My Book of Truth

Many years ago, when I was still in college, my mother sent me a newspaper article in which a woman described a nun who had influenced her during her years growing up in a Catholic school. She described her relationship with this wonderful lady who was also the school's librarian. Both being avid readers, they had found each other and connected through their mutual love of books.

The years past and time came for the writer to graduate and leave the school. The librarian nun gave her, as a graduation gift, a little journal. In this little book, the nun had recorded her thoughts over the course of many years. She based her entries on a simple concept. When she found something to be true, she would record it in her journal.

The writer admitted that at the time she received this precious gift, she was very young and did not truly appreciate its value.

Some years later, the writer heard that her dear friend had past away. Upon hearing this, she remembered the little journal. After some digging through things packed away, she found the little book. She opened it and for the first time read it for the jewel it was.

The insights she found recorded there by the quiet nun were so moving and astute that she, in turn, felt compelled to write an article and share the story with others.

Fortunately that was the article my mother sent me. I was captivated by the idea of recording what one found to be true, so I went out and purchased a new, crisp paged journal of my own.

Through the years, starting November 9, 1994 (first page inscription), I have plied the simple concept - when I find something to be true, I jot it down in my Book of Truth.

Now, more than fifteen years later, I have quite a collection, and from time to time, I will read through my book's pages. The entries serve me over and over as reminders of not only the events of my life which spawned the entries, but to act a reminder of the truths I have come to conclusion on.

I am reminded that although we are clever beings, capable of tremendous feats of grace, creativity, generosity, insight, gentleness, kindness and amazing intellectual leaps beyond, we can so easily forget the invaluable lessons cast our way over the course of a lifetime. We must, from time to time, be reminded of beauty, of peace and of truth.

My hope with this article is that perhaps upon reading this story, others will be inspired to start their own books of truth.

http://www.truthbeing.com

Distractions While Writing Articles; The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Many people who write articles and post them at online article submission web sites will listen to music while they work. This can be distracting and sometimes cause mistakes, although for some it can be very enjoyable. For others it can be a knowing and detracting.

On the other hand visuals like watching Discovery Channel, Wings, Weather Channel, Sci Fi, Movie Channel, Sports or News can also be enjoyable while writing and yet watching TV while writing will most definitely add to the number of errors in your articles. I have also noticed that my articles also come out differently. That is to say that the subject matter of whenever I am watching may end up setting the tone for my article. Then if I switch while in the middle of an article it seems to change the outcome a bit?

I know if you are watching a Docu-Drama, Action film or listening to music with lots of verbal irony, Country or some of the newer stuff then you must re-check your articles and be careful editing, otherwise too many mistakes. If you are writing lots of articles and also listening to music or watching TV while doing so then perhaps you need to look over your articles a little bit better to make sure you are saying what you really want to say. Please consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Writing Using What is Around Us - Finding Inspiration

Go on a scavenger hunt through a favorite book. Look for outstanding adjectives, sentences that grabbed your attention and for physical descriptions that were especially good. See what the structure of the story was and what kept you reading the chapters through to the end. Look for the events that inspired you as you read.

This information is excellent to gather so you can begin to use it as a guide to help you improve your own writing skill. See if you can take an idea and write a story using the new approach. Your characters may seem more real to you and the content more appealing to your reader when you enhance your story lines with inspirational events.

Adding richness to your overall story is so important to keep your reader interested in following the story to the end. I enjoy stories that are inspirational and most other people do also. They are all around us in the stories of the friends, family and people we meet at the grocery store, mall and in other actives in our lives.

It is like a treasure hunt when you find things in your favorite books and are aware enough to notice the treasures in the people you meet. They can be used in whole or in part as you develop your characters and begin to see your story unfold, perhaps in a new way.

You feel less pressure to produce a story if you can start with an idea and allow it to help you jump start the current story line you are working with at the moment. Allow your reader to go on a scavenger hunt and find the treasure in what you have written. It can make learning how to improve your writing more fun and you also get to discover the treasures you have in yourself as you share with the others around you.

And now I invite you to join me for a series of writing exercises to help you discover your areas of interest in writing as well as increasing your creativity. You may access these exercises by visiting http://www.freecreativewritingstrategies.com.

