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Stories about my daily life never seemed like writing that could sell. Who cared who I was or what I had done. But an editor of a publication pointed out that international readers would find my everyday cultural experiences interesting and fresh. I wrote the first feature about daily life in rural Southern Africa—and surprisingly, readers wanted to know more. What I’d thought “regular” experiences were, proved not to be so regular to others. Daily life can be someone else’s unique read. Your Regular Stories Are Unique Living in a rural South African township differs from suburban living: further to stores, minibus taxis, informal traders (or spaza shops), water shortages, and isiZulu—a language I don’t speak much of. However, an editor pointed out that people have little context for pit toilets, water shortages, and amagwinya (deep-fried dough). My daily experiences were indeed unique. So I wrote 365 Days in Inanda, telling readers what living in a rural area away from suburbia was like. Local police wouldn’t drive into Inanda citing bad visibility in lieu of real reasons. Insiders’ views of this area were rare. I had a story to tell, it seemed. Using Daily Experiences As Writing Material Anything you’ve experienced, whether bowling More

I am often asked how should someone start writing. They tell me they’ve always wanted to write. They think about a novel. They would love to write for a living. How did I start? When did I decide I liked writing? Many of these are people looking for Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, then VOILA….arrived. They are writers.   I do not remember when I started writing. I just always have. When I wanted to, I did. Did I start writing because I wanted money? Nope. I wrote because I found writing powerful. I submitted knowing that when I did, I was making a permanent impression. I could open doors or burn bridges based upon how much effort I put into the words. Writing tells the world a lot of things about you, like: How intelligent you are How creative you are How motivated you are How professional you are Writing, honestly, speaks loudly for you without you ever meeting people or saying a word. It’s why you don’t publish, post, or submit without having done a lot of writing, a lot of editing, a lot of thinking about the purpose of the writing, and a lot of study More

I was recently made redundant from my day job so am now, at the age of 56, back out there having to hustle for freelance work. I naturally began to reach out to my so-called network. But I quickly realised that I haven’t been great at nurturing contacts and keeping in touch with people over the years. It’s a bit like my performance on social media. As writers we’re constantly told we need to self-promote, but I always feel uncomfortable and a bit imposter-ish putting myself out there. And as I’ve had two books to promote recently, I’ve been forcing myself to be especially annoying. When networking or posting, I think things like: Surely people are sick of me by now? Is anyone even looking at these posts? I feel like I’m constantly begging it, as my teen daughters would say. I looked up former clients and business contacts, people I once hired or were hired by. But so many of these relationships were so dormant it felt nakedly desperate. There is no easy way to message someone out of the blue after five years and lay claim to a fond friendship that has mysteriously lain dormant until the moment More

Author Raven Digitalis hired me to be their publicity assistant in November 2024. Opportunity knocked and I answered, anxious to step in for the potential fun and experience. While authors frequently need editors and proofreaders, they also would use an extra hand. Here’s what I learned by becoming another writer’s assistant. Writers Hiring Assistants I was lucky. Raven suggested the publicity job amidst promoting the release for his collection Black Magick. We were discussing good fiction when he mentioned he needed wrist surgery, and I needed a side-gig—so why not step in to help? However, if you’re job-seeking, connect with authors via their personal websites. Keep an eye where authors might post advertisements, including Indeed.com, LinkedIn, and even authors’ Facebook or YouTube. You might also post on your own social media about how you are available and what your skill set is. Writers hire assistants for anything they don’t have the time to do themselves. Usually, authors pay directly from their personal pockets, too, not via the publisher, which usually means established authors with potential new releases. But also, many writers don’t realize they could hire an assistant until they’ve met you. Suggest the skill when meeting authors and add the More

Unlike novels, screenplays are not in and of themselves an end product. They’re merely blueprints for something else, like a movie or TV show. They’re a roadmap showing filmmakers how to express a story in a visual medium using tools like cameras, lights, actors, editing and music. They’re not meant to be all-encompassing narratives that explore every nuanced action, location detail, or psychological facet of a character’s mindset. Unfortunately, mastery of this delicate skill of brevity has waned to some degree in amateur screenwriting. Without this proficiency, making the leap to professional screenwriting is all but impossible. What should I include? When introducing a character, a basic physical description must paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Describing your heroine as a “tall, Hispanic female with kind eyes” is good because these are things the filmmakers can shoot. Saying she also “loves basketball” is not, because, well, how could we know that? Instead, think with visuals. Describe her as “wearing a basketball jersey, with NBA posters plastered to her walls,” which shows us she loves basketball. Same rule with locations. Just give the reader the essential information needed to convey the look and feel of the place. Describe an old More

