Constant Content

Okay, I'm a new author here and although I haven't written anything yet I've been browsing the forum for some time. I think that I should gain a bit more knowledge about the CC structure before submitting anything for review(Gulp). My question is: How and when do you pros write? How many articles do you generally write in a day/week and what do you do after writing the first draft? Do you leave it alone for a few days and come back for proofreading? I really want to know how successful writers on CC go about their craft and what processes they employ between taking the writing pen(or keyboard) and submitting the final draft to Ed. What are your writing (winning) strategies?

Sorry if I swamped you with questions up there! But I'm really curious to understand the CC system and the wonderful writers who write here so please forgive me for the barrage of questions!
Thanks in advance,
Shane

My goal is 1-2 articles a day, but I got burnt on the 4th day and haven't submitted anything in the last few days. I have plenty of ideas, but sometimes I don't have the focus. My problem is focus.

I've been trying to keep my articles at a max of 400 words too. That keeps me from getting burnt, and I proof better. I do have a great idea for a primer that could be much longer, but that focus gets in my way every time.

CC is the only place I take extra care to proof. Every other place, I just read over my articles once and hit submit. I think many writers who do online articles are used to that, and then we come here and realize that ain't gonna fly.

I didn't sell an article until I did my first public request. I had written about 20 articles before seeing rewards, but some people here have sold their first articles.

I don't have a strategy really. I pick a topic that I think is marketable and something that I like and write on it. I take a lot of time to go back and proofread. If anything at all looks strange or doesn't sound right, I change it. One of the gals here, nichewriter, said she goes back and reads the submitted copy. I took that advice and I do that too. A couple days ago, I reread a submitted article and found an error! So, I fixed it really quick. It's a good thing I found it, because it was reviewed a few hours later.

Thanks Lysis! That was really encouraging: getting to hear from another CC writer. I wonder why nobody else is interested, were my questions that intimidating?

Hi Shane,
Guess everyone is really busy. I've been here a few years, and I'm not as prolific as others, but I'll offer my experience:

How and when? Hm, I'm not sure what you meant by how. After I have the gist of the article, I write out the basic points I want to make. Those usually become headings, and I fill in the blanks. Sometimes I write the intro first, and sometimes I write it after the body.

I write during the day when everyone (husband/kids) is gone, unless I'm behind on a deadline. If I get my act together soon enough, I write for about 6-7 hours a day. Some days I spend the whole day at the computer, having breakfast and lunch while I research (I know, eating by the computer is bad, bad, bad). Other days I have to get up and move around to think over what I want to say.

My goal is to write at least 1,000 words/day. That's first draft plus some editing to get it into shape. Then I send it to my husband/writing partner (Evan), who marks it up with that handy little tool in Word called "track changes". He usually takes his lunch break at work to do it, or catches up with it here at home. He looks for grammar/spelling errors and awkward sentence structure. I'm lucky to have his help, but that doesn't mean I can be lazy or sloppy. When he sends it back I look it over again, and by then some time has gone by so I'm seeing it with new eyes. If I make significant changes or additions, I send it back to Evan again. So this back and forth goes on for a few days, depending on how quickly he can get to it.
When it comes to writing, I think you have to be a little bit of a perfectionist and a little bit of an artist. I have this sense of how I want an article to be before I write it, not just as facts on paper, but my particular spin on the topic. I get it all down and then I work it over to make it readable and interesting.
I don't know that I have a winning strategy, but one of my goals from the beginning was to make every article a quality article. I'm not sure I've achieved that for every one, but a good portion of my articles here on CC have sold. I would recommend that you keep an eye on the recently sold list over a number of months, and pick topics from that list that you like to write about.

Best of luck,
Emma

Thanks Emma! And eating by the computer is a common vice we both share. I wish I had someone too who could look over my writing before turning it over to CC or any other writing sites.
1000 words per day is really good for the quality you CC writers deliver. That means you write about two or three articles a day, doesn't it?
Thanks for your tips! I think I still have a lot to learn before I can consider myself 'ready' to write here, so I'm brushing up on my grammar and writing skills right now. I guess I'll just look around for a couple of months like you said.

Shane

Shane,

Looking around at the guidelines and forums and polishing your skills is a good beginning, but your forum post indicates you have the necessary skills to get started now. It certainly wouldn't hurt to begin with one article, once you understand the submission process. Plus, you have all these friendly authors on the forums to answer questions along the way. Ed even gives advice if you ask nicely.

1000 words is my goal. I don't always get there, especially if for shorter articles that require research for each one. My articles tend to be longer (750 words and up). Those articles sell, but I believe the desired length of most clients is around 400-750 words.

Emma (furtively sipping oj)

> Other days I have to get up and move around to think over what I want to say.

This is such a good idea. I do this too. I walk a mile a day, because it's so easy to sit around like a fat, lazy freelancer all day! I walk when it's the quietest time around the neighborhood, and I think about what I want to write about. Then, I think about how I want to lay it out.

I also keep notepad open on my computer at all times. When an idea hits me, I write a line in notepad. Just something like "google seo - nofollow" or something like that. Save it and come back to it later.

I currently have about 100 lines in notepad of all my brilliant ideas! LOL

eek wrote:Shane,

Looking around at the guidelines and forums and polishing your skills is a good beginning, but your forum post indicates you have the necessary skills to get started now. It certainly wouldn't hurt to begin with one article, once you understand the submission process. Plus, you have all these friendly authors on the forums to answer questions along the way. Ed even gives advice if you ask nicely.

1000 words is my goal. I don't always get there, especially if for shorter articles that require research for each one. My articles tend to be longer (750 words and up). Those articles sell, but I believe the desired length of most clients is around 400-750 words.

Emma (furtively sipping oj)

I'm feeling foolish and reckless right now so I think I'll take the risk and submit the article after all. But could you please help me with this line of my article? I don't know whether a hyphen is a correct choice here or not and would appreciate some advice. It's the last line of the article:

"Nepal is a country of breathtaking beauty - the rich culture and the wooden temples of Kathmandu, the
majestic allure of the lofty Himalayas, and the wondrous Chitwan National Park with its wide array of flora and fauna will
surely enchant you and provide enough reason for a revisit to this beautiful country."

Is the hyphen okay? Or should I have gone for a colon or semicolon instead?

I think the hyphen is okay, but the colon is the safer bet. Steer clear of the semicolon, I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong there. Maybe somebody else can chime in.

I agree. I would opt for the colon.

Regards

Jane

Shane, I love that you're writing about Nepal. I live there for part of the year, and your article is dead-on--it IS a "country of breathtaking beauty"! I agree with the others: the colon seems more correct than the m-dash. Or split it into two sentences.

To chime in with my thoughts on your original questions--

I write anywhere from 2 to 10 articles per day. I like to let my articles sit for at least a couple of hours before giving them a final proofing and then submitting. Most of my articles are between 600-800 words simply because I have a private client who prefers that length, but when I'm writing on spec I typically float between 350 and 600.

I have a hard time writing at home, so I usually head to the library, bookstore or coffeeshop...the library is my favorite because it's quiet.

One thing that helped me when I was just starting out at CC was to focus more on my output than the sales or acceptances. If you write consistently and ask for help when you need it, you WILL see results...so don't worry if they don't come immediately!

Antonia,
Happy to find another Nepal lover!Nepal is a beautiful country that has been marred by political problems. But there is still much to love in it, and that's what my article is about.

I'll use the colon and send it in for review now (fingers crossed)