Pat's 7 Secrets

Survey Results

Hi everyone!

Well, I've been waiting patiently for survey results to come in so that I could share them with you. Thanks so much to those of you who participated. It will help me to get to the heart of your writing concerns. You know I can ramble on about things at any given point, but I'd rather help you with what you'd like to know, instead of going over things you're already familiar with. Plus, I may take these questions and write another book for you.

Listen, the survey is still open. So, if you'd like to contribute, here's the link:

http://ovweb.net/survey

Here's what I've learned so far:

• 80% of you write for the web
• Only 33% have trouble coming up with ideas, but you often don't know how to focus them
• Half of you are interested in writing nonfiction and half are interested in writing fiction and nonfiction
• 100% of the people polled want to know how to make articles SEO friendly.
• You prefer .pdf ebooks, rather than .exe types.

Here are some of your problems:

• Keeping it short and simple
• Writing technical and educational material in an interesting way
• And just about all of you want to know how to get the time to do it and the will to sit down and start

And from that, I have a story.

When I first began to write, my daughter was an infant. Yet, I had been reading to her from the day of her birth, just about. I realized that the books were pretty simple and I thought, I can do that. Ha! I started writing but quickly realized that I didn't have a clue about how to start, how to format a manuscript, what the most important part of any story is, and on and on.

In essence, I learned that I needed to learn to write, if I intended to ever be published in the print media world.

So, here's what I did.

I used one hour a day for writing--gathering source materials (and trust me, you need them even for fiction), making outlines, creating characters, and all the things a writer needs to do mechanically, in addition to writing. I did that only after making preparation and I still do that to this day.

My optimum time was first thing in the morning (though your own may be at another time of the day or night) and my daughter was either sleeping or as she got older, playing nearby.

When she took her afternoon naps, I was studying. I used one hour a day to do that, too.

In the process, you know what happened? My daughter fell into a great schedule of two naps a day, which kids need anyway, and I became a real, honest to goodness, print published writer. She made my life come true, in a way. Had I not ended my career managing bank branches to raise her, I'd never have come down this incredible path.

But you can do it, too!

Think about this: If you sit down and write only ONE page a day, by the end of the year, you'll have 365 pages.

One hour a day.

Don't know how to fit it into your schedule? Try Mark Joyner's Simpleology (http://ovweb.net/simpleology). It will put your daily chores into overdrive. I use it every day and I'm pretty organized. Now, I get more done in a day than I ever dreamed possible. Bless Mark! Oh, and Simpleology is free. You also get a dynamite web cast each week. Believe me, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't at least check it out.

And... Someone asked how to get his book published. Please write to me at pat@pats7secrets.com so that I can ask you a few questions about your book. Then, I'll make another post here that will be very helpful to all, I hope.

Until then, keep writing!

posted by Pat Marcello @ Friday, September 01, 2006