(On Being Ready to Write and Publish a Book.)

Fortunately, this is where writers and parenting experts can help. Parenting books provide the much needed advice families are hoping to find. As the author of Calming Teenage Anxiety: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Teenager Cope with Worry, I recommended the following five steps in writing a successful parenting book.

Step One: Select a Niche Demographic, Population, or Concern

With numerous parenting books on the market, it is helpful to begin by narrowing down your focus. While many topics in parenting can be applied throughout a child’s lifespan, consider specializing in one age range or demographic. To clarify, target your audience to parents of teenagers, middle schoolers, or a certain age range. If this does not feel applicable to your work, select a distinct concern or problem to address. For example, focus on “parenting children with anxiety” or “parenting kids with ADHD.” Not only can this make you an expert in a particular area, but also creates a less daunting writing process for you.

Step Two: Provide Concrete Tools and Techniques

Most parenting books examine the multitude of difficulties children experience today. These books frequently explore the factors contributing to the problem and provide stories of those who are suffering. However, parents are seeking solutions and strategies to alleviate specific concerns. While it is important to acknowledge the contributing factors to certain issues, I advise providing concrete tools and techniques for parents. To specify, I suggest listing exact words, phrases, and actions for parents to utilize.

Step Three: Offer Case Scenarios and Examples

In conjunction with supplying your reader with clear language to use in their parenting, it is essential to offer scenarios and examples. Parents can better grasp when to use specific tools if provided with a case study. Explore realistic situations and possible outcomes for parents when using techniques and strategies. Additionally, you might want to emphasize what would create a successful, versus an unsuccessful, result from a particular scenario.

Step Four: Enhance Accessibility

While I recommend finding a particular niche, I also encourage you to make your book accessible to all types of parents. Every parent can benefit from additional tools, resources, and guidance, even if they are already confident in their parenting. Allow every parent to benefit from reading your book. Ensure that the parent with a doctorate, as well as the parent who did not complete high school, can gain insight from your writing.

Step Five: Be Authentic

Be authentic in your writing, and keep it real for your readers. Acknowledge that parenting can be challenging. Affirm that it is understandable for parents to be discouraged, annoyed, or frustrated at times. Provide a breath of fresh air for parents, rather than forcing your readers to pretend everything is okay. While it is important to maintain a positive tone in your writing and encourage parents to stay optimistic, be real and grounded.

Check out Sophia Vale Galano’s Calming Teenage Anxiety here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

The post 5 Steps for Writing a Successful Parenting Book appeared first on Writer's Digest.

From the time we’re children, the whimsical and weird draws us in and makes us imagine worlds beyond our own, creatures that exist only in our imaginations, and endless possibilities. In this issue, we celebrate whimsical and weird writing by exploring fantasy writing, magic, talking animals, monsters, unusual writing formats, and much more.

Features Include:

+ Building Your Own Magic System: Award-winning author Whitney Hill shares considerations for developing a magic system for your stories and how to avoid boxing yourself in for future works. By Whitney Hill

+ Leveraging “What If?” in Speculative Fiction: Five techniques for convincing readers your fiction just might be real after all. By Jeff Somers

+ The Weirder, the Better: How to write nonfiction that sells by embracing the odd sides of life. By Zachary Petit

+ Creatures of the Night: Enriching your fiction with dreams, nightmares, and half-awake visions. By Elizabeth Sims

+ Writing in the Southern Gothic Style: Understand the origins and nuances of this gothic subgenre to write atmospheric tales. By Sonya Alexander

+ The Winner of the 94^th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition: Announcing the grand-prize winner and the category winners of WD’s longest running writing competition. By Amy Jones

+ The WD Interview: Travis Baldree: Fantasy author and audiobook narrator Travis Baldree talks with WD about his newest cozy fantasy, Brigands and Breadknives. By Moriah Richard

Plus, embracing the power of play in your creative practice, quirky habits of writers, and the best tool in your marketing toolbox. And, as always, all your favorite columns like Publishing Insights, Breaking In, Meet the Agent, For All Ages, and more!

Subscribe to Writer’s Digest today for this to be your first issue!

The post Writer’s Digest November/December 2025 Cover Reveal appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(Staying Positive While Writing About Death and Tragedy.)

One thing that I’ve found helpful is starting my day off with a positive tone. This doesn’t always come easy, but I often turn to inspirational quotes, mantras, and stories from my life or from the lives of those close to me to help me power through the difficult times. I have compiled many of these into a book of daily readings to encourage others, Morning Fuel—Daily Inspirations to Stretch Your Mind Before Starting Your Day, and learned a lot along the way.

Are you considering writing a book of daily readings? Here are six tips for staying on track while writing a daily reader.

Define your “why.” 

Spend some time considering the purpose of writing your book. Why do you want to create a work of 366 readings and share them? Think through every motivation, write each one down, and keep the list handy. Review it anytime your pace slows or you need encouragement. 

For example, I wrote Morning Fuel:

• To capture family stories, quotes, and words of wisdom that still guide me.
• To share with others the kind of stories I read daily to start my day with inspiration.
• To offer reflections and takeaways that are helpful in staying positive despite life’s challenges.

Define your book’s “why.” 

What will your book offer your readers? Based on my own use of morning readings, I began to notice how the readings were helpful to me. Then I asked my newsletter recipients to send me some of their favorite quotes. “What kind of quotes?” a few readers asked. 

