One is successful in the task of communication when one is able to convey information in such a way that if captivates the audience and produces the desired effects. I have told you so far that for successful communication you must develop sincerity, conviction and a genuine burden to help your readers. Also, you should know who your audience is. In addition to all the above, you should use appropriate language.

Using the correct language includes using simple, natural, and accurate expressions. I have already given you several suggestions about how to make your writings simple, natural, and accurate. The next thing — to enhance communication — is to use an attractive presentation.

Make Your Presentation So Attractive That People May Not Feel Like Keeping It Down !!

You should use an attractive presentation to capture their attention. It is true that the increasing literacy levels is producing many new readers every day, but this does not mean that they will automatically read anything and everything presented to them. Even though there is now a large number of literate people in our country, we should realize that more and more printed matter is competing with each other every day to get a share of their time and money. By the time you become a successful writer, a still larger number of publications will be chasing the same market which is not growing at the same rate. Consequently, only those publications will get read that are attractive enough to capture their attention.

The first thing which captures their attention is the title of your writing. Whether it is a brief article or a multi volume book, the title is the starting point. If it is attractive, your writing gets a second glance. If it is uninteresting, then you lose the potential reader even if you have created a masterpiece. Consider the following pairs of title. Each pair shows two ways in which the same article or book has been titled.

a-A Collection Of Proverbs
b-Wisdom Of The Ages

a-A Guidebook To Encourage Everyone
b-Yes, You Can Do It !

a-Developing An Awareness About The Aborted Fetuses
b-Children — Things Thrown Away !

a-An Account Of The Sins Of Omissions And Commission In Government Offices
b-Wickedness In High Places !

Each pair talks about the same subject, but in each one the second title is more catchy. Making your titles attractive is not very difficult. Spend a little time to think up a good, attractive, or catchy way of expressing it and the job is half done. The remaining half of the task is to make the body of article equally attractive.

The text of your article should be written in such a way that it keeps your reader awake and glued to it till the end of your writing. This is not impossible, but it does require regular effort from you. You will learn a lot about it in forthcoming lessons, but the best thing to do till then is to read and reflect upon the writings of those who have already mastered the art.

Write On Subjects Of Common Interest: If your writing is to communicate with people, not only has it got to be attractive, but should also be of some interest to the intended audience. (Many Crusaders write upon subjects in which no public interest is seen. But such activity belongs to the experienced writer, and you will study this kind of writing only at a more advanced stage).

So much printed material is competing for the reader’s attention today that only what touches upon their concerns will be picked up and read. Every generation and every community of people have their own needs, interests, problems and pains. Any writing that touches upon these subjects will, obviously, get immediate attention. The rest will, in all probability, get ignored.

Have you ever noticed how the common man reacts to a philosophical monograph ! He does not touch it. Even the name "philosophy" is enough to scare him away. Yet when a philosopher spots the same book, his eyes sparkle and his face betrays excitement. The difference can be explained by one’s relation to the subject. What’s related to one’s needs gets attention, but what’s of no immediate concern gets rejected even if it is written in the most brilliant manner.

Subjects related to spiritual, social, academic, nationalistic, or personal concerns always capture people’s attention. Subjects of immediate interest like entertainment, politics, political crisis and hobby development also get immediate attention from people.

Subjects that require long-term involvement from the readers also capture attention, if chosen with insight. For example, subjects like managing one’s finances, overcoming depression, becoming socially attractive, and capturing the attention of people, always manage to catch reader attention.

Even in this materialistic world plenty of people will take interest in spiritual and moral themes if the subjects are presented properly. Many articles on spiritual themes are finding place in present-day secular publications because they have some substance, and are written in a professional manner. Since man’s quest for spirituals is never-ending, this theme will never go out of demand.
Many Successful Writers Have Discovered That Food, Health, Relaxation, Etc. Are Subjects Of Great Interest. Christians Can Discover Similar Ever-abiding Biblical Subjects  !!

