Have personal experiences you want to share? WD University's Pitch an Article: Write for Today's Marketplace will teach you how to craft a good pitch letter and do it well. Be ready to mine your life for ideas. Start thinking about a great spin on a topic or an unusual personal experience that you'd like to write about in class!
Rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, find a proofreader and, only when you’re satisfied you’ve written an effective how-to article, submit your piece to an appropriate publication with a short cover letter.
A how-to is written as a sequence—first you do this, and then you do this. The essential question the writer asks herself when writing a how-to is, “What happens next?” If you are about to embark on a how-to, start at what you consider the beginning, and just keep answering that question over and over again. Before you know it, you will have sketched out a draft of a how-to article.
Then write a rough, rough draft, including everything you can think of. Stay loose, avoid getting analytical, and enjoy the process of sharing what you know. When you’re done, you’ll have the bare bones of an article that only you could write. Then put it aside for a while.
Research will ground your article in fact. Good details to include with your how-to are:
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November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2021 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Guidelines Prepare for the 14th annual November PAD Chapbook Challenge! Visit each day of November to get a prompt and write a poem. Then, use December and the beginning of January to revise and collect your poems into a chapbook manuscript.
Resources WD Presents: 6 New WDU Courses, An Upcoming Webinar, a Competition Deadline, and More! This week, we’re excited to announce 6 new WDU Courses, an upcoming webinar, a competition deadline, and more!
Choose a topic that interests you enough to focus on it for at least a week or two. If your topic is broad, narrow it. Instead of writing about how to decorate your home, try covering how to decorate your home in country style on a shoestring budget. That’s more specific and, as such, easier to tackle.
Now, come back to your piece. Switch gears and imagine you’re the reader of this article. Pick three words to describe the audience you want to address . As this reader, what questions would you like answered? You might not know the answers yet, but list the questions anyway; you’ll find answers in the next step. how to be an article writer
Business of Writing Working With a Nonfiction Book Publisher Throughout the Process A publisher accepting your manuscript is just the beginning, not the end. Author Rick Lauber discusses how to work with a nonfiction book publisher from query letter to release date and beyond.
Here’s a quick list to help you catch errors or omissions:
This time when you read your draft, ask yourself: Is it working? Is it too general, too lightweight, uninteresting, unclear or choppy? If so, comb some of your favorite publications for how-to articles. What techniques are those writers using that you might employ?
If your narrative goes on and on, or off in too many directions, break it down into key points indicated with subheads . Synthesizing complicated information and breaking it down into steps is especially crucial for online writing, and is also a trend in print.
Keeping your audience in mind, write a tighter draft incorporating the new supporting information you’ve collected. Sometimes what you’ve learned in Steps 2 and 3 may compel you to start over with a completely fresh draft. Or you may just want to revise what you have as you proceed, retaining a nice conversational tone by directly addressing your audience.
Interviews Lecia Cornwall: On the Surprises of Historical Fiction Acclaimed author Lecia Cornwall discusses the many surprises she faced in writing her historical fiction novel, The Woman at the Front.
Character Writing Mistakes Writers Make: The Characterless Character The Writer's Digest team has witnessed many writing mistakes over the years, so this series helps identify them for other writers . This week's writing mistake is writing a characterless character.
Write how to be an article writer a How
Resources Writing Empowered Superheroes in CWs Supergirl and Understanding Animation From the Trenches In this week’s round-up brought to us by Script Magazine, story editor Katiedid “Did” Langrock speaks with Reckless Creatives podcast. Plus, one-on-one interview with CWs Supergirl actress turned scribe Azie Tesfai about her groundbreaking episode and more! Grammar Allusion vs. Elusion vs. Illusion Let's look at the differences between allusion, elusion, and illusion with Grammar Rules from the Writer's Digest editors, including a few examples of correct usages. Collect everything you have gathered and put it in a folder, an electronic document, a notebook or whatever you like. Don’t forget to keep track of sources in case you are later asked by an editor to verify them. You may want to sift through your research at a separate sitting from gathering it. Or just go ahead and sprinkle your research in right when you find it. It’s a lot like cooking—play around until you feel you have it “just right.” If you’ve ever jotted down a recipe or shared do-it-yourself instructions with a friend, you already understand the basic structure of how-to writing. How-tos inform the reader and can often be submitted to an editor with a simple cover letter. By ChristinaKatz Christina Katz is the author of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids , Get Known Before the Book Deal , and The Writer's Workout . Double-check to see that you’ve included every pertinent step in the process. How-to articles have to be thorough. You want your reader to walk away knowing exactly how to make that Thanksgiving dinner on a shoestring budget, execute that rugby tackle, or locate great accommodations. Business of Writing How I Broke Into the Traditional Publishing World as an Indie Author Learn the process indie author Amanda Aksel went through in getting her novel Delia Suits Up traditionally published, including questions she asked herself and weighing one strategy against the other. Market Spotlight Texas Monthly: Market Spotlight For this week's market spotlight, we look at Texas Monthly, an Austin-based regional magazine focused on stories about Texas and Texans. Read the draft of your how-to article out loud to a supportive friend. Then, ask her a series of questions: Does she now understand the process? Are there any steps missing? Is there anything else she would like to know about the subject? Could she do the task herself? With your friend’s suggestions in mind, how to be an online writer
Write how to be an article writer a How
Resources Writing Empowered Superheroes in CWs Supergirl and Understanding Animation From the Trenches In this week’s round-up brought to us by Script Magazine, story editor Katiedid “Did” Langrock speaks with Reckless Creatives podcast. Plus, one-on-one interview with CWs Supergirl actress turned scribe Azie Tesfai about her groundbreaking episode and more! Grammar Allusion vs. Elusion vs. Illusion Let's look at the differences between allusion, elusion, and illusion with Grammar Rules from the Writer's Digest editors, including a few examples of correct usages. Collect everything you have gathered and put it in a folder, an electronic document, a notebook or whatever you like. Don’t forget to keep track of sources in case you are later asked by an editor to verify them. You may want to sift through your research at a separate sitting from gathering it. Or just go ahead and sprinkle your research in right when you find it. It’s a lot like cooking—play around until you feel you have it “just right.” If you’ve ever jotted down a recipe or shared do-it-yourself instructions with a friend, you already understand the basic structure of how-to writing. How-tos inform the reader and can often be submitted to an editor with a simple cover letter. By ChristinaKatz Christina Katz is the author of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids , Get Known Before the Book Deal , and The Writer's Workout . Double-check to see that you’ve included every pertinent step in the process. How-to articles have to be thorough. You want your reader to walk away knowing exactly how to make that Thanksgiving dinner on a shoestring budget, execute that rugby tackle, or locate great accommodations. Business of Writing How I Broke Into the Traditional Publishing World as an Indie Author Learn the process indie author Amanda Aksel went through in getting her novel Delia Suits Up traditionally published, including questions she asked herself and weighing one strategy against the other. Market Spotlight Texas Monthly: Market Spotlight For this week's market spotlight, we look at Texas Monthly, an Austin-based regional magazine focused on stories about Texas and Texans. Read the draft of your how-to article out loud to a supportive friend. Then, ask her a series of questions: Does she now understand the process? Are there any steps missing? Is there anything else she would like to know about the subject? Could she do the task herself? With your friend’s suggestions in mind, how to be an online writer