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What It Really Takes to Succeed as a Writer Online

March 20, 2012 By 17 Comments

Ever wondered what it really takes to succeed online as a writer? No, not just what everybody preaches, but what really works?

You’ve probably read articles about the importance of having good skills, being in the know and having a good network, but none of these matters if you don’t believe in yourself.

Of course, skills matter. Your network matters. Your relationship with other writers matter, but there is one thing that trumps every other, and this one thing is what it really takes to succeed online as a writer.

Here’s one quote that sums it all up:

“Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”? Bernard Baruch

Just take a look at that quote over and over again and it doesn’t take much effort to see what it really means.

The Importance of Having Self Confidence as a Writer

There’s one thing the most successful writers, the most successful bloggers, the most successful business people and even the most successful politicians have in common, that one thing is confidence.

Sometimes, the difference between succeeding as a writer and failing is the degree of self confidence you have in yourself.

Smart writers take action and are ready to stand up for each decision they make whereas mediocre writers take days and week to ponder on each idea before ever releasing it to the public. Smart writers confidently make mistakes and also embrace their mistakes and its solution with confidence, mediocre writers try as much as possible to avoid mistake and as a result hardly achieve anything. Smart writers confidently demand what they’re worth from clients while mediocre writers are afraid of asking “too much” because they think the offer will be going away soon.

It’s really all about having confidence about what you have to offer!

There Isn’t Perfectionism Anywhere

That project you’re working on would never be perfect, so why wait for it to be? Why ponder about releasing or improving it for weeks?

It’s natural. Our duty as a writer is to provoke. After all, can you really produce great work without provoking the emotion of others?

Confidence has nothing to do with perfectionism, it has everything to do with the realization that nothing you do will be perfect and standing up for everything you do.

You have very little time to produce great work, why obsess over what people think about what you know, then?

The foundation of life is based on what we think, our opinions. Just think about it, good and wrong. Everything that is good is good because people think it is, and everything that is wrong is wrong because people think it is so. Why then should you have to worry about what people think about your ideas? Why then should you have to worry about whether people agree with your ideas?

It’s all about knowing what you’re doing and being confident in yourself.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready to accept your mistakes. There is a huge line between self-confidence and arrogance, and while it is very important to be confident about your work you should have an open mind towards what people think as well as be ready to improve.

This isn’t time to be perfect, it is time to stand up for what you believe in and deliver as much as you can on a consistent basis. Over time, you will be able to build your own audience that trust your voice and see you as an expert, you will be able to break new grounds in your writing, and hopefully, you will be able to create something really big that is a result of your confidence.

It doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have. It doesn’t matter how great your skills is. It doesn’t matter how many people you know. Nothing matters if you don’t believe in yourself.

What it really takes to succeed online is to believe in yourself. It is to have great self confidence that if anybody can, it is you.

Here are 3 ways to boost your self-confidence as a writer:

Building confidence as a writer is mostly emotional than physical. Reading every book and article on self confidence won’t suffice if you’re not mentally prepared.

1. Know YOU Can: Like I said above, gaining self confidence is mostly emotional than physical. The first step is to believe you can. Take a look at the most successful people doing the kind of writing that you do and you will notice that you’re no different from them. Of course, some of them might have a glamorous background, and it might seem like luck has its own part to play, but they all had to take one step. They all had to put their work out and that mostly has to do with self confidence on their part.

A huge part of being a writer – of sharing your ideas – is knowing that YOU can! If anyone can, it is YOU!

2. Surround Yourself with Positive People: I have noticed that the people I have around me, to a great extent, influence my mood for the day. Whenever I feel down or just can’t seem to get things done it mostly has to do with a problem at home or online. We are mostly a reflection of those we move it.

In most cases, you already have positive people around you who believe in you. These could be your family, your friends or even your mentors. If you don’t have them, find them. Sometimes, you have to pay for this. It doesn’t always have to be with your money, it could be with your time, your caring, your reciprocation or even moving away from your surrounding every once in a while to be around people who can motivate you.

Life is too short to be surrounded with negative people, and too much negativity isn’t good for a writer. Disconnect yourself from negative people, surround yourself with positive people and be open-minded.

3. Keep Striving to Improve: While self confidence isn’t necessarily dependent on your skills, constantly improving can go a long way to amplify your belief in yourself. A good writer will never be comfortable with stagnancy, and being on the same spot will only accelerate the depletion of your self confidence. Don’t be in the same spot for so long, always try to improve, always take new risks and try new things and you will always be proud to call yourself a writer.