After mulling it over, I told them I wanted quotes that had either inspired, encouraged, or made them think. That answer became my book’s purpose and the criteria for subject matter as well as the clear lens of inclusion for deciding what was kept or cut during the final edits.

Start the Research-Read-Brainstorm-Write process.

• Research other daily readers and note format, content, length, and any patterns that you find appealing. Some books have a strict page-a-day format. Others have entries that are different lengths and are continuous for the month. Some indicate the month and date; others only list the day of the week. Some end with a summation thought; others invite reflection with questions. Some offer a full index by topic; others omit an index or offer suggested readings by topic.
• Read some of your favorite daily readers for one month and see how they affect you—too long, too short, too prescriptive, too taxing, too judgmental? Use that experience to determine how you structure and format your entries. Your goal is to design a book that readers want to come back to each day.
• Brainstorm without boundaries. Create a list of key topics, quotes, takeaways, stories, etc., to serve as your content list and prompts for writing. I kept a running list in the notes app in my phone and would copy and paste it regularly to a Word document. A dedicated notebook and bedside notepad helped as did a healthy supply of sticky notes.
• Write content. Based on your content list, write 10 entries. Make them as complete as possible with thoughtful titles and summary statements or takeaways. Review with a trusted editor or writer for feedback, absorb, edit, and keep writing!

Organize. 

Collect your entries in ways that are easy to access and reorganize.

• When I started writing, I first grouped my entries and put in Word files labeled by month. After edits, I copied and pasted each entry and created one Word file to house all edited documents. This file gave me quick access to the body of work if I needed to check for duplication of thoughts, phrases, or attribution.
• Excel is your friend. After about 100 entries, I realized I needed more help in tracking so I created a spreadsheet that numbered each entry, its title, month, and word count. As I began to review the entries from the reader’s perspective, I added columns to include quote attributions as well as friend and family names since I wanted to spread out those references. I also added columns to track the editing dates of submission and status.
• Structure: Decide if sequence will matter. The choice can range from none, to subject, to season. I found it helpful to consider the season in the sequencing of my entries since nature has a prominent role in most of my work.

Add your finishing touches. 

Titles and takeaways are important, often best decided by an outside reader or editor. What is the point of the piece? How could it be applied to a larger audience?

• Titles should be sound-bite summaries that hint at what’s to come while also reinforcing the key takeaway.
• Closing thoughts or takeaway questions are designed to imprint the lesson by prompting further thought.

Set goals, but hold them loosely.

• Share your project idea with others who can support you. Give it a name—a working title or even “daily reader”—so you can give it space on your calendar and in your conversations. Writing is a mystery to many, but giving it a title brings the project to life.
• Set goals for updates. In my Thoughtful Thursdays newsletter, I told my subscribers and social media followers about my project, letting them know that although I would no longer be writing weekly, I would update them monthly. Those newsletters gave me a target date, a chance to “show my work” with photos, and an opportunity to ask for input (and encouragement!). They celebrated with me and for me every step of the way while also offering valuable insight and perspective.

Check out Rebecca Faye Smith Galli’s Morning Fuel here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

The post How to Write and Compile a Daily Reader appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(What Are the 8 Different Types of Video Game Articles?)

Many video gaming websites recruit freelance contributors to expand their game guide content. These are typically remote positions whereby authors submit articles to sites via content management systems such as WordPress or Emaki. If you fancy becoming a gaming writer, this is how you can write more effective game guide articles for websites.

Thoroughly Play The Games You Cover

First, play the video games you intend to write guides for extensively. The more you’ve played a game, the better you’ll know it. Playing games in more detail will enable you to provide better tips for them, enhancing their overall content.

I recommend playing single-player games through to completion, or at least near completion, before writing guides for them. You will certainly have a better idea of how to beat a game when you’ve completed it yourself. Note down any useful tips for a single-player game during or immediately after playing it. Then, you could have a big list of tips to share after completion.

For multiplayer guides, try winning a good number of matches to obtain a higher rank in whatever online game you’re playing before putting pen to paper. There’s little point in writing a guide for any multiplayer game when you’re not much more than a beginner player yourself. Be prepared to set aside at least 10-20 hours of playtime for any multiplayer title before writing a guide piece for it.

Structure Your Game Guides With Subheadings

When you’ve played a game in sufficient detail, you can note down some article title ideas for it. Guide articles typically include lists of tips, items, and locations or tell readers how to do certain things in games, such as beat bosses or solve puzzles. The titles for such articles often take the form of “How to…” or “X Tips for…” with numbered tips.

All video game guide articles should include some subheadings regardless of what their titles are. These subheadings will form the basic structure of your game article. The most suitable way to structure a list-based game guide is to add subheadings for all tips or locations it covers. If it’s a how-to guide, try to organize your guidelines into a few sections with appropriate subheadings included. These article pages show examples of subheading usage for game guides:

• 12 Stone Circle Locations in Assassin’s Creed Origins
• How to Get the Best Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Ending
• 10 Counter-Strike 2 Tips for Beginners
• 5 Power Cell Locations in Horizon Zero Dawn
• How to Find the Heroes of the Cult Members in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Follow Your Website’s Style Guidelines

Some gaming websites have style guidelines that provide article formatting and stylistic rules for writers. If the gaming site you’re submitting articles to has a style guide, read it thoroughly to ensure your articles adhere to it. The editorial on your site will likely request changes for articles submitted that don’t match the website’s style guidelines.

