Writing for a Living

Thinking of writing for a living without being a novelist? Check out these articles ...

• A Writer's Nightmare
• Editorial Style Guide
• Fee or Free?
• Writers' Block
• Live to Write
• Ghostwriting
• Copywriting
• Content Writing
• Feature Writing
• News Reporting: The Inverted Pyramid
• Contemporary Fiction: Genres and Beyond
• International Journalism: Freedom of Press
• International Journalism - A Book Review
• Online Journalism
• Photo Journalism
• Reaching the Readers
• Writing News Feature Story
• Writing Beyond Cultures
• Writing on Unfamiliar Topics
• Writing Dialogues
• Writing Press Releases
• Writing Simple
• Writing Techniques
• Therapeutic Writing
• AI Copywriting
• AI Storybook

Feel free to share your views on writing at this blog!

AI Storybook: A Path Woven Tighter

Based on a true story, this AI-generated storybook shares the story of a couple's relationship drawn closer together amid the wife going through surgery and treatments for breast cancer.

Storyteller & Script Editor
Edmond Ng

Illustrations & Script
Generated by Google Gemini (AI)

AI Copywriting

Writing a copy isn't as difficult as it used to be because today we have tools to help us craft our ideas and create visuals to tell our story.

Depending on how we write our prompt, we can create content we used to only be able to conceptualize and then spend hours creating our storyboard.

Below is an example of an AI generated storyboard created using Google AI Studio with a prompt like, "Create a storyboard ... Generate a key frame image, voice over or caption and narrative per scene, including a compelling title to the storyboard."

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Title: Elevate Your Brand’s Voice

Key Frame Image: A frustrated businesswoman stares at a poorly written brochure or website copy on her tablet, looking confused and disappointed. Across from her, a potential client, looking equally confused, scrolls through content on his phone, a thought bubble with a question mark above his head.

Voice Over/Caption: "Every word is a first impression. What happens when yours falls flat?"

Narrative: This scene opens with a business presentation gone wrong, or a potential client losing interest while browsing a website. The visual emphasizes the negative impact of unclear or unengaging content.

Key Frame Image: The same businesswoman from Scene 1, now looking defeated, her head in her hands, a laptop screen showing an empty inbox or low analytics. On the right panel, a new scene, a confident and smiling businesswoman presents content on a tablet to two engaged clients, with "thumbs up" and "lightbulb" thought bubbles appearing above their heads.

Voice Over/Caption: "No engagement. No interest. No response. The silence… it’s costing you."

Narrative: This scene visually represents the lack of impact from ineffective communication. The contrast highlights the desired outcome: active engagement and positive reception.

Key Frame Image: A close-up of a laptop screen filled with messy, tracked changes, red ink, and question marks over poorly written text. On the right, a confident woman proudly displays a tablet with impeccably designed and well-written content.

Voice Over/Caption: "Unclear. Inaccurate. Unprofessional. Versus: Clear. Concise. Compelling. Flawless."

Narrative: This scene demonstrates the transformation that professional editorial services can bring, moving from chaotic and ineffective content to polished and impactful communication.

Key Frame Image: The confident businesswoman smiles, giving a thumbs up, holding a tablet that displays a successful marketing campaign. In the right panel, a business meeting with multiple happy clients shaking hands, signifying successful partnerships.

Voice Over/Caption: "Words aren't just words. They're your voice. Your pitch. Your first impression. We offer writing, editing, copywriting, copyediting, journalism, and more. Contact us today. [Website/Contact Info]

Narrative: This concluding scene reinforces the message that editorial services elevate a brand's voice, leading to successful client relationships and overall business growth. It provides a clear call to action.

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While we must admit that GenAI is a great help, at the end of the day, we need to realize that such tools are just aids to help us do our thinking and work. Storyboards (as exemplified above) and copywriting generated by AI still need our intervention to edit and correct the copy.

Therapeutic Writing

Writing is a good way of handling (alleviating) distress.

When mentally tortured or upset, write down your thoughts and let it* go.

* the written document (digital or physical)

Book Review: Trials and Triumphs II

Living the Christian life is not all smooth sailing, and like everyone else, the authors of this book have gone through some extremely difficult times. The difference is, rather than dwell in despair, their relationship with God flourishes as a result.

My heart is deeply moved and stirred within me reading some of the testimonies in this book. The experiences shared in this book lets us know we are not alone in our pains and sufferings because God is always with us.

This book is a good read especially for those who have gone through or are going through difficult times and for those seeking to know God more deeply and how to help others in their pains.

Get a copy of the book @ Xulon Press or Amazon.

Engaging the Reader

I recently read a book written in the first person in a way like a minister delivering a sermon to an audience. It is not what many readers would expect of a well-written work because of its unconventional writing style and the lack of smoothness or intrigue. Yet the book took the number two place on The New York Time's bestseller list.

The popularity of a book is obviously not about how well a writer writes, but about writing on the right topic and about content. Unless the writer is a celebrity or a famous someone, expecting high readership for what one writes may just be wishful thinking unless the writer has done his or her research to know what topics and content engage readers.

As an enthusiast of the social media, I have managed blogs and social network platforms long enough to understand how certain topics and content are well received while others fall short or fail badly. If the number of followers and comments are a guide to measure popularity and engagement, then analytics may be a good way to help make trending observations.

When I write on topics like healthcare, for example, the number of followers tends to fall far below expectation even with strong digital marketing engagement through campaigning, promotions, and the like. When I write on topics like career or faith, on the other hand, the number of followers increases exponentially even without campaigning.

