how tos.

5. Don’t include benefits in your teleclass title. Or, you use boring descriptions that won’t pull attendees. Motivate your audience with titles like, “Attract New Clients with the Number One Way to Market Online–Writing and Submitting Articles.” or “How to Write your Book in Less Than 30 Days.”

6. Don’t offer full on content and ways to help your audience get skills they need. People will leave your and the call forever if you spend too much time marketing other programs or products. They will judge you on your knowledge of your topic, your own success, and will realize you are the one they need. Of course, plan for a two-minute commercial. That is expected.

7. Don’t follow up your teleclass with an outstanding offer or just to review the points on the teleclass. Remember, it takes 5-7 contacts with your audience before they begin to trust you and think you are the right choice for them.

Turn your teleclass audiences into clients with a little more attention to marketing, yet still delivering a fully-packed informational teleclass. Survey them to find out what level they are and what they need.

Coach Judy Cullins works with small business people who want to make a difference in people′s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income with a book. Author of 11 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, she offers 2 free monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says″ and “Business Tip of the Month,” at bookcoaching.com bookcoaching.com and over 215 free articles. Mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com. Questions and Orders: 866/200-9743

Welcome to another installment in The Article Guy’s Article Marketing Interview Series. Today I am interviewing Relationship Coach Sandra Rohr. She trained with The Relationship Coaching Institute and has one of my favorite tag lines:

“Date Consciously–Mate Consciously–Live Deliciously!

1. How did you get started writing articles?

I’ve always been a writer, but I started being aware of the power of my writing (how modest of me!) when I was doing my master’s work. As for writing regarding my practice, I started by writing for the Conscious Dating and Couples newsletters.

2. What has been your biggest mistake?

Biggest mistake is not starting earlier. Biggest problem is switching from an academic style of writing to a journalistic style.

3. What has been your biggest success and/or accomplishment?

Wrote, published, and marketed A Kid’s Guide to Orange County (a handbook of fun things to do with your kids in Southern California), being published in academic journals, being published in RCI e-zines.

4. Where do you get your ideas?

For relationship articles, from clients′ questions mostly.

5. What has article writing and article marketing done for you and your business?

I′ve started hearing from a few people who have read my material in the RCI e-zines, but as soon as I get my website completed–in about a week–I plan to submit my articles to the clearing houses. If, as you suggest, and as I believe, this is the road to getting known, I expect a lot from this.

Points for us to use

You can go from an academic style to a conversational style.
You can become a regular contributor to other people’s newsletters
Get started - as I often tell my coaching clients - “You don’t have to be great to start, but you gotta start to be great.”

How would you like to banish writers block forever and write away, right away? Then get yourself a copy of my 26 Article Writing Templates with Examples at TheInternetArticleGuy.com/articletemplates.htm TheInternetArticleGuy.com/articletemplates.htm

You can also subscribe to TheInternetArticleGuy.com/ The Article Writing & Article Marketing Tips Newsletter delivered to your email inbox twice a month from Jeff Herring, The Internet Article Guy.

Most authors find it difficult to write online articles more than a few per day. One online article author who has some very decent articles actually writes between one and two articles per day and works extremely hard to do it. She feels drowned out and does not see how anyone can possibly write thousands of articles.

Well to this I say sure they can, I did. In fact I wrote 1111 articles in I think it was June alone. I consistently write 400-600 per month and am already up 240 on the month this month and it is only the 6th of the month. I do not use software to do this, although I have used voice activated assist yet I find that generally when I do I spend more time editing than it is worth really.

Additionally I do most all the articles off the top of my head, so if someone were to simply think and observe what they see and be actively involved in their lives they could do the same thing too. People are generally lazy. And I have been accused of not having the best or perfect-est articles, but I am not a writer or an editor and so if I can do this anyone can.

I bet I hit 1000 articles this month and top 10,000 by end of October. So I say to the critics, despite there comments, stop lowering your expectations and get busy doing rather than putting false barriers of productivity in front of you. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Your goal when copywriting for your web site is to get your site to the top three pages in the SERPs (search engine ranking placement). Any further back than the first three pages or thirty sites, and your site won’t be found because that’s where the average web site surfer stops—after just three pages of searching. And web site information seekers account for the vast majority of click-throughs on your site.

