Ravensong Poetry And Writing Blog by Donovan Baldwin

Poetry and Writing
Poetry Forums: Navigating the Cybernetic Nebulae
By Devrie Paradowski

What to Search

Poetry falls just short of celebrities, spam, porn and Internet marketing in the vast continuum of cyber-space searches. That means poetry is surprisingly popular on the Internet. Finding a poetry community to share your works won't be an overly difficult task; however, finding one that fits your specific aim can get you feeling as though you are a character in the not-yet made movie, "Lost in Cyberspace."

There are several types of forums for different types of poets.


The show-and-tell
The hard-core critique
The ghost town forum
The ego trogh
no-spell-ums 4ums

The Show-and-Tell

If you are not particularly interested in having your work dissected by the serious critique forum, but you'd like to share your poetic experiences, perhaps you should look for a show-and-tell. These are communities where the members will give casual feedback on poetry, and usually, the feedback is heavily centered on the theme of the poem rather than the process of the poem.

The Hard-Core Critique

If you aren't prepared or experienced in getting serious critique on your poetry, you might be taken aback by these types of forums. The members will give you their honest thoughts on your piece, and you'll soon find out that a first time post rarely yields strictly positive comments.

A good critique forum will have members who read a lot of poetry and actually know what to look for in a good piece. These folks will comment on your structure, internal rhyme, general rhyme, awkward wording, abstract and concrete imagery, and your overall cohesion. You don't have to blindly follow the members' advice, but arguing and rationalizing the flaws in your poem will get you nowhere. Also, keep in mind, that a good critic will also point out the strengths in a poem, so it isn't all that scary.

Also, your poem might go unnoticed until you give a few well-thought comments on other members' poems. People can sometimes be apprehensive about giving a good critique to a poem until they know how that person critiques a poem.

The Ghost Town Forum

You probably won't want to join this forum, but it can have it's benefits. A "Ghost Town" forum is a forum that doesn't seem to have very many members. "What," you may ask, "could possibly be the benefit of this?" Well, it's a clean slate. If you know of other poets who have the same aim as you, you can invite them to the forum. You can lead discussions and critiques in a style that will benefit those who do have the same aim as you.

Also, some "ghost towns" are actually very new. Some of them might quickly shoot up in popularity, and if you decide to stay with the forum, you can oftentimes build long-time relationships with the members.

The Ego Trough

There are forums out there where the sole purpose seems to give other poets a pat on the back. No, wait, where the poets are searching for pats on the back. It might feel pretty good to post your poem on a forum and get a response such as "Wow, this is so great. You're talented. I can so relate to this." Keep in mind that there is usually very minimal feedback going on in these forums, and a lot of times, it seems that the praise is generated in hopes of having someone come back and praise their own poems.

Some of these "Ego Troughs" were created by poets who were hoping to showcase their own poetry. For many, poetry is the ultimate expression of the soul, so the fact that people are hoping to garner a plethora of praise is understandable. The benefit of such a forum is that it can make you feel good about yourself, and it can help you to gain the confidence you want in order to move forward with your poetry. The consequence is that you might never develop the actual art and process of writing a good poem.

The No Spell-ums 4ums

There are some forums out there that seem to be developed by the youth of cyberspace. Unless you are a teenager (and even then), I really don't see much use of these kinds of forums. These are the forums where even the poetry uses that new-fangled text-speak. Responses to these poems are even in text-speak, you know, "Ur so gr8!" I cringe at the idea of a poem that uses that kind of language, unless it is a parody or something.

I suppose poetry is relative, and even poetry spans the meaning and spelling of words.

The Bottom Line

Before posting your poetry in a poetry forum, lurk around a bit. Also, the very first thing you should do is determine what you really want to get out of a poetry forum. If you are really uber serious about developing your work, perhaps you should search for a closed community, but email the moderator and ask a lot of questions before jumping in. You can join one of those closed communities before posting your work, too. Check out the site and look at the things the other members are saying.

Here is a final list of things to consider when searching for a community:


The Member Size. A REALLY big member base can have your poem lost in a matter of seconds.

Publicity. If it is an open forum, even non-members can read your poem. Do you really want or mind that?

Sign in or not? Even open forums usually require a member sign-in. If not, the forums may be subject to flamings and spam.

