Writing endings has never been my strong suit. When a friend finished reading my first novel, the first thing she said was, “I hate the ending.” To me, the ending was perfect. It wrapped up the protagonist’s story while setting up the next book. So I asked her why she felt that way. She said, “It’s not satisfying.”
I’d run into the biggest obstacle to writing endings and conclusions. That obstacle is a two-word question: “So what?” That’s what someone says when they feel like everything they just read didn’t have an impact on them.
This problem doesn’t only happen with novels. Whether you’re writing a blog post, a college paper, or any kind of content, you must do battle with “so what?” If you want your reader to feel like your piece was worth the time they spent reading it, you need to learn how to write a satisfying conclusion.
Here’s how it’s done, in three simple steps.
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If you’ll pardon the cliche, an influential man once said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
While I presume Wayne Gretzky had little to no experience with freelance writing, his historic quote applies perfectly to this article. How does a writer go about landing a guest post on a site with a high domain authority—that is, a website Google deems hyper-relevant for its subject area or industry, thus ranks high for related search terms? Well, if your philosophy is that there’s no point in even trying, it’s simply never going to happen.
Thanks, Mr. Gretzky.
Intimidation factor aside, these sites often don’t have an open call for submissions. Their editorial standards are very high, and finding a relevant topic that they haven’t covered already isn’t easy. These are only some of the challenges you’ll face when trying to get your work out there.
Still, guest posting on high-authority sites has enormous benefits. You gain authority by proxy and position yourself as an expert. And it can bring additional traffic to your website, both directly from clicks to your site and via the boost in Google rankings you get from getting backlinks.
Here are the most effective strategies you can apply to get your writing published on high-quality blogs.
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When I began writing freelance, I’d already been writing for my blog for a few years. I knew there would be a learning curve because writing for yourself is completely different from writing for another publication.
To prepare myself, I participated in a few workshops and was mostly interested in the lessons about the best ways to pitch, since I’d never done it before. After gaining as much insight as I thought was necessary, I set out on my endeavor as a freelance writer.
I quickly realized trial and error were better teachers than any class.
There were so many things I learned from actively pitching. In this post, I’ll share with you the five major mistakes I made, and how the experience helped me hone my skills. If you want to perfect your own pitching strategy, feel free to use my tips as a “cheat code” so you don’t make the same mistakes I did!
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Want to hire a writing coach, but you’re clueless how to go about it?
Maybe you’re unhappy with your writing skills, your productivity as a writer, and even the current state of your writing business and career.
It’s possible that at first, you struggled to come up with new writing ideas, and with time you started using every excuse under the sun to avoid sitting down to write. Sadly, when you finally forced yourself, you only stared at your screen without writing, for long periods of time.
Now, you’ve decided to team up with a writing coach to inject new life into your writing.
Legitimate writing coaches can provide guidance and direction to help you avoid information overload or expensive mistakes, and overcome any obstacles preventing you from achieving your goals. They have solid credentials, experience in one or more relevant writing specialties, and they always deliver on their promises.
Ready to hire a writing coach that provides outstanding value?
Keep reading and you will learn eight steps to identify bona fide writing coaches and pick the most suitable one for you.
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