Writers on the State of Professional Writing

“We live in a content-saturated world,” your editor shrugs. Your coffee has suddenly gone cold, and so has the conversation.

What she means is that the commodity you’re offering – your writing – is hard to sell, because the web has made written words more readily available than ever. Honing a voice that stands out can feel like an impossible gig to take to the bank – which is where, if you’d listened to your parents, you’d be working, instead of haunting cafes and coffee shops with your laptop, trying to grind out a living as a writer.

The trouble is, for some of us, writing isn’t so much a choice as a necessity, akin to oxygen and Wi-Fi. And while writers who can afford spare homes along the French Riviera are the exception and not the rule, plenty of folks still succeed at making a career of it. Here’s what that looks like right now.

The Craft

Over the past decade, the mobile phone has supplanted familiar writerly standbys like word-processing software. Journalists use smartphones to quickly file breaking stories from the field. Novelists crank out tens of thousands of intimate words on tiny handheld keypads. The New Yorker published Jennifer Egan’s entire science-fiction story “Black Box” as a series of tweets, each one like a line from a poem.

Newfangled gizmos aside, there remains a place for old-fashioned pen and paper in the hearts (and desks) of certain writers – Neil Gaiman among them. The prolific Brit has written everything from comic books to novels to movies, and says writing in longhand helps him resist the allure of online distraction. You won’t find just one color among the pens in Gaiman’s bag, either:

Often I use two pens with different coloured ink, so I can tell visually how much I did each day. A good day is defined by anything more than 1,500 words of comfortable, easy writing that I figure I’m probably going to use most of in the end. Occasionally, you have those magical days when you look up and you’ve done 4,000 words, but they’re more than balanced out by those evil days where you manage 150 words you know you’ll be throwing away.

As Gaiman notes, writing remains hard work. Even titans of the field like John McPhee, the Pulitzer-winning pioneer of literary journalism, has confessed to The Paris Review that he can’t do it without first procrastinating mightily:

You’re out there completely on your own—all you’ve got to do is write. OK, it’s nine in the morning. All I’ve got to do is write. But I go hours before I’m able to write a word. I make tea. I mean, I used to make tea all day long. And exercise, I do that every other day. I sharpened pencils in the old days when pencils were sharpened. I just ran pencils down. Ten, eleven, twelve, one, two, three, four—this is every day. This is damn near every day. It’s four-thirty and I’m beginning to panic. It’s like a coiling spring. I’m really unhappy. I mean, you’re going to lose the day if you keep this up long enough. Five: I start to write. Seven: I go home. That happens over and over and over again. So why don’t I work at a bank and then come in at five and start writing? Because I need those seven hours of gonging around. I’m just not that disciplined. I don’t write in the morning—I just try to write.

Makes you feel a little better about your own morning struggles, no?

Getting Paid

Writers are often caricatured as a species of starving artist, just scraping by for little or no pay and trying to build a reputation, as essayist Tim Kreider reflects in The New York Times:

A familiar figure in one’s 20s is the club owner or event promoter who explains to your band that they won’t be paying you in money, man, because you’re getting paid in the far more valuable currency of exposure. This same figure reappears over the years, like the devil, in different guises — with shorter hair, a better suit — as the editor of a Web site or magazine, dismissing the issue of payment as an irrelevant quibble and impressing upon you how many hits they get per day, how many eyeballs, what great exposure it’ll offer. ‘Artist Dies of Exposure’ goes the rueful joke.

Indeed, compensation can range from checks so piddly that the bank teller might sigh audibly while cashing it for you ($50 for a light, quippy post) all the way to a hefty buck-per-word rate for specialized longform reporting.

While some writers bank on having other gigs – the aforementioned McPhee has been a professor at Princeton for decades – not all are broke. Senior writers in the world of medicine, for instance, can easily make double the salary of a plucky word-slinger mashing out vanilla web content.

Self-Publishing

While the Internet age has made it easier than ever to skip the middleman and publish lengthy works directly online, this is a mixed bag.