Paid Membership? You might wince at the idea of paying for something you can get for free; however, a paid membership can filter out those who aren't serious. Just be sure to ask a lot of questions before paying the dough (which shouldn't be much more than $30 a year.)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Devrie_Paradowski

Poetry and Writing

Bangla (Bengali) literature: Some reflections
By Razib Ahmed

The most tragic thing about Bangla (Bengali) literature today is the absence of information about it in Internet. Internet is the biggest place for information and millions of people are browsing for information and entertainment everyday. If you do a search in Google about Bangla (Bengali) literature you will have to feel frustrated. Except Wikipedia and Bangla (Bengali)pedia there are not a lot of information about Bangla (Bengali) literature. This is ia tragic matter because Bangla (Bengali) literature is one of the richest literatures in the world. Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest figure in Bangla (Bengali) literature got Nobel Prize in 1913 and he was the first writer from outside of Europe and America to get this prestigious prize.

Tagore's achievement did not take place all of a sudden. Rather it came after 100 years of modernization and reformation process in Bangla (Bengali) literature that started with Rammohan Roy, the father of Indian reformation movement. It was Ram Mohan Roy who realized the need to reform the Indian society and embracing the liberal and positive aspects of the western civilization. A little later Michael Madhusudan Dutt turned this concept into reality in to Bangla (Bengali) literature by introducing sonnet and blank verse. Thus social reformation and modernization in literature occurred hand by hand in Bengal. The ground was prepared for Tagore to come and shine in the world literature.

It is true that Tagore almost single-handedly elevated Bangla (Bengali) literature to become one of the richest literatures in the contemporary world. Tagore's achievement made every Bengali writer proud and it created a new enthusiasm for them. After Tagore got Nobel Prize in 1913 the golden age of Bangla (Bengali) literature started and for the next 30 years it continued with a handful of writers in every genre. Kazi Nazrul Islam excelled in writing poems about social justice and he also successfully used both Hindu and Muslim heritage in his poems. It was in his poems that the idea of unity between Muslims and Hindus was echoed again and again. Sharatchandra emerged as the most popular novelist in Bangla (Bengali) literature. His novels touched people from every background in the society and still today his novels are most widely read in Bangla (Bengali) literature. Jibananda Das caught the attention of the readers for writing poems about nature and Bibhutibhushon Banerje did the same in prose in Bangla (Bengali) literature.

History of Bangla (Bengali) literature is more than 1200 years old and among the modern Indian languages (belonging to the Indic branch of Indo-Eurpean language Familiy) Bangla (Bengali) literature is among the earliest literatures. The first text of Bangla (Bengali) literature Charyapada was written perhaps in 9th or 8th century. This book is a collection of songs and poems written by a number poets (mainly Budhists). The poems contained description of everyday social life instead of praise to gods or goddesses. The most fascinating aspect of Bangla (Bengali) literature is that poets and writers from 4 religions have contributed in its development. Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian writers have their contributions in Bangla (Bengali) literature and Bangla (Bengali) literature has been enriched from these religions too. The presence and interaction among the poets of different religions have made Bangla (Bengali) literature a literature of liberal humanism. Bangla (Bengali) literature influenced its speakers so much that in 1952 Bangla (Bengali)deshi people sacrificed their blood against the Pakistani rulers to uphold the status of Bangla (Bengali).

It is really a sad matter that hardly any information is available in Internet about this great literature. There must be a broad initiative to change this scenario. The blog http://write-translate.blogspot.com is an effort to bridge this gap.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Razib_Ahmed

Poetry

by Donovan Baldwin
Copyright 2006

The morning air was softly warm.
No, not warm, but not cold either.

Soft with the fog which hung there
Before the sun was fully risen,
Ending the world with a curtain of gray,
Only a few feet away.

I slipped down to water,
Rippling softly against sand,
Stripped off my clothes and cares,
And slid naked into the bay,
While a disapproving heron watched
From the edge of the fog.

The water there was too shallow to swim,
But I quietly splashed about,
Reveling in the freedom,
The feel of sand, water, and air
As each brushed my goose-bumped body.

In less than ten minutes,
I had returned to my bicycle,
And, with my clothes,
Put back on my true identity
And pedalled off into the day,
Leaving Mr. Heron with a story to tell
Of the strange bird HE saw.

Written 3/21/90
Published: The Advocate 4/26/96

Labels: donovan baldwin, fog, morning swim, poem, poetry

Copyright © Donovan Baldwin
http://www.quit-the-ratrace.com

If you're a writer or have an internet business, I've got good news and better news and best news. If you are or wish to be a writer and have, or wish you had, an internet business, it's all best!

There is a new type of advertising for internet businesses these days and it is very effective. Even better, it is easy, and best, it is free!

