You from this moment on. [You from this moment on: Where would you like to be physically, socially and professionally in five years? Writing about your past and present can help you attain those goals.] Imagine that you have written your autobiography, titled My Life, Up to This Moment. All the stories of your life are included in this precious book, printed in indelible black ink and bound in s...

You CAN Create Your Own Job If — Sick of working for someone else and believe you’ve got what it takes to create your own job? You can create your own job if: One: You believe in your products and servicesYou must believe in your products and services enough to be able to sell them consistently. For creatives, that means you must believe enough in yourself to know that you can create products p...

You Can’t Copyright Ideas There’s a saying that “you can’t copyright ideas.” Look at Shakespeare to see the truth of the saying. Whether our tellings have Shakespeare’s genius or not, I leave up to the audience. (Fortunately the folk form doesn’t require such literary genius.) Folklorists have both a standard Tale Type, developed by Antti Aarne, and a motif index, such as Stith Thompson developed...

You Don’t Need Inspiration! Or do you? Writers write. You shouldn’t wait around for inspiration to come. But sometimes, there are days you can’t get anything written down. Or you’re at a loss for words. You can’t think of anything to write. You don’t have any idea what to write about. And then you end up believing you’re having writer’s block. You end up believing it too much, you stop writing...

You, Too, Can be a Salesperson I am not a sales and marketing guru. I’ve written two books on marketing and taught thousands of people how to sell themselves, but really, I don’t know more about sales and marketing than most of you. What I know how to do is talk to people, all kinds of people — restaurant owners and waiters, CEO’s and receptionists, entrepreneurs and kindergarten teachers. I don...

What Does it Mean to be Successful? I successfully returned from the Ventura Writers Weekend and I set to work. Within five days of coming home, I had three pieces accepted for publication–that has never happened before. As I wrote one of the pieces (“Promotion for the Painfully Shy”, due December 1st) I wondered about how others become successful in the face of obstacles. Serendipity gifted me...

Your Life Shines In Your Job Choices Could you rank your jobs in your life by their relevance to your life? All of life is full of choices; your job choices should reflect how you lead your life. You can make the most out of your job selections by allowing how you conduct yourself in life to filter into your jobs. When you care a lot about your jobs, your life in turn greatly benefits. Career ch...

Writing – QED Good fiction is about forward thrust. It’s your job to propel the reader through your story without having them feel they are wading through your writing. In fact, your ultimate aim is somehow make the reader feel they’re not actually reading at all. It’s what my friend Kenyon calls transparency – the idea that there is nothing between your reader’s mind and your story – nothing a...

Writing Powerful Endings The first few lines of any story are the most important — and often most difficult — words you’ll write. The next most challenging piece of writing is the ending. Once you draw your readers in and take them through your story, you need to leave them with a satisfying conclusion. Here, then, are some tips for writing powerful endings: Fiction picture books: The story in a...