10 Most Common Mistakes Made in Business Writing

10 Most Common Mistakes

Business Writing is an element that has fallen off the wayside over the years and that’s pretty shameful. People don’t take the much needed time to invest in their written communication skills. Personal and business relationships have fallen apart because no one took the time to get their point across properly. If you want to stand out as a business writer and amp up your skills, take some pointers that are listed for your betterment! Continue reading “10 Most Common Mistakes Made in Business Writing”

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Writing Your Story

Telling your story is a process (Pixabay)
Telling your story is a process (Pixabay)

As New3Creation continues to evolve (and make so many twists and turns in the process) one of the needs that has come to surface is the want or need to write a memoir of sorts. Everyone has a story to tell, but a lot of people don’t know where to start. Well, there are some things to be mindful of and questions to ask before embarking on such a critical journey. When I finally started working on my story, I didn’t know what laid ahead for me. But once a few things were thought over and put into place, things started going in the right direction. Continue reading “Writing Your Story”

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Do these 3 Things to Survive THE CHANGE!

Flickr, R/DV/RS
Flickr, R/DV/RS

The other day my phone was BOMBARDED with new messages and emails regarding social media changes, to include Facebook, Periscope and Apple products. Whooptie do. I don’t mean to sound sarcastic but the same thing happens all the time if you ask me. Something new is introduced to the world, everyone goes haywire about to pee on themselves and then the hype dies down…sooner or later something newer and better comes along, making it easy to forget what all the hype was about in the first place. Continue reading “Do these 3 Things to Survive THE CHANGE!”

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Value Yourself, Value Your Business!

Source: Pixabay
Source: Pixabay

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted here. I never imagined being this busy and caught up with trying to get other things done. But more on that later, right now I’d like to get to today’s topic!

I attended one of my networking meetings today. I’ve discussed the importance/necessity of networking groups in the past, so I’ll just reiterate briefly how they are VITAL in the world of solopreneurship. Being around people with similar goals and visions pays off immensely. I’ve been in this particular group for at least a year now and it’s consisted of the same group of people for the most part, so they’ve seen me from day one of hardly having an elevator pitch, Continue reading “Value Yourself, Value Your Business!”

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In the trenches…..

Source: Pixabay photos
Source: Pixabay photos

Hello and Happy Tuesday to you all! I know, It’s been a HOT MINUTE since I’ve been around. Believe me, it’s not because I fell off…well in way, I did. From blogging at least. It’s because I’ve been heavily occupied with life, work and new clients. So it’s a good thing, right? Since I had a moment, I figured I should take advantage and give you all a shout!

I’m going to start off with a quote for you all: Continue reading “In the trenches…..”

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Does Education Matter When it Comes to Writing?

Source: Pixabay photos
Source: Pixabay photos

I will say upfront – you don’t need any type of degree to be a freelance writer. However, there are specific skills that come with this line of work and are required in order to have a significant impact. So the degree is not necessarily required, but education is a must. Here’s why… Continue reading “Does Education Matter When it Comes to Writing?”

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Chronicles of a Freelance Newbie: New Friendships Abound…

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These past couple of months have been really fast-paced. When I first dove into writing, things were moving really slow (of course they were) and some days seemed as if my voice wasn’t getting to anyone. Even though I felt that way some days, I still kept posting and interested readers would trickle in. Well while that was going on I was doing traditional networking and so many doors have opened since then, which makes me extremely excited for the coming year!

Shout out to Kim of Abundant Life Initiative, who provided me an opportunity to share an experience of mine with her audience. I don’t quite remember how we connected, but at some point we were really impressed with each other’s blogs. Check out the post here. There will be many more to come in the near future. =)

There have also been pavement pounding sessions that caused new relationships to form. This is mainly because I’ve chosen one particular cause to cover through my writing. It’s a cause that is near and dear to me as a person and a writer and I intend to raise awareness about it. What’s the point in being a writer if you have no particular passion? When I write about this particular topic I don’t try to impress, I just write. Some folks have noticed this to my surprise and are interested in collaborating with me on different projects which brings an unique type of joy to me. I’ll be conducting interviews, creating new programs and attend specialized meetings because of this topic and the way I chose to go about addressing it with my writing. Check out my posts on Intimate Partner Violence here. I’m not sure if I will post on this particular site about the topic, because it was designed for my freelance experience and work portfolio, but we’ll see what happens.

Moving ahead for the new year…

I’ve continued to have new clients referred to me and more meetings with folks (most of them other bloggers) that are interested in working with me. The opportunities abound!

