Questions Storytellers Are Often Asked and How They Answer When I tell people that I am a “storyteller” right away they fire back a slew of questions. In this article I am going to share some questions and answers from two of my favorite storytelling friends. These mini-articles appeared originally as posts on the StoryTell List. Whether or not you are a storyteller and/or a listener, you will fi...

Query Writing Mistakes to Avoid You know that you’re not supposed to start your letters with “Dear Editor,” need to follow proper formatting protocol, and should always send your queries to the correct person, right? You’ve no doubt also mastered the art of kicking out embarrassing grammar goof-ups, know more about your word processing software than you do about your fiancé, and have learnt the d...

Publishing Child Book? Top Ten Tips for Writing Book Pitches That Get Your Manuscript Read Publishing child book? No matter how well-written your child story is, if you want to get published, you need to grab and hold the attention of publishers. #1 Grab their attention in 10 seconds or less 10 seconds. That’s how much time many editors say they spend per submission when they’re screening. The...

Proofreading Your Own Document You’ve just written an important paper, business communique, or other document that will be read by others and perhaps will be the basis for a classroom grade, a prospective business arrangement, or provide necessary information for a specific situation. Regardless of the end use of this document, it is important to you that it not contain any errors or embarrassing...

Presentation Skills – The 7 Rules of Visual Design The following comprise the rules of presentation visual design that, if heeded, will almost always assure that your audiences will be able to follow your ideas every step of the way. Of course, you must keep in mind that visual design is only one-third of the package required for a successful presentation, the other two being content and delivery...

Presentation Skills – Proper Slide Delivery The only way to assure your presentation audience will stay with you every step of the way is to maintain proper eye contact throughout your presentation. Proper eye contact involves delivering your presentation as a series of one-on-one conversations with each member of the audience, and holding eye-contact with members through to the end of a thought ...

Presentation Design – The Good, The Bad, & The Mediocre Your job as a presentation designer is to make ideas into visual images. For your presentations to work, the visual images must convey exactly what you want to say and require the least possible effort on the part of your audience to “get it”. The difference between a visual that works and one that fails is good design. To appreciate of...

Press Release Writing Tips A press release is an announcement of a newsworthy item that is issued to journalists and other media representatives. And it is a document that is generally formatted in a basic manner across the publishing industry for quick, efficient handing across the board of your news by media professionals. With regards to the basics of press release writing, here are seven bas...

Polishing Public Speeches Most of us, at one time or another, were exposed to public speaking through our education. It may have been a college course, or even a high school class. Perhaps the entire semester was comprised of a series of speeches, or perhaps only a single speech was required in a wider communications class. Those courses taught us some of the basic principles of public speaking....