Posts Tagged "writing tips"

Writing about Writing

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Writing about Writing


Happy Turkey Day from my daughter!

Hey there party people! Are you excited for the short work week, the turkey gravy and the low calorie/sugar free pumpkin “pie”? I know I am. * insert creepy winky face here* Oh and for all of you who don’t celebrate American holidays don’t worry, you’re not missing much. Just take a nap after you eat dinner/lunch and you’ll feel like a real Yankee Doodle Dandy.

To send you out to Thanksgiving family time I thought I would talk about a blog post a read recently called “Writing about writing so I can get back to writing because today I’m having a hard time writing” by Mr. Wil Wheaton*insert girlie swoon here*

The blog post touched on how he writes fiction and the ways he tries to cope with all of the ideas buzzing around in his head, and it got me thinking about how I write my newsletter articles.

Sara’s Four Step Process to Writing Awesomeness

Step One: Drink coffee.
Today we are serving it up with Peppermint Mocha creamer! Yum!

Step Two: Surf social media sites and read favorite blogs.
This step actually serves two purposes. First, I get to surf around the Internet and “work” while I check on people’s statuses and such. Second, it opens my brain up to some new ideas or topics to get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes I already have an idea of what I want to write about because of something I did that past week or that weekend but if not, the “surf and read” method is pretty good at coming up with awesome ideas.

Note: Just because you think an idea for a blog post is ridiculous doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write about it. Sometimes the posts that I really like but think are down right weird are the ones that people really appreciate the most. Oftentimes they’re tired of hearing the same old same old over and over from every other social media/marketing blog out there so if I can make similar points by bringing in ST:TNG episodes, I make it so.

Step Three: Skip over the subject line.
When I first started up the newsletter I would spendforever trying to figure out a witty, funny, high open rate subject line for my newsletters. Now I skip over that and dive right into the meat of the article. This way I can get some broad strokes down and some general ideas moving and most of the time I come up with the subject line as I’m writing the body of the article.

Step Four: Don’t OVER edit. 
I am the kind of person who tends to edit things to death and then the result is something that sounds nothing like me and is so boring I wouldn’t even want to read it! Write like you speak and put your personality into your writing. People will connect to you on a different level than they would if you edited yourself down to a social studies textbook.

Note: Editing does not mean proofreading. I try to read through my article at least twice to try and catch all the proofreading mistakes and even though I don’t always catch them all, I normally catch a few each time I read through it. Nothing has to be perfectly perfect and a few spelling errors never hurt anyone but you don’t want you’re readers tring to decifer your riting because ewe didnt see that you spelled “shure” incorrectley…

Thant’s it!
Super simple. 

Some days this is much easier to do than other.

Some days I just stare at the computer and ask/scream,“Why do you mock me so?!” On those days I step away from the computer, maybe dance a bit to my YouTube or Spotify dance mixes, and then regroup. There’s only been a few times when I just couldn’t write anything and on those days I tend to beat myself up… but then I just regroup for the next time.

One thing that helps (which I need to do a better job at) is writing more than one article at a time and scheduling them out ahead of time. This is the one thing I have had little to no luck with so far so if anyone has suggestions let me know!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving/Evacuation Day and know that I am truly thankful for each and everyone of you! *muah*

Have a fabulous week!
— Sara Carbaugh

PS: Don’t forget to check out the new Chocolate Banana website! Be sure to sign up for the updates and discounts for when the products and the awesomeness starts a-rollin’! (Don’t know what a Chocolate Banana is? Click HERE for all the delicious planning information!)

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Sunday Super Links

Posted by in Sunday Super Links | 2 comments

Sunday Super Links

Since I am trying to post on a regular basis now I thought it would be fun to have a links post because I always love it when other people share links to awesome stuff they’ve come across that week! (Plus it’s an excuse for me to keep track of all the cool stuff I find… )

I can’t promise these will all be business related because, well, that would be boring so please enjoy my cornucopia of awesomeness. (On a side note, some of these links might be affiliate links. I thank you a head of time for helping me pay for my makeup, shoe and Netflix addictions.)

Source: None via Sara on Pinterest

 

 

 

    • I signed up to help spread the word about the Girl Effect. You can help too! Look for my post on October 4th!

 

 

 

    • Started using Buffer for scheduling out tweets quickly throughout the day. So awesome.

 

 

    • The season finale of Doctor Who was on Saturday (SO GOOD!) so BBC America shared some hilarious Doctor Who themed treats!

 

 

 

 

What were some of your awesome finds from last week?

 

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