Turning What You Say Into What You Write

Turning What You Say Into What You Write
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Gini_Graham_Scott]Gini Graham Scott

As you seek to promote your book or yourself, you may have speaking engagements or interviews. People may call to ask you questions about your work before they book you as a speaker or ask you to be a guest. Whatever you are doing, this is a great opportunity to expand your reach even more by turning whatever you say into articles, blogs, or even a book. Plus, if you are speaking or doing a guest interview, you can videotape or record that – or get a copy of the video or audio recording – and post that on your website, blog, on Facebook, and on other video sharing sites.

A good way to start turning what you say into what you write is to make a transcript of the recording. Then, you can draw on the ideas expressed in that transcript to write an article, blog, or section of a book.

Normally, just transcribing a transcript isn’t enough, because we speak differently than we write. In speaking, you may ramble, have asides, digress to another topic, and add in placeholders like “uhmmm” and “you know”. So you have to organize, edit, and polish up whatever you say. But transcribing what you say is a good starting point, since you have laid out your ideas in your talk or interview.

In creating a transcript, figure on about 4 to 5 hours of typing to produce about 12 to 15 single spaced pages for each hour of speaking. So, a 15 to 20 minute talk or interview might take an hour to an hour and a half to type up, resulting in about 3 to 5 pages of copy. Then, when you reorganize and polish up your transcript, that could result in up to 2 or 3 articles of about 500-700 words – the ideal length for most articles today – depending on what you have said and how well this lends itself to one or a series of articles.

To turn your talk or interview into a transcript, set up a recorder next to your computer and preferably use earphones and a foot pedal, so you can more easily stop and restart the recorder while you continue to type. Just pushing the pause button – or starting and stopping the recorder – will work, too. To save time, forget about recording extraneous comments like “you know” and off-topic digressions. Focus on what you want to include in your article or series of articles.

If you don’t have time to transcribe your recording yourself, hire a typist, and to keep costs down, you might find a student at your local college to work at a low hourly rate or help out as a volunteer intern. Craigslist might be another source of a local typist.

Then, use your transcript to create your article. Depending on how much rewriting you need to do, you can reorganize and edit the file with your transcript – or use your transcript as a guide to write your article. Whichever way you do this, a good way to start is to think of the main themes in your talk or interview and use that to create your title. Or if you have talked enough about different themes, divide that into separate articles.

Next, reorganize your talk or interview as necessary to create a good flow of ideas. Finally, rewrite, edit, or polish what is there. And voila! You have one or more articles you can use in various formats – from a stand-alone article or blog to a section of a book.

Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is the author of over 50 books and a seminar and workshop leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional and personal development, and writing, publishing, and promoting books. Her latest books include THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF; THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING, PRODUCING, AND DIRECTING A LOW-BUDGET SHORT FILM, THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING, WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT! and ENJOY! 101 LITTLE WAYS TO ADD FUN TO YOUR WORK EVERYDAY. She helps clients write, publishing, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She also writes scripts and produces films for her own company Changemakers Productions and for clients.

Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and [http://www.changemakersproductions.com]http://www.changemakersproductions.com.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Turning-What-You-Say-Into-What-You-Write&id=6717165] Turning What You Say Into What You Write

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