You also may enjoy visiting my blog at http://www.creativewritingmadeeasy.com

Article Writing Tips - How to Crank Out Topics Fast Even If You're Tired After a Day at Work

One of the problems of writing articles is that of coming up with the topics to write about. You may be thinking, there are only so many topics to write about, so I'll never get a few hundred articles out there. I have submitted over 3,700 articles on one topic so I know it can be done, it just requires some thinking outside of the box.

The first thing you would need to do is to do your keyword research. Make a list of the popular, high trafficked keywords in your niche market. And put them into a text document or a Word document. I have a list of about 30 keywords in a document that I open up whenever I want to write articles on that niche market. So this step makes your article writing a lot easier as you don't have to brainstorm new topics every time you write.

What happens when you write articles that are similar to your previous articles? Well, it's still valuable. As long as they are not entirely the same, and you don't copy your old articles but start each new article from afresh, and you include new ideas, that new article has value. It will reach more people and more people will be able to get your information.

There are tons of articles that similar in content on the web, but not everyone is going to find all of them. So for each of your keywords, you will need to write multiple unique articles, each with their own twist, so you will be able to gain greater market reach on the web. Now get cracking and start writing!

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

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Lucrative EBook Writing

When it comes to making some quick bucks, the best way to do would be by selling information on the net that too in the form of ebooks. It is fairly simple to do and earns you a lot of money. Suppose you write a 25-30 page recipe book and sell it at just $20 per book. So, if you are able to sell just 100 copies, you would be earning $2000 without much effort. There would be some advertisement and promotional costs but then also the returns are more than good considering the time taken to develop this ebook. You would take about a week to create such an ebook and the estimate of just 100 ebooks being sold is conservative to the tee.

Millions and millions of people surf the net everyday on the look out of information. This could be information about anything and the thing is they are willing to pay for this information. That is the market for you. You have to provide that information and make money out of it. It is true that most of the information is available on the internet for free but believe me finding information on net is not that easy as it might seem. Search something on your favorite search engine and see the result. It comes out with billions and billions of pages and there is no guarantee of the accuracy of the information provided.

It is the task of an ebook writer to gather relevant and correct information and distill it and then present it in a readable format and that is what he is paid for.

Want to learn more about it? Download the free ebook, Steps to Article Marketing Success.

Map Making For Fantasy Writers

Maps are a wonderful addition to any fantasy novel. They give the reader an added level of information that helps them visualize and experience the world you have created. A good map can also help you in the writing of your novel. Here are some resources and tips to help you make good maps as a supplement for your writing.

Travel and the Size of your World

One of the biggest questions you have, which is also one of the biggest obstacles to good map making, is getting the size of your world right. If you are writing a fantasy novel the sky is the limit and you can create a world of any size you want (it is your world!). But if you want to stick to some sort of traditional measure you might want to consider the traveling speeds of horses and humans. This will give you a good foundation for how big your world is and how far apart the various landmarks are.

Some very loose rules of thumb are that an average healthy person can walk about twenty miles a day. This is roughly the pace of Roman soldiers on the march -depending on the amount of available daylight. You could of course stretch this in your writing. The distance horses can travel in a day also varies but a well-trained and healthy horse might do around fifty to sixty miles on a good day. Exceptional horses could do more than this, and potentially up to a hundred miles, but this would be a one day feat only and would require weeks of rest and rehabilitation.

The novel you are writing is fantasy and you can make any rules you want but just keep in mind typical travel distances so you can maintain a good sense of scale. It is generally not good to have your travelers walking several hundred miles in a day. Keep this in mind with your writing and with your map making.

If you want to use Leagues as a measure of distance one league is considered to be the distance a man can walk in one hour which is approximately three miles.

The Map Key: Elements to include

The key of a map is a box of information that helps the reader fully understand the map. Here are some key elements you should include with your map.

A Compass - A compass is a small drawing somewhere on the map that shows the four major directions. You should include one on your map. It helps orient the reader and is particularly helpful if you use directions in your writing. If one of your character says something to the effect of "We will reach the Lucky Dragon Tavern by nightfall and in the morning we will set out East toward the Brine River" your reader is able to look at the map and get an instant understanding of what is happening and where the travelers are heading. A detailed compass will show all four map directions of North, South, East, and West. And a scaled down compass will just point out North, which is often sufficient.

