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Illness/shingles tried to get in the way of my writing, and while I haven’t written every day, I have managed to throw a few words together often. The motivation is mostly due to the fact I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the next book. So I’ve reverted to my old habit of going to bed and thinking about the chapter in play. I rehearse the characters, the plotting, the dialogue, and the beats. Last night was no different. At my normal bedtime, I commenced thinking of chapter 26. But I couldn’t sleep. And I couldn’t think clearly. I got up once, read a book, then returned and recommenced thinking of the chapter. As my eyes grew heavy, my mind took off. So much information. Characters behaving differently than expected. Some red herrings I hadn’t thought of before. More motive. Argh, I couldn’t stand it. I jumped up, grabbed the closest pen which happened to be purple, and snared the closest pad which happened to be the one I list Christmas presents in each year to keep up with purchases. Then standing in front of the dark television, I laid it on the stand, bend over, More

Early in my career an executive once told me, “Great story, mediocre script.” When I pressed him on what made the script mediocre, he fumbled trying to explain – how it took too long to get to moment X or that moment Y had no conflict between the hero and villain – before finally settling on the fact that, “Look, it just didn’t read the way professional scripts usually read.” I told myself his lack of articulation meant he didn’t understand. However, as I acquired more experience, I started to better understand what he meant. A viable script will have a clear three-act structure that’s driven by the protagonist’s actions and his interactions with an antagonist. This ensures that needed drama occurs as the story progresses, at a pace that will satisfy audience expectations. While sounding rote, the tried and true formula attracts studios, producers, directors, actors and others. Most screenwriters have heard of three-act structure, but too often distill it down to having a “beginning, middle and end.” This won’t cut it. Hollywood professionals see three-act structure executed in a more precise way, where certain beats involving certain characters happen around certain pages. They might not realize your first More

This newsletter has gone out for 26 years. I have missed two Fridays in that time period. I’ve been asked how I do it, and all I can say is it is such an instilled habit that a Friday cannot arrive without me wondering what’s left for the newsletter. Then I’m asked what’s the hardest part. Finding grants or markets. Culling feature submissions from so many writers. Dealing with ads, maybe. In reality, it’s writing these editorials. In the beginning I would rack my brain for new ideas. Over time, however, I developed a perpetual eye and ear. If I struggled, surely someone else did. If I hit a wall, surely someone else did. I’ve even been known for collecting enough ideas to write a month ahead. But it was not anywhere near that easy to start with. It started with giving myself a weekly deadline. To miss it was to receive feedback asking why. Then I learned rather than wait for ideas to come to me, I watched for them. Everything I read, heard, watched was fodder. I might read another editorial in another publication and wonder why they didn’t say this or that or something different. I’d take More

Several times this week, someone has told me what they write, how long they’ve been writing, and how much they love writing. They’ve finished a first draft, edited it once or twice, then deemed it ready for publication. They ask me where they can send their writing, as if that were just an afterthought, and that I kept a list of markets who always take work exactly like they write. It’s like just being able to write complete sentences makes you a professional writer. To be marketable, you have to define who you write for, and you need to stand heads and shoulders above others. That doesn’t mean just to readers. You also have to cater to who will print your work. Where are they? Who are the good ones? Who are the approachable ones? How do you pitch to them? There is a symbiotic relationship required with taking writing seriously. You have to please yourself, hit a sweet spot with readers, and impress a publisher. Let’s say you skip the publisher aspect and self-publish. That’s fine if you’ve done tons of homework on the success of traditional authors. You read tons of books. You study websites. You study publishers More

Most writers subscribe to at least one (usually more) market newsletters that provide lists of places to pitch work. In addition, these newsletters offer advice from experienced writers about writing and the business of getting published. I’ve been a subscriber to FundsforWriters since 2011, and I have what I thought was a bad habit of not deleting enough of my emails. As it turns out, this has been a blessing in disguise. I wasn’t writing short stories or essays back in 2011 so I didn’t pay much attention to the markets that catered to those genres. However, in looking for new places to submit, I searched through older copies of FundsforWriters (as well as from one other writing site). I was thrilled to find a market I’d not only never submitted to before but never remembered reading about. Podcastle narrates fantasy/speculative short stories up to 6,000 words. And I’d been looking for a home for a story I’d written on a whim. That discovery led me to review two more newsletters from 2011 and one from 2019. I found a place for an article I’d written about a small Missouri town I’ve visited on several occasions as well as a travel site interested in unique travel stories from More

