My Mugshot Makeover!

Look Like a Pro! - Personal Makeover, Phase 1

I've seen too many writers that look like professional hobos rather than writers. Everything I've been reading lately say that professionalism is in short supply in our industry, and that those who do deliver a professional image are the ones that land regular assignments, become favorites of editors, and make more money.

As part of this series, I'm revamping and polishing all of my own marketing materials, and I'm starting with my headshot.

Version 1 - "Come Hither Eyes"
The original headshot was pulled from an engagement photo. It was in black and white, and it was alright. (I guess. My mother referred to it as "a coy pose", and I can't quite get past my scandalous "come hither" eyes.)

While it served alright as a basic headshot, I don't think it projected the professional image I was looking for.

Version 2 - The Snapshot
Finally deciding I needed something (anything!) different, I borrowed my sister in law's digital camera, and had my wife snap a quick picture in front of our bookcase.

When compared to the earlier picture, Version 2 had some automatic advantages:

1. It was in color. Don't ask me why, but I find it harder to connect with a black and white picture.
2. The shot is straight on.One of my peeves about Version 1 was that I wasn't turned toward the camera. I won't explain the psychological body-language explanation behind it, but Version 1 sent the wrong signals because it was of me looking over my shoulder. It just didn't quite click with what I wanted. This is much better.

Unfortunately, this was the image pulled right off the camera. It's better, but it's also pretty rough. When scaled down, it gives me some funky bags under my eyes. It looks far too casual. Basically, the problem is that it looks like a snapshot, because it is a snapshot. Enter Version 3.

Version 3 - The headshot

At long last, I have taken five minutes to recrop this picture in photoshop, and have actually managed to produce a decent looking headshot. In color, no less.

While not perfect, the final cropped version is a significant improvement over the original. It's simple and direct. I think it gives the impression I was going for. What do you think?

Look Like a Pro! (A Series)

In the next week or so, I will be in the process of reorganizing, revamping and otherwise sprucing up my personal marketing materials. As I do this, I’ll be detailing, step by step, what I’ve changed and how it’s better. I’ll be posting all of this information as a series, including all sorts of informational goodies for readers.

Some of the topics I’ll cover:
The Mug Shot - Why every writer needs to look sharp
The Portfolio - Putting your best foot forward with your best work
The Business Card - If you don't have a card, you might not exist
The Website - See above.
Building Your Personal Media Kit - Putting it all together into a professional Grand Slam.

I may include as part of this series interviews related to these topics. Do you know a lot about any of these areas? Drop me a line: BrianWestover[at]gmail.com

Any suggestions as to what else I should include would be appreciated.

The Portfolio Grows!

More coolness with the Scroll. In addition to being moved over to Campus (which is a wonderful place to be), I've already been given a killer opportunity. Last Thursday, I had the chance to sit down with our student body officers for a Q&A session, and it hit print today. It's a thing of beauty; once it's available online, I'll post a link.

Speaking of links, I forgot to post the previously printed article, this time about Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who kicked up a fair amount of controversy by requesting to be sworn in on the Qu'ran. (Since then, he has done just that - using a copy of the Qu'ran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.)

My Latest in the Scroll

I just realized that, since my initial post on getting printed in the Scroll, I hadn't mentioned any of the articles I've done since then. They're looking great, and a good number are also offered online. To check them out, just follow the links:

Element 118

Madison Memorial Ends Birth Announcements

Black Friday bliss

Self Adjustment and Goals

In a recent post, I lamented about my need to tighten things up a bit in my life, and get more focused about what I'm doing and the goals I've set. Since then, mostly in the last week, I've been working on just that.

First thing, I wrote up my personal mission statement. The section I'll share here deals specifically with writing, but I also did a similar statement for each area of my life - my marriage, school, etc. Here it is:

My major purpose is to entertain, educate and inspire others through my thoughts and my words, whether spoken or written. As a writer I have the talent and the skill to do just that.

In order to use my gifts for the benefit of others, I must make them profitable to the extent that it is my primary means of income and is the bulk of my work.

My life’s work then, is to establish myself as a writer, and write on those things that will entertain, educate or inspire.

I will help people to learn and to grow. I will also learn and grow, but in so doing, I will continue to expand and realize my own potential, even as I aid others in doing so.

I will find success in my career. Through my writing, I will provide for myself and my family. I will find financial security through earning and careful use of the money earned.

I will enable myself to have the flexibility to work from home, to earn an income that allows my family to live in comfort, and to provide not only for their needs, but for their wants as well. I will become wealthy, that I may more fully pursue my goal of helping others.

The pursuit of my career will not take me away from my wife or my family. Instead, my career will allow me the freedom and time to enjoy their company, share their thoughts and experience the joy of their love.


I also developed a brief plan of action to get some progress made on this life mission:

To find this success in writing, I must develop myself as a writer.