Many people roaming the internet MAY be searching for your business, MIGHT find it, and PERHAPS might go through your web site to make a purchase.

However, it's a big internet business ocean, and chances are, you, like me, are a small frog in this big pond.

Don't get me wrong, I make a comfortable income in six figures from my internet business, but I am NOT Ford, Verizon, or even Jimmy Dean Sausage. Those are big players, and you and I cannot effectively compete against them head to head on a daily basis. If I advertise my brand of sausage, and someone searches for sausage, they will probably wind up at Jimmy Dean's web site, and will buy Jimmy Dean's sausage!

If, on the other hand, someone is trying to find information on healthy breakfast foods or foods that can be used in a weight loss program, and I just happen to be able to provide that information, AND I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A LINK (NO PUN INTENDED) TO MY BREAKFAST SAUSAGE, I might just have made a sale.

That's where this new type of advertising has come in.

At first, the internet seemed to be a vast market with everybody trying to sell things. Over time, another picture has emerged. People are roaming the internet daily in search of information! He or she who can provide the information is going to rise in the respect of the information seeker, and is going to have the opportunity to introduce his or her product or service to the information seeker. And, as is common on the internet today, the information seeker is usually not looking for an encyclopedic article on all aspects of a topic. They want one or two specific pieces of information or answers to certain questions they may have.

Additionally, search engine businesses have realized this, and many of the most effective search engines are giving higher priority to web sites and pages which provide the informational content their customers are seeking.

This new, free, effective advertising technique I mentioned above is based on this. You provide the information people are seeking in small simple articles, and include information about your product either within the body of the article or in an informational tag of some sort. The search engines are happy to find the information you provide and follow links from the informational site back to your internet business web site, thus increasing your visibility and ability to attract traffic.

So far, so good, but you are still the small internet business in the huge pond full of leviathan internet businesses. What you do is get a lot of other fishes to help spread your message across the internet pond.

There is on the internet a huge array of web sites which specialize in accepting articles from authors who have written these small informational or entertaining articles. Once accepted, these articles are posted on their web sites for their visitors to view. Many of these are high traffic web sites and you have the chance of having your article viewed by many visitors. If the web site where you post your article is visited by a search engine, and many have very high rankings with major search engines, your article will eventually be indexed by the search engine and probably the web site you have linked to as well.

Additionally, and this may be the best part, this site where you have posted your article will be visited by thousands of people looking for content to include on their web sites or in their e-zines. They are not looking for Herman Melville or Alexandre Dumas, they are looking for short informational articles which provide valid information to their web site visitors or readers. If your article fits their needs, some of them will use it, distributing your article...AND LINKS...across the internet ocean.

So how hard is it to write one of these articles?

I just did.

It includes practical information on a subject of interest to a great many people. It is on a subject I know something about, but, even had I only known a little bit, fifteen minutes research on the internet would have provided the information I needed. It took me less than an hour to complete (not counting stopping to play with the cats, Big Foot and Amber, and letting Diamond, the dog, outside). Now, I am going to spend a few minutes at EzineArticles.com, SubmitYourArticle.com, the Warrior Forum, and at one of my own internet business web sites where I post many of my articles, and at my internet business blog where I will also post this article. Within a few days, it will be on a few web sites, following the process I have outlined, and working for me twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year.

Guess I'll go have breakfast now. Love my internet business!

You have a great day.

About The Author:
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The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Health and Weight Loss, and Real Estate Investing.
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NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this
article within your website or newsletter as long
as you leave the article fully intact and include
the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)

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Poetry and Writing:
A Brush With "The Lady of Shallot"
By Tushar Jain

The poem 'The Lady of Shalott' by Tennyson is thought to be loosely based on Elaine, the fair maid who was in love with Sir Lancelot of Arthurian legend, as portrayed in Sir Thomas Mallory’s 'Morte D'Arthur'. Lancelot, alas, only had eyes for Queen Guinevere, so Elaine locked herself in a tower on the island of Shalott and died of a broken heart. Tennyson's tragic version of the 'Lady of Shalott has been the inspiration for these great works of art. The artists are all members of, or were inspired by, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Lady of Shalott is a magical being who lives alone on an island upstream from King Arthur's Camelot. Her business is to look at the world outside her castle window in a mirror, and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. She is forbidden by the magic to look at the outside world directly. The farmers who live near her island hear her singing and know who she is, but never see her.