There isn’t any especially universally accepted way to format game guide articles on websites, as style guides vary. However, text formatting is usually applied to subheadings. Heading 2 and Heading 3 are widely utilized subheading formatting options for gaming articles.

All video games include graphical, audio, and control settings that gaming writers sometimes need to mention in guide articles. It’s necessary to format such settings in some way to distinguish them from the text. Some gaming websites format in-game settings with bold text similar to more general software writing. Other sites include single or double ‘inverted commas’ around in-game settings to highlight them.

The use of italic formatting for video game titles is also becoming more prevalent. This is mainly because the Chicago Manual of Style and Modern Language Association style guides advocate italic formatting for video game titles. Sites that adhere to the Chicago and MLA styles prefer game names to have italic text. However, this is not a requirement for Associated Press (AP) style articles. Be consistent with whatever style your articles adopt.

Avoid Including Obvious Tips

Try not to state the obvious in your game guide articles. Avoid including obvious tips or information about games most players who’ve played them for more than 30 minutes will already know. More informative guide articles tell players things about games they don’t already know.

Also, note that a gaming guide article should not be a rehash of a video game’s instruction manual. An instruction manual tells players how to play games with details about game controls, gameplay features, etc. The purpose of tip articles is to provide pointers that help players play the games better.

Avoid Plot Spoilers for Single-Player Games

Many single-player first-person shooter and role-playing games have detailed storylines. Be careful not to reveal any notable plot details in your game guides for all those players who haven’t completed them. Some readers might complain about plot spoilers in your articles if you do. You must be especially careful with guides that discuss how players can see different ending sequences in games with variable endings.

If you must reveal some significant story details for a game in your guide, it’s a good idea to provide some warning at the beginning of an article. Add in a spoiler alert warning at the beginning of an article that tells readers it reveals some significant storyline details about a game.

Capture and Add Relevant Game Screenshots

No video game guide article would be complete without some screenshots. Game screenshots are good for decorative purposes because they give guide articles more visual appeal and break up blocks of text. They are also important for showing locations, items, enemies, and other things in games mentioned within your gaming articles.

Try to capture and include screenshots for a game related to your article’s content rather than a random assortment of images. For example, a guide article that tells readers where to find hidden things can include map screenshots to highlight their locations. Images that show things mentioned in your game guides will enhance clarity. All the more so when they include additional text captions that provide details for what the images show. You can view some examples of screenshot usage in these game guides:

• How You Can Solve the Journey’s End Puzzle in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• 6 Ancient Mechanism Locations in Assassin’s Creed Origins
• How to Get the Aernodight Sword in Witcher 3: Blood and Wine

You can capture game screenshots for articles with the built-in Game Bar app on Windows 11/10 PCs. To do so, press the Windows logo + G hotkey when playing a game, and click Capture > Take Screenshot. This tool saves the image files to a C:\Users\[user folder name]\Videos\Captures on your PC.

The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles and Android/iOS mobile gaming devices also have game screenshot tools to utilize for your guide articles. Many gaming websites no doubt include guide articles for how you can utilize those screenshot tools. I recommend uploading captured screenshots to cloud storage such as Google Drive for easy transfer of game image files between devices.

Are You Now Ready to Be a Games Guide Writer? 

You can have lots of fun playing games and writing guides for them. To find some gaming sites to submit guide articles, browse the listings on the SimpyHired, Indeed.com, Blogging Pro, Freelance Writing Jobs, or GAMERS Group websites. You can apply to join gaming websites from those sites by filling out required forms or sending emails to them. 

The post How to Write Video Game Guide Articles for Websites appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(What Are Software Articles and Who Writes Them?)

Gaming writers devote themselves to writing articles about video games for websites and magazines that cover them. Many gaming sites recruit freelance contributors by advertising vacancies on websites like SimplyHired, Indeed.com, LinkedIn, UpWork, and ProBlogger. Some print gaming magazines are also open to freelance submissions. These are the types of video game articles that gaming websites and magazines typically include.

Game Tip (Guide) Articles

Game tip articles are guides that provide handy pointers for playing games better. These articles can be miscellaneous beginner tip lists for specific games. They can tell players how to solve puzzles, defeat bosses, activate different endings, or find hidden items and secret locations in games. Such articles can also provide guidelines for how to activate cheats and configure games with their settings and debug consoles. You can view some examples of game tip articles on the following pages:

• 10 Horizon Zero Dawn Tips for Beginners
• How to Solve the Assassin’s Creed Origins Sundial Puzzle
• How to Customize the CS2 Crosshair in Counter-Strike 2
• How to Get the Best Ending in Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
• 6 Ancient Mechanism Locations in Assassin’s Creed Origins

You will notice all articles on those pages include screenshots. Screenshots captured from games are important for most gaming article types. They are important for gaming guides because authors can utilize them to show locations and specific things. For example, the Assassin’s Creed Origins sundial puzzle article linked above includes screenshots that show crystals and map locations players need to look for.

