Posted on October 24, 2017 by bpsc

Basic Interview Advice for Writers

by India Johnson

After you’ve submitted your writing sample and/or portfolio, it’s time to prepare for the in-person interview. Take a deep breath, relax, and follow these interview tips:

Learn about the company and position. Do research. Learn about upper management (LinkedIn is a great tool). Read about the projects the company has worked on. Carefully read the job description to familiarize yourself with the required responsibilities.

Prepare brief answers to typical interview questions. Your answers should be clear and concise. Typical interview questions include:

Tell me about yourself.
Tell me about a recent project.
What do you love most about writing?
Tell me about your writing process.
What do you do in your free time?

Prepare questions for the interviewer. This shows your industry knowledge, and also it reminds them that they are being interviewed as well. You must decide if you want the position if it is offered. Typical questions to ask include:

What will a successful year look like for this position?
Why is the position open?
How do you train new writers?
When are you looking to make a hiring decision?

Arrive early. If you are not early than you are late. Don’t make a bad first impression.

Dress Professionally. Here are some tips for what to wear for the job interview.

Take Notes. You may not remember everything that was discussed during the interview. Take brief notes for reminders once you get home.

Send a ‘Thank You’ note. After the interview send an email or mail a note to thank the interviewer for their time.

Posted on October 19, 2017 by michelle.boring

3 Ways You Can Write Like Cicero

We can learn a thing or two from the ancient Romans. How to build the perfect stone arch, for example, or how to throw an incredible dinner party.

Writers looking to persuade an audience should take a page from the book of one Marcus Tullius Cicero, an ancient politician famous for his speeches and mastery of rhetoric. And with election season upon us, you will almost certainly hear the same strategies echoed today.

Here are 3 Ciceronian techniques that can help add oomph to clear, concise language:

Anadiplosis: Yes, it sounds a little like a disease. But this trick can help you more effectively link successive ideas to make a point. Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of the previous clause, and looks like this:“Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to anger. Anger leads to suffering.”
-Yoda, the wise mentor in Star Wars
Chiasmus: This term means “X” and describes an A-B-B-A pattern. It helps you emphasize a contrast, like this:“It’s not the men in my life that count: It’s the life in my men.”
-Mae WestOr, in more presidential terms:
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
-President John F. Kennedy
Tricolon: Ancient speakers knew there was something almost magical about the number 3, and tricolon is simply a set of 3 parallel words or phrases. (How weird does this sound: “Location, Location.” You just need that third one.)Tricolon is one of President Obama’s favorites-consider this snippet from his 2008 victory speech:“If there is anyone out there [1] who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; [2] who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; [3]who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
-President Obama

When the third item serves as a climax or exclamation point, it’s called tricolon crescens(crescens means “increasing”):

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
-Benjamin Franklin

Posted on October 17, 2017 by bpsc

Must-Do Writing Tips to Establish Yourself as a Professional Writer

The leap from writing your first article to calling yourself a professional writer can seem vast, but there are a number of small steps along the way that add up to a successful career.

Write. A lot.Just like any other skill, writing takes practice. The more you do it, the better and more efficient you will become—which often makes the difference between earning and losing money on a project. Set up a routine for yourself in which you write everyday. Soon, you won’t waste time staring at a blank screen—you’ll be in the habit of sitting down and getting straight to work.
Define your expertise.Often the only way to know what you’re good at is to try it. You can gather experience and figure out what you like by completing assigned projects as part of a graduate program in writing, by volunteering your services, and by self-assigning writing challenges. If you think you might like grant writing, try putting together a grant proposal for a nonprofit organization you’re passionate about. If you want to try technical writing, see if you can pair with a local software developer to create documentation for one of their projects.
Find feedback and support.One of the best and most straightforward ways to find what you need as a budding writer is to enroll in a graduate program, which offers two key things most writers need: deadlines and feedback. You’ll gain discipline and the invaluable benefit of constructive criticism.
Build a community.Gaining a community of other writers and members of your industry can be a game-changer. Try joining a writing group or professional organization, attending author readings and events, enrolling in writing workshops, going to conferences, etc. The people you connect with will become your professional network.
Create a writing portfolio.Nothing says “professional” like a well-crafted writing portfolio. It won’t be the first step in your journey, but it will be a vital part of establishing yourself.
Make your online presence known.It’s not just your writing portfolio that counts, but your blog, LinkedIn profile, social media accounts, etc. Create a consistently professional brand for yourself as a writer and publicize it.
Put yourself out there.Unless you’re extremely lucky, writing work does not fall into your lap. You must actively pursue it. This means, that in addition to writing everyday, you should be answering calls for submissions, entering contests, and pitching your story ideas to editors.
Volunteer selectively.Everyone likes to earn cash, but sometimes offering your services for free can pay dividends, especially if it allows you to gain valuable experience.
Own it.Once you’ve put in the time and gained the confidence, don’t be afraid to take ownership of the empowering phrase: “I’m a professional writer.” And don’t forget to pay the goodwill forward by helping other new writers get into the game.