The Lady sees ordinary people, loving couples, and knights in pairs reflected in her mirror. One day, she sees the reflection of Sir Lancelot riding alone. Although she knows that it is forbidden, she looks out the window at him. The mirror shatters, the tapestry flies off on the wind, and the Lady feels the power of her curse. An autumn storm suddenly arises. The lady leaves her castle, finds a boat, writes her name on it, gets into the boat, sets it adrift, and sings her death song as she drifts down the river to Camelot. The locals find the boat and the body, realize who she is, and are saddened. Lancelot prays that God will have mercy on her soul. This is one of Tennyson's most popular poems. The Pre-Raphaelites liked to illustrate it.

Relationship between artist and society

The artist is presented as a reclusive identity, bearing merely an idea of the ‘world’ and ‘society’, sequestered in a very cloistered relationship with oneself and one’s creative index that is perhaps a reflection or an artist’s indirect link with reality. Tennyson’s abstractness is perhaps aimed at a presumptive conviction of an artist’s livelihood… by illustrating an isolated female conjuring upon a web in a castle bound by a curse and viewing life through a mirror, and still remaining aloof from all human association and communion, Tennyson is trying to alight upon a highly eccentric and elitist fashion of an artistic temperament. We can presume that the poem might be aimed as a nonfigurative satire or a figurative panegyric. The thematic values of ‘the lady of Shallot’, though, remain indelibly the same, and many allusive interpretations can be extorted of the text.

Now, when Tennyson uses the allegory of the lady weaving a web to represent life, the intention is perhaps to celebrate the artistic conundrums or the artist’s harsh and unique perception of life that to the common eye is web-like or in other words, confusing, intricate, enigmatic and intriguing. Tennyson endeavors to apprise or explicate the reader of the elaborate insight of an artist that enables him to cast life in a personal and subjective metaphor.

Secondly, when Tennyson projects the fact that the lady of Shallot is cursed to her undying isolation, then the subject matter drifts to the argument expostulating that the ability of an artist though liberates him, it simultaneously ensnares him in the process of a gross and aggressive internalization, and the talent thus shifts to the symbolic curse that begets the artist to be damnably integral, individualist and a needlessly private character. It is an inadvertent testament to the saying that skill renders a man illimitable freedom as long as he remains within the fence.
Thirdly, the castle is a representative of an artist’s baffling solitude. An artist, according to Tennyson, marginalizes his existence to access those of others. The reason to an artist’s seclusion is inexplicable, but we can guess that it is never deliberate, instead as the poem establishes, the consequences of action based on any genuine free will can be vitally ominous and dire. The artist is shown as a desperate, piteous and hopeless character, and we can adjudge that there are glaring peripheral hints of Tennyson’s admiration and conspicuous empathy for the artist in the theme of the poem.

Fourthly and lastly, the greatest emblem or insignia that the poem has to offer towards a fundamental assay, an attempted formation of the artist’s archetypal icon is the lady’s constant attempt of viewing the changing world through in the mirror. This is a very thorough, exhaustive and coherent crack at demystifying or enlightening the reader of the predicaments of an artistic life when the artist is reduced to perceiving the world through a rigid medium, through a device that reflects the exteriors of men and the implicit inflexibility of their emotions, and thus the artist perceives of their depths and sensitivity obliquely.

Shoot queries at mosaics12@rediffmail.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tushar_Jain

Poetry and Writing

Poetry and Writing
Getting a Job Writing Website Content—10 SEO Tips for Creating a Sample Web Page
By Kathy Will

I have found my dream job. I am not going to get rich, but I can work at home and always be available for my children. I write website content and do search engine optimization (SEO ) for a law firm. To get the job, I had to send in a sample Web page. I did not see the other applicants’ pages, but I think mine looked far different than theirs. Mine had notes within red brackets throughout explaining what I had done and why. Here are 10 SEO tips that could help you write a killer sample Web page:

Choose one key phrase for your sample Web page. If you do not have WordTracker, which you don’t if you have not been doing SEO, go to http://inventory.overture.com and type in a key phrase. Work at it until you have a fairly well-searched phrase. In an introduction to your sample Web page, explain what you have done to find a key phrase. You will also need to explain that having one key phrase per Web page is the ideal for SEO purposes.

Use the key phrase near the top of the page, preferably in the title. Make a notation in red by the title (or wherever you first use the key phrase), explaining that search engines give more relevance to keywords near the top of the page and even more relevance to keywords in the page title.

