Writing Prompt: Write or Modify Your Comprehensive Skills, Talents

Writing Prompt 108

Write or modify a list of your comprehensive skills and talents.

Today’s writing prompt should be great encouragement to every person to toot their own horn and shower great praise upon himself. How do you go about writing a comprehensive set of skills and talents? Well, it’s not an easy task to do because it is necessary to look deep within yourself, recognize that you are good at doing a lot of things, and capture that wealth of data in writing.

There are definitely spiritual elements of gratitude to incorporate in today’s prompt. If you are a believer in a higher being, you will likely give credit to that being for bestowing upon you a bunch of natural gifts and talents. Are you patient? A good cook? A pretty good dancer? Good with kids? Pretty good with teaching people? Do you type fast? Know how to do a skillful K-turn with a car? Are backflips easy to do?

There is just so much to capture. This exercise broadens the scope of professional skillsets and gets you to look beyond the normal horizons by recognizing your everyday talents in a meaningful way.

Education – Quick Tips

In this new education section, I’d like to provide a quick tip to motivate nonfiction writers.

Be yourself. Be distinctive. Be original.

Today’s advice for nonfiction writers is not new, but it seems that writers quickly forget that they must do something to stand out in a crowded field of fellow writers. A lot of times, people get stuck on the fact that they must be different and they tend to go out of their way to do outlandish, outrageous things that neither suits their personalities nor looks good. Those are the situations that smack of insincerity.

There are many sincere ways of standing out. It is up to you to figure out what your strengths are and do everything you can to play them up. If you are a conservative person, be true to yourself but still stick your neck out slightly in a way that is distinctive. If you are a bold, wild person, suddenly pretending to be the quiet church-type person will probably not win you many friends, either.

Being yourself is an asset. There is only one you. There is only one way you should be – – as a genuine person who stands out in your own unique way and not by copying someone else’s stunts or marketing ideas. What better person to illustrate that advice than the queen of originality herself, Kristen Eckstein?

Marketing success in writing

Today’s feature is on blogger Kristen Eckstein.

Kristen Eckstein is a blogger, book publishing coach, entrepreneur, and perhaps the zaniest personality I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on the Internet. Kristen has written and published many books. She blogs about her writing process constantly, always sharing lessons learned.

If Kristen’s writing and publishing advice seems like it might be stuff to save for later and read when you have the time, you may be in for the surprise of your life. Hers is the stuff that you’d do well to read now. Kristen’s real-life experiences make for educational information, good learning, and interesting anecdotes to think about.

Still not convinced? Well, I can certainly understand that nonfiction writers of today are bombarded with writing and publishing advice from so many people. Every single person has a unique angle on writing. What Kristen does is stand apart from the already too-crowded playing field of book coaches, so-called marketing experts, and writers who think they have all the marketing answers for free in a downloadable PDF.

Kristen is crazy. She is colorful. Bold. Distinctive. Outrageous! And I love every minute of it. I see one look at those huge, widespread eyes and I know that is trademark Kristen Eckstein. A fellow creative who has built a tremendously successful career out of being distinctive and different is Weird Al Yancovic. You should read his biography sometime.

Marketing success, non-writing

Here is our sixth feature on Artistic Toy Manufacturing Co. and the wild success of its custom plush and toys.

I found a gem on Artistic Toy’s Facebook page.  Jim Socci discussed an upcoming run sponsored by the Terry Fox Foundation. On Sunday, September 15, 2013, the foundation will be hosting its Terry Fox Run, a race to raise funds for cancer survivors. Apparently, this is a pretty big event with nation-wide support!

Note the name of the event “Terry Fox Run.” The name of the run is named after its creator, Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete who passed away from cancer more than 30 years ago. However, the name of the race could also be a play on words, focusing on the word “fox.” What a clever way to promote the Terry Fox Run, using stuffed foxes imprinted with sponsoring businesses!

Marketing means finding unique ways of looking at things. The obvious marketing tool for the Terry Fox Run would be t-shirts emblazoned with the hero himself. Less obvious but still very creative marketing tools would be stuffed foxes. Artistic Toy once again proves that thinking outside the box is a great way of setting oneself apart.