Business Writing Exercise

Does that title look familiar? I’ve used it before, but last time it was for a Creative Writing Exercise.

That exercise was follow-up to an article on Plot Synopses — different types of detailed descriptions of a novel. As a handful of you already know, that article was actually adapted from a chapter I wrote for the e-Book I launched last week.

And that chapter was all about how to get started writing your e-Book. I’ve long held that one of the most effective methods of prewriting is description.

That was the principle behind having you write an About page last week to help you plan what would be on your blog, that was the principle behind this assignment when it was aimed at my creative writers, and that’s the principle behind it now.

If you’re going to have a professional blog (and you are), you’re eventually going to need to write an e-Book. Why not get started now, and save yourself some effort? Describe what your e-Book is all about (as though it’s already written), and put your ambition into a more permanent form. Give yourself a clear objective to shoot for, and it’s much more likely you’ll actually get there someday.

So make a pitch — two to four paragraphs describing what your book is about, and what makes it special. Then prepare a tagline, too — a one-sentence summary of everything you’ve got to say. Make it pop, because it’s a sales pitch.

If you do it right, you’ll sell yourself on putting in the effort to get it done. It’s no small undertaking, but trust me — you’ll be glad you did it.

If you do it right, you’ll sell yourself on putting in the effort to get it done. It’s no small undertaking, but trust me — you’ll be glad you did it.