Game Walkthroughs

A game walkthrough is an article that walks its readers through a part of a video game. It tells players what they need to do to complete specific levels, quests, or stages in games. These walkthrough articles are particularly prevalent for helping players complete quests and stages in role-playing (RPG) and single-player first-person shooter (FPS) games with puzzle elements. IGN is a big gaming site with many walkthroughs for which you can see examples on these pages:

• Prey walkthrough
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt walkthrough
• Assassin’s Creed Origins walkthrough

Gaming News

Most video game websites and magazines include gaming news articles. These articles tell readers about all the latest gaming news for consoles, mobile devices, and Windows PC games. Such articles often cover announcements about upcoming games and consoles. Developers also frequently update multiplayer (and to a lesser extent single-player) games with new content that gaming news articles cover in detail, as in some of these examples:

• Imangi Launch Frozen Shadow Update For ‘Temple Run 2’
• Big Huge Games Launch World War Update For DomiNations
• Ubisoft Launch Rayman Adventures On iOS And Android
• New Multiplayer Shooter ‘Space Jet’ Launches On Android

Game Reviews

Game reviews have been part and parcel of video game journalism throughout the history of the gaming industry. These articles review and rate the latest video game releases to tell players what the best ones to purchase are. There isn’t a universal format for review pieces, but many typically rate games with scores out of five, 10, or 100. Some reviews rate the visual, audio, and gameplay quality of games separately to form overall scores.

Game Previews

Game preview articles tell readers what to expect from upcoming games with confirmed release dates. Such previews are typically for games showcased at trade shows like E3 with playable demos. However, it’s not necessarily essential to have played pre-release demos to write game previews. Previews usually provide more in-depth insights about the gameplay and storylines of upcoming game releases.

Troubleshooting Guides

Video games can have technical issues much the same as regular computer software. Players often report crashing issues for Windows 11/10 PC games that make them unplayable. Many video game websites have troubleshooting guide articles with fixes for more widely reported gaming issues. These articles can be similar to troubleshooting pieces on general Windows software sites with screenshots and step-by-step instructions for applying the potential fixes. These are some examples of troubleshooting guides for video games:

• 8 Ways to Fix Counter-Strike 2 Not Launching on a Windows PC
• 6 Ways to Fix the Palworld Black Screen Bug on Windows PCs
• 5 Ways to Fix the Easy Anti-Cheat “Untrusted System File” Error for PC Games
• 5 Ways to Fix the “You Need to Authenticate to Microsoft Services” Minecraft Error

Retro Gaming Articles

Old retro games have become more popular in recent years with Nintendo and Atari reviving their best consoles from the 1980s with the NES Classic and 2600+. Retro game articles are those about the history of the gaming industry. These articles revive gaming nostalgia by covering classic games and retro consoles from the 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

Many gaming websites often look back on the history of the games industry with retro game pieces. There are also some magazines entirely devoted to the retro gaming scene, such as Retro Gamer, Amiga Addict, Eight Bit, and Retro Format. This article submission guidelines page confirms Retro Format is open to freelance contributions.

Opinion Pieces

Video game websites and magazines are full of opinion pieces. Such articles often provide positive or negative opinions on the state of the gaming industry and video game products outside of reviews. Best-of-list articles recommending game titles for specific gaming genres and consoles can be considered opinion pieces. Many gaming opinion pieces are also listicles that rank video games relating to content, characters, ending sequences, and much more besides. These webpages include video game opinion pieces:

• 6 of the Best Free Games on Epic Games Store
• 6 Good Reasons to Embrace Mobile Gaming
• 6 of the Best Battle Royale Games for All Gaming Platforms
• 6 Reasons Why Windows Gaming Beats Console Gaming

If you’re an avid gamer, becoming a gaming writer could be a great way to extend your penchant for video games. There are plenty of websites and magazines seeking video game article content in the form of game tips, walkthroughs, reviews, previews, news, troubleshooting, retro, and opinion pieces discussed above. You can find them by browsing the online vacancy directories and querying video game magazine editorials about freelance article submissions.

The post What Are the 8 Different Types of Video Game Articles? appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How to Break Into the Software Article Writing Market.)

The online market for software writing is healthy since there’s an ever-expanding number of tech websites seeking to recruit remote (any location) freelance contributors. If you’re considering becoming a tech writer, you must be prepared to produce many how-to articles that provide quick tips or longer guides for variable software packages. Such articles can be focused on operating systems or cover popular apps available for them. This is how you can write more effective how-to software articles for websites and blogs.

Browse Through Other Software Websites for Ideas and Research

The starting point for writing software articles is to come up with some title ideas for them. Most tech writers will likely need to browse software websites to discover tips and tricks for apps and operating systems worth covering. You’ll sometimes need to look at other webpages for reference that tell you how to do certain things with software. So, have a good read through the guide articles on these recommended sites to find inspiration for your software pieces:

• How-to Geek
• Windows Report
• MakeUseOf
• The Windows Club
• MakeTechEasier
• Lifewire

Covering the same tips and topics as other sites is fine, but never forget your articles must still be unique. Make sure your software article titles are worded uniquely and don’t exactly match any others. The most important thing is that the instructions provided in your articles are in your own words, even when they’re guidelines for doing the same things.

Always try out the tips or do the things you’re going to provide instructions for in your software articles. This will ensure you’re writing primarily from your software usage experience rather than merely depending on other sources. Sometimes, you might even find a tip or instructions for doing something provided in another software article that doesn’t work because it’s outdated.

