Today’s guest blogger at the Writer’s Resource Center, Andrew Dlugan, discusses how to add meaningful context when you write about numbers and statistics. Numbers and statistics without context can confuse and even distress the average reader. I’ve spent most of my professional life writing about statistics, trying to present important public health information in a context that can be readily understood by the general public. It’s an incredible challenge, and Andrew provides good examples, including one from cancer research. To simply say that over a half million people will die from cancer in 2008, without providing some underlying context, does a disservice to the average reader. Providing the percentage of the general population that that number actually represents helps to educate the reader. Andrew goes a bit further by drawing on examples that the average reader is assumed to readily comprehend, for example, generalizing to the “population” of visitors to the Writer’s Resource Center (although he does provide the caveat that this population may not be representative of the larger general population). Click here to read his full post.
Category: Writing Tips & Tricks
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Ellen Goldstein, guest blogger at the Writer’s Resource Center, has some great suggestions for how to create your own writing retreat. Her focus is poetry writing, but her advice applies to writers of all genres. Ellen’s suggestions range from setting a schedule to going on field trips. She also offers links to writing that can inspire you. For her full post, click here.
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Guest blogger Meryl K. Evans at the Writer’s Resource Center has great tips for maximizing your freelance writing business. No matter how many websites and blogs you’ve read that offer business tips, there’s always someone with a slightly different perspective that needs to be read. Meryl’s post needs to be read because she offers some rather nuanced tips; for instance, sending “relevant articles to clients, let them know about a relevant blog entry in which they might want to leave a comment, give them names of people when they need a resource, and sent them relevant reporter leads so they can contact the reporter to help out and maybe be quoted in the story.” This is networking at it’s best because, while you’re acting in the best interests of your client, you’re increasing your social capital. For more great tips from Meryl, click here.
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Hana Kim, guest blogger at the Writer’s Resource Center, provides great advice for anyone interested in getting paid for blogging. Her advice can apply to writing in general since she touches getting used to rejection and calculating appropriate rates; however, her own experience in getting paid to blog is particularly noteworthy. Her take-home messsage: “Blog first; find the right gig later.” The best part of her story is that she is earning money blogging about things that really interest her, things that she was already blogging about for free. She describes it as her “dream job.” I want one of those! For Hana’s complete post, click here.
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The high caliber of guest blogging at the Writer’s Resource Center continues with Yuwanda Black‘s post on “White Papers: The Niche Where 20 Pages Can Net You $20,000–Really!” Yumanda’s post defines white papers and gives some great insights on why writing white papers can be lucrative. It comes down to: the business field (which is willing to pay $$), industry recognition (that’s the purpose of white papers), and less competition (from other freelancers).
According to Yuwanda: “White papers are the one writing niche where I’d have to say the worth of the writer is valued in terms of the end result, not the actual output. And, that’s one reason to go after this niche. Business rarely quibble about price, they just want someone who can deliver the goods – goods they don’t mind paying for.” Click here to read the entire post.
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Happy Monday morning and welcome to another blurb on the guest bloggers for the Writer’s Resource. Today’s guest blogger–Todd Eastman–provides some great advice for using slang and accent in fiction. Here’s a taste:
“Many writers find dialogue to be one of the most difficult aspects of writing fiction. Trying to include regional accents and speech patterns and doing it incorrectly can ruin your story. On the other hand, doing it correctly can make the story seem even more authentic. There are several things you need to be careful of when using this technique in your dialogue.”
Visit Todd’s post and learn more about using slang and accent in your writing.
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Or short story or whatever creative project you seem to always be working on but never completing. Take David Jace’s advice and be the god you know you are. In his guest entry at the Writer’s Resource Center, Jace admonishes us that “Writers Must Be Gods.” As gods, we can decide whether our characters live or die, marry or divorce. We can decide when enough is enough, and that the story must come to an end. Our characters, our plots depend on us being gods, and, actually, so do our readers. Check out Jace’s entry for an empowering (pun intended) missive.
Marie at 1 Write Way 