Different audiences have different immediate concerns. The housewife is worried about nutrition, the teenage boy about acceptance by peers, the teenage girl about her excess weight, and the newspaper editor about the important news of the day. What is food to one might be poison to the other. Therefore you should know your audience first, lest you end up praising to horrified vegetarians the benefits of meat eating.

The best thing to know your audience and their interests is to study the publications for which you write. Study their emphasis, the direction of the editorials, letters to the editor, and — most important — the guidelines to authors issued by those publications. Once you identify the audience, it will be relatively easy to identify subjects that interest them.

A beginner in the field of writing might find himself struggling to discover subjects for writing, but if you implement the suggestions given in this course you will discover lots of interesting topics. In fact a time will come within three to five years of writing when your diary will be flooded with so many suggestions and topics that you will not be able to do justice even to half of them.

Once you are submerged in reading and writing material, it will be good to choose a few fields for concentrated writing. Do not try to become a jack of all trades because soon you will be reduced to a master of none. With that you will lose your market appeal as well as value. Further, if you do not focus upon a few areas, the direction of your writings will disperse so much that your name will not be attached to anything. Do not underestimate the importance of such an attachment. If others can associate your name with at least a couple of subjects, your writings will be read with greater eagerness.

Develop A Rapport With Your Readers: No one-way communication in the world can last very long. Some sort of mutual interaction, howsoever little it might be, is necessary to keep the relationship alive. Since all writing is communication, a certain minimum interaction with the readers is essential. Unless this mutual communication is there, the writer has no way of knowing whether his writings are relevant and whether people are benefited by these writings.

A two-way communication between the writer and his audience is easier said than done, but there are many tried and proven methods to overcome this difficulty. The easiest way is to keep an eye on the "Letters To The Editor" and similar columns where feedback from readers is published. If any of your writings touches their needs, helps or motivates them, they will mention it. You should watch such feedback for quite some time because sometimes people start writing to the editor only after reading several of your writings, or even several months after a particular writing helps them.

Researches estimate that for each person who writes to the editor, there are ten to fifty who want to do the same but do not find it possible. This means that each letter represents at least ten to fifty of your readers who have similar feelings. If it is a letter of appreciation, good; if it expresses disapproval or hostility, consider whether you did something wrong. Above all this, try to see what else they want to read from you. Sometimes the clue might be hidden in a single phrase buried somewhere in that letter.

Some editors, specially those of small-circulation or newly published publications, will be very happy to pass on information about reader-response to you. The best way to get this information is to write a polite letter of inquiry to the editor after a few of your writings are published by his publication.
It Is Great To Develop A Rapport With Your Listeners  !!

Another way to interact with your readers is by reading about their problems and aspirations. Read all letters, feedback, and comments published in the periodical of your choice. Study what they say and what problems and pains hurt them most. Then see whether your present writings touch upon these subjects, or whether you might be able to write something significant on those topics.

Last, but not least, keep your eyes and ears open to people. Even social conversation or a passing compliment paid by a friend (about one of your writings which he happened to see) can give you a lot of information.

Keep striving. Communication is your ultimate aim, and that you must do if you want to be a successful writer.

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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In additional to your personality, you should train your language too for achieving effective communication. The study of language and communication is so vast a subject that one will never be able to exhaust it. However, instead of giving a comprehensive discussion, we will introduce the most important features that you should develop at this stage.

Every beginner in the field of writing should strive to make his language simple, natural, and accurate.

I-Use Simple Language: Many writers believe that the more tough or complex their language, the more superior their writing would be. However, they are greatly mistaken. Of course, if they are writing to show off their abilities then they might use any type of language, but if they are writing to be read then they must keep themselves simple.

If a given idea can be expressed in two ways, a simple one and a complex one, then you should always choose the simpler expression. This will captivate your audience, will communicate the subject better and what’s more, it will bring you untold amount of loyalty from them. Believe me, reader-loyalty is very important for a writer to enjoy demand from editors and also for getting a good price for his writings.

