Tag: Writing

We talk about the differing opinions about the amount if detail in books and give some tips for your writing!

If you search for writing tips online, it doesn’t take long to find widely differing viewpoints on how much, or how little, description is needed to make a good book.

“I don’t care about the color of the sunset! This book describes way too much!”

“I can’t picture any of the locations. There needs to be more detail.”

“Stop it with the sappy ‘eyes like glittering moonlight’ descriptions.”

“I love sappy descriptions! I live for them!”

“I don’t care how the character looks. I’m only interested in their soul.”

“If I don’t know what this character looks like in the first two pages, I’m making up my own appearance for them.”

It’s confusing, right? One thing that is clear is that reading preferences vary significantly. Some people like a great deal of description and like to know every little detail. Others prefer to get right to the action. So how do you navigate this when writing your book? Presumably, you want to sell your book so you want to appeal to a large audience. How can you balance your writing style with what people want to read?

Know Your Genre and Age Group

One thing that is helpful is to know your genre and age group. And this includes subgenres, as well! Reading books in your niche and knowing about the fanbase that reads them will be helpful to you. I’m a big supporter of fanfiction. Look at what people write fanfics about. That will give you a good idea of what fans actually like.

Here are examples:

• Young adult supernatural – Typically likes a mild amount of description. Prefers description of characters over deep world building and environmental details. Adolescents are more emotionally driven, so the characters are paramount to them.
• Adult epic fantasy – Usually these are fans of books like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or the Witcher. More detail and rich descriptions are appreciated. Keeping a balance between character and world detail is key.
• Adult romance – Sensory descriptions work well for this fanbase. Touch, smell, taste. The world and environment are more of a background to the immediate moment and character sensations. Like muscles and flowing locks of hair.
• Young adult horror – Less detail is better for the characters and the world. Descriptions should focus on the scary stuff and setting the mood. To keep suspense, the plot needs to keep rolling forward and not get bogged down with flowery language.

How is Your Pacing?

When editing your story, pacing is important to pay attention to. How slow is the writing? How fast is the writing? Is it slow and fast at the appropriate moments?

If you think the pacing is off, the problem could be too much (or too little) description. When I want the narrative to take a pause, and give the readers a moment to breathe, I start describing things. I set the scene. I play into the senses. And when I want the narrative to feel heart-pounding, I use very little description.

A good balance of both optimizes your pace across your story.

Be True to Yourself

At the end of the day, you want to write a story that you want to read. If you are not happy with it and feel that it isn’t “you”, then it’s not worth it. Be as flowery as you want to be, and be as to-the-point as you want to be. It’s your story, after all.

This is the seventh in a series on how to become a writer.

Many writers like to use freelance websites, such as Fiverr and Upwork, to get repeat business. Just browsing these platforms you’ll see many writers advertising their services. Ghostwriters, resume writers, editors, copywriters, etc.

But are they useful? Do they bring in money? Are they worth the time? Having tried both, we give our thoughts here.

Is Fiverr Useful for Writers?

Yes and no.

Fiverr is a popular platform for both buyers and sellers. It works by you posting your profile and what services you offer, and customers coming to buy these services from you. It is high visibility, so you’ll have greater outreach to potential buyers. The ability to pay through Fiverr is also comforting to buyers as they know exactly where their money is going.

However, there are downsides. If you are new to Fiverr, it’s an uphill battle to get anyone to buy from you since you have no reviews. And Fiverr does not take the side of sellers when it comes to customer complaints. This can result in you losing money, having bad reviews, or even getting your account banned.

It’s worth noting this is a common problem with any platform similar to Fiverr, such as Etsy. They are notorious for siding with the complaining customer no matter what, and have poor support for sellers that need help. That is why many prefer to sell only through their own website that they have full control over, despite the limited reach.

Is Upwork Useful for Writers?

No.

I don’t recommend Upwork for a variety of reasons. It works by you placing “bids” on posted job opportunities. You respond what you will do for the buyer who posted the job, and how much you will charge. The buyer then chooses who they want to work with.

The problem with this is that it encourages underselling yourself and the true price your work. Of course, a buyer might not always go with the cheapest option, especially if the higher price tag comes with a seasoned Upwork professional with hundreds of great reviews.

Upwork also puts a limit on how many bids you can place, meaning you can’t have the kind of outreach you need for posted jobs.

Many people who post job opportunities on Upwork are seeking quick turnarounds. This is a much less professional process than Fiverr and can result in customers being angry that you aren’t at their beck and call 24/7.

