Self Publishing

Today we have a guest author who teaches you about writing content.  While his article mainly discusses writing for website content, his tips are excellent for writing ebooks, books or any other form of self publishing.
It's very challenging (OK, boring sometimes, but mostly exciting) to get to write web content on various topics. Every week I write content on at least three different topics. I spend my time reading about the subject, drawing my own conclusions, consolidating my thoughts and then expressing them in an interesting, readable manner.

Whenever I start writing on a new subject, I feel I won't be able to do it. Please believe it, it happens all the time. It feels like as if I have been blindfolded and then left on an alien terrain and when I uncover my eyes, everything is so strange and unfamiliar. The first instinct is to shut my eyes back and pretend as if there is nothing I need to do. Sometimes I even shut down my laptop and go outside to watch squirrels feasting on the crumbs we leave them everyday, or watch cheap flicks on TV. Visiting different weblogs is also one of my favorite escapist manoeuvres. Sadly (fortunately!) I cannot afford to do that for long periods. There is always this deadly thing called "the deadline" that gradually begins to tighten its grip around my neck if I don't start my text editor (yes, I do all my content writing work on a no-frills text editor -- EditPad Light) and begin typing the words that eventually must lead me to the culmination of the current assignment.

Enough with the melodrama. There are some things that I do that always help me streamline my focus. I take the help of the following points whenever the sticky, gooey mental blocks cling to my soles and stop me from moving forward.

THINK ABOUT PAST SUCCESSES

This thing might not work for you if you're about to embark upon your first content writing assignment, but if you have successfully delivered two or three projects, you know you can do it (if those successes were not flukes and you REALLY worked for them). You should always keep handy the list of your successful projects -- the ones people really paid for. Whenever you get stuck, open the old files and read what you wrote. Better, go to the actual website and see for
yourself what a piece of pure genius you came up with the last time you hade to write on a new topic.

SCOUR THE WEB FOR SIMILAR CONTENT

By this I don't mean you plagiarize. Reading the already written material gives you lots of new ideas because there is always something that can be added or subtracted or re-written. For instance, if you have to write about "re-mortgaging", you can visit various websites and see how the other content writers write on this topic. There is lots of silly stuff available that you can always improve. Don't worry about using the same terminologies because unless you are doing a PhD on a totally knew concept of re-mortgaging, you are going to have to use the same old existing terminologies no matter how many times you find them on various websites.

HAVE FAITH IN YOUR WRITING ABILITY

Clichéd? But it's true. If you have confidence in yourself, if you know that you can write on any damn subject, you won't get stuck. I have this confidence in me. I know that given the proper data, I can write on any subject on the planet. Whenever I feel my fears of the unfamiliar are dominating me, I remind myself. I tell myself, "Now look here buddy, you're not a hobby writer. You're not doing content writing because you've got a computer, you can access the net easily, and you have got nothing else to do. You write content because you know exactly how it is written. You have command over the language. Words act like malleable clay in your hands. You can give them any shape you want."

WRITE ABOUT THE PROBLEM

This helped me in my previous assignment. I couldn't figure out how to begin writing on a particular topic. I couldn't even come up with the first sentence. Bored and discouraged, I decided to write a blog entry. All of a sudden, I decided to write a blog on my current problem and how I should be able to solve it. Soon I had written an entire blog on how I was going to write on the topic. After posting my weblog, I finished the assignment and sent the document to the client within two hours.

TALK TO THE CLIENT

It may seem a bit awkward, but you can always tell your client that you're unable to come up with something interesting at the moment. Your client must have hired you because he or she has seen your previous work and is confident enough to give you the assignment. He or she wants you to write good content. The last time I told my client that I was finding it difficult to write on his subject, he wrote back that he understood the complexity involved. Not only that, he sent me his own thoughts on the subject that gave me a good start.

I hope these points can help you because they do help me. If you can come up with more tips like these, you are welcome to get in touch with me at http://www.amrithallan.com/ah.asp?d=ar.

_______________________

Copyright © 2004-2006 Amrit Hallan
Amrit Hallan is a freelance copywriter, and a website content writer. He also writes optimized content for better Search Engine Ranking. To know more about his services, visit his website site at http://www.amrithallan.com/ah.asp?d=ar.

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• How to Become a Writer
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