Contrary to what many think, using complex language, where simpler choices exist, is a sign of incompetence, inferiority complex, or an unresolved mind. A writer who uses complex and hard to understand language does so either because of his incompetence, or to hide his weaknesses. Such writers never go far.

Complex expressions and highly technical vocabulary does have a place in scholarly journals, but no beginner is going to write for such publications. Further, even in such publications the editors and readers abhor writings that are unusually difficult.

Further, complexity is not the same as ambiguity. Even if a complex expression becomes necessary, it should be kept straight forward and not ambiguous. Since your expressions are the result of your thinking, ambiguous expressions are obviously the sign of sloppy thinking. No sloppy thinker can ever become a writer of substance.

You should use not only simple expressions, but also easy vocabulary. All languages offer you simple as well as difficult words to express the same or similar ideas. You should always choose the simpler word unless there is a compelling reason to choose the difficult one. Beginners in this field should even try to restrict themselves to the "common vocabulary". Lists of such words are available for English and also for many other languages.

2-Use Natural Language: Most people speak without becoming conscious about their language. This makes them "natural". On the other hand, the same people become too conscious when they write, and this makes their writing tense, choppy and jerky. The smooth motion of a well designed car versus the jerky motion of a tractor is a good analogy for comparing natural expressions with jerky ones.

Your language should show the same smoothness of flow in writing that you exhibit in the day to day conversation. Written language might at times be more serious or polished, but that is no excuse for rendering it unnatural or artificial. Good writing should sound as natural to the reader as a spontaneous conversation does to the listener.

One should not mistakenly think that simple language is automatically natural. While simplicity is an important part of naturalness, it is not sufficient in itself to make one’s

language natural. You must consider the subject matter, the capacity of the listener, the urgency of all task, etc. and then express in a way that is natural in this situation.

Remember, all successful communication takes place in a natural manner. The way a nursing mother talks with her infant, a lover talks to his beloved, a grandson talks to his grandpa, and the way a policeman talks to a criminal are all different from each other, yet are natural in their particular settings. In the same way your language should be natural for the occasion for which you write.

3-Use Accurate Language: Careless use of language can make a person inaccurate and ambiguous. All ambiguity produces communication handicaps, but one does not notice this kind of handicaps while engaged in oral conversation. Even if a person tends to be ambiguous in conversation, mutual interaction and questions raised by the listener often clarify what the speaker wants to communicate. However, mutual interaction is impossible in written language and therefore you cannot escape with ambiguities.

You should write in such a way that listener should not have to strain to understand your meaning. Nor should he have to guess or interpret the intended meaning to arrive at a conclusion. Consider the following statement, for example: "At the age of thirty my father revealed this secret to me." Can you deduce, without uncertainty, who was thirty years old, the father or the son, when this incident took place ? A definite deduction is not possible here. This illustrates the problems created by ambiguous statements.

You must take care of several things to make your language accurate, and the first is the vocabulary you use. You must meticulously avoid ambiguous vocabulary. Only a regular and critical reading of other’s writings will help you to recognize ambiguous words. Reading articles related to language usage is also very helpful.

Consider the word "typical" for example. The word "typical" means something that is "common". But most English-speaking Indians use this word to refer to something that is "peculiar". Therefore if you use this word in an article without adequate explanation, most of the readers will interpret you just the opposite of what you intend to convey. To be safe, you should substitute another word for it.

Not only should you avoid using ambiguous words but should also avoid ambiguous phrases. We have already given you an example in the statement that begins with, "At the age of thirty…". Consider another example, picked up from the Classified Advertisement columns of a newspaper:

"Needed adoptive parents for a dog, by a man, with a dozen offsprings".

The meaning hinges precariously upon the two commas placed in the sentence. If the second of these is lost (as it often happens during composing), the statement will look like:

"Needed adoptive parents for a dog, by a man with a dozen offsprings".