Copywriting for search engines should be part of your search engine optimization strategy, but it’s challenging to say the least. Most of us are either artistic or scientific types; few are both. But that’s what online copywriting is all about. It’s both an art and a science, and that’s what gets most people on the wrong track.

In a nutshell, good web site copy needs to be rich, keyword-specific and topic-based. Many inexperienced web developers simply use brochures for their web site copy. Don’t let them talk you into it! Search engines most likely won’t find your web site if you do.

The optimal web site page size is around 2 MS Word pages. If you have more copy than that, consider splitting it into two or more. If you find you’ve got more than one topic on a page, split it into two or more.

If you’re like me, your first instinct is to sit down and start plunking away at your keyboard and get as many of your thoughts out as quickly as possible.

And that’s fine for your basic outline, but that’s about as far as it’ll get you. That’s the artistic side. And it just might be the wrong side to start with. I’ve learned over the years that, contrary to my instinct, starting with the scientific is actually easier and faster.

So, where do you start?

The first thing I do is find the right keywords to base my copywriting on, and there’s a relatively simple way to figure out which keywords to use. Open your favorite spreadsheet program (I use MS excel), and head four columns with:

Keyword #Searched #Returned Ratio

Then, find a good keyword suggestion tool. Wordtracker has one and so does Overture, and both have free trials. There are also several others out there to use.

Tip: Keyword suggestion tools suggest more keywords and phrases for your search terms.

So, what you’re going to do is brainstorm some keywords and phrases for your product or service, enter them in the “keyword” column, and find out how often it’s searched for in your keyword suggestion tool.

Next go to a search engine and search for the phrase in quotations to find your competition for that word or phrase. And then figure out the ratio of “#searched” to “#returned”. What you’re looking for is a low number of returns for a highly searched word or phrase, or a relatively low ratio.

Tip: Keyword phrases often work better than keywords alone.

You want brainstorm a hundred or more words and phrases, and choose two to four to use in your web site copy. And as the saying goes, “two heads are better than one” so ask your family, friends and neighbors for input if you can.

Try a general keyword and start there. You’ll find a general keyword will be searched a lot, but you’ll also find there’s too much competition in most cases, so your ratio is too high. Then try different spellings, misspellings and more specific phrases. You’re looking for two to four target words or phrases per page.

For example “bodybuilding” has a ratio over 4,000, but “body building” is under 3,000. To get more specific, try targeting women. “Body building woman” has a ratio of around 500.

Once we’ve found our target phrases, we can start writing our web site content. But where do we put our targeted keywords and phrases?

Search engines look in specific places to try to determine your web site’s theme, yet they’re all slightly different as to exactly where they look and relative importance of each placing.

Nearly all search engines use page title as one of the most important, so try to make sure your page title uses at least one targeted phrase, or better yet, two. Our example title could be “Body Building Supplements – How to Build Muscle | Company Name” for example. That uses two of our target phrases and our company name. Or we could substitute the protein shake name for the company name.

Some search engines use meta tags, others do not, so I generally include meta tags for the search engines that do.

Heading tags are next in importance, ranging in importance from H1 and down. If you recall, in our last newsletter, we mentioned that headings are also high on your list for catching clients’ interest, so h1 heading tags carry lots of weight for both. One thing to watch for is cute headings, which can work for clients, but won’t work for search engines. To make the search engines happy, you need to include your keywords in your headings.

The last thing to be aware of for search engine copywriting is keyword density and placement. Again, each search engines seems to want something a little different, but you’re pretty safe if you have keywords near the beginning, middle and end of your copy. You’re looking for keyword density balance though because too many and your site is seen as spam by the search engines, while too few mean your web site theme isn’t clear enough to be found by your target audience.

So, now you have your keywords and you can start writing, right? Well, you can, but unless you keep a few points in mind, your copywriting won’t be as effective as you’d like it to be. But that’s the subject for another article.