On one hand, self-publishing authors who sell their e-books for a few dollars per download on sites like Amazon (which pockets 30 percent of the royalties) now routinely dominate sales, particularly in genres like romance, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries and thrillers. A few even make their way to bestseller lists, lighting a path to bankable publishing deals. Of this evolution, Publishers Weekly has remarked, “what is clear is that strong indie sales will continue and indie books are now a significant and permanent part of the book publishing landscape.”

However, there’s always a risk your work will be stolen. Thieves may tweak a few words here and there, or flip the genders of a few characters and make the lifted work harder for plagiarism-detection software to catch before putting it online under a new title. As a result, plagiarists can rake in thousands before anyone realizes what they’ve done. For the authors getting ripped off, this can lead to a lot of heartache. Straightening out such ordeals – and getting paid back for the pilfered sales – can take a lawyer.

Also, indie writers who thrive in the world of online publishing have to traffic not just in quality, but also in quantity, because the system rewards authors who can quickly follow up on their successes. For some, this means churning out a new full-length novel every month or so – a grueling pace of 10 to 20 pages daily.

So what about you? How are you channeling your zeal for writing? In what directions have you found the industry to be evolving? We’re always eager to read more from you.

9 Things You Need to Give up to Be a Successful Writer

Written communication isn’t easy. If it was, there would be no misunderstandings on social media, and we would never have to go back and clarify something we’d written after the fact. But that’s not the world we live in.

The need to improve one’s writing skills isn’t reserved only for those who want to be published novelists or award-winning journalists—there are endless benefits to being able to communicate through the written word.

If you want to become a better writer, here are nine things you absolutely need to give up today in order to succeed. We’ve divided them into parts designed to help you do two things—write with precision and write with artistry. Precise writing is technically correct and easy to understand. Artistic writing conveys a message or story in a way that resonates with the reader. Improving both precision and artistry will make you a better communicator no matter what your writing goals are.

Writing With Precision

1Give up your time.

Good writing takes time. The less time you invest in dashing off a quick message, the more likely that message is to be misinterpreted. Slow your roll, wordsmith! Does that text you composed accurately convey your thoughts? Good written communication requires attention to detail. You can’t pay attention to details if you’re rushing.

2Give up filler words.

We sometimes write like we talk. Conversational writing can be good, but writing that’s cluttered with filler words and phrases that we often use in conversation is not. Here are thirty-one to eliminate. And here are more tips for cleaning up your dirty, wordy writing.

3Give up your disdain for outlining

Unless you’re drafting something short and sweet, an outline can be a lifesaver. A builder wouldn’t dream of constructing something as complex as a house without a plan. Constructing any sort of long-form writing is easier with a plan, too. Even the simplest of outlines can save you a lot of time organizing and revising later.

Of course, some writers follow the “pantser” (as in flying by the seat of your pants) method, and that’s okay. Just be warned that if you don’t take time up front to organize your thoughts, you may have to commit to a more grueling revision process after you finish your draft.

4Give up the belief that you don’t need to proofread.

Even seasoned writers need to review their work before they publish that article, post that tweet, or send that email. It’s essential to not only look for spelling and grammar mistakes but also make sure your writing is clear.

Pro tip: Read your writing out loud. Does it read smoothly? If you find yourself stumbling as you read, revise for clarity. Shorter sentences are easier to read and understand than long complex ones. Keep it simple . . . unless you’re striving to be the next Tolstoy.

Writing With Artistry

5Give up the impossible dream of a perfect first draft.

It’s important to write clearly and correctly. That’s a worthwhile goal. But you’ve got to get the words out first. Turn off the oppressive voice of perfectionism while you work on your first draft and focus on flow, instead. Try to write without stopping to make corrections—you’ll do that later. Instead, let the thoughts in your head spill onto the page. You’ll only get at those interesting and artistic thoughts if you stop interrupting them long enough to let them speak.

Perfect first drafts are like mythical unicorns—they exist only in our imaginations. Write first, edit later.

6Give up the belief that good writing depends on talent.

Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Innate talent won’t save a lazy writer, but hard work will help even a struggling writer succeed. If you don’t have a gift for writing, but you’re willing to put in the time to develop your skills, you can’t help but improve.

7Give up the need to talk about writing more than actually writing.

Aspiring creative writers and bloggers are often guilty of this writing sin. We love to talk about the writing we’re going to do and share the ideas we have, but when it comes to actually putting our butts in our chairs and our fingers to our keyboards . . . not so much. If you talk about writing more than you actually write, it’ll be difficult to succeed. See tip number one!

8Give up needless distractions.

Hey! You there! Step away from the smartphone.

If you’re going to write, just write. Silence your phone. Close those unnecessary tabs. Maybe go into full-screen mode to keep your writing space clutter free. You’ll be surprised how clearing mental space for writing allows the words to flow.

Here’s a tip: Try a distraction-free writing platform such as Ommwriter or FocusWriter if you need a little extra help blocking out distractions.

9Give up your excuses.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Writers write.” What does it really mean?

It means that if you want to call yourself a writer, you need to actually be one. If you find yourself making excuses instead of writing, it’s time to take a look at your priorities. Writers prioritize writing time—it’s as simple as that.

Comma Rules for Business Emails

Let there be no mistake—the comma wields a power far greater than its humble looks might suggest. “You will go you will return never in the battle you will perish” is the most famous example of it. This saying is usually attributed to the Oracle of Delphi, and it is supposed to be an answer to the question of whether or not to go to war. If you place a comma before “never,” the answer becomes a green light. Place it after “never,” and the answer becomes a warning against going to war.

In your average business email, a comma is very unlikely to represent the difference between life and death. Still, a misplaced one can change the meaning and tone of the message, which can cause confusion and undesired consequences. So let’s go over the two most important uses for commas in business emails.

Commas and Salutations

A business email starts with a salutation, and a salutation ends with a comma, right? Wrong. In business emails, the most formal way of ending a salutation is with a colon. So instead of “Dear Mrs. Johnson,” you should write “Dear Mrs. Johnson:” and then continue with the body of the message. In some cases, it might not be a faux pas to use a comma at the end of the salutation. You might write a business email where the utmost formality is not necessary, and in that case, the colon is not required. If you’re unsure, play it safe and end with a colon.

A salutation usually has two components: a greeting or an adjective, and the name or title of the person you’re addressing. In the previous example, the salutation is composed of an adjective and a name, and there’s no comma between the two. However, a comma should separate a direct greeting and a person’s name. So if you were to write “Good morning, Mrs. Johnson,” you’d have to place a comma between “Good morning” and “Mrs. Johnson.”

Commas, Coordinating Conjunctions, and Semicolons

The most common coordinating conjunctions are and, or, nor, so, but, yet, and for. We use them to connect elements in a sentence that are grammatically similar, such as two verbs, two nouns, two modifiers, or two independent clauses. A conjunction can be used to start a sentence, in which case it usually shouldn’t be followed by a comma:

But in the last quarter of 2015, we’ve seen an increase in consumer activity.

If a coordinating conjunction is placed in a list of two items, there’s no need to use a comma before it:

The departments that had most of the activity were toy stores and gift shops.

If, on the other hand, the conjunction is used before the final element in a list of more than two items, a comma may go immediately before it:

Toys, plastic Christmas trees, and spirits went out of stock.

If a coordinating conjunction joins two independent clauses, put a comma before it:

The suppliers were contacted immediately, so we were able to restock the missing items in time.

Sometimes, however, a comma and coordinating conjunction isn’t the best way to join two independent clauses. In fact, it can cause confusion, and that’s something you want to avoid in a business email. If you have two independent clauses that themselves contain a few commas, you should use a semicolon instead of a comma to separate them. For example, your first independent clause might contain an introductory element followed by a comma, and your second independent clause might have a nonessential element that’s between two commas:

In the meantime, the consumers were encouraged to look around other departments; and that’s what, it turned out, led to a small increase in sales of non-seasonal items.