Here it is difficult to decide whether the man or the dog is blessed with half a dozen offsprings. A non-ambiguous restatement is given below:

"A man needs adoptive parents for his dog which has a dozen offsprings."

Another care to take is to eliminate ALL hasty generalizations. Statements like, "All politicians are cheats" and "All lawyers are liars" should not find a place in your writing. Hasty generalization makes you unreliable, ambiguous, and unbelievable. It is the mark of an impulsive person. Use only those generalizations that can be supported with plenty of data. For example, you can safely say that crows are black, elephants are strong, and tigers are ferocious. But claiming that "fairer people are more intelligent" or "dark people tend to be cruel" is neither right nor motivates accurate thinking.

Since words are the ultimate building blocks for all written communication, you should definitely take up a vocabulary-building program. A richer vocabulary will help you to express your ideas accurately using simple words. You should not be content with labelling a person (who has difficulty with knowledge) as "fool" when you could choose from "innocent, ignorant, fool, idiot, imbecile, or unteachable". You compromise with accuracy when you label every pleasing woman as "beautiful" when you could have chosen from a range like, "good-looking, attractive, seductive, charming, homely, sweet, or beautiful" to make your description more accurate.

When a choice of synonyms like the one above is given to people, many of them exclaim with surprise. They say they didn’t know that so many words were available to choose from ! Clearly, the problem is not with language or vocabulary, but with people who are not willing to master it.

You should keep increasing your word power throughout your active life. It is not to show off and dumbfound others, but to increase your comprehension and improve your expression. The more your vocabulary, the clearer will be your thinking and the more accurate will be your expression.

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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I do not have to convince you about the importance of communication, especially if you have ever struggled with an intimidating or boring book. Unless the writer communicates in the proper manner, it is impossible for anyone to enjoy his creation.

In the field of writing, communication is the art of expressing information in such a way that it captures the reader’s attention and produces the desired results. This kind of communication requires more than using simple words. We will definitely talk a lot about using words, but even before that you should consider the role of your personality in communication.

For genuine and successful communication, you should be sincere and a man of conviction. Further, you should know your audience and should have a genuine desire to help them. Let me explain:

I-Conviction: If you do not write with conviction on different issues, your writings will dissipate into a good for nothing acrobatics. Instead of communicating a clear cut message, your writing will soon become themeless and immediately the readers will reject you.

2-Sincerity: Being sincere is different from having a conviction. One might have a clear conviction about any number of issues, but that does not guarantee that one will sincerely want others to be convinced as well. There are many who know the truth but who have no desire that others also discover truth. Unless a writer is sincere, he will not be able to influence and change his readers.

3-Know The Audience: A person changes his tone, vocabulary and attitude even when he discusses one and the same subject with different people. A child cannot enjoy an adult vocabulary, nor can an adult accept a childish vocabulary or expressions coming from other adults.

The purpose of all writing is communication with the reader. And for the sake of correctly relating it with your readers, it is necessary for you to know beforehand who they are. You should then use language and expression that suits this group of people.

4-A Genuine Desire To Help The Reader: If you have ever struggled with science textbooks, then you know the difference. All textbooks are written for students, but only few writers write them in a way that makes the subject alive to the students. Some of them write merely because they want to produce a textbook while others write because they want to help the student, and that makes all the difference.

Unless you are possessed with a genuine desire to help the reader, you will not be able to put things at his level. Your writing will be neither easy nor persuasive.

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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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 purpose is to educate, entertain and even motivate the readers towards a specific action.

All Factual Writing Begins With Collection And Statement Of Factual Information. Creativity Is Limited To The Way Information Is Presented — Which In Itself Is A Great Art !!

The field of factual writing is very broad. The number of subjects available are uncountable and the opportunities to write upon them are unlimited. These statements might puzzle or surprise many who have not launched yet into the field of writing, but I assure you that the above statements are not exaggerations.