Eve Jackson owns Details Small Business Solutions, a company dedicated to helping small business do big business with communication and image consulting. We develop matching company identity packages, websites and press kits from start to finish, including all the copy.

detailssbs.com detailssbs.com

mailto:info@detailssbs.com info@detailssbs.com

In today’s world, self publication is becoming an increasingly popular method for authors to publish their work for the world to read. Generally, self publishers have pretty tight budgets and it’s no surprise that book cover design can be discounted as an expense of lesser importance. Is book cover design really that important?

The answer is YES! Book cover design is one of the most important decisions an author can make in the creation of their book. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Never judge a book by its cover.” Ironically, that’s exactly what we all do before we even open a book and peer inside its pages. In light of this, book cover design should be carefully thought out and meticulously executed. Hiring a professional book cover designer for the job is an absolute must.

Some key factors to consider while designing your book cover are: your target audience (their likes, their dislikes, their age range, and most importantly their design aesthetic); your book’s message (your book cover design should reflect this message); your book’s general mood and/or emotional tone (your book cover design should reflect this mood); and your book’s potential competition — what other books will be vying for a customer’s attention? Your book cover design should help your book to stand out among the others, getting the customer’s attention and prompting them to open the book and see what’s inside.

While plenty of book cover designers are companies, many book cover designers are individual freelancers so think about this when you′re ready to have your book cover designed. Working with a larger company may have its benefits, while working with an individual may have other benefits.

An excellent resource for finding book cover designers is linked below. You can use this site’s directory to find all kinds of book cover designers and, hopefully, choose one that is right for you.

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

There is only one story.

The Hero’s Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharsis).

d) Gives you a universal structural template upon which you can superimpose your situational story.

and more…

FIRST THRESHOLD

There is often confusion about many of the Hero’s Journey steps. One area of confusion is the First Threshold.

It must be remembered that the Hero’s Journey is both a physical and a psychological journey. The physical journey is just that, a journey - a physical movement. The psychological aspect is transformation - from an Old Self to a New Self.

The psychological movement is represented by physical change of location.

Psychologically the First Threshold is that place which the Hero is most afraid to go and from where he cannot return (that fear is enhanced by the earlier Interdictions and the Refusal).

Physically this is often represented by some New World that is a polar opposite of the Ordinary World, from which the hero has just come. A dangerous place, with dangerous and unfamiliar objects / creatures.

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

The Managing Creativity and Innovation MBA dissertation, DIY creativity Audit, Powerpoint presentation and Good Idea generator software can be found at managing-creativity.com/ managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

My main goal by writing this article is to stir the creativity that each one of you has inside you, maybe it has been sitting dormant for quite sometime or you feel you just don’t have the time….my suggestion is to make time and lets wake up the creativity bones hidden deep inside you! Perhaps your thinking, I already sell BOR products…But are you happy with just placing a few CD’s on the back table or a few of your books? Why not utilize ALL your resources?

So, sit back and relax, if you want, you can print this out and go relax on the couch and read it, or take it outside and get some fresh air and get away from your computer for a little bit…it will do you some good!

Is it possible? Most speakers think doing free engagements is a waste of time, money and energy…BUT those that think this may not be using all their resources. Many speakers think that they can jump right into the paying or even high paying engagements, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, first focus on the easy to get engagements: The free ones! All speakers will do them, all speakers have done them, and all speakers will continue to do them.

Now that we are focusing in on only free engagements, let’s see how we can benefit from them:

Back of the Room Product Ideas:

Let Your Products Work For You!

Your Products: Oh yes….the speaker’s products! Now I know every speaker either has created a product of their own or you have been thinking about creating your own products but have not implemented them into your program.

Don’t be terrified by the words: Create your own products! This is a simple process to do and does not need to be complicated in anyway. Some people think, “Create my own products, no way that will take forever!” No it doesn’t and I want everyone who is reading this to get yourself in the right train of thought here: You can create products quickly, easily and they can be very profitable for you! Say that to yourself a few times and then continue reading…..

When people think of Back of the Room products they think of books and CD’s, but BOR products can consist of a wide range of products and you can also even endorse your services if you are a consultant/mentor as well as a speaker.