I want to scream each time someone asks me this. I’m sure many other editors and publishers feel the same. They usually don’t reply. I simply tell the submitter to read the guidelines on the website. Being able to write is only one factor used in someone hiring, purchasing, or contracting your work. The other factors are these. 1) The writer clearly has gleaned the website or followed the posted guidelines for what the purchaser wants. 2) The writer submits a well-written query that shows the writer is a professional. 3) The writer can talk the talk of the publication/agency/publisher. 4) The writer has a strong command of English. I rarely receive someone who hits all four. Other editors probably experience the same. Is there any wonder when 75% of their submissions seem not to know what they are doing, that the editors/publishers do not reply? Never ask an editor/publisher/agent these questions: 1) What topics do you need? 2) What are you looking for? 3) How many words do you need? 4) Would you let me know when something comes open? You are expected to have practically memorized the guidelines, and if none, you have dissected the website to understand More

The main way of making money from Medium is to join the Medium Partner Program and start submitting to ‘publications’. It’s worth subscribing too. Anyone can read a limited amount of the content on Medium, but for unlimited access beyond the paywall, you have to be a member yourself. Subscribing is how Medium makes the money it can pass on to writers. (Medium is ad-free.) This costs $5 per month or $60 per year, so my first target every year is to cover that.  Writers earn money by getting subscribers to engage with their articles. Medium provides detailed stats on all your stories, including views, reads, read ratio and claps (likes). These signals help your content get seen or translate directly into cash. Here’s Medium’s guide to stats. Technically you can earn money without becoming a Member. But by subscribing you get access to all the content, so you can see what works, and you can grow your base more effectively by clapping for and responding to other people’s content. Joining the MPP This is the main way to make money. You need to be 18+, have a Medium account with 100+ followers and a Stripe account for payouts. Full details More

I make a few hundred dollars a year from writing on Medium, something I’ve been doing for about seven years. As well as a writing side hustle, I’ve also found Medium useful as a research tool, portfolio, and archive. Over a couple of articles, I’ll look at how to get started, and how to start monetising your words on Medium more effectively. Medium: What and Why? Medium is a very user-friendly platform for sharing your writing with a large audience. It was launched in 2012 by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams as a space for thoughtful medium and long-form writing (hence, the name). While some content on Medium is tedious and repetitive – especially those thousands of articles with titles like ‘How I made $XYZ on Medium in two days’ – there are lots of very valuable articles on every possible topic you can imagine. Lots of important articles started life on Medium, such as ‘I Had a Baby and Cancer When I Worked at amazon. This is My Story’ and a number of COVID-19 whistleblower posts by doctors and scientists early in the pandemic. Many prominent people have used Medium to share their views and messages, from Barack Obama to Jerry Seinfeld to Jeff Bezos. You earn money More

While assisting author Raven Digitalis to promote his new book, I noticed that his promotional emails were getting better responses than my own pitches for articles and new clients. More than 60% of our cold pitches for promoting Raven’s book (and requesting reviews) had worked, yet I was only getting pitch approvals once every other week. I realized then the difference a simple Call-to-Action (CTA) can make. The Call to Action A Call-to-Action (CTA) is a phrase or button that prompts the reader to do something. Webmasters and designers are well-taught in how to use these prompts, but authors (like myself) focus so much on editing their content that they might forget its use. After all, readers and editors are consumers. A simple question or button becomes the subtle, psychological “push” that makes someone act—or click. “Buy Here” and “Book Now” are two basic CTAs. “Contact us here” is another one. Without this, a website page doesn’t read the same and won’t prompt results. The brain inherently looks for prompts or cues, and a successful CTA provides one. Asking and Prompting When writing for the South African news, authors were encouraged to end articles or paragraphs with questions. Gangsterism in More

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.” — Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) Keep the above in mind as I opine here. I just read an editorial from someone who’d been attempting to traditionally publish for a handful of years. Dozens of queries. They got a nibble from a smaller traditional press but even that went silent. Total frustration. Not quite despair but disappointment woven in there for sure. So they were going to self-publish. When this happens, when you can’t land an agent or entice a publisher to look at you, take a serious look in the mirror. Without a doubt the competition is fierce, but other issues might be at play here. 1) It isn’t just about good writing. It has to be rather great. Hearing crickets after several dozen queries might merit a rewrite. 2) When that agent or publisher pulls up your name in Google, what will they find? Look up your own name and see. How professional do you look? 3) Are you opinionated online? If pulling up your name turns up rather strong religious or political comments, remarks, even rants, you might be sabotaging your chances. Unless More