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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Editing, revising, rewriting your book

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By Dennis Mellersh In writing a book (and learning how to write a book) one of the processes on which writers have different working metho...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013

How extensively should you rewrite?

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By Dennis Mellersh One of the questions or dilemmas faced by all writers, whether beginners, who are studying how to write a book,  or exp...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The new writer: Five responsibilities

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By Dennis Mellersh You are interested in the process of becoming a writer; you want to learn the craft of writing; and you may want to lea...

Writing: The benefits of failure

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By Dennis Mellersh In your efforts to learn to write well and then applying your skills to learning how to write a book, you will, like al...
Monday, May 13, 2013

Organizing your book: Three research methods

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By Dennis Mellersh Now that you are in the process of acquiring knowledge on how to write a book and are becoming a writer of books, you m...

How to write a children’s book: Don’t over-simplify

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By Dennis Mellersh If the book you are planning to write is a book for children, one of the main temptations to avoid is the intuitive ten...
Friday, May 10, 2013

Craft of writing requires practice

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By Dennis Mellersh Learning the craft of writing and becoming a writer takes above all, learning the fundamentals of writing well and then...
Wednesday, May 8, 2013

When should you write your book?

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By Dennis Mellersh You’ve decided that you want to write a non-fiction book, but have you fully thought through the reasons why you believ...
Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Technology, your book, and success

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By Dennis Mellersh Technology, such as the Internet and self-publishing tools, can be a tremendous asset in helping you with learning how ...

What qualities does a writer have?

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By Dennis Mellersh Many beginner writers, such as you perhaps, who are in the process of learning how to write (and more specifically, how...
Friday, May 3, 2013

Ignore doubts: keep writing every day

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By Dennis Mellersh As you continue to learn about how to write a book, and you put in the time to practice your writing (hopefully every d...

Is your writing brief, concise, or both?

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By Dennis Mellersh If the draft of your book manuscript is 300 pages when it could have been pared down to 200 pages without losing any me...

Write naturally or lose your readers

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By Dennis Mellersh In planning the content strategy for your book, and in writing it, it is vital for you to write naturally. Learning how...
Thursday, May 2, 2013

The process of becoming a writer

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By Dennis Mellersh Now that you are learning to write, and perhaps even starting to write your book, you are already in the process of bec...
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Waiting for your book to be chosen

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By Dennis Mellersh If you are planning on writing a book or are in the process of writing it, it’s important for you to realize that you n...
Monday, April 29, 2013

Learning how to be a professional writer

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By Dennis Mellersh There is a distinct technical difference between learning (1) how to write professionally; (2) learning how to be a pro...
Thursday, April 25, 2013

When should I edit the draft writing of my book?

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By Dennis Mellersh A common question of new writers is: “When should I edit and review what I am writing for my book?” The answer is tha...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How to write with originality and creativity

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By Dennis Mellersh One of the surest ways to ensure that you write without originality and creativity is to imitate your favorite writer(s...

Write non-fiction in your own voice

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By Dennis Mellersh In writing non-fiction, such as a book you may be planning, it can be a temptation to try to write in what you might pe...

Do you really want to be a writer: a self-test

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By Dennis Mellersh Many people say they want to be a writer and that they want to write a book; but how many people make the commitment to...
Tuesday, April 23, 2013

You need to tell a story in non-fiction

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By Dennis Mellersh To write an effective non-fiction book that will hold the interest of your readers, you need to tell a story in your bo...

Publisher seeks new romance-novel writers

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By Dennis Mellersh It’s not very often that you will see a major, mainstream book publisher actively seeking and encouraging even beginner...
Monday, April 22, 2013

Can you learn to write a book?

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By Dennis Mellersh For the person interested in becoming a writer, it can be discouraging to hear comments such as, “Real writers don’t wr...

Are you writing, or reading about writing?