Product Ideas for You to Create:

•Books:

A professional speaker and authoring a book almost always go hand in hand, so if you haven’t written a book yet, put it on your “to do list”. Authoring a book doesn’t mean it has to be a 300 – 500 page novel, but a simple book allowing your expertise to be recognized!

•Workbooks

•Tip-Booklets:

(Hold on…don’t pass this one up. Tip-booklets can be created on a shoestring budget and sell like “hot-cakes” because of the valuable information and inexpensive price tag.

•CD’s:

A must have, these sell very well for almost any speaker if you have them priced competitively and if you can, sell them in sets. You could possibly sell one CD with the option of downloading additional ones via your website, this is a good way to get them to your site and get them involved with your info products. We will discuss informational products later in our soon to be released new report.

•Reminder Tip Cards:

(These are about the size of a postcard) they recap the strong points of your presentation or can have some motivational sayings on them. You can either give these away or add them to your product line, either way don’t forget to have your contact information on it. Hint: Having them laminated will give them a professional look and if you want to go a step further you can turn them into a magnet…I know I’m pushing it, but if you’re going to do free engagements you want to get your “plug” in anyway you can!

•Gift Certificates:

Be creative here: Lots of ideas with this one.

•Coupons:

You can have these lying on the back table for your audience to pick up on their way out. Coupons could be for anything: One idea would be to offer a free download on your website for an ebook (possibly a chapter sample to entice the reader), an audio seminar, audio interview, or a special report you created and have posted on your product page within your website (we will talk about e-books, reports, and info products in our soon to be released special report)

•Bookmarks:

Yes, I know I’m pushing it again…but think about it for a minute, everyone loves to read and I know I am always using bookmarks, be creative and remember once again get your “plug” in on the bookmark. These are easy to create yourself and done once again on a shoe-string budget along with the inexpensive price tag.

•How-To-Reports:

Another best seller, as many people today are looking for a quick, how-to-do-anything guide, be creative and of course stay within your presentation topic.

•Cassettes:

Yes some of us “Old-Fashioned” folks still listen to cassettes.

•Videos/DVD’s:

Now you can get pretty creative with the videos. They don’t only have to be you giving your speech presentation, how about doing a ‘How-To’ (your expertise) video series, say maybe a set of three 30 minute videos/DVD’s. A recommended resource for your DVD/VHS reproduction needs is at DVD Wizard Pro.

•Teleseminars:

Big thing nowadays! Have some small flyers made up (easily create these yourself) and setting on the table with an upcoming teleseminar you’re having offering a great discount for members of your audience. Direct them to your website to sign up (Hint: Having a pre-recorded and downloadable teleseminar on your website product page can mean more profits for your company)

•Special Reports:

You can easily create special report to sell on your BOR table (Once again this can be incorporated into your website product page for immediate download or you can also have an audio special report)

•Mentor Programs:

If you are a coach or consultant don’t forget to add this service with your BOR products

What do all the above BOR product ideas mean for you? PROFITS and can be BIG profits if done properly, which means you will no longer be walking away with that empty hole in your pocket from expenses!

Doing the Math

Let’s do a little math shall we? Say there is 800 people in your audience: If you have gotten a good response from your audience you should be able to turn at least 10% of the audience into buyers which is approximately 80 people.

Say you sell a CD for $25.95 x 80 = $2,076.00 or if you sell a CD set for $49.95 x 80 = $3,996.00 minus your CD/DVD expenses which can be done pretty cheaply these days or you can do it yourself.

Now, that was just an example and only for CD’s, you need to be creative because you have a lot of possibilities here. If you offer any type of mentoring program, this can be very lucrative. Say about 1% of your audience (which is only 8 people) sign up for your yearly mentoring program and because you are an expert in your field you can easily charge anywhere from $2,500 – $3,500 per year. What does that add up too? That’s right a whopping $20,000 - $28,000….once again not bad for doing one free engagement. If you haven’t implemented any type of mentoring program into your business you may want to think about doing so!

As you can see, the profits you can make can be close to, equal or more then a paid speaking engagement.

