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Are You Assertive Enough?

Published on 16th September 2015 by Diana Nadin

Many of us just hate saying the word ‘no’ - even when we don’t want to do something or don’t feel we’ve got time to do it. It’s because deep down we don’t like to think that people will be annoyed or disappointed with us. For example, you’ve got a pile of work on your desk and it’s coming up to the weekend. Your boss asks you to ...

What Have Writing Competitions Got Going For Them?

Published on 9th September 2015 by Diana Nadin

Whether you enjoy writing short stories, flash fiction or poetry, there always seem to be plenty of competitions to enter. The only snag is that they usually charge a fee; so if you enter too many it can become expensive and you may end up asking yourself why you should bother. After all, isn’t entering a competition a bit of a gamble? Yes, it i...

Getting Your CV Off To A Good Start

Published on 3rd September 2015 by Diana Nadin

Whether you’re just leaving school, college or university and looking for your first job, or you’re more mature and looking to move on and enhance your career, preparing a good CV is essential. Certain parts of a CV are easy to put together – your personal information, details of your education and qualifications, work experience etc. Yes, I ...

A Positive Response to Rejection

Published on 26th August 2015 by Diana Nadin

It’s a while now since I’ve talked about poetry – so I thought that this week we’d have a look at submitting your work and also the ‘R’ word - rejection. I know this sounds negative, but rejection happens and upbeat advice on dealing with it is always useful. Obviously, if you are submitting poems to online markets or are sending them t...

Putting Your Customers First

Published on 20th August 2015 by Diana Nadin

We’ve all heard the term ‘Marketing Philosophy’ but what exactly do we mean by this? The aim is to develop as many satisfied customers as possible because without them no company can survive for long. Dissatisfied customers won’t continue to buy its products – they’ll buy from a competitor instead. So, what’s the best way to go about...

Rising Above Rejection

Published on 11th August 2015 by Diana Nadin

I read an article recently in the Sunday Times Magazine. It was about a man called Denis Pethebridge – and his 30 years of literary failure! In a leather-bound scrap book he had amassed 338 rejection letters. Starting in 1937 he had sent out articles, stories and novels to just about every newspaper, magazine, agent and publisher in the UK…and ...

Would You Recognise Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Published on 5th August 2015 by Diana Nadin

When something awful happens to you it’s normal to feel frightened, sad, anxious and disconnected for a while. You may find yourself having bad dreams and being unable to stop thinking about it when you are trying to relax. But if time goes by and you can’t seem to shake it off, then you may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTS...

The Best Way to Boost Your Travel Writing Career

Published on 28th July 2015 by Diana Nadin

Many people aspire to be travel writers – they look on it as glamorous and glitzy. But a word of warning here; until you’re established, and have a track record, hotels and airlines aren’t going to throw freebies at you. So, it’s important that you make a name for yourself if you’re going to create a career in travel writing. Here are ...

Researching Your Historical Novel

Published on 22nd July 2015 by Diana Nadin

First, you should decide what you need to know to make your novel more authentic and convincing. The next step is to think about where you can find the information you need. Thankfully, we live in a time where information is readily available and easily accessible. This means that there are a number of ways you can conduct your research. You can v...

Improving Your Grey Matter!

Published on 15th July 2015 by Diana Nadin

When you’ve enrolled on a course, it doesn’t matter how long you spend reading through your materials if you can’t remember what you read. So, here are some of the things you can do to improve your memory and make your study time more effective. First,always make notes. Don’t write out in full long passages from your course. Instead, learn ...