How Do You Feel about Your Writing?

Are you confident about your stuff or are you still struggling? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

Bamidele Onibalusi is a freelance writer and the founder of YoungPrePro.com. He recently released his free ebook, The Writer’s Handbook: How to Write for Traffic and Money, and you can download it at YoungPrePro.com. He also shares regular tips and resources for writers.

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Everyone is a Writer: How to Stop Thinking, “I’m Not Good Enough” Forever

February 28, 2012 By 12 Comments

Not everyone feels like a born writer.

When you blog, creating content is the most important part of what you do.

Your content must be compelling, informative and valuable enough to be “tweeted,” “liked” and “plussed.” If it’s good enough, you’ll attract many inbound links as well.

Everyone says “Content is King,” and while that’s certainly true, there is no universally accepted metric for what it takes to make great content.

For many readers, it’s the message the content tries to convey. For some, it’s the music of the language and the way it’s written.

But it all boils down to the message you’re trying to communicate, which is why everyone IS a born writer.

If you can speak, you can write.

I am not a “born writer.” My writing sucked until I started blogging.

I am not saying my writing rocks right now. It’s not magazine quality. But it’s much better than when I started. And people always understand what I’m trying to say. I don’t use complex words.

But that doesn’t matter.

My readers appreciate my content and the value it provides. That’s the only thing that matters to me.

I don’t care if I break a few grammar rules, as long as readers understand my meaning. When I first started blogging, I tried to follow all the rules and it only restricted my writing. I took way more time to write articles and was constantly worried whether readers would rip apart my grammar.

It took time to realize that creating great content doesn’t necessarily mean writing articles in perfect English. Once I made this simple realization, my productivity shot through the roof. I was no longer scared of being a non-native writer.

The Only Reason You Are Not “Good Enough” Is Because You Believe It!

Yes, you will have to work hard to continuously improve, but you have the same shot as anyone else.

Here’s an interesting story about one of my friends.

He’s like me, a non-native writer. However, I am a computer science engineer and my friend has a Master’s in English literature.

I didn’t necessarily need to write for a living since I had a full time technical job at the time of this story. He was a freelance writer for a local newspaper which paid him approximately 5$ -10$ for a piece of published content.

When he found out I was making almost the same, and sometimes more than he was for content writing services over the web, he asked me how I was doing it.

I told him that web content writing is a hot money making opportunity online, and that if you could write decent English and find the right clients, there was good money to be made.

He said, “I am not so sure if I am good enough to write for people outside India.”

My English skills aren’t nearly as good as his, and yet he believed he wasn’t “good enough.” It’s these mental blocks that can prevent you from doing what you really want to do. My friend could make a killing writing for the web, if he chose to crash through his mental roadblock.

You can overcome the “I am not good enough mentality” forever.

Don’t overly obsess about grammar or writing style. If you try to mimic someone else, you will spend way too much time writing, and only end up with diminished results. That doesn’t mean you can produce mediocre content with terrible English and your readers will be OK with it, because they won’t.

You must have a good grip of the language. You don’t need to be an expert in it, your speaking voice is fine. Use that voice so that your writing is clear enough for readers to quickly grasp what you are trying to say without re-reading every sentence.

My articles have short paragraphs and I write in a conversational tone.

That isn’t how I used to write. I used to write in large blocks of chunky text, and my posts were far from conversational.

I’d often use words like one, person, individual, and so on instead of just saying YOU.

I took certain writing styles from other successful writers, then blended them with my writing. Now my writing reflects my personality. It’s who I am. If I tried to copy someone blindly, I doubt I would have made it more than 5 years blogging.

Start Improving Today

If you can speak, you can write. Follow these simple steps to get better:

  • Understand the basics of grammar. Pay special attention to the proper use of punctuation. The Elements of Style is a must read for every writer.
  • Always use spellcheck and proofread your post at least twice. You would be surprised at the number of errors you will find when proofreading your copy after taking a break.
  • Read great writing blogs, analyze their writing style, and try to adopt a few of those styles to improve your posts.
  • Realize that it’s OK to make mistakes. I see typos on even the best writer’s blogs.
  • Write with passion and confidence. If others can do it, you can too.

