You know the drill. You start out with a grand and noble idea to write every day without exception.  But, then things happen.

Your little brother and his wife and ten kids decide to visit for a month. When unexpected events occur, it’s perfectly understandable to reprioritize your schedule a bit.

Of course, you may find other excuses to not write — ones that are not so noble and that make it harder to explain why you didn’t quite meet that deadline. The following examples of excuses were shared by a freelance writer who has experienced those bad writing days.

10 reasons why I’m not going to write today:

1. Not enough time in the day. This needs no explanation. I just have a lot of other commitments that need to be done.

2. I don’t know what to write. My mind is blank. Nothing enters or leaves the black hole of my mind.

3. I don’t feel like writing. Some days this just happens and what can I do? Nothing. It’s how I feel and that’s all I can say about it.

4. I want to do other things. I have a long list of the other things. In fact, almost anything I can think of sounds better than writing.

5. I’m not seeing any results, so why bother?

6. My writing is not improving. It is just the same as it was yesterday and the day before that. When is it going to improve? This is taking longer than I expected.

7. I’m revealing too much of myself in my writing. It’s true. Even when I write about dull things like 10 ways to eat more vegetables, my friends say they immediately recognize I’m having a bad day.  This is not good.

8. I don’t know enough about the topic. Other people know more than I do and they write better too. I will only embarrass myself by pretending to be an expert on a topic, especially this topic. Yes, I do realize I know more than 90 percent of the population, but that big 10 percent that knows more than I do has me crushed.

9. Writing is hard work. I never realized this. Things just don’t flow. Those words need to be pried out of my skull with a pickax and a crowbar. I don’t have the energy for this.

10. This deadline is making me too depressed to write.  Why did I ever say I would write this? Can I plead insanity?

At Wheatmark, we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process. Whether your new book is is in the beginning or final stages, tell us about it.

It’s been said before, it’s time to say it again: Every writer should use a professional editor before the final publication of a book.

In a recent guest post called “Why Do I Need an Editor” on BadRedHead Media, Janie Goltz explains why writers do not see their own mistakes. As a professional writer and editor, Goltz has a good perspective on writing and publishing. According to Goltz, there are three different kinds of editing and the costs of an editing job range from low to high.

When you write something, it has the potential to last for a long time. Therefore, it’s best to present yourself and your work in a favorable light when you are published. Poor grammar may be excusable in text or Facebook messages, but when a possible new employer is looking you up on the Internet, it’s not such a good thing.

You may have a scintillating plot and a powerful story, but if there are jarring misspellings and confusing passages, your readers will not bother with your book. The competition is too steep for any author to succeed with mediocre writing.

The difference between a casual writer and a professional writer in most cases is that the professional rewrites drafts with the help of an editor. Of course, you can rewrite your own work without paying for the expense of an editor, but there comes a point when you cannot see your own mistakes.

You can propel your writing into the “superior” class simply by hiring an editor and carefully revising every red lettered comment that is given. There may be a few times when you will absolutely not want to make a change, but getting a professional to critique your work will be invaluable for your writing.

How simple and clear is your writing?

Does it make a difference?

Steve Sjuggerud’s writes an investment letter called, “The True Wealth.” He shared in an article for AWAI that one of the biggest reasons he has such a high subscription and renewal rate for his letter (over 70,000 subscribers) is because of its ease in reading.

He explains in the article, How to Improve the Clarity of Your Writing by Michael Masterson, that he found there was “a direct relationship between simplicity and success.” In an informal test he rated a large number of Agora’s writers on a grading scale recommended by Michael. What he discovered surprised him. “There was a direct relationship between simplicity and success. The writers who had the lowest Flesch-Kincaid scores had the highest renewal rates.”

If simple writing makes a dramatic difference in investment letters which are read by a higher-than-average educated reader, what does it say about your target reader? Unless you are writing for a medical or scientific journal, keep your writing simple.

One way to test your writing is to rate it with the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Score. This is a measurement of readability based on students in the United States by grade level. A ninth-grade student is given a value of 9.0 and a first-grade student a value of 1.0.

A good readability score is between 7 and 8 for a general audience. Newspapers commonly aim for a rate below 8 dipping as low as 6. Even if your readers are highly educated, they will still appreciate writing that is simple and to the point. Complicated sentences with big words and lots of juicy superlative adjectives are not helpful to anyone.

Here are five quick and easy tips to lower your readability score.

1. Write about one idea at a time.
2. Keep your sentences short. The fewer words between periods the lower your score. While a few long sentences are not bad and add variety, aim for less rather than more.
3. Five sentences per paragraph is a good amount. Some will be shorter, a few longer but break up text often for greater ease of reading. Some paragraphs can be as short as one or two sentences.
4. Use words with as few syllables as possible. For instance use the word big instead of enormous.
5. Include dialogue in your writing when possible. Natural conversation tends to be short and direct. It also adds interest to an article.

Writing simply takes practice. Study popular writing and copy a page or two to train your brain to ease up on the technical, intellectual side.

Final note. If you write with Microsoft Word, you can use the Spelling and Grammar Review to check your Flesh-Kincaid score. To make sure that option is selected go to File > Options > Proofing, and and select Show Readability Statistics. You can also go to Readability-score.com and paste in your text for instant rating.

This article rated at 6.5.

At Wheatmark, we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process. Whether your new book is is in the beginning or final stages, tell us about it.

Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, or idea.

Person: If it’s a specific name, like Joe, Jane, or Sparky, the name is capitalized. However, if the noun is general such as a boy, girl, doctor or lawyer, then the nouns are not capitalized. It can become a bit complicated when referring to parents or close relatives. If you are talking about your mother, the name is not capitalized. But if you are talking “to” your mother or father, the name is capitalized. So in writing dialogue, your subject might say, “Hi, Mom. What’s for dinner?” But if your subject is talking to a friend about their mom, then the noun is not capitalized. “Yeah, my mom always insists on cooking spinach at least once a week. Yuck!”

The same thing is true of offices like senator, president, king, or pope. You may refer to “the pope” or “the president” in lowercase, but capitalize it when it is used as the title of the person, such as Queen Elizabeth or when you address them, as in Mr. President. However, in “American president Barack Obama” or “British prime minister David Cameron” the offices are lowercase because in the context they refer to the person’s office and are not part of his title.

Place: If the name of a place is specific, such as the name of a city or state, then the noun should be capitalized. If the noun is general such as state, city, bird, parent, etc. then the noun is not capitalized.

Seems pretty cut and dry, right?

Sometimes though it gets a bit tricky. For instance, if the word state follows a specific state, such as Washington State, then state is often capitalized. But state would not be capitalized if one were to write, “What state do you live in?”  The big clue here is if the word state comes before the specific name, such as the state of California, or after the state name, as in California State.

Thing: If it’s a specific thing like a Rolls-Royce or a Chevrolet pickup, it is capitalized. General automobiles, such as a car or a jeep, are not capitalized.

Idea: This is a bit more nebulous. For instance, the word good is often not capitalized if one is talking about something that is good, such as a good book. If one is talking about a “Greater Good” as an idea, then the word is capitalized.

Capitalization can be confusing in some instances. If in doubt, it’s a great idea to keep a dictionary handy or use an online dictionary such as Dictionary.com.