The above figures are a rough estimate and you may have a smaller audience or you may have a bigger audience, but as you can see the possibilities are endless. So, please use the resources outlined in this report to assist you in creating your products and you will begin to see an immediate spurt in your revenue!

Be creative..and don’t give up because everyone is capable of anything once you get yourself in the right mind set and don’t let minor glitches deter you! Dedication and determination are strong and encouraging words to live by!

I know it sounds crazy…find free engagements, but if you read everything I have written in this article, you should be ready to submit your proposal for non-paying engagements. Get more recognition, become the cream of the crop, brand yourself, be the vendor of choice and Make Money!

P.S.

If you will be sending your audience to your website for a freebie or sample remember to add a “opt in” sign up box before releasing your “sample” or “freebie.” You want to capture their email address as your contact list is one of your greatest assets!

“The secret of success is to be ready when opportunity comes”

About the Author: Wendi McNeill is the owner of Charli Jane Speaker Management Services. She provides professional and affordable virtual business support to authors, consultants, public speakers, coaches, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and meeting planners, assisting them with representation, mentoring, marketing, and administration. You can subscribe to Call for Speaker Proposals and sign up for her monthly ezine at CharliJane.com CharliJane.com you can also email her at mailto:wendi@CharliJane.com wendi@CharliJane.com

Many on-line article writers believe in a balance between quality and quantity. They believe that you must write decent articles if you want people to read them and you must write a lot of articles if you want a lot of people to read your material.

It makes sense that you write the a lot of articles so the people can see your bottom by-line at the bottom of the article and click to your web site. Many online articles are written by authors, which wish to increase the Web traffic to their web sites. But how many articles can you really have time to write in your life considering your job, your family and all the other human endeavors that you have planned on your personal schedule?

I believe that no one will ever write 6400 articles until June 5th 2006 and I believe this because there is only one person who has come close and they are still at 6490 articles and I very much doubt judging by the number of articles they write per day and the number of articles they have written on average over the last 18 months that they will be able to achieve before the June 5th 2006 deadline to get to 6400 articles.

Now it may be possible that they can get to 6400 articles before June 4th 2006 at midnight. However, that in itself would be incredible, not to mention the number of articles they have already written. I think you should consider this and 2006 and write more articles for yourself and stop procrastinating and looking weak and silly. I need some competition.

“Lance Winslow” - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Clearly for a professional singer the voice is their most precious instrument. It needs to be developed and it needs to be taken care of. Different nuances and levels of expression are developed and revealed over time.

For the speaker it is much the same. Quite literally the vocal chords are the medium that vibrates the air, that sends the message, that resonates in the listener’s ear-drum. Work on your voice to make it appealing to your audience.

A pleasing vocal tonality requires a balance of the 3 ‘p’s: pitch, pace and pause.

Pitch covers two areas of expression:

i. raising and lowering the voice as required to create tonal variety

ii. effective and varied use of volume and projection

We need to develop a natural, relatable style of delivery. These days the ‘declaiming orator′ seems a bit over the top to most of us, nevertheless it is still vital to be aware that every nuance that may seem effective under your own ear needs to be exaggerated for an audience. If your speaking to a large audience and you don′t have a microphone, you’ll really have to project your voice.

Pace, when combined with pitch adds the ‘third dimension’. To be able to naturally moderate the speed, the pitch and volume in different combinations can give infinite colour and variety to the polished, well-rehearsed speaker.

The pause is a valuable tool in its own right. The pause can be just as important as the words that precede it; whether for instance speeding up, increasing volume and pitch to reach a dramatic pause, or gently winding down to a natural silence to allow the audience to digest a significant point or opinion.

Articulation and clarity of speech are also important in delivering an effective presentation. Always be yourself and don’t force anything, but if there’s room for improvement with the voice, be prepared to work on it. You owe the audience that. Frank Sinatra is a role model for singers - he makes the difficult appear easy, and we all value people who can do that.

In considering the voice and how it can be used to best effect, it can be very useful for a speaker to listen to the rhythm and nuances of music, particularly classical music, which can greatly help to develop natural rhythm and flow, as well as giving hints on pace, pitch and balance.