In this case, the coordinating conjunction should have a semicolon in front of it.

So there they are—a couple of simple guidelines for using commas in business emails. With these in mind, you can stop worrying about offending your business associates by accidentally sending them informal emails. You’ll also enhance the clarity of your writing. But remember, the comma is powerful; you should study it in detail. Good thing you’re in exactly the right place to do that!

Imperative Verbs: Definition and Examples

Imperative verbs are verbs that create an imperative sentence (i.e. a sentence that gives an order or command). When reading an imperative sentence, it will always sound like the speaker is bossing someone around. Imperative verbs don’t leave room for questions or discussion, even if the sentence has a polite tone. Use the root form of the verb to create the imperative. Consider the examples below:

Give me that book!

Clean your room!

Do your homework.

Take the dog for a walk, please.

Don’t touch that!

Do come to visit us whenever you’re in town.

Push!

Examining the Language of Love

Although it topped bestseller lists around the world, E. L. James’ erotic romance novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, was widely panned by critics for its poor use of language. The Grammarly team reviewed the book for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and learned that — although there were some mistakes — the errors were in alignment with similar gaffes in classic romantic literature.

Here are some of the top errors in Fifty Shades of Grey:

Punctuation errors in complex sentences: E. L. James is not the first author to include a comma in her work when a semi-colon would more appropriate, or vice versa.

Comma misuse: Many writers forget to include a comma when one is necessary, or include a comma when it is not necessary.

Wordiness: Actually, this is sort of a really common mistake. (Words like “actually,” “sort of,” and “really” add unnecessary length to your writing.)

Inappropriate colloquialisms: Although it is largely stylistic, the choice to use informal language — including contractions — can diminish the perception of your writing.

Accidentally confused words: Words like “round” and “around” are commonly confused in writing, and may not be discovered by spelling and grammar checkers.

Sentence fragments: Creating a sentence with no subject or no verb is one way to emphasize an idea. However, sentence fragments are technically errors in writing.

Determiners: Words such as “a,” “an,” and “the” help writers to be specific about what they are talking about.

Passive voice: Using the passive voice is a stylistic choice in writing — not necessarily a grammar error. However, using the passive voice can cause a lack of clarity in your writing.

Below you’ll find some classic quotes from romantic literature that show similar mistakes to those we identified in Fifty Shades of Grey. Grammarly has “graded” each quote based on its adherence to traditional grammar rules, but please note that creative writing requires that authors make stylistic choices that may be technical errors, but are not actually considered so in the context of their overall work.

So, it is in the spirit of fun (and not pedantry) that we aim to show you that the language of love really is a language of its own!

 

Beat Writer’s Block: 5 Tips for Writing Your Best

You’re sitting at your desk, staring at a flashing cursor and waiting for the words to flow. Every now and then, you write something, then mercilessly edit it or delete it all together.

Backspace . . . backspace . . . backspace . . .

You roll your head back and forth to work the kinks out of your neck and sigh. The words just won’t flow. You’re convinced you’ve got a serious case of writer’s block. But do you really?

Writer’s block is a myth.

I’m going to show you a trick to defeat writer’s block. First, place your fingertips on your keyboard. Once you have them comfortably poised over the home row, close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and repeat these seven magical words until you’re ready to write:

There’s no such thing as writer’s block. There’s no such thing as writer’s block.

Better now? If so, then back to writing for you, word monkey! If not, have a seat and let’s talk shop.

I’ve been where you are. I’ve stared at my screen, dazed, until I felt like I could hear the tiny blood vessels in my eyes bursting. (No, you can’t actually hear them. It’s a simile. You with me so far?) I’ve convinced myself that the reason my works-in-progress were not progressing was that I had stumbled upon a horrible, irrevocable creative block, the likes of which I would never overcome. But then I did some soul searching.

Writer’s block, it turns out, is just an excuse for not writing. There’s a reason you never hear of librarian’s block or electrician’s block. Even when librarians and electricians feel less than inspired by the work at hand, they do it anyway.

