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Most people have to learn the basics of writing before they are published and read by a wider audience,so here follow a few basics.

Basics

All you need to write is pencil and paper.

To submit work for possible publication there are a few agreed rules which can easily be learnt; but to begin with, concentrate on what you want to write and for whom.

Later on you can decide where and to whom you will send it, and find out how they would like you to send it to them.

You may choose to write about an imaginary time or place with imaginary people doing imaginary things. This is called fiction and belongs to an ancient tradition of storytelling.

On the other hand, you may choose to write about real things and real people, and what happens to them, and this is called non-fiction.

There are various writing forms that people use for the convenience and recognition of the reader. You may choose the form of a drama, play, film, radio play, short story, poem, novella, novel, textbook, feature article, or any other form of writing that suits what you have to say.

To submit work to a publisher or an editor you may be asked to send what could be called hard copy or a floppy, or text, or an attachment, or a CD, or all sorts of terms confusing to a beginner.

If you don't know what is meant by the technical terms, then ask the person what they mean. If you send it in the wrong format you will be unmasked in any case; so ask to begin with and be surprised at the assistance you will mostly receive.

Hard copy means words typed or printed onto A4 sized paper in a layout approved by the recipient. That's usually double spaced with generous margins all round so the editor can write notes around your words, or text, or copy.

Confusingly, a floppy is not flexible at all; but is a solid square disk that you copy material from a computer on to so you can send it to somebody else's computer to read.

Hard disk is the name given to the internal part of the computer that stores everything you write and save.

However, it is possible to send material through the Internet without recourse to a floppy disk.

This is mostly done by email and when an editor asks for short pieces of say 1,000 words or less to be sent "in the body" or as text-only she means you highlight your words on the computer page and copy and paste them into the message part of an email.

If you do not have the words on a computer you need to type them into the email body, and remember fancy graphics and layout will be lost in the sending of text-only, which means what it says: text-only.

Attachments are where you attach a file containing your words and format to an email; but since computer viruses travel in attachments they are mostly sternly forbidden by most editors, unless by prior agreement between consenting adults.

Meanwhile, write what you want to write, study how others in your field have done it and build a small library of titles and cuttings and samples of the writers you admire and study how they achieved the effect you seek.

It's not copying to do this; it's emulating a master. Be an apprentice; learn your craft, and you will become a master yourself, given time.

© askaboutwriting.net 2005

Other articles in this series will follow, soon

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