Add Meaningful Subheadings to Software Articles First

When you have a software article title, the next step is to lay out the structure for your piece. All software articles should include at least a couple of meaningful subheadings. Subheadings are the structural outlines for software articles you should enter in your word processor first.

If your software article includes multiple tips, the best way to structure it is usually to add a subheading for each tip included. Troubleshooting software guides always include subheadings for different potential fixes. Or add alternative subheadings for instructions that tell readers about different methods. Questions sometimes make for good subheadings to provide further explanations for technical jargon when needed. You can see some examples of subheading usage for software articles on these webpages:

• 4 Easy Ways to Disable the Mail App
• How to Show Drive Letters Before Drive Name on Windows 11
• Improve PC Performance on Windows 10 (Must Try Tips)
• Windows Update Error 0x80073701 [Solved]

Stick to the Website’s Style Guide (If It Has One)

Some technology websites have software article style guidelines for their authors to follow, and some don’t. Most bigger sites probably have style guides that outline how authors must format submitted software articles with text editors and other stylist considerations regarding minimum length, paragraph size, image requirements, etc. If you’re submitting software articles to a site with a style guide, make sure you fully read through those guidelines and stick to them. The website’s editorial will probably return your articles for changes if you don’t.

However, I’ve also collaborated with some software sites that don’t have style guidelines. If the website you’re submitting articles to doesn’t have strict guidelines, you can pretty much format and write your articles with a preferred style. This gives you more freedom to do software articles your way rather than their way.

The most universal formatting that’s almost standard practice for articles on tech websites is to add bold text for software settings, buttons, and tabs users must click on. It is necessary to apply the bold formatting to all software settings and tabs to highlight and distinguish them from the rest of the text. Thus, bold (or possibly italic) formatting for settings and tabs is something you should always include in software articles. Open these software articles pages to see how bold formatting has been applied for settings and options in them:

• How to Fix Java Not Installing
• How to Unlock a File on Windows 10 & Windows 11
• How to Install Group Policy Management Console on Windows 10

Software writers often include PowerShell or Command Prompt commands and keyboard keys in their articles, such as sfc /scannow (System File Checker) and the Ctrl + Shift + Esc Task Manager hotkey. It’s also a good idea to apply formatting for commands and keyboard key buttons in articles to make them clearer. 

Some tech website style guidelines have specific instructions for how to format such things with their text editors. However, bold or italic text formatting for highlighting commands and keyboard buttons is sufficient.

Add Numbered Lists for Instructional Software Articles

You can write instructions in software articles with standard paragraphs or numbered lists. Add numbered lists for instructions that users must follow in an exact order of steps. This format is usually best for troubleshooting software articles and how-to pieces with step-by-step instructions for fixes, tips, and alternative methods that must be carried out in an exact order.

Each step in a numbered instruction list within a software article should be kept short. Don’t include any more than two sentences for each step. Include every step required to do whatever it is you’re instructing. Your instructions should tell the software user everything they must click on (or tap for touchscreens).

However, it’s not always essential to include numbered instructions in your software articles. Paragraphs can sometimes be preferable for software customization guides that don’t include guidelines users need to follow in an exact order. Or sometimes you can include a mixture of both. These are some examples of software articles without numbered instructions or a mixture of both:

• How to Add a Weather Icon to Your System Tray in Windows 11
• How to Edit PDF Documents
• How to Set Up Custom Text Snippets for Pasting Predefined Text Snippets
• Transform Your Windows Desktop into a Fish Tank With Sim Aquarium

Interlink With Related Software Articles on the Same Website

Hyperlinks are what the World Wide Web is primarily about. Try to include internal links in your software articles for opening pages with related content on the same website. Linking to pages on the same site that provide further details for the content or software discussed in your article can add greater value to it and complete the reader’s experience.

Most software articles generally include contextual links. These are internal hyperlinks that direct readers to other related pages. Such links have anchor text that makes it clear what their linked pages are about. For example, a link that opens an article about the best registry cleaner software could have anchor text like “best registry cleaners for Windows.” Your sentence can also directly reference the page link to make it even clearer what the article it opens is about.

If your article covers how to apply operating system customizations with freeware software, include an external hyperlink that opens a page from which users can download the required app. It’s best to link to the download page on the publisher’s website when you can. If that’s not possible, include a link to a reputable software download website, such as Softpedia, from which you can obtain the required app.

Utilize a Third-Party Screenshot Tool For Images

The last thing you should add to a software article is screenshots. Screenshots are a crucial element of software articles that you cannot leave out. They’re essential to include because they show readers the software options, tabs, and other things they should see on their PCs or mobile devices when following your instructions. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is an adage certainly true for software writing because they’ll make your how-to articles much clearer.

Windows and other operating systems generally have built-in tools for capturing screenshots. For example, Windows has the Snipping Tool, with which you can capture full-screen, rectangular, or free-form software snapshots on your PC. You’ll need to be clear on how to capture screenshots on whatever platform you utilize. Check out the screen capture guides on many tech websites to find out how to take screenshots on your PC or mobile device if further details are required.

I recommend utilizing freely available third-party software like ShareX for capturing screenshots on Windows 11/10 PCs. ShareX is a more flexible utility for capturing snapshots than the Snipping Tool that enables you to capture screenshots in many ways. Click Download on this ShareX webpage to download it.