Place the key phrase in headings. Make a notation in red by the first heading that you have your key phrase in explaining that search engines give more relevance to keywords in headings.

Highlight your key phrase with bold and/or italic. Again, make a notation in red explaining that search engines give more relevance to keywords that are in bold and italic. Using bold and italic is also good, user-friendly website content writing.

Use your key phrase multiple times. There is no magic number, but you do not want to go overboard. Explain in your introduction to the page that the key phrase should be used at least three times. You will not want the key phrase to be more than 5% or 6% of the content on the page.

Use your key phrase in lists, either ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted). Make a notation in red the first time you use the key phrase in a list explaining that search engines give more relevance to words in lists.

Have links (at least one) between pages within the site contain your key phrase. Give your links in your page a different color and/or underline them. When you use your key phrase in one, make a notation in red that search engines give more relevance to words in a link.

Put your key phrase around links. If you cannot have your key phrase in a link, put it near a link. When you do this, make a notation in red explaining that search engines may be give more relevance to words around links.

Scatter key phrases throughout text. In the introduction to your page, explain that if a link is scattered throughout a text, it convinces the search engines that the page really is about the key phrase. The result is greater relevance for your key phrase.

Make the words around your key phrase count. Search engines may pull content around your key phrase for a description of the Web page. The ultimate goal is not to get high ranking with the search engines. The ultimate goal is to get customers or clients. To do this, the website has to rank high with the search engines and appeal to potential clients.

There is a lot more to SEO than the 10 tips I have given you here. If you do land a job writing for the Web, you will have to learn all that you can about SEO. I would suggest reading Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Peter Kent. Although anything published on computers is generally obsolete by the time it is published, this book is still relevant and will give you a good idea what SEO is about. I would start with the book and then look on the net for additional, updated information.

If you are a freelance writer hoping to make a decent living, writing for the Web is a wonderful option. Using your skills as a writer and the 10 tips for writing a sample Web page, you should be able to get work writing website content. Happy job hunting.

You are free to publish this article on the internet. You must, however, give the author credit, provide a live link to the website I am working on, http://www.pritzkerlaw.com/, and not materially alter any of the content.

© 2006 Kathy Will

Kathy Will is a freelance Web writer who can usually be found shivering at her computer in Minnesota. Her current project is http://www.pritzkerlaw.com/, a legal resource for injured people.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Will

Poetry and Writing

By Earma Brown

No, I’m not calling you a pig. Now that I have your attention, I want to talk with you about finishing your book fast and getting it to market faster. Did you start on your book and lose focus? You would love the rewards of a completed book but wonder where you could fit writing into your schedule.

Don’t be discouraged; let me share some tips that will jumpstart your writing again. Trust me, if it feels like you’ve been stuck in the mud, these tips will pull you out. I call them the habits of highly effective authors. Successful writers set up a system of writing using steps that become habits. Practice the habits below and write your best book now:

1. Do a reality check.

Do you have a plan in place? Don’t set yourself up for failure by not planning. Even if it’s a simple intention goal like “I complete my book (title of book) this year by (date and year.) I educate myself and do what it takes to complete it.” Set one and write it down so you can hit the target.

2. Setup a writing schedule.

Keep it simple. How much time can you devote to your book? Schedule at least 10 hours per week. Snatch an hour here and an hour there, if you must. When my schedule is tight, I write one hour in the wee hours of the morning and one hour late at night. I have to prioritize and so must you if you want to get it done. I must admit since I am an early bird, my early morning writing takes less revision than the late night.

3. Act now.

Too many of us for too long have hid behind the words, “It’s too hard.” Now is the time to take charge of our fears and conquer them. First things first, to overcome procrastination -the fear of failure- is to act now. Most times the bottom line of procrastination is fear of failure.
Setup your writing schedule and begin today. Or choose to sign-up for an easy 7 lesson ecourse “Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book Now. “ Send any email to iscribe@writetowin.org Remember, action will destroy fear. Each successful step of your system will deal a death blow to fear.

4. Avoid marathon writing.

Have you ever thought, “I have to get away from everything to write a successful book?” No you don’t. I know several novelist and non-fiction book writers who had to write during a long commute to get their best book written and out to the world. They accomplished it because they systematically worked on their book until it was done. In the midst of your busy life, designate your time to write (work on your book) with a goal to completion. (Reasonable time to completion)

5. Use the tracking approach.

I can’t keep up with where I am after interruptions of life. It is a common challenge to find your place after being interrupted with family, work and daily life. After all that’s why many think you must get away to get it done effectively. Yet, there’s hope for those who can’t get away or choose not to. Successful writers all over the world use the tracking approach. They succeed because they commit to doing a little each day.