Posted on October 12, 2017 by bpsc

Think Twice about Adjectives

by Carolyn Morrison

Long ago, in high school, I had a writerly friend. We would share poems we had written and exchange notebooks in a breathless moment. He took my crazy, cursive loping stanzas that leapt across margins, and I accepted his stark blocks of prose that looked rubberstamped except for the distinctive characteristic of his hard-pressed, penciled, all-capital letters.

His advice was merciless—kill the adjectives.

I was always most incensed when he rallied against my adjectives. What harm did they do, adding life and color (or, more likely, a miserable mood befitting adolescence) to nouns in need of support?

An article by writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant found in the latest Conversion Chronicles newsletter, a website dedicated to helping people write highly-effective content for their own websites, suggests that adjectives themselves may help to kill off your audience if you let them run amok in your writing.

Gray-Grant’s Three Adjective Pitfalls

Adjectives are imprecise.
“Stunning” is an example of an overused adjective with a broad meaning. Especially common in social media, this is the go-to kudos comment for a great posted photograph. But, with some in-depth analytical thinking, stunning just sounds shocking, electrifying, and downright painful, and a great macro-shot of a gerbera daisy shouldn’t hurt.
Adjectives mean different things to different people.
This problem is similar to number one, but advances the vagary of many adjectives to account for different social and cultural perceptions. Take for example the emotional state of someone feeling “blue.” Considering emotive and psychological color representations are not the same the world over. This state of being is sure to cause confusion somewhere as digital writing travels around the globe.
Adjectives sound too hype-y and sales-y.
In many situations, overuse or misuse of adjectives leaves an audience with a bad taste in their mouth. Take redundant food descriptors for example, like “doughy,” “cheesy,” “rich,” and “creamy.” All of these tasty tidbits may be true to the product, but they are so standard, the product has no chance of standing out if standing by its written bio alone.

So, how do you add pizazz to your writing without bedazzling the pants off of it? Gray-Grant chooses to highlight a sentence’s verbs in a powerful way, while limiting the baggage that comes with the adjective + noun relationship.

Gray-Grant reminds us that verbs don’t have to be lackluster:

“Strengthen your verbs by making them as specific as possible. Eat, for example, could also be nibble, devour and gobble, depending on what you want to convey. Likewise, sit could be slouch, spread out or recline.”

Sometimes, it’s just about role reversal to add a new dynamic to the sentence. Instead of “whispering pines,” let the pines actually do the whispering, as in “the pines whisper in the breeze.”

For more adjective admonitions, try guidance from Writer’s Digest, a list of the internet’s most played-out adjectives from Motherboard, and adjectives to avoid professionally.

Posted on October 10, 2017 by bpsc

When It’s OK to Write for Free and When to Just Say No

By Andrea Calabretta

As I writer at the beginning of my career, I once got a job offer by email from the managing editor of an online literary magazine. It read: “We really like the work you’ve published with us and were wondering if you’d be interested in coming onboard as our nonfiction editor.”

My heart gave a little leap. Of course I was interested, and I was so very flattered. I wrote back in the affirmative.

After a couple more enthusiastic email exchanges, the managing editor dropped a bomb. “Unfortunately we can’t pay you at this time,” the editor wrote.

I felt as though the rug had been pulled out beneath me. At the time, I was working a part-time job and freelancing as much as possible to support myself. Now, I was looking at spending additional hours each week volunteering.

My writer friends discouraged me, saying I shouldn’t give away my talents, and the advice I found online said that working for free undervalues the whole profession. I was torn. I certainly didn’t want to contribute to undervaluing my fellow writer, yet I really wanted to do this job. As I’d been drawn into more high-paying assignments in marketing and development, I had left behind a certain amount of creativity. I missed the days of grad school, when I was regularly in dialogue with other writers in my program about their work. I liked the idea of taking a break from some of my more mundane endeavors each week to read stories and help make them better. So I decided to try it out: I would give it six months.

