Archive for August, 2010

EChristian Author Course 02, Lesson 5 Many good writers are unable to get published because they do not know how to go about in this business of getting published. Their articles are interesting, the subjects are relevant, and any publication would be proud to print this kind of material, but still they remain unpublished. The problem is that they did not market their product properly. A few centuries ago when the number of periodicals was small it was easy to find one that fulfilled one’s requirements, but with the thousands of publications around, it is difficult today for the beginner to get to the appropriate publication. Further, many are so ignorant about market realities that they want their articles and other writings to be published in the commonly available commercial publications immediately. They do not realize that these are professionally produced publications, and a writer can get published in them only after gaining considerable experience and expertise in specific fields. A beginner should not overestimate his size, but should rather find a publication that is more suitable for his standard and send for publication there. There are at least five things that you should know about

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EChristian Author Course 02, Lesson 4 We live in a generation of "packaging". Unless it is put into a proper package, even the best product in the world does not attract customers. In the same way, every writing has to be presented in the right way if editors are even to look at it. A few hundred years ago, when writers were not so much in abundance, and when editors had more free time than today, they would surely give attention to anything that came to their table, but today the situation is just the opposite. Your manuscript has now got to capture his attention while it competes with a large number of other submissions which he possibility cannot read in the time available to him. Inculcate Good Manuscript-preparation Habits Right From The Beginning !! Even if an editor makes as exception to this and gives time to all the manuscripts that cross his table, he is still not going to give the same attention to each manuscript thus placed. On the contrary, he will unconsciously spend more time with that piece of writing that has been presented in the more attractive way. This makes it

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EChristian Author Course 02, Lesson 3 Let me now illustrate what I said in the previous section. I said that the first thing to do is to choose a subject. Suppose I choose, "Water, The Greatest Tonic For Health". Now let us make a tentative outline: 1-Introduction: (Remind people that they are ignoring the greatest fluid for their health). 2-Water is important for kidneys, man’s poison-filter. 3-Water is important for maintaining fluid balance of body. 4-All bodily functions need water. 5-Conclusion: Drink at least 4 to 8 litters of water every day. The next activity is investigation and collection of information. Almost any medical doctor or nurse will be able to give you information and also guide you to appropriate books (technical as well as popular) for further information. Most books on physical fitness (which abound in our generation) or health-related magazines will also provide a lot of information. What’s more, even family-magazines will give an occasional article on this topic. The next step is to revise and expand (if necessary) the previously prepared outline. In our case, any investigation will reveal that water plays a great part in disease prevention. It plays this role by

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EChristian Author Course 02, Lesson 2 The next thing to do is to make an outline. This should always be brief yet sufficiently clear. There should always be a suitable introduction, an informative and absorbing body, and a challenging end. The structure (in theory) would look something like the following. 1-Introduction. 2-Body 3-Conclusion. The body of the article should contain the points that you want to stress. These points should be limited to as few as possible. Most writers show the tendency to pile point upon point till they reach infinity, with several sub-points attached to each point. While this might give them some mental satisfaction, or even pride, the practice is foolish. The average reader cannot keep that many points, or their intricate relationship with each other, in his head. You should therefore use only three to five points in the body of your writing, unless you are going to write it for a bunch of your classroom students. Three points is optimum and five is about the maximum. If you think that you have more than five points for inclusion, many things could be wrong with you. Either you are overenthusiastic (because of your

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EChristian Author Course 02, Lesson 1 Even the best instruction in the world is worthless till it is put into action. Therefore, beginning with this lesson, we will ask you to write a lot. Do not be discouraged by the initial difficulties. Persist, and you will be a different person by the time you reach the last lesson. In this lesson we will first tell you about the types of writing, and then guide you into "how to begin writing". All writings (essays, poems, stories, novels, etc.) can be classified into two broad categories: factual writing and creative writing. All factual writing will have a lot of creativity going into it and all creative writing will be aided by factual information, yet they are clearly distinguishable one from another. One does not read a novel and a dictionary alike because they belong to two entirely different categories of writing. Factual Writing Essays, news, textbooks, research reports, any other kind of writing that deals with facts is called factual writing. Almost everything in print that can be classified as "non-fiction" is factual writing. The aim of factual writing is to present facts in a captivating way. The

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