 

Over to You:

I always like to walk the talk. This guest post is one prime example. I am pitching this to Ghost Writer Dad which is one of the finest writing blogs in the blogosphere. I am not sure if my grammar is perfect (to my knowledge it is, but I don’t know all the grammar rules myself).

Have you ever resisted pitching another person because you thought your language was not good enough? How did you overcome your internal resistance? Let me know in the comments.

 

Adarsh Thampy is a passionate blogger and advices small businesses on using content marketing strategies. While not doing SEO or writing, he loves to hang out on Twitter and you can follow him @conversionchamp.

 

Photo credit: Marie C Fields via Shutterstock

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Traffic Generation for Writers: How to Get All the Traffic You Want

February 21, 2012 By 21 Comments

Traffic is one thing every writer online craves.

We all want to be read, we want clients to flock after us and we want our next book to be an instant bestseller. The reality is that, right from the beginning, writers have always thrived on the number of people who read their work and the impact it has on them, and they always will.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest writer with the best copywriting skill, you won’t have an impact unless your work is exposed to people.

The good news is marketing isn’t as difficult as it used to be and with the right approach, determination and zero dollars you can put your word in front of thousands of people and you can start making an impact from there. In this article I will be giving you some pointers on how to generate traffic as a writer without stressing yourself and without having to spend a dollar.

It’s Not all in the Numbers

Before we get started I’d like you to know that there’s a huge difference between numbers and traffic, just as there is a huge difference between having your own dedicated 1000 fans compared to having tens of thousands of people with little to no interest in your work.

Most people are surprised when they see thousands of people visiting another website and they start dreaming of getting the same. One thing I’ve realized after actively doing all I can to get people to visit my website for the past 2 years is that there’s a difference between getting traffic and getting traffic. While both spell and sound the same way, they are entirely different things.

Having a ton of people visit your website can be a great thing as a writer, but that should only be second on your list. Your number one commitment should be getting the right people to visit your work. In other words not just getting ordinary people to read your work, but getting committed people to read your work.

A committed reader is the one who will read your articles, purchase your books and tell every friend she has about your work. As a writer, it is that kind of reader you should focus on getting.

The Importance of a USP

Some people have the right people visiting their website but just can’t get them to take action. I struggled with this problem for a long period of time when I just started blogging. I was good at spreading the word about myself and generating traffic but I just couldn’t get those visitors to stay. No one saw me as an expert. They just saw me as that other guy who is everywhere that they should keep tabs on.

There are various kinds of people in our lives. There are the people who we trust, respect and look up to and there are people who we aren’t certain about and just keep tabs on so we don’t miss what is going on with them. We’re ready to do anything to support this first group of people but we mostly ignore or silently monitor the second group. The key to being in the first group to your readers is to have a clearly defined USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

Just think about any topic you want to write about today and there are probably thousands of other blogs online on the same subject. Most of these blogs use the same marketing tactics as you and as a result it can be difficult to stand out amongst them. The solution in this case is to ask yourself this question, “If 1,000 other blogs are listed alongside mine will my readers still read mine?”

A USP is something that distinguishes your blog from that of everybody else online. It could be an approach with which you tackle each topic. It could be that you’re focusing on a very specific group of a larger group in your niche. And it could be the way you handle and interact with your readers. Either way, there must be something you’re doing that no other blog in your niche is doing and this thing should be your USP. It should be your winning difference.

Developing a Funnel

Once you’ve defined and tested your USP the next step is to develop a funnel. Marketing is important, but the question is what are you marketing? Are you just flushing your marketing efforts down the drain or do you have a tested system focused on helping you get the same person to visit your blog over and over again?

The main purpose of a funnel is to keep the same person visiting your blog over and over again and it can be through many medium. Just imagine if you’re able to get 2 out of every 10 people who visit your blog to return over and over again you will be able to achieve critical mass over time; couple that with effective word of mouth marketing from them and you’ll hit it big. Of course, it takes more effort than just to explain it, but not having a funnel is even more dangerous.

Your funnel can be in many forms. It could be a mailing list, an RSS feed, social media profiles or any other system that allows you to repeatedly keep in touch with your website visitors.

