However, in this article, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the beautiful, quiet writers at Triond. They are the ones that should receive appreciation, since they work behind the scene in supporting a wide range of other writers: old and new, friends and fans.

Lucy Lockett

She has to be on my top list! Yes, she is the greatest supporter not only to me, but to pretty much the whole gang at Triond. She makes time to leave comments, says it like it is, and is always encouraging.

In Lucy's profile, you can find many beautiful photos, an interesting collection of articles, and wonderful poems.

Sandra L. Petersen

Before Triond offered the Community button, I used to search for her high and low all over the internet. She is a generous soul to many writers at Triond. She often leaves supportive comments whether you are new or old to Triond.

A group of us was franticly search for her work to just show our appreciation, but failed because she signed her name without the "L." We were happy to find her after Triond gave us the Community gadget.

In Sandra's profile, you will find pages of wonderful photos, and creative poems.

Francie

Francie is another quiet writer at Triond. You can feel her energy through her comments, and in her work. She gives without expecting a return. If a title grabs her, she will read, and leave comments of encouragement. She has been a great supporter for many of us.

In Francie's profile, you can find many wonderful articles, and beautiful photos.

Nick Kenny

What can I say about Nick? He has a warm, caring, and genuine heart. After getting to know Nick, you will have a feeling as though he is always on the lookout for you. He will take you under his wings and give you his full support.

In Nick's profile, you will find his short stories and beautiful poems. Beware! Some of his stories will make the hair on your back stand up!

R. B. Parsley

Randy is another big brother figure at Triond. He is very supportive, generous with his feelings, and a caring soul. Get to know him, and you will be glad you did.

In R. B. Parsley's profile, you will find many wonderful poems. He is truly a writer who wears his heart on his sleeves, at least to me when I read his poetry.

If you think I am bias toward these writers, then you are right! They have supported me since the beginning. They are also the quiet force behind many other writers here on Triond. To Lucy, Sandra, Francie, Nick, and Randy, I am honored to be in the same community with you, and send my deepest gratitude to you all. You guys have made a home at Triond for many of us.

It is very hard to stay focus when there are so many distractions such as the ads flashing, your eyes caught a title that sounds interesting, you receive an email alert, your friend is aiming you through the yahoo pager, and you just simple get off track.

I tend to be all over places when I am on the computer. I have to constantly remind myself to stay focus on my priorities. Thus for reading, I like to borrow books from the library to keep me from jumping from pages to pages.

These books are my favorites in memoir writing that I have read.

Memoir Writing Tips by Sol Stein

This book is a complete guide from start to end. The author gives step by step instruction and suggestion on building a memoir book from creating scenes, to build suspense, to use dialogue. It is a must read book if you are planning to write a memoir.

How to Write a Memoir with Characters by Kathleen Finneran

This book is not only good for memoir writing; it is also good for other genres. The author is teaching you in developing the characters for your memoir. The most useful part of this book is working with the three column-lists. This book helps you creating a deep relationship with your characters.

Memoir Tips-Just the Facts by Sandra Scofield

This book focused on facts which the author called "seed crystal". She helps you to identify an incident, an aspect, the emotional impact, or an ambience place that you want to recall in memoir writing. Just as the title said, you are using facts to center your writing.

You Can Write a Memoir by Susan Carol Hauser

In this book, you will practice writing in stages: childhood, adolescence, and adult life, as well revising, editing, interviews and research. The author also gives great advices on how to deal with facing a blank piece of paper.

Writing about Your Life by William Zinsser

This book covers a broad spectrum of your life, from school, to places and people that you have crossed. The author discusses the uses of memory, recovering the past, and writing as a ministry.

Having a book on hand to read when you are waiting at the doctor's office or soccer practice is great. You will feel as though you are accomplishing two tasks at once. I am constantly checking out books from the library to read for such occasion. Have fun reading and happy writing!

While waiting for our dream to come true, we can sharpen our skill of writing by reading as many books as we can. These books are available at the library. If you cannot find it, talk to the librarian, and he/she will find it for you from other libraries.

