Welcome to Writing Lab News. This issue's hitting your inbox a bit earlier than promised because I was eager to tell you about my latest toy, Research Wizard Pro. There's also advice on travel writing and blogging, and an introduction to a new social networking tool, Plurk. Enjoy! Next edition: August 5

In this issue:

• The Quick Way To Research Online
• The Best Way To Start Out In Freelance Writing
• Playing With Plurk 
• Travel Writing Tips
• When You Don't Know What To Say, Don't
• Diary Of A Working Writer July 2008

The Quick Way To Research Online

by Sharon Hurley Hall

The other day, I was offered a copy of Research Wizard Pro to evaluate. Now, I'm a pretty good researcher, so I didn't expect to benefit much from this so-called whizzy research tool. I was wrong. Not only did I gain access to a lot of research sources in one handy interface, but I hadn't even heard of some of them.

I'll admit that the number of toolbars was daunting at first. There is one in the sidebar and about four across the top, with some drop down items. But once I got used to it, I found it quite useful. I used it over the course of a week to research three of my major projects and for two of those it proved a time saver.

I'll be reviewing this software in full on my blog later this week, but I wanted you to be the first to hear about it. I will be using Research Wizard Pro for my ebook and report projects where I need more in-depth research, because it allows me to search for resources of different types. I found it extremely useful to be able to search for journalism tutorials or real estate buying guides.

Sure, you can search for the same things in Google, but this allows you to search in your engine of choice and replicate the search with one click in a dozen other search engines. It's given me some new ideas on how to search in Google, as well as some new tools for doing in-depth research. I was impressed with Research Wizard Pro.

The Best Way To Start Out In Freelance Writing

By Sharon Hurley Hall

This is an excerpt of a post on Daily Writing Tips:

Writing gets you in the writing habit. I recommend writing every day, even if it’s only for a little while. It makes writing part of your daily routine and it makes it easy to draw on the skills you have built up even if a particular writing project isn’t very inspiring.

The great thing about writing for practice is that you don’t have to show it to anyone if you don’t want to. However, once you feel confident, try showing your work to a critical friend or a group of fellow writers who will give you constructive criticism on where to improve. This will make you a better writer.

Building Your Confidence

As you get more confident, you will begin to find freelance writing opportunities that appeal to you. You have nothing to lose by trying to get a freelance writing commission. In fact, there’s everything to gain. Since you have been practicing every day for the last little while, you have the skills you need to do the writing and you will be able to deliver a competent job.

Read the rest of The Best Way To Start Out In Freelance Writing

Playing With Plurk

By Sharon Hurley Hall

As a follow up to last month's article on Twitter, here' an introduction to a similar tool, Plurk:

Plurk’s interface is very different. It’s a scrolling timeline moving from right to left, which seemed counter intuitive at first. However, it means that the latest content is always on the left where you read first. You can see all the updates you choose to follow (you can befriend people without getting their updates) in the top window. The bottom window shows your friends and fans and your karma (which is points you get from participating in the site.)

What I like about Plurk is that you can use lots of different verbs to describe your updates (thinks, feels, and so on) as well as a blank one so you can roll your own. You could end up talking about yourself in the third person, or you could behave Twitter style and just say what you want to say anyway. You can also set up an extended profile, MySpace style, but I haven’t done that yet.

Read the rest of Playing With Plurk

Travel Writing Tips

By Sharon Hurley Hall

I enjoy travel writing and recently wrote a post for Daily Writing Tips revealing some of the research techniques I use.

As a writer you can make connections between what you have done and what you are writing about. Okay, so you may not have visited a water park in Tenerife, but you might have visited one in Disneyworld. You can use your memories of that experience to add local color and a bit of excitement to your writing about the new location. No matter where you go in the world, water parks, museums, parks and other places of interest have many of the same features, which you can use as a way of getting started.

It’s essential to do your research. Normally, I don’t recommend Wikipedia as a research resource, but I have found that their profiles of countries and cities are generally well researched, with verifiable sources. If you want a starting point for an overview of the history, climate, industry and main attractions, Wikipedia works well. I always double check the information there with information from the destination’s city or country guide site. These sites are also great places to find out about local amenities and annual events. A site that provides a good overview of these is Eventguide.com.

Read the rest of Travel Writing Resources

When You Don't Know What To Say, Don't

by Sharon Hurley Hall

I penned this for Get Paid To Write Online and never published it. It contains my brief thoughts on the value of silence.

This may seem a strange thing for a writer to say. After all, I am good with words. But sometimes I think people get locked into writing, talking or commenting for the sake of it – and that's a waste of time. When I move around the blogosphere, I am looking for posts and comments that make me stop and think, like the posts I find on MenwithPens, Writing Journey, Remarkablogger, Wild Apricot and others. These blogs consistently have posts that provide useful information, instead of the same old dross. I actively seek out their posts, and I look for the writers' comments on other blogs, because I know that I will learn something.

Not everyone can produce this kind of quality consistently. I know that I have days when I use all my writing talent for my clients and have little left over for myself. That's why there are days when I don't post anything because I don't think anyone needs to read another empty post. I believe it's better to provide something of value occasionally than to provide something almost valueless daily. I believe in the value of silence, of taking time to think and to let ideas percolate. Isn't that the best excuse for procrastination you have ever heard?

Diary Of A Working Writer - July 2008

June was a great month. It was busy, busy, busy and I'm still finishing off a major ebook writing project that came in during the month. During June I completed reports on Twitter as well as digital signage and wrote articles on topics including green homes, real estate and Florida attractions.

On Get Paid To Write Online, I wrote an eight part series on promotion, responded to a challenge on Why I Love Working At Home, and asked readers about their writing career dreams. I continued to post on Daily Tech Bits and Daily Writing Tips (some of the posts I liked are highlighted in this issue).

During July, I'm expecting to see two new writing gigs come on stream. I hope to be able to tell you more about those next month. On the blog, I've planned posts on getting more for your writing, working with a team, getting the most from your earnings, and of course a full review of Research Wizard Pro.