You can include annotated or non-annotated screenshots in your software articles. Annotated screenshots that highlight software options users need to select with arrows, circles, or rectangles are mandatory for some tech websites. The extra ShareX annotation options are invaluable for highlighting details in screenshots. These Windows Report software articles include snapshots annotated with ShareX:

• Fix: World of Warcraft was Unable to Start 3D Acceleration
• How to Create an Icon in Windows 10 (Simplified Guide)
• Map a Network Drive on Windows 11 (2 Different Ways)

It’s not usually necessary to annotate screenshots that clearly show software options and buttons mentioned in your article. However, add annotations to highlight the location of small buttons or settings that could be harder for users to see. Adding a circle or square around the option is usually sufficient for that purpose, but you can also include arrows with ShareX.

The screenshots you include should show the more important things mentioned in your software articles. Take snapshots of the primary navigation options and settings you’re telling users to select so they can see where they are. Include screenshots that show what entered commands or applied customization changes look like. Such images show readers things words can only describe.

Overall, an effective software article will be easy to follow and well-illustrated with screenshots. There are few golden rules for software writing, except perhaps to include images, hyperlinks, subheadings for structuring articles, and text formatting for highlighting options. A personal website or blog is a good enough place to start software writing. You can apply to join software technology websites seeking contributors via freelancer sites, such as Pro Blogger, SimplyHired, and Indeed.com. 

The post How to Write Effective Software Articles for Websites and Blogs appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(Write a How-to Article in 6 Easy Steps.)

Many tech writers specialize in producing platform-specific software articles for websites. Those authors submit articles to the myriad of software websites regularly recruiting freelance tech writers. These are the different types of software articles most tech websites include.

How-to Software Articles

Many tech websites are full of how-to software articles. These are instructional articles that tell users how they can utilize different features in operating systems or other software packages installed on PC and mobile devices. Many such articles provide tips and tricks for using and customizing PC and mobile device operating systems. For example, these are some of my how-to software articles for the Windows 11/10 platforms:

• How to Create a Custom Keyboard Layout in Windows 11
• How to Display Song Lyrics in VLC Media Player
• How to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu
• Windows 11 Tips and Tricks: 11 Cool Things to Try

Those articles tell you how users can do things with software. They all include screenshots that illustrate their instructions. Some have annotated screenshots, but much depends on the websites’ requirements.

Troubleshooting Guides

Troubleshooting guides are articles that provide instructions for fixing technical software issues. Millions of users report software issues on support forums, which these articles include fixes for. They typically cover how users can fix common software error codes or messages. Such technical issues can prevent software packages from starting or affect features in them. These are some examples of troubleshooting guide articles:

• Visual C++ Error 0x80070666: 4 Easy Ways to Fix it
• 0xc190020e Windows Update Error: How to Fix It
• iCloud for Windows Did Not Install Properly: 4 Easy Fixes
• Excel Keeps Crashing: 5 Simple Ways to Fix

Troubleshooting guides are typically step-by-step instructional articles. This is because most resolutions for technical issues need to be applied in exact steps. So, they usually include numbered steps for applying their alternative potential fixes.

Best of Software Articles

Best of software articles recommend the best apps users can utilize on respective platforms. These articles typically include lists of the best software packages users can utilize for specific things. For example, such articles can cover the best word processors, games, emulators, spreadsheet applications, media players, web browsers, and much, much more, like these articles:

• 8 Best Customizable Browsers [Tested by Pros]
• 8 Best Media Center Software for Windows PC [2024 List]
• Best Android Emulators for Windows 10 PC

However, such articles aren’t necessarily restricted to desktop software you can install. These articles can also cover the best online web apps users utilize in browsers. Software articles about the best extensions for web browsers are also common.

Software News

News articles cover all the latest developments within the software industry. These tend to be shorter news pieces about the latest software releases and updates for respective operating systems. Microsoft, Apple, Google, and other big-name publishers frequently update their software packages with new features that news pieces regularly cover. The news articles tell users about notable announcements surrounding big software products from publishers.

Explainer Articles

Explainer articles are pieces that provide answers to software-related questions. These articles typically have titles that ask questions. They seek to explain software features, unusual apps or processes, or other technical jargon by answering their titles’ questions. Explainer articles can also include some instructions, but they primarily answer software-related questions like these:

• How Long Can You Use Windows 10 Without Activation?
• What is the Automatically process video to enhance feature?
• What is AppVShNotify.exe? Malware, Virus, or Safe process?

Who Writes Software Articles?

You don’t need a PhD in computer science or any other IT qualification to write software articles. It helps to have such qualifications, but they’re not essential. Authors with lots of experience utilizing PCs and mobile devices write software articles. Software writing is quite an accessible niche because many authors need to regularly utilize word processors and web browsers on PCs. If you know your way around a Windows or macOS platform, you can probably be a tech writer.

You can be a tech author by writing any of the various types of software articles discussed above for suitable websites. It’s just a matter of finding somewhere to submit your articles. To do so, look through freelance listings on sites like Indeed, SimplyHired, or Upwork to find tech websites advertising vacancies. 

The post What Are Software Articles (and Who Writes Them)? appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Below, find the cover design, author information, and details on how you can preorder today!

About the Book

Your companion to writing a novel from start to finish, with thoughtful prompts, calendars, and checklists to guide you along the way.