Voice Lessons by Mimi Schwartz

This is a fantastic book to have as you starting out in your writing career. There are many tips such as deciding who you are in the story, and finding your place in the story, as well as strategies to find that voice.

How to Create a Strong Voice by Patricia Cornwell

Here is a quote from this book: "Whatever your story is, if you write enough, Certain Themes will reappear. Watch for them. Don't be afraid to face them." The author offers many other wonderful tips, and the aspect of writing.

7 Steps to a Powerful Opener by Sam McCarver

To capture the readers, your opening must be powerful and grab their attention right away. This book is important to read, as it is applied to article writing, blog writing, and writing in general. There are so many tips in this book to learn from to craft a powerful first page.

How to Make a Scene by Quinn Dalton

"Scenes are units of significant action that provide new information and advance a story. Compelling scenes contain many elements." This quote was from the author, and you must read the book to find out what elements he is talking about.

5 Steps to Turn Facts into Fictions by Jordan E. Rosenfeld

The author gives five simple and direct steps to create your story from the facts of life. This book is worth looking in and to learn from. We all turn to fiction from our own experiences at one time or another.

These are books that I have read over the years. If you want to keep current on what is new in the market, the Writer Magazine is a wonder place to start. Carry one of these books around for when you find yourself waiting to pick up your children from school, or sport events. Not only you will be focus on just reading, you are also using your time wisely.

I read as many books as I can get my hands on about writing for children. Below is a collection of important facts to think about if you ever want to venture into this genre.

Who Are Your Readers?

You must define a specific group of your audience. Ask yourself plenty of questions. How old will your readers be? What gender are you aiming at? This is the first step to simmer in your thought. Picking out a defined group will help you gear toward that market, and know where to look for in publication.

What is Your Topic?

Throwing out questions will bring up some ideas for a topic. What is your story about? Is it interesting enough to capture the attention of your young readers? Can your readers relate themselves to this topic? Is the story exciting, adventurous, and/or imaginable?
After you find a topic, your concentration should place on the title. A great title can grab a passerby with a force.

Who is Telling the Story?

Decide who is telling the story, first or third person? This is your character. What is your character's personality? What is he/she like? For each character in your story, you should list out his/her traits. Find unusual characteristics for your story teller. Your main character must stand out in your readers' mind.

What is the Conflict?

In every story or movie that we see, there is always conflict. You have to create conflicts and show how it is solved in every chapter of your story. Without conflicts, your readers will be bored and find something else to do. To keep your readers mesmerize to the story, you must have the good, the bad, and the evil, in your fiction.

Research, Research, and More Research

After brainstorming your ideas, the fun part begins. Research, research, and research! You will have to find out where to market your story. Who are the publishers? Each company has its own requirements such as the numbers of words, or ages of readers that will be accepted, or story lines that they are looking for.

Writing is hard work, but if you have some ideas where to begin or what is involved, it will make the journey easier. Have fun finding your voice, and happy writing!

 

I will guide you through eHow step-by-step to get it running quickly, save time, and frustrations when you start out.

Part One

1. Sign up for a free account.
2. Sign in to your account and it will take you to your profile page.
3. Tell a bit about yourself, your interest, and upload an avatar. Save your work.
4. Then on your right hand, click on “Write an Article”.
5. On Get Started Page, you will have to give your article a name begins with “How to”. Do not try to delete this. It is protocol.
6. Below it, you will have a choice of uploading an image, or a video, and rate your article on how easy or difficult it is.
7. Then write a brief introduction to your article. What do you want your readers to know how to do?
8. Next to a brief introduction, you will list all the things that your readers will need to finish the task. If you are writing about a recipe, list out all ingredients, and tools to use for that recipe.
9. If you are happy with this part, click on “Save and Continue” button.

Part Two

1. In this second part, list out the procedures for your article. What is the first step, and what is next?
2. When all the steps are done in theirs order, give the readers some helpful hints to accommodate your article. If it is about a recipe, suggest what goes well with that dish, and what they can substitute for a certain ingredients.
3. Below the tips section, list something that the readers should look out for. This warning could be “if you are allergic to peanuts, omit them.”
4. Click Save and Continue.