Since then, there have been other instances when I’ve been asked to work for free, and I have mostly declined them. At a certain point, I became too busy with paid work to even consider doing something for nothing, but I still wouldn’t say that all unpaid work is worthless. For a writer starting out, achieving the milestone of a first published clip can be just as valuable as a token payment for said clip. Building a portfolio of work, paid or unpaid, can be the first step toward winning new assignments and making a living wage as a writer.

When considering whether to work for free, ask yourself these questions:

Will this gig be of value to me beyond the (lack of) pay?
Will it allow me to take a creative risk or do something I wouldn’t otherwise get to do in my professional life?
Does it have networking or other opportunities that might lead to something more lucrative or compelling in the future?
Would another company/organization/outlet pay me for this same work?
Can I afford to spend X hours doing something that does not contribute to my income?
How does this gig support my professional goals?

As it turned out, I didn’t volunteer at the literary magazine for long. I was soon offered a job teaching writing that satisfied the same creative urge and paid me for my efforts. But I never regretted my time at the literary magazine, nor the opportunities it offered to hone my editing skills and meet interesting people.

Posted on September 26, 2017 by bpsc

Crafting a Pitch, Selling a Story

A pitch is a brief message to an editor written with the purpose of selling your story. Sometimes called a query letter or proposal, the pitch is an art form in itself, a gateway to getting an editor to read your work and ultimately to having it published.

A pitch is necessary whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, creative or business prose.

A pitch is necessary whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, creative or business prose—anytime you need to approach a publication from the outside. It bears some resemblance to a cover letter for a job but is much more specific to the piece of work at hand. No longer than 3-4 concise paragraphs, the pitch must make a strong positive impression in a limited number of words.

Steps to crafting a winning pitch:

Understand the outlet. Before you set pen to paper or finger to keyboard to write your pitch, your first task is getting to know the publication. Understand its mission and tone, what genres of stories or articles it publishes, any authorship or word count requirements, etc. Luckily, these are often spelled out quite clearly on publication websites, usually in an area called “submission requirements.”Know that you must tailor your writing to an outlet’s editorial specifications. These might include whether the editor prefers to receive pitches with or without finished articles attached. Ideally, you would become familiar with these requirements not only before you write your pitch but also before you write the story itself.
Entice and educate. As you begin your pitch letter, your first challenge is to entice the reader. This is the “hook” you’ve heard about before—the sentence or two that reels the reader in. It should contain the central idea of your story and be presented as a snappy lead. You should then inform the editor how you plan to flesh out the story from this extremely compelling beginning, with specifics on what you’ll include.This part of the pitch also works to convince the editor that your story is a good fit for his or her publication and audience. It’s important to demonstrate that you “get” the editorial vision and want to write for this publication specifically. For this reason, you should never use a template or an one-size-fits-all pitch.
Establish your credentials. Next you need to prove you’re the one to write this story. Start with a brief 1-2 sentence bio. Then let the editor know how much research or writing you’ve done so far (including a word count of anything you’ve written) and what you plan to do to deliver a successful finished piece.You might also include how long you’ve been writing, any particular expertise you have in this subject area, a couple examples of your most recent pitch-worthy publications, and a link to your writing portfolio.
Make it easy. Finally, the cardinal rule of pitching is to make a busy editor’s job easier, not harder. Mention anything additional you can provide, such as photographs or sidebars, and be sure to include everything he or she needs to be able to say yes to your story.

The challenge is to achieve all this in 3-4 short paragraphs that exude confidence, not desperation. You’re much more likely to receive a response if the editor can read the professionalism in your pitch and gain an impression of you as a talented and reliable writer with whom he or she wants to work.

Posted on September 20, 2017 by bpsc

Creating a Writing Portfolio 101

Picture this scenario: Editor X receives two nearly identical pitches—one from Writer A and one from Writer B. Writer A uses snappier language and a more appealing tone but doesn’t reference any previous publications. Writer B, meanwhile, concludes her pitch with a link to an online portfolio of her work. With one click of the mouse, Editor X can read through her best stories and find out where they were published. She likes what she sees. To whom does she respond? Writer B, of course.