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By Dennis Mellersh No matter what type of book you want to write, whether fiction or non-fiction, it is important to read instructive mate...
Saturday, April 20, 2013

Being blocked with how to start your book

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By Dennis Mellersh You’ve done the research for your book, and you have completed your outline, but now that you have decided to start wri...

Using index cards to outline your book

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By Dennis Mellersh Sometimes the use of traditional tactile writing materials can help your book writing efforts in the outline and draft ...
Friday, April 19, 2013

Your book project: What have you done today?

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By Dennis Mellersh No matter what stage you are at with your project of writing a book, you need to be accomplishing something every day o...
Thursday, April 18, 2013

An apocryphal interview with an aspiring book author

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By Dennis Mellersh Many people say they want to write a book, but what is driving this desire? And, what are such people doing to realize ...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Dr. Wordsmith visits a patient with writer’s block

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By Dennis Mellersh You are trying to write your book, but for a day or two, the words you need just won’t come. It must be the “authors’ di...

The dangers of writing your book for someone else

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By Dennis Mellersh One of the surest paths to failure with your book is to write it to please someone other than yourself. You are the per...

Writing your book one day at a time

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By Dennis Mellersh It’s a given that if you write a certain amount every day, it will not take long for you to accumulate enough pages of ...
Thursday, April 11, 2013

The dangers in imitating other writers

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By Dennis Mellersh In your journey of becoming a writer and learning how to write a book, a habit to guard against is that of imitating, c...
Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Some of what you write won’t be good

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By Dennis Mellersh If you’re doggedly going to go down the path of becoming a writer, you will often need to reach for the eraser or the d...

Are you a writer at heart?

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By Dennis Mellersh If you have become discouraged at any time in your efforts to learn how to write a book, here’s a thought to provide so...
Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Writing fiction: Listen to your instincts and write in your own voice

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By Dennis Mellersh When taking the first steps towards writing fiction, one of the common mistakes of new writers is in not following thei...

Writing your novel: Avoid being overly “serious”

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By Dennis Mellersh As you begin the actual work of writing your novel, one common tendency to avoid is that of trying to be deadly serious ...
Wednesday, April 3, 2013

How Ray Bradbury created story ideas

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By Dennis Mellersh In the early stages of learning to write a book, and even when you have a good foundation in creative writing skills, yo...

“I would write a book – if only I had the time”

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By Dennis Mellersh One of the common misconceptions of people not familiar with writing is that it is an inborn ability, and that to write ...
Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Avoid clichés and overused expressions in your writing

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By Dennis Mellersh One of the surest ways to ensure that the writing in your book appears non-professional and amateurish is to sprinkle cl...

Writing your book: An opportunity assessment

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By Dennis Mellersh In his book Opportunities: A Handbook of Business Opportunity Search *, cognitive/thinking expert Edward de Bono discus...
Monday, April 1, 2013

Try a change of pace to unblock your writing

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By Dennis Mellersh If you’re having trouble trying to figure out the “right” words in your writing efforts, and your book seems a too-dist...

I want to write a book but I don’t know what to write about

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By Dennis Mellersh Sometimes the desire to be a writer who wants to write a book is just a vague emotion, inclination or desire. There isn...

Is fear preventing you from writing your book?

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By Dennis Mellersh Fear, and particularly fear of failure, can be a major roadblock in realizing your desire to write a book. You are ta...
Sunday, March 31, 2013

When writing your book, be true to yourself

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By Dennis Mellersh For the beginner writer, one of the surest and most common routes to failure is trying to be someone you are not. Writ...
Saturday, March 30, 2013

Overcoming two major challenges of becoming a writer

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By Dennis Mellersh Two of the main challenges facing the new or beginner writer wanting to create a book-length project involve the problem...
Thursday, March 28, 2013

What rewards are there in writing a book?

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By Dennis Mellersh Many new writers say they want to write a book.   But, aside from fulfilling that desire, what do you want to get o...