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Write Your Slice of Life: 6 Quick and Easy Steps to Writing a Personal Essay
Do you know why the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series is so popular? Aside from terrific marketing and unequaled publicity, readers love the stories and personal essays. They are short, personal and teach a lesson or moral. If you would like to be a better writer of the personal essay, opinion pieces, reports and letters to the editor just follow the suggestions listed below: 1. Be brief. Many written reports or stories are 500 words or less. However, there is a general rule that an essay is between two and twenty typed, double-spaced pages. The most important criteria to remember is that a good piece needs to be an unbroken reading experience. The reader will lose interest if it is too long or wordy. 2. Tell a story. A personal essay is a story that has happened to you or that you know about firsthand. The reader assumes that it is nonfiction and that it will contain details and descriptions with which we are familiar. Structure your story around examples, using a pencil as your paintbrush to evoke images and paint a picture in the reader's mind. 3. Make a point. You will want to illustrate your point, teach a lesson, explain a specific topic, or even support or criticize an idea. Your goal is to win sympathy or agreement. Do not turn it into a sermon or a soapbox to present the superiority of your ideas by including "shoulds" or "musts" aimed at the reader. 4. Use your senses. Enliven your essay with sensuous detail like how it smelled, tasted, sounded or felt. Make the reader feel like they are seeing and experiencing it through your body. 5. Tell about the ordinary. Personal essays are often best when they describe a common but freely shared experience. It doesn't have to be about being a survivor of the Twin Towers. Talk about your reaction to 911. Or tell us about watching a sunset or baking bread. When you talk about walking your dog, take us along. 6. Make it engaging. An essay should arouse curiosity about life. Instead of preaching, invite us to consider your point of view by sharing the particular experience that brought you there, describe what happened, how you reacted, and why you interpret your experiences the way you do. Think about your own interests and areas of special knowledge, activities, skills, attitudes, problems as well as typical obstacles faced in life. Teach us what you gained or lost in your life lesson. It is much easier to be convincing when you can draw from personal and firsthand information. Write it today. Submit it to Chicken Soup for the Soul or your local newspaper and become a published author. There are readers out there who want to share your slice of life. © 2005 Judy H. Wright This article has been prepared for your use by Judy H. Wright, author and life educator. You have permission to reprint it in your ezine or newsletter as long as the author and her web address is included http://www.ArtichokePress.com; 406-549-9813. Check out the website for upcoming workshops, tele-classes and books. You will also find FREE articles and be able to subscribe to the ezine The Artichoke-finding the heart of the story in the journey of life.
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You Are Losing Customers By Not Doing This Not doing what, you ask.Writing and submitting articles. What Can a 13-Year-Old Kid Teach Us About Article Marketing? Yesterday I met a 13-year old boy with a devilish grin who told me he "makes a little money off his classmates sometimes.""How so?" I asked, intrigued. Article Marketing: Why 2 URLs Equal Pure Champagne If you are using articles to promote your business then I don't need to tell you that including the URL to your website in the resource box at the end of your articles represents payment for the hard work involved in writing and submitting those articles.But, if you're including just one URL, instead of the two allowed my many article announcement sites, then your reward could come in the form or orange juice instead of champagne. 4 Major Mistakes to Avoid when Writing an Article By avoiding these common mistakes, you will greatly improve your article. The Internet has an overabundance of disregarded content that was written in the same rambling way that the author normally speaks in. Ten Steps to Writing a Winning Top Ten Article Have ever wished that there were a formula for crafting your expertise into a Top Ten article that will showcase your knowledge, cement your credibility and promote your products and services?1. Find a problem to solve. Guest Articles: Good for Some, Bad for Others A recent debate started me thinking about how some marketing strategies can be right for one Web site, but wrong for another -- depending on the site's purpose and the underlying reasoning behind the action.If an action doesn't directly and logically plug into site goals, then there are likely more profitable ways to spend that time and effort. Content and Articles to Improve Revenue It is important for all webmasters to realize that if they wish to run an effective advertising campaign that will pay off you must have targeted advertising and effective website content.Writing content is one thing, but using it effectively on your website is an entirely different subject. Why You Need an Article-Marketing Strategy before Posting a Single Article Online I Part 1 of a 2-part seriesTo read Part 2http://www.promotewitharticles. Finding Experts, Sources and Contacts I was asked to write an article on a short deadline. No problem, I thought. 7 Invaluable Tips: Getting Your Articles Published Online When you have to share what you've created, where do you begin? Have you ever just felt like the top of your head unhinged and poured its contents onto paper? Like a parent you protect every single word written just like you want to protect a baby. Your article is a masterpiece of expert personal knowledge sure to change the way the world thinks about your product or service. Be in the Trade Publications Your Customers Read Your publicity dreams may include being featured in Forbes, Fortune, Time, Inc., and other magazines read by millions. Article Marketing: Know your Topic Everyone knows an expert is just a drip under pressure. I want to share a little story, rather innocent on the part of one person that made a difference in the life of a rather well known preacher. Direct Sales Reps CAN Write Articles - Heres How! We all know that article writing is a great way to promote our businesses AND helps establish us as an expert in our fields. But, just because we know how important it is to our business doesn't necessarily make us able to do it. Seecrets on Website Promotion: The Hard Truths on Writing Free-reprint Articles This author started with a clean website and wrote 5 articles in as many weeks. There is nothing else. Article Writing: 5 Tips on How to Pull and Hold the Reader Okay, so you're getting a feel for this article marketing thing. Cool. 50,000 Articles Indeed How is it possible to turn an idea into the biggest online Article Archive in the world? One man did it, with the help of a great team. He did it thru perserverence and dedication. Ive Got An Article To Submit, Now What Do I Do With It? (6 Tips) You submit it, that's what you do! And submit it to as many article directories as you can. (More submissions = more exposure) The more directories you submit to, the better your chance of having the right ezine, newsletter, or website publisher reading your article and using it. Sticky Leads The first twenty-five words of your article are the most important. If they're not powerful and "sticky", readers will not stop and invest the time to find out what your article is about. Free Reprint Articles That Will Interest Publishers - 4 Tips Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articlesfor quite sometime now?If so, how is your reprint rate doing? Is it doing well or isit a bit below 50%? Are webmasters approving your articles?Here are some tips on how to write effective free reprintarticles that would guarantee great interest from ezinepublishers and webmasters.1. Ezine Publishers Want These 5 Things From Article Authors/Writers Want your articles to get picked up and reprinted by top name brand ezine publishers? While there is no shortage of authors willing to give their articles away for free with hopes of attracting ezine publishers who will pick up your article to send to their list as supplemental content or 'guest expert' - there is a gap between two very different types of articles:Type 1: Those That Get ReprintedType 2: Those That Get Passed OverArticle marketing can help you achieve fame, traffic, credibility, sales, referrals and much more, but not if your articles don't make it into viral distribution.Here are the top 5 factors that ezine publishers look for when they decide which articles to publish: 1) Does the article have zero self serving links in the article body? If so, good.
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