Part Three

1. In this section, it is a little confusing. There are three boxes of category. Highlight your category in the first box, the second box, and the third box.
2. Below the third box, click on “Add Category.” If you do not click on this button, you will not be able to get out of this section.
3. Next, add your key words.
4. If you want to add other related articles from other writers, click on Search for Related Articles. You can also skip this part; eHow will do it for you.
5. Cite your sources, if you have any.
6. Click Save and Continue.

Part Four

This is the fun part, click Publish it, and you are done with your article. You can view it online right away, and you are also able to edit after it has been published.

eHow is easy, fast, and fun to write. You earn points for each article you published, and the points are then converted to actual cash. However, you have to drive traffic to your article on bookmarking sites, and befriend with your community. How much you will make, depend on many times your article is viewed. Happy writing!

You can have as many lenses as you want in one account. To start, sign up for a free account. This is a referral site, you can make five dollars for each person that you referred, and when that person makes his/her first $15 dollars, you both get five dollars each.

Step by Step in Creating Your First Lens

 

1. Sign in to your account.
2. On the very top of the web page, click on Make a lens.
3. It will take you to the first step: What is your lens about? Find an interesting topic and type it in, for example: "How to eat squid and enjoy it", and click Go to step 2.
4. In this section, it will ask "what do you want to do with your lens?" There are options available, and of course, you will choose to make money. Select it!
5. In step 3, you have to pick your URL, such as www.squidoo.com/eatingsquid, all in small letters and no space. Choose a category, and rating for your lens.
6. Go to step 4, and add there key words for your lens. Type in the security letters provided, and you are on your way to create.

Step by Step Guide in Your Dashboard

 

1. Under your title, you will see an introduction part. Click on edit and you will have an option to add an image, and write a summary for your lens. Click the save button to keep your material.
2. Below the introduction, you have Text/Write Module. This is where your article begins. In this section, you can also find image and upload it to make it more interesting. You can write as long as you wish about "eating squid", or just as short and complete as you want. Remember to save your work.
3. Below the text module, there is Ebay, CafePress, Guess Book, iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, and Orbitz modules. You can rearrange these modules to where you want by click on the Reorder Modules button at the bottom of the page. You can also add more modules to your page. If you want to save it, then click on Save This Draft button, and go back to your dashboard to edit it later, after you have signed in.
4. If you are happy with your lens, hit Publish, and your page is online for the world to see. You can always edit your lens if you find mistakes.
5. Now, as with all your articles, you must submit it to bookmarking sites. Promote it. Drive traffic to it. Send it to your friends and family.

You've finished creating your first lens. It will be slow and confusing when you just begin, but I hope this guide helps cut down some frustrations. Enjoy making lenses on Squidoo; it is just another great way to blog to make some money.

You will find in this magazine many resources such as contests for many different genres, writing groups in your local area, conferences, writing resources, and more. If you are a writer, this is your best friend, and it is also available at your library for check out, if you are on a tight budget.

Useful Resources on the Web

Spell Checker

A wonderful website to bookmark in your favorite. It is simple to use, and best of all, it's free. Besides spell check, there is also grammar check, and thesaurus check in 12 different languages.

Grammar Check

Offers to improve your writing and grammar skills by delivering a newsletter to your email address, which means you have to subscribe to it. GrammarCheck helps you learn new skills while sharpen your old ones.

Best Essay Tips

A very comprehensive website that offers tips on how to write all types of essays, avoid plagiarism, a step by step to write an essay, as well as improving your writing styles. There is also a section for punctuation and capitalization.

Michigan State University

MSU has a great online resource. It has dictionary, thesaurus, and The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation websites. You can check your local universities for their websites to see what they offer in your state.

Accentuate Writers Forum

A great place to get new ideas, connect with other writers, find pay writing jobs, a workshop forum, and be part of the community. You do not have to sign up to read the posts, but you must get an account to join in the forum.
Online Writing Jobs has a list of jobs for freelance writers. Under the resources section, you will find many places that post opportunities for writing jobs. It offers a variety of things you can do to make money in your spare time.