Consider a very simple and commonplace topic like "Water". A beginner might consider it nonsense when I suggest that dozens of articles can be built around this subject. But before you become too sure that I am wrong, consider the following titles:

Water: The source of all life
Water: The greatest tonic for health
Water Pollution: Causes and effects
Water-loss (dehydration)– the greatest killer in summer
Drinking Water: How to purify it
The chemistry of water
The physics of water, the wonder liquid

I have suggested only seven topics, and that also by spending only three to five minutes for thinking. Further, I have not mentioned many obvious and interesting subjects like, Conserving Water For Summers, Water As Source Of Hydro and Tidal Electricity, Water And Industries, Water And Transportation, etc.

Thinking up for an hour or two per day will bring up at least a hundred interesting subjects, and just a month of such effort will swell up the list to at least 3000 subjects ! Believe me, even the most successful writers find that too many titles for their whole life.

I’m not suggesting that you spend the next month filling your diary with possible subjects. On the contrary, the above illustration has been given to show you that the field of factual writing is so vast that all the writers of the world together will never be able to exhaust the available subjects.

All what you need is a bit of self-confidence, a little creativity, and a desire to find subjects. I guarantee that in three to five years you will wish that you could write with all four of your limbs. Believe me, you could still not exhaust your own list even if that wish were granted!

Creative Writing

All writings classified as fiction come into this category. Songs and poems can also be placed into this category because their creative part is more dominant than their factual one.

Stories, novels, most poems, songs, many satires, dramas, etc. are included in creative writing. They have been given this title because they are "created" almost out of non-existent material. While the main attempt in factual writing is to explain pre-existing facts, the main attempt in creative writing is to produce an entity that did not exist previously.

Creative Writing Begins With Brainstorming, Assimilating, Writing Down, And Polishing The Output !!

Even though the creative writer creates a story that did not exist before, he needs an idea or a "plot" to create it. Since plots for stories do not drop from the skies, the creative writer has to develop skills necessary to capture, conceive, and develop new ideas.

Both factual as well as creative writing are challenging jobs, and each has its own unique difficulties. Most writers confine themselves to one of these fields, and only very few try to produce both kinds of materials.

You must evaluate your natural talents, inclinations, and abilities before you choose whether you will write fiction or non-fiction. Whatever the field you choose, you should never ignore the techniques of the other side. Non-fiction writers can always benefit from the techniques used by the fiction writers and people who produce fiction can always benefit from people who produce factual writings.

In the present course our stress will be upon factual writing. These are two reasons for it. First, the majority of writers produce only factual material. Second, creative writers have to follow most of the basic principles of factual writing, and therefore this is the right starting point for writers of all kinds. We will offer you specialized information about producing fiction in another module of this course.

How To Begin Writing

Beginners in the field of writing feel that the most difficult part of writing is taking the first step. There’s nothing very surprising about this. In any game the first move is the most tense one and the opening batsman bears the most intense pressure. Even in human life the first step of a baby is always more difficult than the next one.

However, as the baby grows, walking becomes so natural to him that he does it without any special effort or without even being conscious of it. It is the same way with writing. The first step will be difficult, but the more you hesitate, the more the time that you loose. I therefore urge you to start writing immediately ! Do not worry at this stage about the quality or usefulness of the first few writings. Nor should you worry about who is going to publish them.

Have you ever seen a trainee potter, tailor, typist, or cook at work ? Their initial output is usually so crude, childish, abnormal, or deformed that nobody buys it from them. Yet they keep working because they know that the initial output is not meant for others. Their first product is meant for practice.

In the same way, you should assume that the first few (six to twelve) articles that you produce are meant for your training and not for publication. If will be a joy if someone publishes them, but you should not be discouraged if something meant for practice does not get into print.

With these points in mind, the first few steps that you have to take can be listed as follows:

1-Choose a subject
2-Make an outline
3-Collect information
4-Refine outline, if needed
5-Write
6-Rewrite

It is obvious that one cannot write upon a subject that has not yet been chosen. The first thing to do, therefore, is to choose a subject. I have already explained some methods for discovering useful and exciting subjects. You should choose a subject using the same technique.