There are 2 methods you could use for your tracking. Time is the method where you commit to a writing a certain amount of time each day. With the cumulative factor involved your commitment doesn’t have to be that much. For example, to accomplish my book writing goals I commit to writing one hour a day in my most productive time. For me it is right after my meditation and reading time. With this method don’t be overly concerned about how much you write, just keep the time commitment.

The other method is focused on output. Commit to writing a certain number of words or pages a day, perhaps 750-1,000 words or approximately three and a half pages double-spaced text. The key factor is to stick to it until completion.

6. Don’t become chained to writing in order.

Jump around and fill in the blanks. Review your chapters and whatever subject or topic you most drawn to, begin there. Many inexperienced writers feel they have to complete each chapter in order.

It’s called linear writing (writing each chapter in order.) You don’t have to write each chapter one after the other. If you happen to get stuck on chapter two, you could be stuck a very long time. I think this type of thinking comes from grade school where we are ritually taught to do everything in order.

If you have been thinking that way stop right now, no need to raise your hand. You have my permission to work on whatever chapter moves you or you feel passion bubbling for at the moment. Feeling stuck on a chapter, try another. There you have it now go with the flow.

7. Maintain your momentum keep your writing commitments.

Do you ever feel like I am stuck. I have to stop writing until I feel it again. Don’t worry many of us have felt that way. From what I said earlier you may have gotten the impression that you just write when you feel like it and quit when you don’t. If so, no that’s not what I meant.

Unseasoned writers may play the martyr and push through just to put something on paper or give up and try again another day. We would never get it done like that. When you get stuck simply close that chapter and pull out your chapter outline and choose another chapter.

8. Successful authors rewrite and organize their ideas for the most impact.

New authors tell me all the time, “I just write whatever comes to my head and there’s no need to re-write. My editor will handle all that.”

My response is always the same: It’s o.k. to free write when you are working on your first draft. The idea is go get the thoughts out of your head onto paper. For no one can express it quite like you. Oh sure, there are some better or worse writers but not exactly like you.

In fact, my advice is to avoid re-writing during your first draft. Concentrate on finishing each chapter then use your tracking time to self-edit: Check your ideas for flow, grammar, spelling, and chapter endings. Work on your chapter titles and lead in introductions.

I know this may not feel good to some but its smacks of plain ole laziness if you don’t work on making your copy the best it can be. Don’t leave all the dirty work for your editor unless you really can’t do any better.

9. Learn to delegate and share faster and faster.

Don’t succumb to the feeling that you have to do it all yourself. As writers, we can get pretty isolated in our thinking if we’re not careful. Do your research and reading time apart from your writing sessions. You may be able to ask your spouse, a teen-aged son or daughter, a friend to help with your research.

Know when to let go of your chapters and book. Don’t self-edit and pick your book apart word by word. Learn to use your skills at the highest level possible. Some of the mechanical tasks of proofreading ask a family member, part-time employee or again a friend to help. After you have done the best job you can with your manuscript, don’t be afraid to pass it to a professional. Learn to delegate faster and faster.

10. Value your time. Learn how to do it easier and faster.

I don’t know anything about computers so pecking my book out would probably take forever. Don’t run from technology. At least take the time to learn about the shortcuts in your current software. Welcome to the new millennium! Embrace technology make your software work efficiently for you. You can sign-up for a basic computer course. Get a book to learn the short-cuts. Not ready to invest, look for some free tutorials online.

Even so, nothing can happen until that first draft is completed. Procrastination is ultimately based on fear of failure. It has stopped countless of book projects and stolen the vision of many more. Don’t allow procrastination to become a giant towering over your book dreams.

Then there are others who are not afraid but simply get bogged down with lack of focus and a plan. Develop the habits outlined above and you’ll be surprised at what you accomplish. Write your best book now and bring it to market faster!

© Earma Brown, 11 year author and business owner
helps small business owners and writers who want to write their best book now! Author of “Write Your Best Book Now”, she mentors other writers and business professionals through her monthly ezine “iScribe” Subscribe now at
iscribe@writetowin.org for FREE mini-course 'Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book' or visit http://www.writetowin.org.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Earma_Brown

Blogging to the Bank!
How A Work Shy College Dropout Cracked The Secret Code To Become A Super Affiliate Earning Up To $516.53 Per Day On Autopilot Using Free Blogs!