Your funnel has just one aim: To get people to visit your blog over and over again. You might want to be creative and look for something that really stands out, but at the time of writing this the three prevalent kinds of funnel are email lists, RSS feeds and social networks. You will be driving traffic to your blog and will do everything to get as many people from your blog to join your funnel. In other words, if your main funnel is an email list, the focus of your blog should be on getting as many people as possible to subscribe to your email list after visiting your blog.

Go Out There!

It might not be comfortable or as easy as you think but there is no other way. This isn’t what a lot of writers love to hear but I’m afraid there isn’t an alternative.

Once you’ve put your “home” in order you still have to go outside and recruit people to come check you out. You need to connect with other bloggers. You need to connect with reporters. And you need to try to get in touch with your readers, wherever they are online. Based on my own experience, below are top places where you can always find people to visit your website. Of course, you will have heard of most of them before, but they work nevertheless.

Other Blogs: Anytime you think about your niche, you think about a particular blog. And every time you think about that blog, you think about several related blogs in your niche. Those are the top blogs in your niche. Your main aim should be to build a relationship with the owners of these blogs and leverage your relationship with them to get more people to visit your blog. It could be by getting them to interview you. It could be by commenting on the blog regularly. Or it could be by writing a guest post for them. Personally, my favorite approach is guest blogging because it does two things: It helps you build a relationship with the owner of the blog while exposing your work to their audience. If you’re new to the concept of guest blogging, you can check out my guest blogging guide for more info.

Online Forums: A lot of people think forums are outdated, but they still work. There are several forums in your field with hundreds of thousands of people using them and most of these people visit these forums every day in search of new information. In other words, they need an expert to lead them.

Visit Big-boards.com to search for the top forums in your niche based on keywords and categories. Look for a section closely related to your niche and start being as helpful as you can be in that section. Treat it just as your blog and make yourself known in that section. Also make sure a link to your website and a little description of who you are and what you do is included and you will be able to get more people to learn about you. Forum users are usually very passionate and you will be able to give your website a traffic boost, if you can gain their respect and support.

Video Sites: I know this is a little off from writing, but I can assure you it works. Multimedia is quickly becoming the top way for people to consume content online and you can leverage this as a writer. Of course, you can keep on writing your books and articles on your blog, but producing a few videos and distributing them online to build your reputation and traffic won’t hurt every once in a while.

The cool thing about videos is that you can submit the same video to hundreds of sites without having to worry about duplicate content while still gaining additional exposure in the process.

If you’re looking to go the video route, here’s a list of some top video streaming sites to help you get started.

Document Sharing Sites: The final option is to package your content for distribution on document sharing sites. The good news about this option is that it takes little effort to implement; you can easily write a quality report for distribution in a few hours and you can, as well, package some of your blog posts and turn them into a document to be distributed. Make sure you’re well introduced in the beginning and end of each document while at the same time including a link for readers to visit your blog. You can also submit the same document to multiple sites for maximum effect. Here’s a list of 29 document sharing sites to help you get started.

Don’t Make this Mistake

I’ve noticed that it is quite simple to generate traffic and build an audience, but one mistake most writers make is ignoring their audience. Your readers will always be hungry for new content. And in the online world, your website will only thrive on content. The more quality content you can pump out, the more trust you will gain from your readers and the more likely they are to spread the word about you.

Your writing helps connect you with your audience, it keeps them in the loop and ensures they don’t forget about you. The more of your content you give them the more they are likely to stay with you, so make sure you keep them updated.

Bamidele Onibalusi is a young blogger, writer and the founder of YoungPrepro.com, a blog that teaches people how to write for traffic and money. Make sure you follow him on Twitter via @YoungPrePro.

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Eight Questions with Author John Barlow

February 16, 2012 By 1 Comment

John Barlow was born in Leeds, England, in 1967. He studied English Literature at Cambridge University and worked as a university teacher before becoming a full-time writer. His work has been published by HarperCollins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux and 4th Estate, and has been translated into six languages. His latest novel, HOPE ROAD, is a psychological mystery.

John discusses his writing process, what it’s like writing indie versus with big publishing houses, and gives tips for ghostwriters and journalists in this week’s Eight Questions.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your series, LS9, which kicks off with Hope Road.

I’ve written in different genres under my own name, but principally literary fiction. I won the Paris Review’s Plimpton/Discovery Prize back in 2002, and that led to a couple of books with HarperCollins, then one with Farrar. Straus & Giroux. In the meantime I’ve worked as a ghost writer, doing some kids’ fiction and, over the last four years, a mammoth project for conceptual artists goldin+senneby, including all sorts of writing activities (and some amateur sleuthing!) and finishing up with the financial thriller HEADLESS, which we’re editing now.