Conclusion

Online platforms for freelancers are very popular, but they are not perfect. If you choose to use one to sell your services, I recommend also having backups on other platforms, and on your own website.

This is the sixth in a series on how to become a writer.

If you are going to apply to writing jobs, you need a good writing resume. As someone who has been a professional resume writer for 8 years and has a background in the hiring business, I am here to give you advice! Some resume advice you don’t have to pay $200 for.

Formatting Your Resume

Your resume not only needs to pass a digital scan to be seen by an employer (an ATS), but it also needs to look good to be read by a human. It needs to be reader-friendly. Your information needs to be easy to see. Here’s a good guideline to follow:

• Keep your front at 10-11
• No heavy graphics, photos, or charts
• Color is your friend!
• Keep it at 1-2 pages for ease of reading
• Evenly space out each section to make it easy to find information

Here is a sample resume I built for this.

Your “About” Section

This is the top section of your resume. You will have a header with your resume title. This typically is the job you have right now, but you can also make it vague to target the job you want. For example, if our sample resume didn’t want to be a Content Writer anymore, they could just put “Professional Writer”.

Your opening paragraph follows. This is an overview of your skillset and career history. Here are top tips to keep in mind:

• Never use personal pronouns
• Keep it at 3-6 lines
• Summarize your skillset without going into great detail

Your “Areas of Expertise” Section

This section includes keywords about your job. This is an extremely useful section because it will help your resume pass a digital scan. You can format it anyway you want, but I like the clean look of these bullet points.

If you’re at a loss of what skills to put down, it helps to look at job postings. What skills are they asking for? Do you have those? Here are some tips for this section:

• More is not better. Keep it straight to the point.
• 1-3 words is best for each bullet so long as it doesn’t feel wordy and crowded
• Make sure what you put down can be backed up by your career history section

How to Write a Good Career History

Writing a good job history is an art form. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the details of what you did that you write a job history that is too much for anyone to read. I like to split up each job history into a paragraph and a bullet point list. The paragraph is for daily duties. The bullet points are to highlight your achievements. If you go with only a paragraph, don’t make it too long. And if you go with only bullet points, don’t go over 7. Remember a person is supposed to be able to scan this quickly!

• Keep your paragraph between 3-6 lines.
• No more than 7 bullet points, and 3-5 is ideal.
• Describe what you did at your job and how it impacted the business
• Lost on what to include? Think about projects you were a part of, committees or task forces you helped with, new ideas you helped bring to life, and big business moments you were a part of.

Misc Content

You have the option to add a few more sections on your resume depending on your background and what you want to talk about. Here are best practices for that.

• Education: List your degrees, certifications, or trainings. But don’t list your high school.
• Activities & Interests: This humanizes you and adds some personality. But don’t include anything that could offend your potential boss. Religious activities, political activism, or activities like hunting, recreational marijuana, or running a prank video YouTube channel might not go over well. Some things you don’t mix your business life with.
• Technologies: It never hurts to list the software you use, especially if knowledge of certain software is essential to your industry.
• Volunteering: This is also a nice section to have, but keep it simple. It shouldn’t overshadow your work experience. Just listing the organization and what you did is enough. (Example: Fundraiser for a local food bank).
• Affiliations: If you are a member of any professional organizations, list them in their own section.

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these! I randomly pulled three tarot cards from my Curse of Strahd deck. They were assigned three critical story components: The Protagonist, the Antagonist, and the Conflict. I turned over each and took photos of the result. Use these as inspiration for your next story!

The Protagonist

I turned over the Beggar. This protagonist may be a literal beggar living on the street in poverty. It could also be a more symbolic meaning, such as someone begging for an outcome, or someone that has lost a great deal in life. You could also take inspiration from the character on the card as a starting point. He seems to be an elderly man missing one hand.

The Antagonist

I turned over the Abjurer. In TTRPG terms, abjuration magic means defensive or protective magic. An official definition of the word abjure, though, means to renounce or reject something. Especially something significant like an oath. The woman in the art appears very formal and serious.

The Conflict

I drew the Ghost for conflict. This opens up interesting connection possibilities between our Protagonist and Antagonist. Did someone they both know die? Have they returned to haunt them? Is the ghost more symbolic of something from both of their pasts they’d rather forget? Are they haunted by mistakes? Is that what caused them to lead such different lives?

The fourth in a series on how to become a writer.

Now that you know about types of writing jobs, education required, and options on freelancing, that leaves an obvious next question. How do you find writing jobs? We’ve found our various writing jobs in a few different ways:

• We applied online to a job posting.
• We got hired from knowing someone else in the company (including twice being referred by one another).
• We were randomly reached out to because a hiring manager saw our website.
• We were reached out to by someone that didn’t hire us for a full-time role, but wanted our help on a temporary, contract basis.