Please remember that the voice is the speaker’s primary tool of communication. The voice has infinite possibilities in creating light, colour and interest for the audience. Take time out to develop the voice and you’ll have a massive impact on the audience and on the those who book speakers.

Copyright (c) 2007 The College Of Public Speaking

Improve your speaking skills. How to make friends and influence people. Overcoming the fear of public speaking. 5 Regular mistakes made by speakers.

I asked several writers how long it took them to write a novel they wanted published. One woman writer made a frustrated face at me, a couple others just stared at me (their novel wasn’t finished yet), and a few just stared.

We all have hectic lives having to take care of families, jobs, extended family, chores, school involvement, and a host of many other responsibilities. Yet, writers must write. In addition, if we don’t we become frustrated with feelings of failure and that we aren’t accomplishing what our heart nags us to do. We are creative personalities with an inherent need to write. Our characters urge us on, even torment us, as they inspire. Ignoring or procrastinating our creative abilities and needs can lead to emotional fallout. The Muse is relentless in its inability to let us sleep at times, keeps us from to paying full attention to important demands with the thoughtfulness we would otherwise give them, and we can’t think of much else but getting back to the keyboard. The Great American Novel waits impatiently.

So how do successful authors find the time to pluck out a novel and make it successful?

1. Priorities. We can’t ignore our children, spouses, and chores. But we can prioritize. Write when the babies are asleep or at school. When everyone is asleep stay up an extra two hours and write. Plan play dates for your small children, or get a neighborhood teenager to baby-sit for a few hours, and take that time to write. The dishes and vacuuming will wait – it isn’t going anywhere. It’s amazing how much we can accomplish with just two hours a day of peace and quiet even if that means going to bed later, or getting up earlier. If you’re young, you have more stamina. If you are older, then some things in your daily housekeeping will have to wait.

2. Get a notebook and flesh out the chapters in general. That way you aren’t staring at a blank screen trying to figure out what comes next. As you consult your notes, more ideas will come. Be organized.

3. Write the synopsis first. That way you will have it down on paper the beginning, middle and end. This will keep you focused, and keep you from going off on tangents that waste time.

4. Get a notebook dedicated to your novel. List your characters – who they are, what their conflict is, their personality, and what makes them tick, their place in the story. Make notes on what place they have in your story. This will save you a lot of time. Keep a small notebook with you everywhere you go to make notes as ideas spark your mind. When you’re out shopping, doing errands, waiting in line, read the headlines from newspapers and magazines. Listen to the people around you – how they talk, what they look like, what their appearance tells about them. This will help you look into what makes people tick, and help you with character ideas, fleshing out your characters, and how they might speak.

5. Do your research for the novel on a designated day each week. That way you aren’t wasting time researching when you’re supposed to be writing.

6. Having your own space to write and concentrate is of utmost importance. Quiet is imperative as The Muse influences and inspires us. Any outside noise and confusion will chase off your muse in a hurry. Establish your own office area where no one else will bother you. Instill boundaries so that your family knows that this is your own space, and you aren’t to be bothered. This is difficult when you have small children. Going to the library is a good option if you can’t establish your own space at home.

7. What fosters your muse? Some writers must have solitude without any background noise. Others need favorite music, the radio, or TV on in the background. This is purely an individual choice. There is no right or wrong. Whatever it takes to foster your muse to guide you along.

8. And finally – NEVER GIVE UP. Life will always threaten to get in the way of your passion to get a novel finished. Good organization, making sure you get time for you, and being positive will keep the Muse alive. Confidence in your abilities and self-affirmations are necessary to keep going in spite of any odds. First novels are published in spite of all the naysayers out there who say it’s almost impossible. The next first novelist could be you!

Jillanne Kimble is the Acquisitions Editor for Kimble McKay Literary Arts Group. They help writers become authors in the traditional publishing industry through time-tested methods, full support, and their huge databases of agents and publishers who are looking for new talent. You can reach her at kimblemckay.netfirms.com kimblemckay.netfirms.com or mailto:jakimble@direcway.com jakimble@direcway.com.