Wherever you are on your journey as a writer, The Storyteller’s Workbook is your one-stop-shop for planning, writing, and pitching your novel. Find the space and freedom to create authentically with just enough structure and guidance to get you to the finish line. The workbook includes:

• calendars to record daily word counts, set and track goals, or keep due dates in sight
• progress coloring sheets to track milestones
• a fluid and customizable outline
• character development and world-building tools
• revision and polishing checklists
• prompts for creating a title
• worksheets for crafting an effective pitch, synopsis, and query to assist in selling your novel
• literary agent and query tracker
• sticker sheets filled with writerly wit and wisdom
• blank pages for brainstorming, sketching, or collecting research
• a place to plan and save rewards to keep you motivated

No more keeping track of multiple notebooks and digital files—now all your work is in one place. Stay organized and inspired while you explore the farthest reaches of your imagination. The Storyteller’s Workbook is designed to empower you to write the story only you can tell.

We’re going on this adventure together. It’s time to pick up your pen.

Publishing December 13, 2022!

About the Authors

Adrienne Young is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Sky and Sea duology, the Fable series, and Spells for Forgetting. When she’s not writing, you can find Adrienne on her yoga mat, on a walk in the woods, or planning her next travel adventure. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Isabel Ibañez is the author of Woven in Moonlight (Page Street), which is a finalist for the William C. Morris Award, and is listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time. She was born in Boca Raton, Florida, and is the proud daughter of two Bolivian immigrants. Isabel has a profound appreciation for history and traveling and loves hosting family and friends around the dinner table. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, their adorable dog, and a serious collection of books. Say hi on social media at @IsabelWriter09. 

Don’t Miss Out!

Preorders for The Storyteller’s Workbook are live! Click here to get your copy ordered today.

The post Cover Reveal: The Storyteller’s Workbook appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In her newest writing book, The Book Bible, Shapiro uses the same no-nonsense approach to help writers write and find a publisher for their book. Each chapter begins with a list of what not to do, followed by advice from Shapiro and other experts in the particular genre being addressed. All genres, from children’s books and novels, to poetry, memoir, and other types of nonfiction, are addressed. 

In this excerpt from The Book Bible, you’ll find 10 tips for how NOT to write a how-to book. 

HOW NOT TO HOW-TO

1. Know Nothing About Your Subject: Pick an area where you have no real knowledge or experience, since everyone would love to hear a personal trainer pontificating about how to build a house. You’re sick of your field anyway, so here’s a way to explore new territory.
2. Avoid Research: So what if there’s already many books about how to win elections by people who work in the political arena and, as a hairdresser, you have no knowledge or wisdom to add and don’t even vote? No problem—their stuffy opinions are too complicated. You’ll bring a freshness and originality to the topic.
3. Forget to Contact Experts: The big shots out there already have huge platforms, jobs and audiences, so why should you add to it by quoting them?
4. Skip Advice: Write 300 pages about your own bad relationship history ending with meeting your fantastic spouse. It can chronicle how you did it, so that’s a good enough how-to, right?
5. Oppose Another Hit Book: Call yours “He Is Just That Into You” or “How Not To Win Friends and Influence People,” riffing off a long-ago bestseller—instead of coming up with your own original idea.

6. Plagiarize Other Authors: It’s already on the internet, so that means you can steal the work of other people and cobble it together to make your own book, right? I mean, like, there’s not even any bylines on Wikipedia, so it’s all up for grabs.To beat cancer, you need a good doctor to catch it early and a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes the obvious stuff bears repeating, doesn’t it?

7. Recycle Advice Everybody Already Knows: To beat cancer, you need a good doctor to catch it early and a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes the obvious stuff bears repeating, doesn’t it?

8. Avoid Current Trends and Political Correctness: Forget about all those plus-size models and body positivity activists and call your book How to Lose Weight to Get Skinny and Beautiful.

9. Skirt Fact Checking and Updating: Make sure to mention people who have died without indicating they have passed away, cite organizations that are no longer in business, web articles that have been taken down and websites that are defunct.

10. Stay Hyper-Local: Include entire pages listing the best doctors, lawyers and accountants in your town—even though you want a mainstream publisher and their books are national—or international. Isn’t there like that big rule to write what you know.

Order your copy of The Book Bible.

Bookshop.org | IndieBound | Amazon

The post How Not to Write a How-To Book appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(Grammar rules for writers.)

Rather, we’re looking at bigger picture mistakes and mishaps, including the error of using too much exposition, neglecting research, or researching too much. This week’s writing mistake writers make is oversharing in self-help writing.

Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Oversharing in Self-Help Writing

Self-help is a really interesting medium because it brings the author right into the reader’s life in a way that other nonfiction doesn’t; for example, memoir is all about someone telling you their life story. Self-help is you sharing your experiences to help someone navigate theirs.

But a large problem when it comes to this kind of writing is that the writer seems to think they’re penning a memoir. You might be familiar with the joke that you have to scroll through a recipe blogger’s whole life story before you can get to the recipe? We don’t want your reader to feel that when they’re reading your self-help book.

Look, I get it. It’s hard to look at your story and decide what will be important to your reader or not. Your whole story is important, isn’t it? It’s your life! But the fact of the matter is that self-help readers are selfish. I say that with as much love as possible. But home cooks surf recipe blogs for the recipe. They may be interested in knowing the blogger’s experience with making the recipe, but they don’t really care that they discovered it in an old tin that they got from an estate sale they happened upon while apple-picking with their mother. Self-help readers come to your book to solve a problem, and they only care about your experiences as much as it relates to solving that problem.

