If You Write it, it's Right Enough

I have some very unprofessional advice for you. (My friend Sherry's gonna love it.)

Write something to someone for Christmas. Don't wait for inspiration to strike, and don't sit on it until it's perfect. Just write it. 

This year has been too full of reminders that we’re all going to die someday. I have a strong suspicion that most people leave things unsaid. Undone. Unwritten.

Don’t be that guy.

I don’t mean to suggest that you hide behind your keyboard for the next three years typing the next great American novel. This "assignment" is different. If you’ve ever thought about writing something nice to a child, spouse, parent, teacher, dear friend, or cousin, but stopped because you weren’t exactly sure what to say or how to say it, just say (or write) it. Now. 

Perfect - even if it isn't perfect. 

I know it sounds really simple, but you can’t do it until you get out of your way. Here’s how: Give yourself permission to do it less than perfectly.

When you’re gone, and – let’s not be morose! – long before that, the recipient of your words will appreciate your thoughts and that you cared enough to write them down. And while I can’t offer a money-back guarantee on this, I’m pretty sure they won’t even think about correcting your grammar or punctuation.

See, sometimes it really is the thought that counts. Sherry Richert Belul, my aforementioned friend and the author of Simply Celebrate, encourages her clients to create Love Lists for all occasions. Sure, Christmastime seems like a good one; but in fact Tuesday is good enough, too. Any occasion is a good time to make a Love List, or just write a few nice words to someone you love. 

Photos courtesy of www.simplycelebrate.net

For several years, I let nearly a ton of pictures gather dust in the “craft room,” all the while promising myself I was going to make Beautiful Keepsake Scrapbooks for my daughter. I’m not crafty, though, and I’m reallllly good at procrastinating, so a few more years went by before I finally gave myself permission to make Just OK scrapbooks. Being a writer, I added a few notes along the way. Being a writer, I should've done a better job on those notes. I could've crafted them into a story format, or at least made them neater, nicer, and more organized. 

But when I gave the books to my daughter, she didn’t say, “Wow mom, you could use some practice on scrapbooking, huh?” 

Instead she cried and hugged me. She said she loved the scrapbooks - and I’m not even dead yet. They might mean more then. But I digress. The point is, it’s easy to use “I’m not sure what… or how…” as an excuse.

Look, this time, you’re not preparing a manuscript for publication. You’re not sending a report to the boss. You’re writing a few loving words to another person. Your words don’t have to be perfect, but they do have to be written (or at least spoken) to be given away.

If you die with the words inside you, don’t blame me. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some very mediocre scrapbooks to finish for my son.

~Diane Stresing

Whee! Hop on the Media-Go-Round to Promote Your Book

Welcome and thanks to guest blogger Janie Reinart, who shares her recipe for making the media notice your book and support your sales.  

Janie Reinart’s first book, Love You More than You Know, is a collection of stories from 45 mothers of U.S. service men and women. They open their hearts and share what it feels like when your son or daughter leaves home to fight a war.  Some were stunned when they learned that their “baby” had enlisted. Others had long been familiar with military life. But all of these mothers knew their world had just changed the day their child called home and said, “Mom, I’m being deployed . . ..” Anyone who reads their stories will admire their faith and courage–and better understand the sacrifices made by our U.S. service men and women and their families.  ________________________________________

How to Jump on the Media-Go-Round by Janie Reinart

Promoting yourself as an author isn’t getting any easier because of the many local bookstores that are out of business. It is time to be creative and find other venues for meeting the public.  Connecting to people with the stories we write makes the world go round, like this chain of events poem.

In the paper
On my blog
LIKED on WordPress
Opened door
Worked together
MEDIA
Book signing
In real world

IN THE PAPER
I read an article in the Chagrin Valley Times about local musicians helping soothe the loneliness of our deployed soldiers by giving them the gift of music. Warren Henry Music is collecting old guitars and refurbishing them free of charge thanks to co-owners Aimee Zeller and Warren Henry. The USO of Northern Ohio is shipping these guitars overseas to our regions deployed service members.

ON MY BLOG
This turned out to be a perfect post for my blog. Warren explained, “One of our instructors is a veteran and told us how helpful it was to have his guitar to play while deployed. Our troops and their families sacrifice so much. This is our way of thanking them for their service to our country.” The Help Fight the GI Blues Campaign was launched.

LIKED ON WORDPRESS
Shortly after my post about donating guitars, I received a comment from a band, Select Start in Tampa, Fla: “We have a day off in Bainbridge on May 15, during our month long District Lines sponsored Go Radio headlining Tour. We plan on dropping by to donate a guitar to Warren and the USO.”

I said, “You guys rock!”
Select Start replied, “As does Love You More Than You Know  We ordered two copies this morning. One of the books is to be a gift to the mom of a family friend, whose son is being deployed with the USMC to Afghanistan soon. God bless all the troops and their families.”