LS9 is a series that revolves around a criminal family. John Ray, my main protagonist, has tried to avoid the criminal life of his father and brother (both career criminals). The series aims to explore just how difficult it is to separate oneself from that sort of environment. In HOPE ROAD John Ray finds himself involved in a murder enquiry, and his family connections become invaluable as he tries to solve the case himself.

I might add that part of my interest in criminal families stems from the discovery last year that an uncle of mine had been an arms dealer and thief (he was found dead on a plane, his throat cut). This set me off thinking about criminals and families, as you can imagine…

 

2. What is your writing process like?

I begin with a simple idea. With HOPE ROAD I had a very basic notion about the concealment of counterfeit money, nothing more. Then I play around with it, add more ideas, see how different characters might fit into the plot. I start writing things down, and as the file begins to grow, I go over it again and again, each time refining and changing what’s already there, and adding more. In the end there’s the essence of a plot, and at that stage I print everything out and tape the chapter summaries to the bookshelves in my office. I pace up and down, scribbling new notes on the pages and generally improving and deepening things until I’m ready to write. All this takes about two months, working 4-5 hours each morning.

 

3. How did you approach writing the series that was different from your prior work?

First off, I got to know several police detectives, one of whom actually works in the very department I describe in the book. I was also fortunate to get a contact which eventually led to a professional money counterfeiter. I met him only once, but learned a lot about counterfeiting, which features in HOPE ROAD. This hands-on kind of research is new to me, and I quite enjoy it. However, the third book in the LS9 series is going to be about the Chinese triads, and I don’t know how on earth I’m going to research that!

 

4. Tell us about your experiences with the big six publishers and what made you go indie?

I’ve been published in the US by two of them (HC and FSG) and loved it. I fully intended to seek a traditional book deal for HOPE ROAD, but as I was finishing the final draft I just fancied giving the self-pubbing route a try. Publishing is in something of a crisis at the moment, and I reckon now is as good a time as any to try something new.

 

5. What are some of the biggest differences you’ve noticed between traditional publication and indie?

There’s no editor! I was lucky to have editorial support from an agent who had also been an editor, but if I didn’t have that, it would cost a lot to hire out. Then there’s the cover art, the proof-reading, the ebook conversion… The costs can really add up. The plus side is that your book does not have to make a splash immediately. I can continue promoting HOPE ROAD right up to the launch of the next book, which will be in December.

 

6.You’re also a ghostwriter and journalist, what tips do you have for other writers looking to get succeed in these fields.

Stake out a clearly defined area. For journalism, my area is food. I don’t really push myself much because I like to treat it more as a hobby. But if I was more serious, I’d get a blog going, contribute guest posts elsewhere, generally create a name for myself. Be an expert.

 

7. What themes do you find yourself returning to in your fiction, and what draws you to them?

Well, food has featured in all the books that I’ve published under my own name. Food unites people, it speaks about culture and shared experience. It excites and stimulates and satisfies… I can’t imagine writing anything with at least *some* food in it!

 

8. If you could go back in time to when you first began writing, what advice would you give yourself that would’ve been most helpful?

Learn more about the book business, and accept that it is not always logical or fair (or reasonable). Meet other writers in a similar position to you and share experiences. Get out more! Writing is very lonely, and it can send you insane. Set aside some time each week to walk away from your writing and do something different.
Contact John:

John’s website

Twitter

Facebook

 

HOPE ROAD:

Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, B & N, iTunes, Sony, Kobo

 

 

 

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How to Win the War Against Grammar Trolls!

February 6, 2012 By 3 Comments

There are two kinds of grammar trolls:

Those that live inside your writing, and those that attack some flaw in your writing.

The first are legitimate errors drawing targets on your writing. The second are those letting the arrows fly.

In whatever form (human or not, fair or not, mean or not), grammar trolls attack with abandon, hacking a writer’s good name and best efforts to mush.

So, how do you approach writing and editing in a manner that neutralizes the threats of grammar trolls?

With an offensive strategy, the only effective way to win a war with grammar tolls.

It’s time for us writers and editors to fight back.

1. Attack with Uncomplicated Language

Verbose writing is a grammar nightmare waiting to happen.

