Encouragement for NaNoWriMo Writers

November is a busy month - it's not only the month that confuses shop owners into playing Christmas music already, it's also host to Movember and, ah, the event that inspires and terrifies writers: National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

There's no denying it's a popular event, according to the website there are 299,589 novelists signed up this year, no doubt some of them serial attendees. Just in case you haven't heard of it or you're hazy on the details, entrants have between the first and last day of November to write an entire novel, at a minimum of 50,000 words. It sounds tough (because it is tough), but the organisers have plenty of resources to help keep you going - physical events, online pep talks, a forum, and the option to upload your latest word count as and when you want. 

If you've signed up and are still going strong, congratulations - you've made it further than many others and that alone is incentive to finish. If you haven't signed up but want to, you can (but you'll need to really know what you're going to write in order to finish on time).

Now, I've not yet partaken in NaNoWriMo - partly because fiction isn't my primary outlet when it comes to writing, and partly because I forget about it until people start talking about how well they're doing. That being said, I still feel equipped to help and encourage others, because timeframe aside, the challenge is writing books - and that's something I have done and continue to do (if you're new to me, I offer professional ghostwriting services (but no, I won't write your NaNoWriMo entry...)).

Books are daunting, there's no escaping that, and NaNoWriMo is the London Marathon of book writing. But, at the risk of further exhausting a very tired cliche, the biggest journey begins with a simple step. Have another one too: "You don't need to be great to start, but you need to start to be great." Actually, to salute the power of three, have this one as well:

Those cliches are tired because they're true, and they're as true today as the time they were first spoken. As with any book, approach it one step at a time, one page at a time, and forget about the deadline - it's knowing that there are only 30 days in which to write the book that makes it more difficult, and if you're the type of person that can't cope with that pressure, forget about it. Just focus on the writing, and once you're absorbed in the story, you'll write a better book faster.

Part of the beauty of writing is that there are no rules. You can start on page one and work right through to the end, or you can start at the end and work backwards, or start in the middle. Whatever works for you - do alternate chapters if it helps. Write down plot and character notes, then when you're having a hard time continuing with a certain scene, push it aside and develop one or more of those earlier notes. Not only will it ease the frustration of a deadened in the scene you were working on, you'll also see the word count and overall story swell at a faster pace.

It can also be important - depending on the type of worker you are - to not get too concerned about other writers, or sticking exclusively to 'rules' of the event. No one knows your story better than you, and if you're certain of what you want to write and the direction it will take, forge ahead. That being said, if you're losing pace and need some help, Galley Cat is running tips for NaNoWriMo throughout the month, with today's tip being character point of view.

Writing a book in a month is made even more difficult by the presence of Real Life - work, family, social events to name a few. For that reason having some dedicated time to set aside can make a difference in ensuring you meet your writing targets, as well as helping other people know that it's your time and not to disturb you. "But writing isn't like a tap, I need to be inspired and can't just turn it on!" I hear you cry. If that's your thought, you're not alone. It's difficult to just turn it on because the clock struck 7pm. So if that doesn't work for you, find your groove - is it better for you to collect notes and ideas throughout the week and then after a lie in and gallon of coffee on Saturday morning spend the weekend tying it together to rack up the word count? Then do that instead. It can't be over-emphasised that the only rule is there are no rules. Do what works for you, not what other people are doing. When you play by other people's rules you lose the game because you're restricting your own ability to work. A wise person once said the only way to get through something is to go through it, so, with that in mind:

"Should I Write for Content Mills?"

Content mills are a contentious topic in discussions amongst freelance writers, because of their reputation of being the sweatshop of the freelance market.

What is a Content Mill?

Essentially, content mills, or content farms, produce copy for clients at a low rate, by paying even lower rates to writers. They aren't clients that are cheap, they act as middlemen, or agencies, between clients and writers, paying pennies per word - and often only paying if work is used by the client. 

The problem with content mills is that the wage offered is impossible to make a living from, short of churning out articles all day every day. Yet their high visibility in search results means new writers find them, apply to them, then join them, and before they know it, they're trapped in the content mill wheel. They need to keep writing a lot of articles to earn money, which means they don't have the time or energy to find real clients elsewhere.

It's easy to see why they have so many writers on their lists, though - they require no marketing, no client communication, no effort to draft adverts or attend networking events, instead you simply login to the website and take on the offered articles.

Many writers join under the impression of getting experience, developing a portfolio, finding actual clients, or just earning a little money on the side of their day job. They're all understandable reasons, of course, unless we add a little context to it: would a trained chef join McDonald's to flip burgers to get experience in order to work for Gordon Ramsey? No. To produce gourmet food, you must get experience producing gourmet food. Similarly, if your writing portfolio consists of content mill articles, it's unlikely to impress the better paying clients.

How Cheap are Content Mills?

Very. While they pay pennies per word (if that), private clients valuing the work will pay anything up to £2 per word - so a 1,000 article will net £2,000, rather than a few pounds a mill would have paid. No matter how you look at it, even after taking into consideration the expense of advertising and sending query letters, a content mill writer has come out worse off than a writer producing content for private, well-paying clients.

