All speakers
and writers who become great speakers and writers have
two needs.
To be a great speaker you need to have:
1) a real and valuable knowledge of the subject you
are addressing, and
2) a burning desire to share what you have to offer
with others.
To be a great writer you need to have:
1) a real and valuable knowledge about the topic you
are writing about, and
2) a burning desire to share what you have to offer
with others.
In other words, be a good storyteller so people will
listen to or read your stories.
We all must begin where we are at, whether we think
we can become an internet article writer or not.
So what exactly is good writing? The best writing glides
along the ice like a speed skater in a 1,500 meter race.
You ride on his effortless stride, you marvel at his
form, you feel his intensity and sense of controlled
urgency, you appreciate his sense of competitiveness,
you find yourself with him, stride for stride, measuring
his distance from the leader of the pack, wondering
if he can actually win, suddenly you lose control and
jump into the race, you lean as he leans going around
the curve, you wonder if he has what it takes to close
the gap, your attention becomes riveted as he begins
to narrow the margin, your heartbeat increases as he
gains ground, you are glued to the moment, and then
he puts on a final sprint, finally draws even, and wins
by the blink of an eyelash! My God, you were there.
When he mounts the awards stand and the flag of his
nation rises, you rise with it. He was your choice,
and he won!
Is it any wonder that athletes have such a strong following
among spectators? Athletes become our heroes in any
vicarious way possible. We wear a jersey when we watch
the game. After the game, we play a pick-up game with
our kids in the back yard. We love the feel of being
in the thick of the competition, and winning.
Switching back to our main topic, what exactly is good
writing?
Some people think a good sentence should be short and
simple.
To the point.
Obvious.
In the first example above, the sentence goes on and
on and on (168 words!), and yet you kept reading.
Writing can be either way and be effective, and there
are Pulitzer Prize winners to prove it. For simple writing
with short sentences, read Ernest Hemingway’s "The Old
Man and the Sea." Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize and
the Nobel Prize for Literature. For sentences that go
on and on and on forever, read William Faulkner’s "The
Sound and the Fury," it is filled with long, convoluted
sentences. Nonetheless, Faulkner, like Hemingway, also
won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Both were legendary novelists with opposite writing
styles, and therein lies the easiest way to become an
articles writer.
What is important is developing a style of writing
that you are comfortable with. Even more important is
getting your thoughts, some thoughts, any thoughts,
onto your monitor. Until you put the letters on your
keyboard onto your monitor, you are not a writer. The
moment you do you have the potential to be an articles
writer.
Once you have a sentence, any sentence, in front of
you, you can pick it apart and make it better, because
you have taken the thought out of your head and into
the workplace of improvement. Write something on your
monitor and it becomes manageable; try to formulate
the perfect sentence in your head before you put it
on your monitor, and your article may never get written.
The frustration of trying to write the perfect sentence
brings on writer’s block, the inability to put your
thoughts into meaningful sentences. Forget about being
an articles writer, just get started and you will become
one.
Go ahead, start. Begin now. Write anything down, and
then make it better.
You are now on your way to becoming an internet article
writer.
Ed Bagley started writing for money at 16 and in the
next 45 years was an investigative reporter, sports
editor and mangaging editor for daily newspapers, newspaper
publishing company owner, niche book publishing company
owner, personal marketing specialist, and now is a mentor,
consultant, confidant and an internet marketer. Visit
Ed Bagley at... http://www.internet-marketing-northwest.com/
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