Of course, there was a lot of cultivation for these opportunities to happen. It’s a very exciting time. Since I’m a strong believer in face-to-face interactions, I recently started a meet up group specifically for career enhancement. In the past several months, I’ve helped quite a few individuals with their career by providing them guidance and sharing my own experience with them for encouragement. So if you’re in the DC area, stop by one of our meet ups! The experience will be a fulfilling one!

From the new relationships I’m forming, I expect more business opportunities to arise for my writing and consulting services. I have to be prepared for that so I’ve been touching up my skills on copy writing and pushing to stay on top of my reading.

Even though it’s been kind of slow around these parts, trust and believe other areas have been very busy! For instance, I still post useful articles on my Hub Pages site, including my first recipe! It doesn’t hurt to step out of the box every now and then, which I plan on doing from here on out!

Deciding to get back into writing and use it for an outward purpose has been a fulfilling experience. Whether it’s writing or blogging, new ideas, skills and confidence levels have definitely developed!

What have you been up to? I’d like to know your plans for the new year.

 

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Why You Need to Develop Your Own Voice as a Writer

Unique in his own right: The late great Louis Armstrong
Unique in his own right: The late great Louis Armstrong

Real talk – the freelance business has boomed in recent years and continues to grow at very high rates. For very good reason too; people are becoming tired of the challenges that come with working for someone and desire to be their own boss. So there is clearly a shift in the economy and the workforce which should alert anyone who calls themselves a freelance writer. Continue reading “Why You Need to Develop Your Own Voice as a Writer”

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Build Your Confidence as a Writer| 5 Secrets that Work!

You want to get more into writing, but you’re afraid your work will tank once it’s posted. Don’t have a negative attitude towards your own work. If your writing is not where you feel it should be, look over these 5 ways you can build your skills and confidence as a promising writer.

Expressing yourself through writing is a learned skill.
Expressing yourself through writing is a learned skill.

Writing Prompts

There are writing prompts galore all over the ‘net that will put your writing skills to work. Some sites offer daily and weekly prompts to get you moving in case you’re stuck on what topic to write or blog about. These can serve as great exercises since your writing is put to practice. So the more you do writing prompts, the better. Furthermore, once you link your post back tot he writing prompt site, you’re bound to get feedback from readers that can be really helpful for you (it will also generate a lot buzz on your blog). This is great because you get to engage with other writers who may be trying to improve their writing skills as well. Here are some sites that offer great writing prompts:

WordPress’ Daily Prompt

Writer’s Digest

Read

If you’re not already an avid reader, you should start developing this habit. No, you don’t have to go through a whole set of encyclopedias and grab a pen a paper, but its important to keep your brain engaged by reading more than you often do. The newspaper, short stories and the latest novel will definitely get your writing gear motivated to get productive. Being exposed to different types of writing can only serve as inspirational for your own work. Not only will you see different ideas and expressions, but you’ll also be exposed to new types of vocabulary and sentence-structuring. Your brain loves this kind of stuff. Besides, the material you read will provide you with plenty more prompts to blog or write about. This creates a better atmosphere of engagement with your audience as well.

Keep a Journal

Not that you have to disclose the details of your private life tot he world, but having a notebook is handy when certain thoughts come to your mind; many times we’ll come across something that will prompt us to write but by the time we sit down to do it the thought has gone. Keep a notebook to jot down ideas and thoughts that hit home or you may want to share with your readers. Write what you observe about life or people and incorporate that into your writing. Over time, you can go through the journal and see how your voice has progressed on paper. This is a definite confidence booster and will give you more things to write about.

Consistency

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. You have to develop a habit of writing on a regular basis. Your skills will build and your voice will definitely develop. The journal and writing prompts mentioned above will definitely help build consistency. The more you practice, the stronger your writer voice will develop. You’ll also be more inspired to write – to the point where you won’t really need prompts anymore. You become more in tune with what actually motivates you to write. This is also where blogging comes in as a handy tool. As a writer, you have to keep your blog up to date (if that’s something you chose to do; not for everyone) so maintaining a blog helps with building consistency with your writing skills.

Get Constructive Feedback

What’s the point of writing for a platform if you don’t have feedback? If you don’t want to ask friends and family, there are plenty of places online that will provide constructive feedback. If you’re on WordPress, they have a community specifically for those who want their writing critiqued or they’re blog posts reviewed and discussed before posting them. Writer’s Digest also has forums where you can bring up your work for review. Whichever route you chose to use, make sure you get some type of feedback for your writing. It has to be honest, constructive feedback so don’t give your writing to someone who will automatically say it’s superb.

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