The content of this article may be forwarded in full without special permission provided it is used for not-for-profit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given. For other purposes, contact Beth Mende Conny at Beth@WriteDirections.com. ------------------------------------------------------------

Want to be a lean, mean, writing machine? Then put your words on a diet. Here are some great suggestions for cutting flab, firming muscle and punching up your prose.

Learn to strip Brilliant as your prose may be, you likely can toss a word or two ... or three or twenty. Be brutal. Strip away extraneous until your sentences go buck naked. They can then, like streakers, zip across your page.

Remember if's If you can say it in one page instead of three-do so. If you can say it in one paragraph instead of three-do so. If you can say it in one sentence instead of three-do so. If you can say it in one word instead of three-do so. If you can say it in a one-syllable word instead of one with three-do so.

Avoid repetitions, redundancies, reiterations, restatements ...

* owns his own business = business owner * a great number of times = many times * red-colored train = red train * broke both his legs = broke his legs * during winter months = during winter * in not-too-distant future = in future * at this point in time = presently/now * postponed until later = postponed * mutual cooperation = cooperation

Take action In writing, as in life, you can't sit there like a blob. You've got to use active voice. Before and after examples:

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please include resource box.

Please send me a copy, if possible. Many thanks.

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Summary: If you want to sell your writing, you need to get ideas that sell.

Category: Writing

Words: 650

Getting ideas that sell

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

(This article is an extract from my new writing workshop, Writing to Sell in Internet Age.)

As old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can offer your writing too, but if no one wants it, you're stuck.

You've got to train yourself to come up with saleable ideas, for specific audiences. Somehow, someway, you've got to discover what people want, and give it to them in your writing. The more successfully you do that, more you'll sell.

==> To get more ideas, write more

In an article, prolific thriller/ horror writer Dean Koontz said that when he wrote more, spending six to eight hours a day at it, he got more ideas. He frequently found himself writing one book, while making notes for another two or three.

It's true. If you're not writing, you won't get ideas. Your subconscious mind is lazy. You haven't convinced it that finding ideas is important to you, so you don't get them.

Start a program of writing every day. Write anything, but make sure that you're doing it for at least an hour, and that you force yourself to write. Get your fingers on keyboard, and move them. Let whatever wants to come out, come out.

Sounds like work, right?

Sure. At first it is. Then it's fun. And easy. The first couple of days you do this, you may feel that it's pointless. But I promise you, keep at it, and within a few days you'll start coming up with more ideas that you know what to do with.

==> If you want to know what people want, ask them

One way to find out what people are interested in is to read bestseller lists. What are people buying? Extrapolate from these lists. Can you find any new trends?