Your ability to represent yourself online—and be readily found—is a crucial part of establishing yourself as a writer and building your credibility. As you seek work, you need a portfolio that is digital in format, easy to navigate, and professional. In most cases, it is your published clips or commissioned projects that should come to the fore, rather than you as the writer—though a headshot of yourself (not a selfie), an About section, and a link to your resume or LinkedIn profile can all be appropriate.

Steps to building a successful portfolio:

Know your niche. The first thing you want to consider when building a portfolio is how to tailor it to your particular industry. If you want to pursue a career in copywriting for an ad agency, your portfolio will look different from one intended for the nonprofit sector.Check out the websites and online portfolios of a few writers you admire in your industry to see how they represent themselves before building your own. If you have multiple specialties as a writer, you may want to build separate pages or even separate sites for each topic area or genre.
Choose your work wisely. Don’t pile everything you’ve ever written into your portfolio. Instead, be selective. Put forward only work you want an editor’s attention drawn to. This may mean you begin with only 3-5 pieces in your portfolio, which is fine.If there is a new category of work you want to pursue, consider creating sample content to represent how you would handle an assignment. Want to break into PR? Draft a press release for a new business in your neighborhood. As long as the sample is highly professional—and you make clear that it is not a commissioned or published work—then it’s fair game to include.
Select a professional platform. There are endless options available for creating a portfolio that is highly professional in appearance and affordable—or even free! Some of the most respected sites include Contently, Squarespace, Clippings.me, Pressfolios, and Issuu. Take a look at their sample sites and portfolios to get an idea of the aesthetic and organizational possibilities before you begin. Remember to keep your design simple and uncluttered. If you can, customize the domain name to your own name or your business name.
Get feedback. Once you’ve built your portfolio, consider sending it to a couple trusted colleagues, classmates, or mentors for their review. Ask them what sort of impression your portfolio conveys. Once you’ve made any needed adjustments, you can begin linking to your portfolio each time you correspond with an editor or client. You can even consider including it in your email signature or adding it to your LinkedIn profile.
Keep it fresh. Finally, as you acquire more writing samples and published clips, update your portfolio. Don’t neglect to keep your portfolio updated with new content and weed out the old. Your online portfolio should evolve as the trajectory of your professional writing evolves, and it should keep helping you win new business.

Posted on July 27, 2017 by terra.tomasic

Challenges to Environmental Communication and How to Overcome Them

Climate change has been a topic of inquiry for many years, but recently it has dominated news headlines. With the involvement of politics and policy changes that affect the Earth, there is a great debate involving what people should do to fight these issues. With overwhelming scientific evidence that humans have significantly accelerated climate change, environmental communicators can feel frustrated when faced with people who refuse to believe that the changing climate is a problem. Walls are put up between those who passionately work to prevent further climate change and those who do not accept it as a legitimate problem, and it sometimes feels like there is no common ground between the two populations. Here are some of the biggest barriers to understanding climate change and the environment, and how communication professionals can attempt to break through and make this issue relevant.

“Not My Problem”

Psychological studies have shown that all around the world, those who directly experience the effects of climate changes are the ones who feel most compelled to act and who are concerned about the future (need to find this citation again). People living in coastal cities, cities with normal high temperatures that continue to rise, or historically cold towns that are experiencing mild seasons see in their every day lives that the world is changing, and they dramatically hope that the rest of the world takes action. However, a large part of the world doesn’t have this same perspective. They have not noticed the changes in their lives that much. Therefore, it is up to communicators to show these people that there ARE affects that will eventually be seen in their families lives. Through creating interactive experiences and making messages targeted towards the audience’s own life and experience, they will pay more attention to what is said and potentially be more compelled to take action.

“Not My Political Party”

Issues concerning the environment have become partisan. Many people use a political party as a part of their identity, and therefore form opinions around that party as to affirm this identity. It is important for communicators to remove political bias when speaking about the environment. That said, politicians do not always make the best spokespeople for these issues. Instead, a more unbiased voice should be used to address an audience and present facts.

“Not My Field of Study”

When you get down to it, greenhouse gasses, carbon emissions, and the specific scientific effects of climate change can be complicated matters, especially to people who do not like science! Many people truly do not understand, or choose to tune out language that they are not familiar with. While specific scientific facts are vital to those that study this phenomenon for a living in research labs and in the field, others who do not have the same background knowledge need a more baseline understanding. Messages need to be simplified and not focus on details that require a bachelor of science degree to understand. Making information available to everyone, regardless of education level, is key to getting the entire world on board with sustainable practices.

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