And that's really the crux of it: value of the content. The adage 'you get what you pay for' applies to writers as much as it applies to anything else, so a company genuinely interested in having the best content won't expect to get it for £2, and will factor in a decent wage to their marketing budget. 

Cheap Content - Low Rankings

Arguably, content mills were somewhat worth it for certain projects in the past - if a company just wanted to get some keyword-rich content on multiple pages, going to a mill could have done the job. Things are different today, though, as Google has made various changes to its rankings algorithms. No longer do the robots search for the amount of times a keyword appears, but it checks how often it appears (too much will count as spam), where it appears, and, crucially, the overall quality of the writing. So, if a writer produced a crappy quality article that made no sense, but had a 3% keyword density of the client's specified keyword, it will no longer improve the Google rankings. In fact, it could significantly harm them. In a swift move, Google immediately put cheap writers out of work (or at least, once the companies using them realise the change and its impact, they're unlikely to keep using the writers of that caliber). 

Content mills may roll with the change and try to adapt accordingly, by trying to demand a certain level of quality in the writing, which may involve writers taking an initial test to join the company. On the other hand, few writers are likely to jump through hoops of a convoluted sign-up process to earn peanuts, and if the content isn't helpful to the clients, they won't be developing a portfolio.

Ultimately, then, now is a bad time for mills and a good time for writers who understand quality content and how to write it. Not only will writers with an understanding of SEO and an ability to write a focused article be a true asset to clients, they can charge accordingly.

Carol Tice's website

"I, Lucifer"

It's been a long time since I discovered a writer as talented and engaging as Glen Duncan, not to mention criminally overlooked.

I won't give too much away, but if you've ever wondered what would happen should the devil get the chance to take on a human form and walk the streets of London, here's your chance. God gives Lucifer the opportunity to get back to heaven if he spends some time being good first.

A tremendous book that will frankly leave every writer lamenting their own skills in comparison to Duncan's. His religious knowledge (and unique insights) presents some intriguing and hilarious ideas to ponder, and between explaining that he invented rock n' roll and what a dullard Adam was, a sublime story is created - and in its wake leaves everyone else realising the total artistic freedom writing as the Tempter of Mankind affords the writer, and wishing they had done it first.

Get your copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0743220137/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1383867868&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

Placing punctuation with speech marks and parentheses

The English language is notoriously tricky, mostly because of the numerous subtle nuances within - silent letters, placement of apostrophes, and variations between UK and US spelling. Of them all, apostrophes and working out where to place punctuation with parentheses (brackets) or quotation marks.

An example for punctuation around speech marks and brackets could be:

He said, "Paul told me to go to the market and fetch his soup".

or:

He said, "Paul told me to go to the market and fetch his soup."

With with brackets/parentheses:

 At the market (which was only down the road.)

or

At the market (which was only down the road).

While an example for the use of apostrophes could be:

"The Rolling Stones' first chart single"

or

"The Rolling Stones first chart single"

Because phonetically there is no difference, many writers assume no apostrophe is needed, yet that is a mistake just as it would be if it were missing from a name:

"Ross coat is upstairs" is wrong; rather, it should be: "Ross' coat is upstairs"

Although the rules themselves are actually simple, they can trip up even established writers because there is no way of knowing what to do based on how it sounds. So, to make it simple, apostrophes go after the existing 's' (Rolling Stones) if it's possessive. A good way to remember it is by imagining a name without an 's' at the end and determining if it would need one in this context. For example, "Coldplays new album" would obviously need to be "Coldplay's new album". Thus, if it's a noun with an 's' at the end, add an apostrophe afterwards - "The Rolling Stones' new album". Simple, right?

It's no more complicated with punctuation with quote marks. Simply put, if the quote actually included it, add it within the quote; if not, add it outside. For example, if you quote a person to the end of their sentence, the full stop goes inside:

"Turn left at the top of the stairs for the bathroom."

If, however, it's not the end of the sentence, place it outside:

They told me to "turn left at the top of the stairs".

With brackets/parentheses, it's incredibly easy: if they are used within an existing sentence then the punctuation mark goes at the end, outside the bracket, otherwise the whole sentence is left wide open:

It started to rain (and Angie liked that).

If, on the other hand, the sentence ends prior to the use of brackets, the parentheses become their own sentence and so the full stop is placed inside:

It started to rain. (Angie always enjoyed the rain.)

That's pretty much all there is to it. The only exception is if you're using US English, in which case a full stop goes inside a quote mark even if it's technically incorrect - for example, if you list a song in quote marks (as you should), it would be thus:

The single that really made them famous was "Fun Time."

Even though, of course, the song title doesn't have a full stop in it, and placing it within quote marks would infer that it does. It's a strange anomaly with American English that a quote will hoover up punctuation that should come after, but, right or wrong, when in Rome...