Wanna Write Like A Pro?

Hi! Today, I thought sharing a few tips on how to bring out the best in you as a writer might help. Last time I shared a few ideas on how to get more traffic and many people liked it. As an aspiring writer, I have come to realize that the question of writing what people want to read has always gone unanswered. Have you ever wished you wrote your articles, columns, books etc better? I know you have. Let us crack this shell. I will jump straight to the points.

• After reading so many articles on news sites, I felt like around the corner somewhere, somebody had to say something about the shortcomings of the writers of the same. One thing you need to do before jumping onto your keyboard to write anything is your subject. Answering the ‘what am I going to write about?’ question will help you exhaust the depths of the topic. Make short notes, think through each key point and make sure that important arguments come first.
• After mastering your concept, you are now ready to type something – but anyone can type right? The point is this: to avoid embarrassing yourself in the face of the world, plan out which paragraphs will come first. In high school, my English teacher told me that every story should have a beginning, a middle and an ending. So, what goes to the beginning of the story? Some people jump the rope quite often, spilling all the secrets in the first paragraph. That is not good.
• In my English 102, my professor told me that I needed to introduce the readers into what is awaiting them. Doing so need care because the risk of breaking the rule is high. Using a theses statement helps to motivate the readers just enough by preparing their minds for more details later down the road. If you are writing about a recent rise in texting and driving related accidents in your local town, you don’t jump straight to last week’s incident(you might be tempted to do this thinking it will make readers hooked).
• Assuming you have successfully hooked your readers with a great theses statement, to make it even more interesting, argue your points one by one without forgetting evidence or proof. Many people like works that have backup and of course they have to be realistic and non-exaggerated. All you are doing here is building the main body of your writing, so, make sure that everything you write flow smoothly and use connecting phrases between points and paragraphs.
• Depending on how long your work is, make sure you avoid repetitions and any form of poor grammar. Now, say that you have finished writing out your big points and you are taking a short break, where do you go next? Since you wrote out your arguments before the break, you need to offer some viable solutions to the problems for instance caused by texting and driving. Obviously, not all types of writing have this sort of format. Regardless, remember to give proposals that are reasonable. Each problem will have one or more possible solutions in its own paragraph.
• Almost done! You have written your arguments out, you have offered your thoughtful suggestions and now you are almost ready to close your document window. So what? Here is my take: according to my professor and as I have come to learn all these years, you need a conclusion. Make it simple and clear. Do not start writing the whole story all over again. Do not use the same words, just rephrase what your theses statement says – just remember to be clever enough not to look stupid. Ooops! You are done. Good job.

One good thing about using a template (software developers might agree with me here) is that regardless of the story you are working on, the structure will almost certainly remain the same. What you are doing is implementing it. Are you working on a book? Follow the same steps and of course add more great stuff. Are you working on column? What about a letter to your congressman or woman? All you are trying to do is to bring out the best, passing the correct information to whoever is reading your article and in the end, reducing the number of badly written stories out there. Simply, give substance to your work!

Finally, sometimes being too careful might hurt you. Often being careless will definitely hurt you. The best you can do is write an article people will thirst for more. How do you know if your work is the best? When someone reads the first chapter and they can’t wait to reach the second one and then the third one and till the end. That is enough for now. Hope you get something good from all these paragraphs I have written. If you have questions, let me know through the comments section or the contact page.

Thank you for reading. Please remember to subscribe through the home page of my blog. See you soon.

Thank You Readers! Thank You World!

I want to first say thank you to everyone who shared a link or tweeted my blog or re-blogged my post and most importantly, everyone who downloaded my books on Amazon! I cannot be thankful enough for that! This weekend has been the best for me since the time I published my books!

I had made a promise the first day of the giveaways to let you all know how everything transpired and now I wanna honor the same! Here is the breakdown: On the first day, hundreds and hundreds of readers downloaded my books. What surprised me was this observation: readers in the UK, Germany and Spain downloaded more copies of my second book [Across The River] than my first book [My Life Sentences – A True Story]. That was turned upside down on the last day!

In North America however, more and I mean more than a thousand readers downloaded my first book [My Life Sentences – A True Story] more than my second book [Across The River]. Personally, I have no conclusion as to why that happened but one thing is for sure; the outcome was epic!

Sometimes I look through pages of my books and cannot believe my eyes what I see! I normally ask myself, how on earth did I even write that? Of course the answer is, well, a smile and a feeling of happiness inside. The fact is this: those books would mean nothing without those who go to Amazon and download them and most importantly, read from chapter to chapter! Thank you so much!

Last but not least, I reached another milestone which might be tempting to ignore but equally important! The total visitors to my blog reached 4,000 and within two days, it is now over 5,000! That is humbling! Sometimes I run out of stuff to post but when I think about my eager readers, I just get off the couch and do something..right? That is the spirit! (I started this blog a little over two months ago).

Why did I choose to write books anyway? It all started when I was in high school……NO! I will not extend this longer than it is already, I care about your time! See you next time! Thank you and stay in the path of your dreams, so that when time comes, you will be ready to catch the vision!

Please remember to subscribe to my blog on the right of this page(Home)! If you have questions on writing and publishing books, don’t hesitate to ask me through the comments section. I will respond to them with your value in my mind! Adieus! Peace!!

You can still download my books My Life Sentences – A True Story and Across The River ! Cheers!

A New Look, A New Beginning

In the past few weeks or so, I have been taking lots and lots of pictures using my phone. I think I have snapped more pictures in less than a month than my entire life before that! At some point, I paused quietly and asked my inner self “What do the pictures really mean to me?” I do not think I came to a final answer.

In one photography book I came by recently, the author said these words “It is not the camera that takes pictures, instead, it is the photographer(In that case, the person holding the camera).” Of course I am not a photographer myself but I have to admit, photography is really a thing of beauty especially to those who know what they want out of it.

As a result of playing around with my camera, I ended up with the above photo. The clouds were hanging so low, I could imagine reaching out and touching them. It is like life as you can see it yet you cannot feel it. It looks dark, only because it is. What happens when you look further away? There is light. There is peace on the other side.

The other reason I am creating this post is to talk about my decision to change the ‘theme’ of my blog. I like this one better than what I had previously. I hope you will like it too and keep reading my posts. I will be posting great stuff over time and answering any questions you might have. Please feel free to post comments at any given time.

Finally, I would like say something about life: If I asked anyone how many times they have seen a dark cloud in their life, they will most likely say more than once. Life is full of difficult moments. Life is a mountain to most of us. The challenge is whether we can climb it or not. Remember, there is always light at the of the tunnel. Stay strong, stay focused and never give up your dreams!

You can read more about my personal story My Life Sentences – A True Story. Thank You!