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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The explosive increase in the number of newspapers and magazines and the resulting shortage of good writers will allow almost anyone to publish something good or bad! If you want to become just an average and mediocre writer, you can churn out any amount of trash and can get published somewhere or other, but the net result will be a waste. Careless writing wastes both your as well as your reader’s time, and in the long run you lose the name and respect that you could have received by helping others through good writings.

You must follow certain sensible practices if you want to rise above mediocrity. You must always keep you eyes upon success as well as excellence, and both of these goals are within the reach of any writer willing to pay the cost. I’ll now give you six tips on how to enter this profession. These are tried and proven methods, and you should give due weight to each one of them. They are:

1-Start writing immediately.
2-Develop your skills through a course and apprenticeship.
3-Desire perfection but be practical.
4-Begin humbly and progress.
5-Develop supportive habits.
6-Persist.

Let me explain each of the above points in some more detail.

I-Start Writing Immediately: Many people would like to wait till they achieve perfection before they begin. This is foolish because none can achieve perfection without first beginning to write. Further, by the time an aspiring writer might feel that he is ready to write, he might have lost several special opportunities.

I remember the story of a friend who aspired to become a famous writer. Over the years he collected a host of interesting clippings for illustrating his writings. The material was sufficient to provide two lifetimes of quotations. All the while he kept dreaming for a great assignment, insisting that he would begin writing only when this dream materializes. This was a stupid approach, but by a rare stroke of luck he got a coveted assignment one fine day.

Time And Opportunity Wait For None.
So Do Not Wait. Start Immediately  !

He immediately purchased a filing cabinet, enlisted the help of his wife and children and embarked upon a massive campaign to classify his clippings. The collection was so massive that it took six months and fifteen days to finish. What’s worse, the task was so absorbing that he didn’t notice that his contract for the writing had lapsed exactly fifteen days ago. It is rumored that he continues to collect clippings, and is waiting for another stroke of unusual luck.

Opportunities do not wait for anyone. Nor do they drop into one’s lap at every imagination. You must both be ready as well as be prepared when it knocks at the door, and the only solution is to begin writing IMMEDIATELY!

2-Develop Your Skills Through A Course And Apprenticeship: Only five per cent of the successful writers are born with the necessary skills. The rest have to acquire and polish their art and craft through systematic training.

Several good writer’s training programs are available and what you are reading right now is one of them. Such courses share with you the accumulated experience and wisdom of a host of successful writers. They teach you the five W’s (What, Why, When, Where and Who) of writing. They explain the "How" of writing and the methods of correcting and even publishing of your writings. Without this combined wisdom of generations available to a writer, he would be forced to waste a lot of time before he discovers even elementary information related to success in this field.

Most writer’s training programs assign a lot of homework to students. It’s here that you put your newly gained theoretical knowledge into practice. Thus you should learn to appreciate assignments even if at times they do not look very enjoyable.

While the training given through assignments is sufficient to make you a successful practical writer, you should always supplement that with more work as your time allows. For such work you should find out a successful and trained writer who can read your work and offer critical comments.

If you are unable to discover such a person, then you are always welcome to contact us for enrolling in our apprenticeship program — after you complete the course.

Anyone Desiring To Produce Quality
Results Needs To Study The Art Of Production!  

3-Desire Perfection But Be Practical: Every piece of writing is a work of art and therefore the first version of your penmanship will never be perfect. This means that you should always revise the first copy of your writings.

If writing is a work of art then the writer is an artist — a wordsmith. This means that as you continue practicing your art, your writings will become more and more mature as it happens in any other craft.

Thus every writer should aim towards perfection both in the way he writes and also in the written work that is produced. However, there is nothing like ultimate perfection and therefore he should set practical limits for his quest for perfection. Else, the whole life will become an impractical pursuit for perfection, effectively preventing the writer from producing anything.