Mistake Fix: Revise From Your Reader’s Perspective

Before we dive into this, I want to say that first and foremost, you need to be able to identify who your reader is and what they want from this book. This article will be most helpful to you if you’ve already done the exercise outlined in my article “Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Not Identifying Your Reader in Self-Help Writing” here on the Writer’s Digest blog.

Once you’ve done that, you can go ahead and dive into making sure you’re not oversharing in your book! To do that, follow these three simple steps:

1. Write from the heart

Your first draft should come right from your heart—don’t worry about the typos, the run-on sentences, or the massive amount of oversharing that you’re likely to do. Write down your experiences as you remember them. Don’t hold anything back from the reader or from yourself.

This should help you avoid some writer’s block, but it’s also important to do this so you get the tone of your writing fine-tuned. Your reader wants to know that they’re safe, not judged, and that they have the inner strength to solve their problem.

In my article “Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Lack of Examples in Self-Help Writing,” I created a fictional book I called Wedding Planning Zen: The Couple’s Guide to Budgeting, Organizing, and Styling Their Perfect Day. If I were writing a section in this book about who you should invite, writing it from the heart might look something like this:

If you’re unsure if someone should be invited, add them to a separate list called the “B-list.” This is a secondary list that hosts people you’d like to invite if the budget (and venue size) allows it. Once you send out your initial guest list, you’ll start getting clear on who isn’t coming so you can send out invites to your B-list guests in case they can make it.

For my spouse and I, the people who ended up on our B-list were college friends who we still spoke with occasionally; they were people we were really close with when our relationship was new, but we hadn’t maintained that closeness as the years went on, so they didn’t come to mind as quickly as the people we spent holidays with or grabbed drinks with every Thursday after work. However, we knew that there would be some out-of-town family members who we could expect to RSVP as a no—it was still important to invite them first, as they’re family, but once we got the news that they officially weren’t coming, I was able to reach out to friends on the B-list and extend an invitation. Those friends were able to attend, and it meant a lot to us that they were there!

2. Put yourself in the reader’s perspective

Once you’ve written your first draft, set it aside for a while. That can be a few days, weeks, even a month or so (because you don’t want to wait too long!). But once you have some distance from your project, it’s time to sit with that work you did to identify that reader. Who are they? What are they looking for? Where have they been? What’s their dream outcome from following your advice?

Now, thinking about this from that single reader’s perspective, read through your manuscript and mark down moments that don’t align with their problem or dream come true. You can either highlight them, pop a comment on them, or even delete them using Track Changes so you can hide those sections and see what the work will look like after they’re removed. Look for anything like side stories, background details that aren’t necessary to the main idea, and even follow-up details about what happened after.

For the Wedding Zen section from above, I bolded anything that could be removed to keep the focus less on my personal experience and more on the reader’s:

If you’re unsure if someone should be invited, add them to a separate list called the “B-list.” This is a secondary list that hosts people you’d like to invite if the budget (and venue size) allows it. Once you send out your initial guest list, you’ll start getting clear on who isn’t coming so you can send out invites to your B-list guests in case they can make it.

For my spouse and I, the people who ended up on our B-list were college friends who we still spoke with occasionally; they were people we were really close with when our relationship was new, but we hadn’t maintained that closeness as the years went on, so they didn’t come to mind as quickly as the people we spent holidays with or grabbed drinks with every Thursday after work. However, we knew that there would be some out-of-town family members who we could expect to RSVP as a no—it was still important to invite them first, as they’re family, but once we got the news that they officially weren’t coming, I was able to reach out to friends on the B-list and extend an invitation. Those friends were able to attend, and it meant a lot to us that they were there!

3. Remove anything that’s not exactly related to the reader’s ideal outcome and revise to smooth the gaps

Now that you’ve singled out what could potentially be removed, go back through the manuscript and decide what can officially be cut. Most often, you’ll just delete what you’ve highlighted/deleted with Track Changes/etc., but sometimes, you might end up deciding to keep in a detail or two here and there.

The next part is to make sure that the section still makes sense and flows now that you’ve taken out some of the parts. To do that, you should just be able to add in a sentence here or there or reword some things to ensure continuity and flow. I always recommended that my authors read their manuscript aloud after making these sorts of changes. It takes a long time and it’s a ton of work, but you’ll catch so many more things hearing it aloud than you will just by reading it, trust me!

Once more, here’s an example from my fictitious Wedding Zen. Anything in italics are things I reworded to give the section a better flow:

If you’re unsure if someone should be invited, add them to a separate list called the “B-list.” This is a secondary list that hosts people you’d like to invite if the budget (and venue size) allows it. Once you send out your initial guest list, you’ll start getting clear on who isn’t coming so you can send out invites to your B-list guests in case they can make it.

For my spouse and I, the people who ended up on our B-list were college friends who we still spoke with occasionally; once we got the RSVP’s from extended family members who couldn’t make it, I was able to reach out to friends on the B-list and extend an invitation.

To conclude, your story and experiences are important. But you don’t want your readers to feel like they can’t see your advice through your story. This is self-help; not a memoir!

Click to continue.

The post Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Oversharing in Self-Help appeared first on Writer's Digest.