We all have states of flow—those magical times when we’re bursting with creativity as if the muses themselves are whispering into our ears. And yes, those times are magical. But they’re also few and far between. Ultimately, those inspired times are not what being a writer is about. You’re not just taking dictation for the muses, dear wordsmith. The muses are fickle. It’s your job to write whether they show up or not.

Here are five ways to persevere and write even when you’re feeling stuck.

1 Give yourself permission to write terrible stuff.

If you sit around waiting for those mythical times when you’re at your absolute best, you’ll almost never get any writing done. So, just give yourself permission to be awful, and then write anyway. You’re going to edit later either way, right?

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’

—Maya Angelou

2 Set a doable goal.

Accomplished writers don’t sit around waiting for inspiration—they write whether the words are flowing or not. The only sure way to dig yourself out of a creative hole is to write through it.

Set yourself a goal that’s so easy you have no chance of failing. Tell yourself, “I’ll just write for five minutes without stopping.” Or maybe challenge yourself to write one full page, or even just a single paragraph. If you’ve done the goal-setting right, you should knock this writing task out easily.

Then stop. Only do as much as your goal dictates.

The next time you sit down to write, make your goal just a little more ambitious. Don’t go overboard, though. You want to establish a pattern of easily achieving your goals. Then, once you’ve got a few wins under your belt, go ahead and write for as long as the words and ideas keep coming. Your block has been vanquished!

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

— George Singleton

3 Quit while you’re ahead.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but try quitting when your writing is going along splendidly and you’re excited about what’s coming next. If you stop writing when you run out of ideas, you’ll likely be just as out of ideas the next time you sit down to write. Instead, stop when you’re brimming with them. You’ll be energized and ready to get back to it when the time comes.

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day . . . you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.

—Ernest Hemingway

Here’s a tip: When I quit writing for the day, I leave myself notes right on my manuscript telling me where I plan to go next. Not only does this give me the security of knowing that my next great idea will be waiting right where I left off, but it frees my mind to stop obsessing over it in the meantime.

4 Multitask.

If you’re not on a deadline, having several different creative endeavors that you’re working on can help you get unstuck. If one project stops clicking, simply switch to another until you get your momentum back. Either way, you’ll be making progress.

Sometimes a project needs a little time to think, a little time to breathe. So what I tend to do when that happens is I always have two or three other things that I’m doing at the same time. I can just go to one of the ones that’s working. Which is how I give this appearance of being prolific.

—Neil Gaiman

5 Move it!

Pounding your head on your desk doesn’t get the words unstuck.

I know, I know—shocker.

What does help unwedge those unruly words is physical activity. Even just taking a walk can give your creativity a boost.

I really wish someone had told me earlier that there’s a relationship between writing and exercise. Writing involves you being completely, revoltingly sedentary while your brain works overtime. But when you exercise, it’s the complete reverse – you more or less become brain dead while your body works like a bastard not to drown/collapse on the treadmill/die. Then after I exercise, I always come back to my laptop and it’s like I’m seeing the story for the first time. I know what I need to do.

― Benjamin Law

You’re not blocked, you just can’t think of anything good to write.

In the 1986 John Hughes classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris phones his friend Cameron to insist that he join him for a fun day of skipping school. Cameron declines because he’s already at home sick, and then hangs up the phone and moans, “I’m dying.”

As if psychic, Ferris calls back and says, “You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.”

Your writer’s block is Cameron—it can’t think of anything good to do. And yet, anyone who’s seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off knows that Cameron not only goes on to have a memorable day, but to trash his dad’s beloved Ferrari and, in the process, have a major life epiphany. So, the next time you’re feeling stuck, try some of these techniques to see your way clear.

And if they don’t work, then hey . . . maybe just go to a baseball game.

Hey, batter batter batter! Swing!

These 7 Posts Will Help Your Job Search Pursuit

Your dream job is out there.

You can and will find it soon. How do we know this? Because you are driven, focused and have come to the right place for job-seeking advice. Grammarly is here to help.