A Scale - A scale is a line drawn on the map that shows distances. You can calculate the scale on your map by first measuring the overall size of your map. You divide the distance the map covers by the size of your drawn map in inches. If your map covers 1,000 miles and it is 10 inches in size 1 inch = 100 miles. You create the scale by drawing a 1 inch line then marking it as 1 inch = 100 miles. You can make the scale larger by extending the line another inch and marking the end point as 200 miles.

Making your map more visually appealing - You can make your map more attractive and interesting by drawing in major landscape details. Mountain ranges can be drawn in, small groups of waves can be put in bodies of water, and small trees can be drawn into forested areas. You can even draw small buildings to represent cities and towns.

Writing Names of locations on your map - Here is a good rule of thumb to follow when writing the names of major landmarks on your map: The more important the landmark the bigger the text should be. Use larger letters for big cities and important places, and use smaller letters for less important landmarks. This helps your reader identify major points easier.

The map itself can be made more visually appealing by adding parchment curls at the edges or medieval style borders around the edges. You can even add small drawings of creatures. Whales in the oceans and horses in the plains are common. These are aesthetic improvements that would be done for the final map that goes into the book.

Using your map as you write

Your map can become a useful tool in your writing. Is your main character traveling from one town to another? Check your map. What kind of terrain is between the two towns? Is there a river that needs to be crossed? Is there a desert or heavily forested area? These things can generate new ideas for your story. And remember your scale. Does your map show the distance to be 200 miles? If so, did you write it as a one day journey? And be sensitive to the landscape and how it affects the creatures, races, culture, and plant life in your world. If your map has a variety of eco systems like mountains, forests, deserts, and swamps the life forms in these eco systems has to reflect that. And travelers passing through these systems have to face the challenges that each eco system poses.

Keeping two maps - one for your and one for your readers.

I recommend you create two different maps. The first, and larger map, is for your own use and it should be very large - poster board sized if possible. You can add lots of details and even include important notes and plot points on it; and it is imperative that you do it completely in pencil so you can erase and modify it as your writing progresses. Once your novel (and map) is completed you can use this first map to create the second, pared down map that will be included in the novel - usually as a two page spread in the beginning of the book.

Map first or novel first?

Maps and stories go hand in hand and I recommend you develop both simultaneously. The story dictates how the map will be drawn and the map will help you keep things correct in your writing. As you write your story it will bring about changes in your map. The two should develop simultaneously.

You don't have to be a cartographer or artist to make a great map to go along with your book. But you do have to know some rules of thumb to make sure your map is understandable by your reader. A good map will add to the readers experience by helping to make the world you created more vivid and real. And it will be a great tool to help you write a better fantasy novel.

Will is the author of two Epic Fantasy Novels and he is currently working on his third. For lots more articles on the art of writing fantasy visit his website:

Fantasy Writing
If you like to read fantasy visit his site devoted to the best fantasy books: The Fantasy Guide - Your guide to fantasy books, stories, news, and art on the web.

Article Writing Tips - Fancy Suit Or Plain Clothes?

Article writing can be so much fun. It can also be a real bore depending on what you're writing about. In either case, you've got to suck it up and put your best foot forward or nobody is going to read your work. The question is, how do you dress up your article? Do you put on your best suit or just some plain clothes? If you don't know what I mean, I'm talking about style. Yes, style is important, but it doesn't always have to be dressed in a tuxedo. This article explains.

Let's say you're going to write an article about a grand event. Let's say that every important person in the world is going to be at this event. Let's say as part of your article you need to tell you readers who was there. What do you think is going to sound better? "At the grand ball, I saw Carol Starstruck enter the big room" or "Carol Starstruck entered the grand ball with all the grace of a swan in a fairy tale"? Naturally the more descriptive description is going to capture your reader's attention a lot better.

But the "dress me up in a tux" approach doesn't work for every article. If you're writing a piece on World War II, the last thing you want to do is dress it up. You want to make people see the horrors of war, but the last thing you want to do is make it sound like a four star movie. I think they call it good taste. This will be especially true if you're writing about the Holocaust, which is a very sensitive subject with a lot of people. In this case, subdued would be the better approach.

Unfortunately, there is no black book that we can turn to in order to find out how to write each article we're going to tackle. For this, we have to use some common sense. Think about your subject matter and what your reader is going to expect. Fancy might work with some things, but with others, it's probably a better idea to just state things plainly. With experience, you'll get the hang of it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people's attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html - This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.