If your dream is becoming a writer, this is the resources for you. Learning and developing our writing skills will further our dream. Try out your wings at those freelance jobs and see how far you can go. Happy writing!

Wonderful Publisher and Editors

Editors at Triond are wonderful. They do their job well by placing the article in its proper category. Sometimes, they embed pictures to make your article more enjoyable, appealing, and one-of-a-kind.

If after published, you find an error or typo mistake in your work, you can submit a fix, and it will be fixed.

Triond also has a blog where you can learn what is new on the site, how to promote your work, and how to make your article more attractive to readers. The monthly newsletter continuously affirmed that anyone can do it. It's a wonderful and powerful encouragement.

Great Community

Nowhere else on the internet offers a better community than Triond. Writers on this site are friendly, welcoming, and supportive. It is easy to befriend with any writer on the Hot Members list, or prolific writers.

Triond does not have a forum where popular writers stick together like glue, nor does Triond promote any particular writer. The writers must do that for themselves. A recent addition of “My Community” has enhanced communication between writers, and opened up the door for other to send messages to their favorite ones.

Remarkable Opportunity

Take a good look at the Hot Content list. Those articles that are on there are the results of the number of views that article received. That article got blogged by other websites, or through StumbleUpon, Digg, or other social bookmarking sites.

If you write for Helium or Associated Content, you know that this opportunity is rarely happened. On Triond, this opportunity seems more attainable for anyone, in any subject.

Once your article receives hundreds of views, your name will be on the Hot Members list. You become popular because of your work on your own, not from the publisher.

Limitless

I love the freedom and creativity when I have an idea for writing. You are not limit to just pictures, but you can also add videos, drawings, and music to your article. You are free to create how your article should be.

Spend time on Triond and you will find a variety of different types of content that only Triond has. Unique! Special! Diverse!

Earn Royalties

Similarly to other writing sites, you earn royalties for your work by page views. If you can drive traffic to your article, you will get more hits, and earn more money. You are not going to be rich over night, even if your article is on the Hot Content.

How much you earn depends on how you promote your work, or how hard you try to be a part of Triond's and other websites' community. Those that make a good living for their writing, they worked their bottoms off for it!

These reasons are my personal preference for writing at Triond. In just a short time that I was here, I have known so many wonderful, talented, and selfless writers. They open their arms, and their hearts with a warm welcome to everyone and anyone.

After the initial shock, I decide to get over the assortment of sad, pain, humiliating, and disappointing feelings. I must find a way to deal with rejections, and here is what I have come up with.

Accept rejections with your head high

It is hard to read the rejection words, but just keep your head high anyway. After all, if you are innocent from accusation, your soul is at peace. You know what you did or didn't do.

If the rejection is about grammar, too common of a topic, fix it, and know in your heart that sometimes rejection makes you a better writer.

Rejection from editors is not a personal attack

Think of rejection notice as a way to improve your skill. Editors do their editing job very well. Give thanks to them. In our normal life, we come across a lot more of unpleasant things. Rejections are not a personal attack. They are just a transition to better ourselves, and our writing.

Make sure to research your topic

Learning from this mistake, make sure to check out your topic online, and on the site you plan to submit your work. This will definitely take more time than the act of writing itself. However, who said the writer's job is easy? We have to keep in mind that we actually have four jobs: researching, writing, publishing, and promoting.

Keep on writing and submitting

Don't be discouraged. Keep on writing and submitting. Get back on that horse, and ride! You are a writer, and you love to write. So ease the pain of defeat, because writing is very therapeutic to your wound. It helps you to get over the hurdles, and soar into the blue sunny sky.

Remember what you loved

You are not in this field if you don't love what you are doing. Everyone knows that we are not making a good living with our writing. We write because we have a passion, an obsession, and an addiction to writing. The majority of writers hold another full job in order to sustain the cost of living.

These solutions may seem simple, but it works for me. I hope it will enlighten you as well. If you have any other ideas, please share. I can't wait to learn new things.