OPENED DOOR
With the exciting news of a donation for the program, I walked downtown Chagrin Falls and paid a visit to Warren Henry Music. Aimee said, “You were so enthusiastic when you walked in that I thought I should know you.” It was the first time we met.

I told Aimee about the band and the guitar donation. I explained that I was the mother of a veteran and showed her my book, Love You More Than You Know Mothers’ Stories About Sending Their Sons and Daughters to War. Then I took the plunge asking if she and Warren would consider a book signing at the music store as we were all working together to help our deployed troops. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of my book is donated to charities benefiting wounded veterans.

WORKED TOGETHER
They liked the idea! Together we selected a date and time. We are collaborating on writing articles to publicize the event, which is also going to feature a live local band besides the book signing.

MEDIA
Continuing to learn, I use the media to promote this latest book signing, posting information about the event on: Booktour, Facebook, Twitter, Chagrin-falls.org/calendar, my blog, and the local newspapers. Warren Henry Music is posting on their website and emailing information to their customers. The local band is also promoting the event on their site.


IN REAL WORLD
Round and round we go. Jump on the media-go-round so that you can grab the brass ring connecting with people and sharing the stories you write. Make those connections through the Internet and face to face. Hope to see you at future book signings. Come around and say hello.

Click here to enter free giveaways of Love You More than You Know eBooks in honor of our Veterans and their families.  ______________________________________

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Love You More than You Know is donated to charities benefiting wounded veterans, including ReMIND.org, a Bob Woodruff Foundation initiative for injured service members and their families, as well as to the Semper Fi Fund.

Reinart is committed to continue bringing you true stories of our heroes in uniform, sharing with you the bravery and sacrifices that our troops and their families make everyday for all of us. You are invited to share your story about your soldier here at www.loveyoumorethanyouknow.com as a guest blogger. Send stories to storiesfrommoms@gmail.com

Content is important

This probably won't be one of 2012's most stunning revelations:
Your media plan should include content.

Content is the blanket that wraps up your company's image.

Don't mess up your image. (But try the recipe.)

To make a messier metaphor of it, content is the cornflour that wraps the whole enchilada, and without a good recipe, the whole thing falls apart. The guts of your company might be perfectly sound and sensible, but when the lettuce and shredded meat is hanging out for the world to see, your company looks like a gooey mess.

~Diane Stresing

Coffee at 9. Fries at 5. Write that down.

Usually I eschew fast-food, so I’ll admit I’m a bit out of my element at a drive-thru window. Last week, however, the stars aligned and I visited two different McDonald’s restaurants. On Monday at 5:30pm, I ordered a children’s meal. On Wednesday at 9am, I ordered a coffee. In both cases, I was asked to pull into the lot and wait for my order.

“We’re just waiting for the fries,” was Monday’s explanation.

“The coffee will be up in a minute,” I was told on Wednesday.

Sometimes I try to quiet the customer service/operations manager voices in my head. Sometimes I chalk up experiences like these to bizarre coincidence. But other times, I have to say, they blew it.

Like, both of these times. In what world is it hard to imagine McDonald’s customers wanting coffee in the morning and fries at dinnertime?

Business Writing Must Serve Readers

There's writing lesson here, folks, and I can sum it up in one word: Anticipation.

Sometimes it’s good. (Cue Carly Simon.)  It’s good when the WRITER ANTICIPATES WHAT THE READER needs to know.

Other times it's bad. It’s bad when your readers are thinking, “why doesn’t it say…?” Because if your audience doesn't find what they want to know, on rare occasion they will call you. But much more often, the audience will move on and get what they need from someone else. 

Whether you’re writing a return policy, employee handbook, or a stop sign, the most fundamental part of your preparation is to anticipate what your reader needs to know - and provide it.

And just in case you’re wondering: no, thanks. I don’t want fries with that. 

~Diane Stresing

Bloppers, or why you need a little help

Recently seen in a real magazine, with ellipses placed to protect the identity of the writer:   

"They made there first record... and I was fortunate enough to do their first official shoot." 

(I couldn't help thinking, if they're really fortunate, you won't be their English teacher.) 

Look, if you don't make mistakes, you're not human. But the reading public - meaning your customers and prospects - will judge you by your mistakes. 

You can argue some mistakes are OK - if they get you noticed, for example, and you're of the any-attention-is-better-than-none mindset. Of course in business, that's a pretty lame operating principle. 

Sure the bible's had several famously flawed editions, and we're still reading those.* While you can take a few cues from religion and history when you're developing a PR and marketing strategy, I highly recommend you toss in some tips from folks with more practical industry experience. 

*Copywriters, note: word has it the biblical scribes were flogged or otherwise severely reprimanded for their errors.

-~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -~ -

~Diane Stresing                             

Some mistakes are more expensive than others.


Know any copyeditors who charge $25,000/minute? Now there's justification.

"I'm sorry this is so long. I'd have written a shorter blog post but I didn't have time."

Or so I paraphrase what many have said before (some in fewer words) - and what is one of the most telling bits on writing ever written, IMHO.