Desire perfection, but not to such extremes that it kills your talents even before others see them.  

4-Begin Humbly And Progress: Some people aspiring to become writers set their eyes too high. They dream of publishing directly in Readers Digest or publications of only that level. They will never succeed in this profession till they start thinking more realistically.

Just as writers range from beginners to achievers, publications also range from amateur to professional in level. Obviously a magazine of high standard will publish only writings that come up to their level. Writers new to their profession should, therefore, aim humbly at amateur publications first. They can then gradually work their way up to the level which their abilities would allow.  

5-Develop Supportive Habits: The art of writing can be enhanced by developing habits that support the creative activity that writing is. For example, many people know that one gets inspiring thoughts, ideas, and expressions, etc., suddenly and in a moment of illumination. But such thoughts vanish as fast as they come. Good writers should therefore develop strategies to record such inspiring thoughts before they are lost.

As you progress with writing, you will discover numerous supportive habits, but you don’t need all of them at this stage. The beginner should try to develop three very important practices mentioned below.

FIRST, you should try to read as much as possible. This is necessary to stimulate your mind and make you mature. The more you read the better it is. No amount of reading is over-reading for a writer.

SECOND, you should ALWAYS keep a diary and pen with you. Note down every inspiring thought, quote, anecdote or data that comes to your attention. Do not allow the idea be lost, and do not let the presence of others discourage you from writing it into your diary.

THIRD, make it a practice to write one full page every day. Write whatever comes to your mind. It could be a summary of an argument you heard, an observation you made, or an inspiration that hit you. What’s important is to write something regularly, not the subjects upon which you write. A stage will come in about three years of such practicing when you will be unable to find time to write down all the inspiring thoughts that you get every day.

Start it today itself. Buy a diary and a lot of paper or notebooks. Then, Read, Record and Write!

Persistence Is The Secret Of Success In Any Competitive Field !

6-Persist: Whatever your profession or hobby, you cannot succeed in it without persisting. This is much more true of becoming a writer. Most people harbor this misconception that everything written by a writer gets published! Nothing could be farther from truth. Not everything written even by famous writers gets published. Further, many of their writings see the light of the day only after repeated submissions or revisions.

Thus, right from the beginning you should expect a lot of rejections. Do not be discouraged. This happens even to the most experienced writers. Persist and one day the rate of rejection will decrease to tolerable levels. Rome was not built in a day, nor is successful writing developed in one sitting.

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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Since you have already searched for a writer site and have come thus far, it is clear that you CAN write. Still you might wonder why you SHOULD write. After all, not everyone develops all his hidden talents!

True, not everyone develops all his hidden talents. Nor is it humanly possible to give attention to all of one’s abilities. Consequently everyone has to decide what he is going to develop and what he is going to leave. The ability to write does not come in what is to be ignored.

Nobody loses much, for example, if a person decides to ignore his acting or mimicry skills, but everyone in the society loses if a person ignores his gift of writing. This is an ability that helps not only the person who writes but also the thousands who read him. We could, therefore, suggest dozens of reasons why you should become a writer, but we are confident that just the five reasons given below will be more than enough for the purpose.

The FIRST reason for becoming a writer is to help, motivate, and guide others. Everyone has a conscious or unconscious desire to help others. However, in this busy world where everyone seems to suffer from a chronic shortage of time and resources, it seems difficult to help many others. Yet almost everyone can play a definite role in the lives of others through their pen. Your writings can help people in need, motivate the tired, uplift the depressed, and give direction to the lost. The ultimate aim is the welfare of others, and writing is a perfect tool for doing this.

Improper Communication Kills, Proper One Motivates Generations !!

SECOND, you should become a writer because writing is a very special hobby. Everyone must pick up a hobby so that his free time is used properly, and also so that he has a method to refresh the mind. Writing is a unique hobby because it provides many extras, compared to other hobbies. It not only refreshes you and channels your time into a productive activity, but also helps people who are in need. There cannot be a better hobby that combines both self-fulfillment as well as helping others into one and the same activity.

