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When I worked in advertising many years ago, “try before you buy” was a slogan we used often in advertising copy.

And for good reason.

People usually want to know what they’re getting BEFORE they plunk down their hard-earned cash.

So I realize you might want to “try before you buy” my Writers on Call program of weekly teleclasses for freelance writers.

During each of these weekly sessions, I provide information about many different aspects of freelance writing. Many times I have guest speakers who are expert authors, business owners, writing instructors, editors, publishers, or writing coaches.

Subscribers are encouraged to attend each of these LIVE telesessions. However, each of these weekly teleclasses is recorded, and the day after the live session, subscribers are sent a link to an mp3 file so they can download the recording and listen to it whenever they choose.

Last fall one of my guest speakers was freelance writing expert, Yvonne Perry.

This session called, A Day in the Life of a Fulltime Freelance Writer: An Interview with author Yvonne Perry, actually started out as a teleclass at University of Masters and then became a teleclass for Writers on Call. Yvonne Perry is the owner of Write on! Creative Writing Services. In this three part telesession, Yvonne offers tips for starting your own full-fledged freelance writing business.

Click below to listen and get to “try before you buy” my weekly coaching teleclass program for freelance writers called Writers on Call:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

I hope you’ll enjoy the interview and then subscribe to Writers on Call today. Subscribe before September 1st and you’ll save $10.00 every month!

To find out what’s in store for subscribers in September, scroll down to my previous post from yesterday.

Have a great day!

Suzanne

The Working Writer’s Coach

If you’d like to write for major magazines, but you haven’t got a clue as to how to do it, join us for Writers on Call in September.

Writers on Call is a weekly teleclass for freelance writers. Every Thursday night we meet, via conference call, to discuss some aspect of freelance writing.

During the month of September, the topic for each Thursday night class will be - Learning Tips and Tricks to Break into the Magazine Markets.

For only $47.00 for the entire month, you’ll be able to take part in each Thursday night call. Plus, every Friday you’ll receive a link to a recording of the class. That way, if you can’t attend the LIVE teleclass on Thursday nights, you’ll be able to listen to the recorded class any time that is convenient for YOU.

But wait!

Here’s an even better offer - but you gotta HURRY!

Right now, a month’s subscription to Writers on Call is only $37.00. Subscribe today, and you lock in that price for a whole year. Plus, you’ll be invited to a introductory class this Thursday night, where you can give your input and let me know what topics YOU would like to see covered in the coming months. The price increases to $47.00 per month in a few days.

If you’re struggling to make a living as a freelance writer, you owe it to yourself to join Writers on Call today.

I tend to love books written from the main character’s 1st person point-of-view, if the author has given that character a very strong voice.

In Grace Happens, written by Jan M. Czech, the story is told from the 1st person POV of Grace Meredith, the fifteen-year old daughter of a movie star mother and an unknown (to Grace at least) father.

To make this story really come alive, Czech gave strong voices to the other characters, too, which include Grace’s tutor, an Englishman named Reginald Toffee, and a psyhic nanny named Camilla.

You may read this book to try to study Czech’s techniques for creating strong voice in a novel, but you’ll probaby get so caught up in the story (just like you did when you read Airball: My Life in Briefs) that you’ll forget why you’re reading.

But that’s okay.

Enjoy the story the first time through, then go back and reread chapters to study the voice.

Once you’ve read it, come back here and let me know which you think is stronger in this story - the main character’s voice or the author’s voice.

Happy reading!

Part of what makes a book memorable and enjoyable is a strong voice.

But does that mean a strong voice (or voices) from the characters - or a strong voice from the author?

Actually, it means both.

One of the best ways to develop a strong character’s voice for a book is to write the book from the main character’s point-of-view.

When writing the story from the main character’s POV, the author is able to use distinctive narrative and inner monologue, in addition to dialogue, to create a strong voice for the main character.

It gets a bit trickier to create a strong voice for the main character when writing from the main character’s third person POV.

That’s because dialogue tends to be the main way to develop the character’s voice when writing from his or her third person POV.

The author’s voice comes through in the way the author phrases narrative, and in the way he or she paces the story, and how much description and inner monologue (of the characters’) he or she chooses to use.

L.D. Harkrader is a children’s author with both a strong author’s voice and a strong voice for her main characters (in all of her books and stories for children).

Her middle grade novel, Airball: My Life in Briefs, is written from the 1st person POV of young Kirby Nickel.

The story includes distinctive narrative that helps develop Kirby’s voice for the story.

Yet, in everything L.D. Harkrader writes, her distinctive style and voice are easy to recognize.

She tends to write in short, direct sentences, that give all of her stories (and even her nonfiction articles) a strong voice and a quick pace.

Read Airball: My Life in Briefs.

See if you notice the skillful way Harkrader develops her voice as the author, as well as Kirby Nickel’s voice as the POV character.

Visit her website at LDHarkrader.com.

This week, I’ll talk about other books that have a strong voice. So stay tuned…

I was one of two speakers who took part in a humorous speech contest yesterday at my Toastmasters Club.

I had fun giving my speech, but I didn’t win the contest.

I thought I did a good job. But I got some feedback from one of the judges.

He said I seemed nervous and I talked too fast.

I’m not sure what the other judges thought of my speech because they didn’t give me any feedback.

I really didn’t FEEL nervous as I was giving the speech, though.

Actually, I was having a great time because everyone was laughing in just the right places.

But what was most interesting after I finished the speech was the fact that so many of the listeners thought I was just making up the entire topic I was talking about.

My speech was called “My Sixth Sense,” and I talked about the fact that I have a fairly unusual form on synesthesia.

Synesthesia occurs when real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In another words, it’s a “mixing” of the senses.