I will continually study my craft. I will improve my writing, and my ability to reach readers. I will find new ways to write more, thus improving both the quality and the quantity of my work.

I will develop my portfolio so that I can credibly approach publications for writing opportunities. I will always seek to improve both my earning potential and my credibility.

I will use this credibility to author books, so that my influence will expand beyond the fleeting realm of magazines and the internet, but to reach further audiences with a deeper impact.

I will write daily. I will become as familiar and practiced with words as I am with my own body. As easily as I walk, eat, or sleep, I will reach minds, touch hearts and stir spirits.

I will read daily, exploring always with an open mind to new ideas, new interpretations of the old, and to the timeless concepts that transcend generations. I will let my mind absorb the world around me, and distill from all my learning those things that will make me a better writer and person.

I will seek publication. Unless published in some medium, my words are known only to me. Unpublished words have no impact, save upon the writer. Published words change lives.

I will seek payment. Writing without pay is not a career, it is a hobby. I will not let my life purpose be relegated to the realms of baseball cards or model trains. I will make my living by my words.


I then formulated specific, measurable goals to help me follow through on these plans:

Write 2+ pages per day. (Writing for school only counts for one page, no matter how long)

Send out 1+ Query Letter per week

Submit everything I write. Get published anywhere I can, if only to build my portfolio.

NOT Writing for the Voice

Well, the editor in cheif of the Voice responded to my request to do a column for them. Sadly, because I write for the Scroll, writing for the Voice would present a conflict of interest. Meaning, they can't use me while I'm a Scrollie.

Because they're just a little rag-tag start-up pulled together by students, I don't think I'll be bailing on the award winning Scroll anytime soon, especially since they gave my last article a giant half page, with some gorgeous graphics. (Read it online, sans graphics, here.) In addition to being a whole lot better looking in my portfolio, my work at the Scroll does more for me in the way of establishing legitimate contacts and quality education about publication. (See my John Hughes Q&A as an example.)

However, the idea of an advice column may not be so far fetched, even with this obstacle. I had a conversation with my wife Jessica about the possibility of doing some blogging for profit, and she's all for it. Here main question? "Why aren't you doing this now?" I love that woman!

Oh, and did I mention that the Editor at the Voice thinks my work is fantastic? Those are her words. "Fantastic." If that doesn't build the ego, what does? (Oh, that's right, making money for my 'fantastic' talents!)

Writing for The Voice?

Today, I was handed the first copy of Rexburg's independant student newspaper, The Voice. Though they try way to hard to have a controversial tone (this is Rexburg, Idaho. The most exciting thing they have to talk about is the booting of cars. Honestly.) it is a tad refreshing to see another publication come out for students. More importantly, it seems that they've got a solid base of advertisers.

I e-mailed them today about doing a regular advice column, and I hope to hear back soon about the idea. Partly, I'd love to have a regular column, even it's for some hack job of a student paper. A column in a rag is better than no column at all, right?

Secondly, I've really been wanting to do an advice coloumn of this sort for a while. For months I've had people regularly approaching me for advice on dating, and one of those folks just got engaged thanks to my advice. If that's not a good sign, I don't know what is. My wife and I have often tossed around the idea of my doing some sort of pro-dating coach type job here, since the BYU-I dating scene is ridiculously active, and the idea of an advice coloumn has always appealed to me.

Here's hoping it works out alright.

Finally - Published in Print!

This semester at school, I joined the staff of the Scroll, BYU - Idaho's student paper. It's an excellent paper, one which frequently wins serious awards for everything from content to layout to business practices. As far as student papers go, it's one of the best there is, and I got to join the staff.

I was excited about this all summer because, in addition to the invaluable experience I knew I'd be receiving, this would also provide me with those oh-so-important published clips for my portfolio.

Needless to say, I've been anxious since the semester started to finally get something published, and to have some real clips to include with queries and the like.

Naturally, I was thrilled when they wanted me to write something for the first edition - that week, most of the new reporters were just given their style guides and told to brush up on things. I was being asked to write something right away, because of my prior experience, and my familiarity with the format they needed. Ah ha! Already my talent and professionalism were getting attention. I was feeling pretty smug when I handed my piece in well ahead of the deadline.

I was still smugly smirking when I opened up the paper to see my words printed there in beautiful black ink, done up as an impressive half-page infographic. It was so lovely - my own words, lovingly crafted, there for all of the university to see. But wait... where was my byline?

Turns out, in the rush to get the paper off to press, they just forgot to include it. Because it was a graphic and not a story, they hadn't even thought about it. So, my first 200 printed words for the Scroll went uncredited. I was a little miffed, but not overly so - surely, having impressed themwith my speed and professionalism so early in the game I'd get plenty of opportunities to get my name in print.

I wasn't disappointed. The very next week, they assigned me a story on local political events, and wanted twelve inches within a week. I jumped on the opportunity, and gave them a great story.

