Thanks Mark

I've forgotten how many articles I have had published in my life, most in overseas magazines. And I would say that Mark's advice is truly top class.

One tip I would give a lot of our forum writers is to paragraph a lot more.

It can be very off-putting to the reader to see a mass of writing with no paragraph breaks. Any reader does need to come up for air occasionally.

What Mark says about grabbing the reader's attention within 25 words is true. That's about 5 seconds worth, the same span of attention the average Sun reader has. Honest! Works with other newspapers too.

Also what Ron has just posted - about paragraphs. The shorter they are the easier the piece will be to read. It will look easy to read too from its appearance and that goes for postings too (hint, hint).