THIRD, you should become a writer because this provides a convenient means of earning some extra income. We are not implying that all writers become rich. They never do. What’s more, writers do not get a single penny for many of their writings. Yet once you get established, it will surely bring you some income. This will ensure that instead of draining away your money, this hobby will sustain itself and also supplement your income.

FOURTH, you should become a writer to sharpen your way of thinking. While it is true that we all do a lot of thinking, we have to accept that most of it is not done in an efficient way. Productive thinking requires a lot of skill, but that does not come automatically. However the way a writer has to grapple with understanding and expressing issues is so exacting that this hobby soon sharpens his thought process, refines his capacity to evaluate, and increases his understanding of complex issues of human life.

People Everywhere Are Looking For Answers, So How Can A Christian Neglect So Great A Need  !!

FIFTH, you should become a writer, and become one now, because these days a tremendous explosion is taking place in the print media. A few decades ago many prophets of doom predicted that the death of printed material is at the door. On the contrary, the explosion of TV, VCR, photocopiers and computers has brought a simultaneous explosion of books, magazines, bulletins, souvenirs, and handbills. So much so that today the available opportunities are far more than the number of available writers. This means that there are plenty of openings everywhere, waiting to be filled by the right kind of writer. If you make it to the print media now, you will be a well known writer in less than a decade !

Think of the five points above ! No other hobby or occupation in the world can promise all these things together. If you become a writer, you will be able to help and motivate others, you will be able to earn a name, fame and money too. What’s more, you will be the proud owner of a unique hobby that enriches not only you but also others. All the while it enriches and sharpens your thinking, understanding, and expressions. The best time to develop this hobby is NOW because the exploding number of printed periodicals has created an unusual demand for writers with all kinds of specializations.

Who Can Become A Writer ??

Many people harbor this erroneous idea that only special and uncommon people, who live in ivory towers and who speak only the exotic languages of angels, can become writers. They couldn’t be mistaken more. While it is true that a minority of writers live in seclusion, and a few do not speak in comprehensible language, they do not represent the majority. Most of the successful writers are just common people like me and you, but with one difference: they exploited the opportunities available to them, and became well known or well loved writers.

Only about five per cent of the successful writers were born that way. They did not need external training or motivation. However, the remaining 95% of the writers did not come equipped from their mother’s womb. They learnt the art, science, and economics of writing through the hard way. Therefore, you do not have to be born a writer to become a successful author.

Anyone who is literate, has the desire to write, and is willing to pay the cost, can become a successful writer. Not all of them can become millionaires, but all of them can become successful and well respected writers. The cost is to be paid not in terms of money because that makes up only a minor fraction of what one spends. The major cost comes in the form of self-discipline. The person aspiring to become a successful writer has to discipline himself in three matters.

First of all, you should be willing to invest time to get training. You should join a good correspondence or regular course where you acquire the linguistic tools that writers need. Second, you should be willing to spend time regularly to put your training into practice. Third, you should be willing to keep studying all your life. You have to continue studying both the craft of writing as well as the subjects on which you write. You will agree that this is only a reasonable cost for the mental and spiritual blessings, self fulfillment, and the name that your writings will bring you.

Many Writers Stumble At A Good Opening, And End Up Losing Potential Readers !!

You might wonder if there is any special profession to which most writers belong. When it comes to specialized writings like textbooks and monographs, the writers must surely be connected to that discipline of study. However, there is a great diversity among people who write material for day to day reading. The majority of writers fall into this category.

Among the successful writers you will discover students, housewives, businessmen, office clerks and people from almost any profession that you might imagine. Self discipline and commitment is what goes to make a good writer, irrespective of his profession. Thus, whatever your profession, you can become a writer !

[If this lesson has helped you, then you should consider joining our Diploma programs in Christian Communication. There is abosolutely no fees, if you join as a self-guided student]

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