WRITING A BOOK… The timing has to be right, in terms of one’s work and availability, and these two threads are now coming together for me — I plan to write a book on Business Writing Tips this summer.  Even if I get delayed it will be published by January 2015.  How exciting is that! Here is the rough plan for my new book. The book’s aim is to provide easy and practical advice on around 20 writing topics (each of...

  LOTS of demand for my help these days… so it seems. 5 training courses delivered in 20 days last month.  Not all the same courses – nor the same clients: Get Blogging – University of Oxford (Department of Continuing Education) Writing for the web – Enfield Voluntary Action (for Directory of Social Change) How to write effectively – Army Families Federation (for Media Training, London) Writing for the Web – Oxford University (for Media...

8 Insider’s Tips   1.)  STOP! – Think!   Who is your audience? What is your objective? (People often start writing too early, before they have fully planned their content) What is the format… for example, on the web write for scannability.  2.)  Plan and structure before you start writing YES, planning is important, however short your piece! WHY?  Because it will be quicker to write – Less editing – Ensure balance across text –...

Structuring your writing, in advance, can save you so much time.  Several hours’ work, several drafts, and several sleepless nights.   It’s not just me saying this. This month I ran two training courses in writing skills for clients in London – in ‘Report Writing’ and ‘Everything You Need to Know about Copywriting’.  As in all my training courses, at the end of the day I asked delegates what were the most useful things they had learnt,...

Using a social media group, and a thread I started in October 2013 which got over 200 replies (Yes, over 200 replies – which shows the value of Social Media!) …  here is their advice …  ‘What’s your ONE writing tip for would-be authors?’, I asked them.   They said: Their TOP SIX suggestions for you: Writing is HARD WORK … so be prepared…but PERSEVERE (no author ever regrets publishing a book) REWRITE and EDIT your...

Starting out Appreciate beforehand that writing isn’t easy.  Be ready to make mistakes – you will probably have to come back and edit it later Write without editing along the way – and don’t worry about completing sections before you move on. Writing Write in short sentences and paragraphs Back up your ideas with research, examples, statistics, quotations etc., but don’t overwhelm your readers Take regular breaks, and get out of your chair to...