I think there are two major lessons to be pulled from these experiences. It does, indeed, pay to know people. And having a good online presence can get you opportunities.

Where to Look for Jobs

As someone with a background as recruiter and resume writer, as well as a human myself who looks for jobs, these are my top recommendations if you want to find work.

• Indeed: This is a top job board site. It’s very well-used by employers and is easy to search. But do NOT apply through Indeed. Use it for research and then visit the employer’s website directly to apply.
• LinkedIn: While not as user-friendly in search terms as Indeed, it does offer a large amount of jobs to look through on a daily basis. Networking opportunities are also very useful here. Again, don’t use their Easy Apply. You’ll just get lost in the shuffle. Go to the employer’s website.
• Submittable: This offers opportunities to submit written work to a variety of publishers if you are looking to be more of a freelancer.
• Pitching: You can pitch article ideas to various websites in hopes of getting paid to write the article. This is hard work and does require a great deal of research and effort on your part. Having a reputation already as a writer makes pitching easier.
• HigherEdJobs: If you are seeking to teach writing or work as a writer in the academic field, this is a great website to use.
• Remote.co: There aren’t a lot of job postings on this site. However, since they focus only on remote work it is a good place to stop by once in awhile and see what writing jobs are available.
• Visit Company Pages: If you have companies in mind you’d like to write for, check them out directly. Go to their LinkedIn profile, their website, or their social accounts. They will post what they are hiring for through these channels.

We talk the controversial topic among writers. Are adverbs in writing a good or a bad thing?

When Dorian and I worked as part of a narrative team for an online game, something one of the other writers said always stood out to me.

“Adverbs should never be used,” he would say. “I listen to Stephen King. He says no adverbs in writing.”

And yet, this writer’s favorite author was Patrick Rothfuss, who uses adverbs liberally in his books. Irony abounds.

It doesn’t take long on the internet to find varying and strong opinions on the use of adverbs. So here are our thoughts.

We use adverbs for two reasons.

1. No other single word will do.
2. We are avoiding a repetitive verb or phrase.

You often here that if you are using an adverb, then you’ve used the wrong verb. That’s not always true. “Whispered” or “muttered” will never mean the same thing as “said softly”. Sometimes, adverbs are necessary for clear storytelling.

However, if you find yourself writing things like “said loudly”, “said urgently”, and “said angrily”, then you should look for some alternative verbs. Good replacements are “yelled”, “urged”, and “growled”.

There also may come a time when you are trying to avoid adverbs so much that your verb usage and phrasing become repetitive. In that case, adverbs are a great way to keep your writing feeling fresh.

Overall, there is a place for everything in the world of creative writing, including adverbs. Telling the story in the way you think is best is the most important part of being a writer.

The third in a series on how to become a writer.

“I work freelance. I have a lot of free time on my hands.”

That line, said by a journalist character from The Devil Wears Prada movie, paints a luxurious picture of life as a freelance writer. When you are looking for work as a writer, you’ll come across two different options on job boards. Employers that need freelance writers, and employers that need full-time writers. So which do you choose? Which is better? Since we have done both in our careers, we’ll give you a pro’s and con’s list to compare.

Freelance Writing

Pros:

• Your schedule is flexible. You can work when you choose and how many hours you choose.
• Your workload tends to be flexible. Most jobs require at least a minimum amount of work per week/month.
• You are not tied to the job. You can freely quit without consequences.
• The work tends to be more independent with minimal to no supervision.

Cons:

• Some jobs cap the maximum amount of work you can do, so you might not have unlimited earning potential.
• Work can be inconsistent. Days or weeks may go by with no work available at all.
• You don’t have access to benefits such as healthcare and vacation days. That means if you want to take a trip, you will be out a paycheck for that time.
• Employers can cut your work load, hours, or job entirely at any time for any reason. They have more flexibility to do so because you’re not a full-time employee.
• You have to do your own taxes from your income.

Full-Time, Permanent Writing

Pros:

• You have a guaranteed amount of work so your hours and paycheck are predictable and dependable.
• You have access to benefits such as healthcare, vacation time, and other perks.
• You possibly have the opportunity for career advancement within the company including salary raises.

Cons:

• There is a lack of flexibility with your schedule and life. You are usually committed to working a certain schedule.
• You usually cannot take on more work for extra money if you need it for a specific week.
• You are more heavily supervised.