One of the more common forms of synesthesia occurs when people hear music and “see” colors to accompany what they are hearing.

Other people with synesthesia also see colors whenever they see letters in words or they see numbers written down.

With my synesthesia, whenever I hear someone say a person’s first name, or I see a person’s first name written down, I immediately start getting a mental picture of a texture and a color, and those two things suddenly come together and become a food picture in my mind.

So, unlike that poor little kid in the movie The Sixth Sense, luckily I don’t “see dead people.”

I sorta see “food people.”

To me, Judy or Nancy are ALWAYS chewing gum!

To everyone who listened to my speech yesterday and wondered if I was telling the truth - at the risk of sounding like Dave Barry - I really, really, really did not make this up. I do see food whenever I hear a person’s first name.

To anyone reading this - have a little fun here. Tell me your first name and I’ll tell you what food I “see.”

Have a great day!

Suzanne

Here are 15 new CDs that offer the help you want.

Pick and choose the ones you need.

Each CD is a mini-workshop that will give you specific action steps to take to move your writing career to the next level.

Each CD is approximately 55 minutes long, provides instruction for some aspect of freelance writing, and is only $19.97, which includes the cost of shipping.

Click on the following titles to order:

A Dozen Ways to Promote Your Freelance Writing Business

Evaluating Your Freelance Writing Success (So You Can Become Even More Successful)

Turning Your Passions into Articles, Books, and Maybe Even a Business

Developing An Overall Marketing Plan for Your Freelance Writing Business

Creating Your Checklist for Success as a Freelance Writer

Writing for Children’s Educational Markets Even if You’ve Never Considered It Before

Effective Networking to Build Your Freelance Writing Business

Effective Networking - An Interview with Anne Baber, author of Make Your Contacts Count

Tips for Creating Your Own Professional Newsletter & Other Marketing Tools for Your Freelance Writing Business

Duty, Honor & Glory - an interview with author James Whitley - With Ideas for Creating Your Own Ebooks

Make a Living from Your Writing Starting Today - with Your Book Publishing Coach Diane Eble

Promotion! Promotion! Promotion! - Part 1

Promotion! Promotion! Promotion! - Part 2

How to Write Winning Cover Letters and Query Letters

Using MySpace.com for Professional Marketing & Networking

If you want to be successful in any field, first you have to know what you want.

Sounds easy, right?

It’s not.

In fact, most people don’t know what they really want.

So it’s no surprise they’re dissatisfied with what they have, what they do, and what they are.

If this sounds like you, join us this Thursday night, August 23rd, at 7:00 CST, for Writers on Call.

This week’s teleclass is called, How to Know What You REALLY Want.

Find out more about Writers On Call, and subscribe, HERE.

People often ask me how I find the time to get my own writing done when I’m coaching so many other writers.

My answer to that question is easy.

I don’t FIND time to get my own writing done.

I MAKE time to do it.

I wouldn’t feel qualified to be a writing coach if I weren’t also actively writing.

Here’s a list of my current writing projects:

1) Write at least one article a day for article directories - for article marketing purposes.

2) Create a new Morning Nudge every weekday morning.

3) Revise my first culinary mystery and get it ready for submission.

4) As soon as my advance arrives, start working on my new historical middle grade

novel.

5) Revise some picture book manuscripts.

6) Create new instructional materials for my book writing program that begins in January 2008.

Let’s see. I think that’s about all I’m writing or revising at the moment.

The point is, I don’t FIND time to get my own writing done.

I MAKE time to get it done.

What works for writing coaches can also work for writers.

So, if you want to be a writer, don’t try to find time to write.

Make time to write.

Try it!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not overly concerned with fashion. I mean…my idea of a great outfit is something comfortable, preferably with an elastic waistband and in no way form-fitting.

You know the kind of outfit I mean. A pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt is just my style. Besides, when I’m sitting here at my keyboard, who cares what I’m wearing? Although, I do admit I try not to look so “comfortable” that I scare the FED EX guy who might turn up with something one of my editors has sent me. I don’t want word to get around that I’m that “scary old writer lady who lives in the house on the corner.”

But I do think style needs to be evident in my writing. And I think “style” is something many new writers forget when they’re querying a magazine editor with a story idea. They include all the information about the great content they’re proposing for their article, but there’s no “zing” to the query, so the editor can really see what a fun or interesting or serious style this proposed article will have.

If you keep querying various magazine markets without much luck, go back and reread some of your queries.

Do they put you to sleep with their straightforward, “just the facts, ma’am” approach?

Then jazz them up a little, so an editor can see how you’ll bring your own unique style to each and every article you write.

And, when you finally get your first acceptance letter from an editor, do what I do to celebrate.

Go out and buy yourself a nice new pair of sweatpants!

Ah…I love my style!

All writers need a little nudge now and then to get some writing done. Sign up by filling in the form in the right sidebar of this page to start receiving The Morning Nudge every weekday morning. Here’s a sample:

The Morning Nudge

Words to inspire and motivate you to get a little writing done today

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You’ve probably noticed that two little words I often write, or say, are “at least.”

These two little words, used together, can be very powerful when you start to compare yourself to other writers, which is a dangerous thing, yet I know all writers do it.

Next time you read about a successful author and start to think - What’s the use of trying? I’ll never be as successful as her” - instead, tell yourself, Well, at least I wrote something today. At least I’m trying. At least I haven’t given up my dream.

“At least” can turn those negative thoughts into positive thoughts that will keep you going when you get discouraged and feel like giving up.

Try it!

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Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer’s Coach
http://www.the-working-writers-coach.blogspot.com
Helping those who like to write become “working” freelance writers

If your pen won’t budge…read The Morning Nudge.

©2006 Suzanne Lieurance. All rights reserved.