Unfortunately, the day before this story went to press, a student who works for one of the political groups mentioned in my article came into the Scroll offices, saw the article already in layout, and started picking at every detail of the article, calling some of it inaccurate, other parts poorly researched and on the whole saying that it was full of politically slanted editorial commentary.

Now, let me say upfront that this article was meticulously researched, and I spent hours removing anything I could even imagine being perceived as bias in any direction. However, he had pointed out one actual mistake, and raised enough questions over the article's content to get it pulled from the paper that week. Instead of my article, I opened up the paper to find an advertisement.

That was two weeks ago. I've since improved my source attribution in the article, fixed the one legitimate mistake and editted my story even further. In the mean time, I also wrote a second article which unfortunately wasn't quite newsworthy enough to run. They didn't run either. Hopefully, you can understand how a little bit of frustration might begin to seep into my efforts?

This last week, I've been busting my butt on another story, trying to get it done without neglecting either my classes or my wife too terribly. Unfortunately, I could already tell that it wouldn't be ready for this week's paper, so I talked to my editor about giving me another week, which he is.

The only problem is that, as of yesterday, I had written three and a half articles, printed only one, and still not even gotten a clip that had my name on it! Arrrgghh! I was more than frustrated, I was getting pissed off. Was my work going to get me anywhere?

This morning, I was pleasantly suprised to find, nestled nicely amid the other articles on the News page, my first article, the one that had been pulled at the last minute. Apparently, my revising efforts had not been in vain, and I am now feeling a bit more validated as a writer. So, there you have it. I've finally gotten into newsprint, and it feels great. Hopefully, not every writing endeavor will be so infuriatingly frustrating.

My Writing Articles

Writing Articles by Brian Westover

12 Surefire Brainstorming Techniques - Are you stuck in a mental rut? Battling writer's block? Perhaps you're simply looking for new ideas. When your creativity flies the coop, these 12 techniques will snag your muse, bring it home and whip it into shape! If you can reason and write a list, you can brainstorm!

10 Simple Steps - Basics of the Writing Process - Even the professional writer can use the occasional brush-up on the basics! This simple overview of the writing process will show you how to start with only an idea and nurture it into a full grown article or even book.

Before You Write - Effective writers learn quickly that the most important keys of writing are preparation and planning. Before you even take a pen to the page, lay a solid foundation by using the pre-writing process outlined here.

The 10 Question Topic Test - It's difficult to take your unsorted, unpolished ideas and decide which are saleable ideas and which aren't. It's just as hard trying to develop those ideas for a query. Here are ten questions to apply to your idea to determine what markets it fits, how well it will sell and how to flesh it out for both a query letter and a full article.

John Hughes - Notes & Quotes

John Hughes is the editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City. He is former editor of The Christian Science Monitor. Before joining the Deseret Morning News he was a professor of journalism and director of the International Media Studies Program at Brigham Young University. He served as U.S assistant secretary of state, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, and chaired presidential and Congressional commissions on international broadcasting. John has received a Pulitzer Prize, the Overseas Press Club award and is the former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

I recently had the chance to meet John Hughes, who held a brief Q&A/Seminar with the staff of our student newspaper. Though he spoke primarily about the newspaper business, most of what he saids translates over to any field of writing. Posted here are a selection of direct quotes from the seminar, and some very brief notes touching on each.

“You probably aren’t going straight from college to the Times.”

Start small, and then move up. This is an established industry, which means you’ll have to work your way up. To do this, you’ll need to be ambitious. Go for opportunities aggressively. Show initiative. Work for it.

“Newspapers aren’t there to give you an opportunity. They’re very self-centered; they want to know what you can do for them.”

Professionals know that this is a business, not a hobby.

Research any market or publication before you approach them; if you can’t actually do something for them, you’re wasting your time.

Query like a professional.

Be absolutely professional about contacts, editors, money, deadlines, edits, rewrites, etc.

Don’t just act like a professional, write like one too.

“Reporters are strange animals.”

Mr. Hughes spoke for a moment about how difficult it is to keep reporters from working more than 40-50 hours a week, saying that often, they’ll want to keep writing into the night, just because they love what they do.

Be passionate about your profession. Use that passion.

Love writing well, being complete, being accurate and thorough; when you love what you do, and do it because you love it, you can go far.

“None of you are going into journalism for the money.”

Yes, there is money in our profession, but it’s rare that anyone gets rich. Do it because it drives you. Do it because you live for it.

“Everybody is owned by somebody.”

“I don’t mind photographers who push the envelope, so long as they do what they’re told in the end.”

You work for the people that pay you. The only way you get paid is by meeting an editor’s needs. If you can’t do that, you’ll never see print and you’ll never see a paycheck.

“You must, absolutely must, keep up with technology in this business.”

As writers, we’re blessed to see writing opportunities coming up in every form of media. We have to know these new areas to take advantage of those opportunities.

The more versatile the writer, the better.