Misplaced modifiers. Unnecessary adverbs. Inappropriate punctuation. Erroneous linking verbs. Run on sentences. Dangling participles. You get the idea.

Complicated styles invite grammar mistakes to wreak havoc throughout your writing. That’s where grammar trolls aim their critiques, hit their bulls-eyes, and harvest their pleasure.

Never give them that opportunity.

Simplify everything.

This may sound overly nuclear. It’s not. Simple language diffuses most would-be grammar bombs from detonating your content. Precision is the most effective method forpenetrating the hearts and minds of your readers.

Dan Zarrella agrees, writing in his popular book Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas…

“the use of flowery, adverb-adjective laden language was related to lower sharing rates.”

Dan cements his conclusion by citing advice from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style:

“Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place … it is nouns and verbs, not their assistants, that give good writing its toughness and color.”

Simply put: uncomplicated language puts you on the offensive – the strong, winning position to be in.

2. Lean Forward with Active Voice

Passive voice is nails on a chalkboard for grammar trolls. They can hear it from miles away and descend upon it like vultures diving onto a rotting corpse.

That’s suicide for a writer.

Active voice is your savior, allowing you to lean forward into your writing.

What’s the difference between passive voice and active voice?

According to Grammar Girl (more on her soon)…

“In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action…In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position.”

Here’s a third grade example:

AV: Jimmy threw the ball.

PV: The ball was thrown by Jimmy.

See the difference?

Feel the difference?

Active voice fuels your words with momentum, and imbues your content with powerful authority and bold confidence. Passive voice, by contrast, is a puny weakling begging for abuse from bully grammarians.

Get assertive. Lean forward. Write with active voice.

3. Fight Fire with Fire by Studying Grammar

Sometimes, you must fight fire with fire.

Picture this: you receive an unfair grammar critique from some troll. Most writers wouldn’t know it was unfounded, and thus take the pummeling.

But not you.

You’ve studied grammar. So, you unleash your grammar IQ in response, (kindly) pointing out their flaw and referencing a credible source to back up your retort.

Boom! Writer 1; Grammar Troll 0.

Studying grammar isn’t as dry as it seems. It can be fun, if you know where to go and whom to listen to.

Grammar Girl is my grammar guru of choice. I quickly search her site whenever I need to refresh my memory on some fuzzy grammar rule or debunk some long held but inaccurate myth.

Grammar Girl is awesome for her fun mnemonics and other clever memory tricks that will have your grammar IQ soaring in no time. Here’s a prime example:

“Still having a hard time remembering [the difference between who and whom]?

“Here’s my favorite mnemonic: If I say, “I love you,” you are the object of my affection, and you is also the object of the sentence (because I am loving you, making me the subject and you the object). How’s that? I love you. You are the object of my affection and my sentence. It’s like a Valentine’s Day card and grammar mnemonic all rolled into one.”

Here’s the secret about grammar rules: they aren’t all “rules.”

Many so-called rules are guidelines subject to context and style. That leaves open a wide range of interpretations, a pretty invite for grammar carpet bombers.

Arm yourself with the ammunition you need to defend your good writing if a grammar troll decides to strike.

4. Divide And Conquer Your Writing From Your Editing

Writing and editing activate different parts of the brain. That means it’s impossible to optimize either when trying to do both.

Even if you’re using uncomplicated language and active voice, grammar (and spelling) errors can still sneak through if you don’t divide and conquer your writing from your editing.

Where should you start your conquest?

First, develop your own cadence to involve iterative cycles. Write in a 90 minute block, followed by a 90 minute editing block. Rinse and repeat.

Second, experiment with writing and editing on alternating days. If you’re a full-time writer/editor, this may be best as you have the time to submerge yourself into the deep ends of both.

Third, get other sets of eyes on your writing. Hire a professional editor. Or get peer reviewers or beta readers to spot-check your writing. Allies are invaluable in the war against grammar trolls.

In the end, grammar victory goes to those who want it the most.

If you’re a serious writer, you know what you must do. You must take the grammar force seriously, or it will crush you.

You could write the most epic saga or persuasive argument in history and still find your influence muted by an avalanche of grammar critiques ranging from the acute (e.g. she can’t use a comma to save her life) to the generally sinister (e.g. his writing is unprofessional and unworthy of mainstream attention).

The game is on. The stakes are high. What say you?

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