Writing When You Know Nothing About the Subject Part 1

I hear a lot of writers talk about how they won’t apply for certain jobs or worry about accepting assignments because they know nothing about what they’d be required to write about and I hope to set you free today by letting you know you don’t have be an expert on a subject to write about it.

*Sigh* Felt good didn’t it? Letting out that breath of fear and hesitation is the first step to taking your writing career to the next level. Now, back to business. How do you write about something of which you have no knowledge? Research, research, research.

Do you need to become a leading expert in the subject before you can write your lede? No, but you need to become literate in the subject before you can begin searching for and interviewing subjects. Read up on the bones of the subject and then look at your audience. Are they other experts, hobbyists or the casual reader? Knowing your audience helps you determine how in-depth your knowledge of the subject needs to be.

Read up on the subject and then contact an expert. Ask the basic questions and also ask for research and source recommendations. Ask about angles on the subject that are not often covered. Remember, even for the casual reader you want to offer something more – something that will catch a reader’s eye and draw them into the article. Every parent has read an article on infants losing their belly buttons, but an article targeting less circulated newborn belly button issues like hernias is a great and different angle.

On Thursday: Part 2 – Research Sources.

Article Writing Must Reads

I’ve been blogging away here at the Freelance Writing Jobs Network for quite some time now and have compiled a pretty helpful lot of posts. However I realize those new to the site or those who may have missed a post don’t have time to go through all of the posts because you’re too busy writing! So here are a few of my favorite (and most helpful) article writing posts so far:

• Press Release Writing Intro
• Research – More Than Just Google
• Kill Fees – Not a Halloween Tale
• Best Query Advice
• You Missed a Deadline – Now What?
• Say What? A Quick Guide to Using Quotes

Hope these are a helpful quick reference on your article writing adventures!

Scheduling Time for Your Articles, Part 2

Yesterday we looked at scheduling time to research information, conduct interviews and prep an article in the first part of “Scheduling Time for Your Articles ” today we are going to wrap up this mini-series with a look at writing and editing.

• Schedule time to write the article. Once your preliminary work is complete it’s time to write. Short articles you may wrap up the initial draft in an hour or so, longer feature articles or more detailed subjects may take you anywhere from a couple hours to a couple of days. You should know your writing style by now so you are the only one who can plan out the time. I will caution you, however, to avoid spending an entire day on one piece. When something takes all day it is easy to get bored or frustrated with it. A couple of focused hours over the course of a couple of days tends to give writers a better perspective on where the piece is going. Which brings me to the next item:
• Schedule time to edit. “I edit as I write.” I hear that a lot when tutoring English students or students who are having trouble with papers in other classes. I usually respond “I can tell.” (Don’t worry, I am nice about it. Never crush a student’s writing confidence, it takes forever to get it back.) When you edit as you write you can end up with disjointed ideas, compromised flow and miss a gaggle of things you would have caught if you had gone back over the piece with your editing pen. Editing time is just as importing as writing and research time. I always advise students, writers, whomever, to take a day or two away from the piece. Give your brain a rest and then look at it with fresh eyes, you’ll have a much better idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Does the article writing process have to be a weeks-long odyssey? Absolutely not, but each step should be taken whether the step take 2 hours or 10 minutes. Giving the writing process time and diligence is what produces great writers, great articles and generates more income which is what we are all hoping for right? It also helps eliminate those pesky writing rodents “Procrastination” and “Missed Deadline.”

Do you break down the writing process differently? What works for you? Share it with your fellow writers below.

DOES it feel as good as your first time?

By Terreece M. Clarke

Do you remember what your first time felt like? The nervous, but excited fumbling to open it up (the web site or paper publication), the feverish scanning to take it all in (checking to see what the editor changed, making sure your name was spelled right) and the last cry of ecstasy (your paycheck!).

Dianne Burrell over at The Renegade Writer Blog is asking writers about their first time – literary experience you dirty minded thing. I want to know something different from the FWJ community – does it still feel as good as the first time, writing that is?

One of the keys to a successful writing career is you HAVE to love what you do. Not just like it or tolerate it. Writing is like another um, act – your passion and level of enthusiasm has a direct effect on the outcome. In other words, blah writers produce blah work.

We talk a lot here about the business of writing, the technical aspects of writing and the goals of writing, but I like writers to remember why they got into this business in the first place. The past is prologue – if you became a freelance writer to take on tough political issues, but you find yourself languishing in SEO article writing because it pays the bills you need to shake things up. If you aren’t reaching the same or surpassing the high you received from your first printed piece, you need to do a little therapy to get the passion back in your pen.

Love it, but it’s lost some umph

It’s a tried and true relationship. The bond you have with your niche or style of writing is steady, comfortable, but you miss some of the excitement. It’s time to try some new positions. Keep doing what works, but add some creativity. Try a new blog or a different type of publication. Shake up the way you format your articles: anecdote, statistic, quote, background info, bullet points, end quote, turn in article and repeat; that can get old after a while – stretch your legs and imagination.

Bring in another

Maybe your blog or column just doesn’t have the zing. Bring in a guest writer or blogger to breathe a little fresh air into your work. Use a guest writer and watch someone else have fun with and find the beauty in something you see everyday. Be careful not to get too attached or dependent, a guest could take over and before long you’ve lost the loyalty of your readers.

Practice makes perfect

Maybe you don’t write enough and when you do it just feels awkward. Keep practicing at every opportunity. Conduct additional research and work with in an expert or mentor if necessary.

While it will never be as special as your first time, your published pieces should continually feel just as good if not better as your first published piece. If it doesn’t make some changes!

What are you learning from your Feed Reader?

A common freelance writer ritual is, at some point, usually at the beginning and maybe again in the middle of their day, freelancers will take trip through their feed readers and see what’s happening on the ‘Net. The idea of the reader is to allow people to follow their favorite blogs and Web sites without having to go to each and every site to look for updates, saving precious time. But every so often a writer must ask themselves “What is my feed reader teaching me?”

Great writers read voraciously, are curious and follow other great writers. Are you following great writers or popular ones? Do you pick up someone’s feed because you like their work or because you see in their feed burner stats that 2000 others seem to like it? Are you constantly starring posts and news because it’s interesting, thought provoking and potential article or blog topics or do you find yourself scanning and then marking the whole feed as “read?”

If you can’t come up with three things you’ve learned from the sites on your feed reader you need to revisit what you have.

Great Writing

Your feed burner should bring you some of the best writing the web has to offer and not just in areas of your niche. Reading items outside your area of expertise is a great way to gain a new perspective and to broaden your appreciation for a well thought out turn of phrase. Great writing and successful sites are opportunities to learn what works well with audiences.

News to Me

Your reader should bring you news – local, world and industry news. I like to do a Google search of terms under the news tag and then save the search as an item to my reader, ensuring I get not only up-to-date general news, but news that is focused on my areas of writing interest. Nothing generates more hits, whether on a blog site or through a query to editors, than a timely piece on a popular news story.

Filter the Jobs and Junk

Another habit I have is go through my reader periodically and get rid of the sites I thought were going to be a wealth of info, but turned out to be either duds or not right for me. You can’t follow everything – you don’t have that kind of time – so be selective.

I also send job searches from Craigslist and others, through my reader. It helps me keep track of not only what gigs are out there for the moment, but what the market trends are like in my area. *Let me be clear, it’s not a substitute for the great work Jodee does because she gathers leads from all over and most writers don’t have time to go through all of the hundreds of thousands of gigs out there, including the repetitive ones.

So this afternoon or tomorrow morning as you scan through the latest feed reader entries ask yourself “What am I learning?”