Don’t be mistaken. Finding an ideal career path isn’t easy. Job interviews are tough. Plus, figuring out your perfect fit can be challenging. All of this is what makes the job-search process something most people dread.

Not you, though.

The necessary motivation, inspiration and practical tips on how to best position yourself to be successful and reach your long-term goals can be found here.

Grammarly’s blog has made it a priority to offer our readers actionable insights on how to approach a job search. Below you’ll find seven recent posts that cover the fundamental aspects of finding your ideal place of employment.

1 Organization is essential in beginning any job hunt.

Pro tip: Let technology be your friend. Spending endless hours searching is fine, even encouraged, but don’t be shy about using job sites to populate your inbox with relevant opportunities.

Now that you have an idea of what you’re looking for, you can start digging into job boards. Many will send you email alerts with new positions that match your skills.

Source: How to Get Organized During Your Job Search: 6 Helpful Tips

2 Your LinkedIn profile is becoming just as important as your resume.

Pro tip: Most job seekers overlook the value of a profile summary on LinkedIn. Use it wisely to add deeper context to your work experience.

The top of your LinkedIn profile is an opportunity to summarize what you’re about—to make an impression beyond the array of jobs you’ve held. You might try thinking of it as an opportunity to answer the question “What makes me an outstanding candidate for my next career move?”

Source: We Studied 750 Top LinkedIn Profiles. Here’s How to Write Yours Better.

3 Resumes, cover letters, and email correspondence will be the difference-maker in your dream-job pursuits.

Pro tip: In most cases, how and what you write is often the first interaction you’ll have with future employers. Make sure you spend extra time crafting your personal copy before applying for a new job.

In today’s competitive job market, how you communicate with potential employers can make your skills stand out. Making sure you effectively express yourself, accurately represent your abilities, and stay present throughout the process is what makes the difference in ultimately receiving a job offer.

Source: Red Flags to Avoid During Your Job Search in 2017

4 Once you’ve landed a job interview, what you say and how you say it will further demonstrate your abilities to perform the tasks required by a potential new company.

Pro tip: Don’t show up to an interview without any preparation. Thinking your way through potential interview questions ahead of time will give you comfort when having to talk about important topics like work experience and expected salary.

Taking the time to prepare can mean the difference between walking away from an interview with a sinking feeling and landing the sweet gig you’ve been hoping for.

Source: 10 Things You Should Avoid Saying in a Job Interview

5 The way you frame your skills is critical in the job-search process.

Pro tip: Demonstrate your enthusiasm for the position and explain why your experience aligns with the responsibilities that are needed by the company.

Remember that everybody starts somewhere, and hiring managers interview inexperienced candidates all the time. When you’re still growing in your career, there’s one positive quality you can emphasize to help you win over a potential employer—enthusiasm for learning. Show the employer that not only are you able to learn, but you’re excited by the possibilities.

Source: This Is How to Put a Positive Spin on Weaknesses in a Job Interview

6 Your professional-self and personal-self should be very much aligned during a job search.

Pro tip: Be cognizant of what you’ve posted on social media and how you present yourself in public forums, especially if your social-media activity is tied directly to the line of work you seek.

According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, 60 percent of employers research job candidates on social media, and over half are reluctant to hire candidates with no online presence. They’re mainly looking for professionalism, whether you’re a fit for the company, and proof of your qualifications. If your social media profiles show you in that light, you’re golden.

Source: 9 Things to Avoid on Social Media While Looking for a New Job

7. You’ve done everything correctly in the job search and now an offer is in your hands. What happens next?

Pro tip: Research the company you’re looking to join. Remember, you’re hiring them, too, in a sense. Sites like Glassdoor can show a glimpse into a company’s culture by offering candid reviews from current and former employees.

The important part when researching a company is to take into account themes you uncover from a variety of employees, and looking for reviews and details related to what’s important to you and your life in and out of work. What’s a bad review to one person may not be a bad review to someone else, so it depends on what’s most important to you.

Source: The Ultimate Guide to Analyzing a Company’s Glassdoor Page