Which brings me to Twitter, Reddit, and the all-too-human tendency to search for a more complicated answer when a perfectly good - if unbelievably simple - answer is sitting right there, in plain sight. SMH.

In a weak moment, I waded in to the silly media stories of the day to find out if Twitter has The Magic Formula for social media success and What Newspapers Can Learn from Reddit and was disappointed in both. The Twitter article disappointed me more, because it points out how myopic many (most?) advertising industry pundits are. It's possible people read/like Twitter because it's short and easy to read, right? No, that's too easy. Let's search instead for a new, improved, 2012 answer because it's no longer fashionable to use the 2010 answer. It's also possible people respond to Twitter's ads because there's a higher proportion of good ads and/or they're targeted and/or timed better and/or they're not lost among quite so many distractions as Facebook, where you can plan your family reunion, have a virtual high school reunion, lose your job, and run your own business? Augh. Sometimes a cigar is a cigar. And when it's not a cigar, it shouldn't take a semester's worth of discussion to figure out what it really is.

The second article, about newspapers and their impending doom (not) ticked me off because the headline is a sell-out for an article that's quite worth a read.

Here's my crazy, all-too-simple answer for the industry watchers: news outlets that offer news - aka important information that has nothing to do with what Snooki named her baby or how Nicki Minaj will vote - will have an audience. Advertising that's good, and seen, will work. In the newspaper, on the evidently nearly dead Facebook, or on today's SM darling.

If your ads are good, in front of the right people, when they're not too terribly distracted, they'll work.

I repeated it because that ups the odds that you'll get the message.

Which is something that was once taught in advertising 101, before distractions were born, right after Al Gore invented the internet.

Hey I read it online. It's gotta be true. Source? I don't need no stinkin' source. It was on ABC News, and they got it straight from Twitter.

So back to ads on Twitter, or anywhere.  Here's a tip: No matter how good your ads are, they won't return well this month/quarter for folks interested in the DNA ENCODE reports or cool photos of Mars. Those are called distractions. Both of which are undoubtedly better and probably more important than one election on a planet that supports more than one country.

Thanks for reading and by all means keep thinking out there. I'll edit this down to 140 characters when I get a round tuit.

~Diane Stresing

~ the links, in case you want them ~

http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/04/12/more-time-shorter-letter/


http://pandodaily.com/2012/09/04/will-twitters-uncanny-luck-ever-run-out/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=rightrail&utm_content=2&utm_campaign=recirc

http://gigaom.com/2012/09/04/what-newspapers-and-other-media-could-learn-from-reddit/?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=rightrail&utm_content=3&utm_campaign=recirc

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=junk-dna-encode

http://www.space.com/17474-mars-rover-curiosity-longest-drive.html

The short of the DNA ENCODE story:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/05/dna-database-unlocks-map-to-genetic-disease/

The long of it:
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001046

And the medium but digestible for the liberal arts crowd version:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=junk-dna-encode

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMG5fkiY_-ZH9wjRm8UgfS07Kb-kN5iKUPLdKnOdWer4QhOah491nTehm2q8O_nIgiB3awvWX_Vo6fVAQJ2wLAJZRAwuP1JBBKy1EgVXOoRH7VzG3747fr9LqJ39qEJo6ToN9RXTK941sp/s1600/A_Round_Tuit_Picture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mouthmotions.blogspot.com/2011/03/round-tuit.html&h=1104&w=1144&sz=216&tbnid=ExrYxeZ4N6wbCM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=94&zoom=1&usg=__lLJ-I0XH6GTQkylPD1kTXVdHtgY=&sa=X&ei=WsJIUL6tL6rO2AW_sIHQDQ&ved=0CCUQ9QEwAQ&dur=1265

How much? It depends.

How much does a freelance writer charge?  

You know the saying, 'words are cheap?' Well, that may be true - but writing skills have tremendous value. And the wrong words can be extremely costly. But don't worry - my fees won't cost you an arm, or a leg. I promise. 

 My charges are reasonable, and I'll often work on a 'per project' basis. That way, clients know what to expect from the start.  In other words, the answer to "how much?" is, "it depends." Call me; we'll figure it out.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

Ok, that little ditty is still true - it's how I handled the question on my website before I revamped the pages. It seemed like a good idea to get a little more mileage out of those paragraphs here...

But if you're a freelance writer, you know "it depends" isn't quite the right answer. Too often, the answer to "how much do you charge" is "not enough." Scope creep is alive and well and you'll find it drags out almost every project. 

To be fair, when I feel that way about 9 of my last 10 projects, I know what I should do: it's time to raise my rates. 

The last time I felt this way, however, I tried a different tactic. Instead of taking a deep breath and preparing a "my rates have changed" speech, I created a list of questions to ask clients before beginning a project. My hope is that, if we answer those 5 little questions, neither one of us should be surprised by a project that morphs into something completely different. 

Well, a girl can hope.  

~Diane Stresing