Orson Scott Card on finding ideas for writing

The point to remember about selling things is that, as well as creating atmosphere and “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.”

Orson Scott Card

Writer's little book club chocolate corner

'Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one?s life...but 1932 the Mars Bar and 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared into the memory of every child in the country.'

Roald Dahl

Quote for today

"Learn your lessons quickly and move on."
~Eileen Caddy

Integrating the spiritual into business writing

This has been a concern of mine this year. How to write for business in a way that doesn't jar with your own principles.


If this has been a concern of yours too, then I think that we can be reassured by the way that business communication is moving with Web 2.0 and beyond. Gone are the days when a business could put out a caring image and not live up to it.


There are now too many ways for customers to get together on the web and share information and feedback. A wise business takes account of all that and centres its communication around the principles that drive it.


We're all much more concerned now about separating out businesses that promise and businesses that perform. If you're like me, you're tired of being told you can achieve this or that overnight or without work. I've met some of the gurus of internet marketing and I can tell you they work ferociously hard and are extremely competitive. Plus they often have dozens if not hundreds of people helping them.


Let's be honest. If something is worth offering, it will take time, energy and or money to achieve it. What's important to me is that I'm honest in what I do. That may mean I make less profit but I like to be able to greet myself in the mirror each day without distaste.


However you interpret 'spirituality' in your life and business, I'd say put it at the heart of your business and if people think you're crazy that doesn't matter. As a writer for many businesses, if you're not comfortable in what you're offering and doing, it will show up in your writing.


So be passionate, be honest and you'll draw the people towards you who need your particular service or product.

Writing to deadlines in business

Having to produce words about their business - fast- is a challenge for many business owners. So what are the 3 keys to being able to do it?

1. Being prepared. Assume that someone, somewhere, sometime will ask you for a few words about your business. Work out ahead of time 3 keypoints you want people to know. Make sure they are clear in your mind so that you can reproduce them in print, on line or face to face.
2. Having a system. Part of your preparation should be to create a system which you can use to expand on your keypoints to 100, 200 or 300 words. If you know about Twitter then you know you only have 140 characters for your message. That forces you to be concise. Moving up from that you can then build a Twitter message into a blog entry maybe up to 300 words. From there you can expand it into a fuller article at will.
3. Be flexible. Having set ideas about the way you construct text will limit the number of ways you can use it. If someone asks you for text but they want it in a specific way because of the format it needs to fit into, then help them by being flexible.

Once you've mastered those three approaches, you'll never be stuck again and you'll be ready to take advantage of many opportunities.

Isak Dinesen

"All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story."

Marianne Williamson quote

'Our power lies in our clarity about the role our work can play in the creation of a more beautiful world. The miracle is to think of our career as our contribution, however small, to the healing of the universe.'