Ello, ello, Hope. Happy New year of the (sneaky) Snake sign!!🧧🎍🧨 I’ve just read your recent email letter (dated January 24, 2025) and have some comments about the article: Using Your Pseudonym, by Alex J. Coyne. What I want to share: it is totally fine to get paid in the pseudonym and it can easily be sent to the bank without waiting for a check reissue. How? By having a business bank account that includes your business name, or in this case a person’s pseudonym is also a DBA. As an artist/creator I became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in1998 and a stage name was offered. Since China Rose reflects a childhood nickname with a fun backstory I choose that. Oddly enough no one else had ever used that name in the history of the Screen Actors Guild. Which has a centurion history for it’s union members. SAG (now SAG-AFTRA) will not allow one actor or actress to use the same name. Once it’s used the system won’t let anyone else take it unless I was to release it. So I got lucky in my mind, I thought yes, Kismet! But almost immediately something else happened. Not long after More

Do you want to hear how an author got published after five years? Do you want to hear how many times they were rejected? Do you want to hear the pros and cons of how they chose their agent, indie publisher, or self-publisher? Do you want to hear about the pros and cons of how they advertise on social media? Do you want to hear about the negative reviews they were getting? Do you want to hear about not getting enough reviews? Do you want to hear about a rival author they clash with? Do you want to hear how they dislike readers who criticize online? Do you want to hear how libraries or book stores won’t shelve their books? Do you want to hear how expensive it is to have a website, newsletter, editor, etc.? Do you want to hear how much a book is without knowing what it is about? Do you want to hear how long it took to write the book? Do you want to hear what got cut out of the story? Do you want to hear how much they earned? Or how much in the hole they are? Do you want to hear how More

The Dark Half is one of my favorite Stephen King books, because it’s the one where an author’s pseudonym comes to life. Pen names like Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling), Anne Rice (Howard Allen Frances O’Brien), and Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber) are common. However, why use pseudonyms or pen names — and how? Here’s why pseudonyms work. Why Use Pen Names? Pen names can be used for privacy concerns, legal reasons, or marketing. It’s Me, Anna was initially published as Elbie Lötter to protect author privacy, highlighting a sensitive memoir of childhood abuse. Short Drive to Freedom is by André le Roux du Toit (Joe Kitchen/Koos Kombuis), who chose his pen-name during apartheid resistance years. My legal name is Francois Jansen van Vuuren, and I won’t blame anyone who can’t pronounce or remember it. The name Alex J. Coyne had a better ring to it. Pseudonyms Are Legal Pseudonyms are legally protected as a personal right:  a pen name is yours once you’ve chosen it. The law protects its individual use, which is why someone would be unable to publish a book as Stephen King unless, well, they are. A pseudonym is protected by international copyright laws. Authors can prove it because they’ll have dated correspondence More

I worked for a mainstream news website called The South African until mid-2024, producing freelance articles that connected its success to the amount of total article views (hits) each week. Through this wild ride, I learned how to increase post views for online writing. Writing for Hits: How I Ranked Top 3 I ranked as one of their top three authors in December 2023. Writing for hits means writing for maximum engagement and discussion. Likes, shares, and comments fuel an article’s popularity. Aim for topics that people will talk about, or things that are controversial and trending. There’s no way to know what people will choose, but there are ways to guess based on trending topics, current news, and discussion boards like Reddit for the day or week. Readers and bots hate clickbait, though, using an enticing or captivating headline and instead leading to sensational, inaccurate, or misleading content. YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE THIS ABOUT CLOONEY’S HAIRDO is typical clickbait. You do not want that. My article Grandparents and Sex ranked high, because the topic made people talk — and the article itself focused on sexual and mental health, delivering as promised. Word-of-mouth and thought-provoking questions or topics like this are how articles get more clicks and views. My piece Is More

In doing my regular reading in an attempt to stay on top of all that is evolving in the writing world, I ran across several articles that carried the same trend. They talked about how they started . . . a decade or more ago. When you give someone a podium, they are going to speak about themselves. They have been hired, invited, or selected to speak/write based upon their experience. Same goes for article writing, particularly about writing what you know. For instance, how I started freelancing. Or how I published my first books. Do you know the parts I am going to skip? The parts that do not apply to today. Your audience does not want to learn about anything that happened to you that they cannot learn from and apply to their own circumstances. If you had this incredible journey overcoming monstrous obstacles, maybe, and they best be tremendous once-in-a-lifetime moments. If you went from homeless to New York Times bestselling author, for instance, sure, but even then, if the audience consists of writers, they want to know how to apply what you overcame to their own pursuits. Don’t monopolize a microphone (or article) with info that More