Engaging readers or audiences in the real world requires knowing what's hot and what's not, what moves the heart or touches a chord, what reaches out and helps meet a need. In a nutshell, a writer needs to do research to know what readers really want before beginning to write.

Writing on Unfamiliar Topics

How do you respond when someone wants to hire you to write on a topic you are unfamiliar with? Do you decline to take up the assignment or do you rise to the challenge?

As a writer providing editorial services, it is not uncommon I receive requests to write something I know nothing about. How I go about tackling such a problem is to research, consolidate, and attribute.

Research
This is obvious enough—research and gather as much information as possible on the Web and from the hirer.

Consolidate 
Compile and consolidate the information gathered. Plan out and organize the order for the information to be used. Ponder over the topic for a little while and decide how it should be written so it would sustain readers' interest. 

Attribute 
If using or citing information from sources other than those owned by the hirer, always state where the source is from and attribute authorship to the relevant parties or publisher. Doing so not only helps prevent infringing any intellectual property rights, but also enforces credibility in our writing, especially when the citation is from an authoritative source or reference.

Take it from me if you encounter a similar situation to go through the same steps, and you will find writing on unfamiliar topics is not as difficult as you imagine it to be.

Here are some sample articles with citation and attribution written by me for your reference.

• Digital Detox
• Flawed Business Decisions
• Gossip Mill
• Allergies: How to Handle Them
• Knees and Arthritis
• Pneumonia: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Are you now game to take up the challenge?

Editorial Services: Tricks of the Trade

Writing about writing is difficult because most of the time a writer is too busy writing something else. As a writer providing editorial services, my priority is to serve my customers in helping them with their writing needs. These needs include providing content for websites, conceptualizing and creating marketing collaterals, rebranding corporate profiles, copywriting, technical writing, corporate and marketing communication, among many other areas.

Over the years, I have received many assignments and requests to write different kinds of writings. I have written articles on technology and digital lifestyle which are areas of my expertise, and topics such as health, career, and entrepreneurship, which are areas I am not entirely familiar with. Once in a while, I also receive requests to write on topics I have no idea about or beyond my ability to get involved, such as beauty products and services, wine and dining, real estate, and others.

No doubt, as an editorial services provider and freelance writer, I should make every attempt to learn the tricks of the trade to write whatever is needed by the customers, but sometimes there are simply topics that are beyond my ability. The important thing is never to turn away customers empty-handed. Recommend them to another writer or editorial services provider.

If like me your wish is to run an editorial services business, the first thing you need to think about and act on is to get to know as many writers as possible and to stay in contact with them. If you can find business associates in the same trade, all the better, build close ties with them. When you are unable to take on an assignment request by customers, always recommend the lead to your associates.

Style and Preference

While there are many tips and editorial guidelines on writing, there is in the real world not a particular way of writing that is absolutely good or bad when it comes to style and preference.

Hired writers are often told to write in a particular style, such as formal or social, but much really depend on one’s adaptability and personality. A writer may masquerade a persona that is not one’s own character but will never derive satisfaction from such writings simply because the content does not bring out who the writer is.

So what do we do when we are paid to write what the hirers want us to? We need to find a balance between who we are, and who we are not. Yes, if we are writing for blogs or for the social media, we need to express in our writings the playful side of our personality even if we are not fun-loving. No doubt, there are blogs and social network pages that prefer serious content, but more often than not, we are still expected to bounce off new ideas to write in moods that are vibrant and constantly changing.

Adaptability is therefore about changing the way we write, and sometimes changing ourselves to see things differently and more creatively in varied moods. We may need to work ourselves into feeling good and happy most of the time, yet we must not lose ourselves in the process. Our preferred writing style is best to be flexible so we can tweak to fit, if writing for an organization or non-fiction.

Are we flexible enough to write differently without putting on a mask? If we are able to, then the battle is won between giving ourselves up to hirer’s preference and deriving satisfaction from our writings.

Spicing Up Your Content Writing

"I think the content is lacking the sizzle to keep the audience interested," said the overseer. "So far I'm not seeing enough likes or comments being generated on our blog and social networks."

That is the kind of remark I would wish never to hear from my boss, but I get that a lot as a copywriter and content manager. Writing persuasive copies is what is expected of my job and unless I bring in the numbers and visitors to the websites I manage, I am at risk of losing my livelihood.

This is how the commercial world works when it comes to measuring performance and the success of an online marketing campaign in getting across the message to its audience. It is all about spicing up the heat using persuasive words accompanied by outstanding design to catch Attention, create Interest, and stir up Desire that leads to Action (AIDA).

All About Writing

Some of you may find it difficult to search through my blog for specific topics on writing experiences and tips in the archives, so I have created this entry to help you navigate:

• A Writer's Nightmare
• Editorial Style Guide
• Fee or Free?
• Writers' Block
• Live to Write
• Ghostwriting
• Copywriting
• Content Writing
• Feature Writing
• News Reporting: The Inverted Pyramid
• Contemporary Fiction: Genres and Beyond
• International Journalism: Freedom of Press
• International Journalism - A Book Review
• Online Journalism
• Photo Journalism
• Reaching the Readers
• Writing News Feature Story
• Writing Beyond Cultures
• Writing on Unfamiliar Topics
• Writing Dialogues
• Writing Press Releases
• Writing Simple
• Writing Techniques

Feel free to share your views on writing at this blog!

Content Writing and Marketing

Writing encompasses many fields, and unless we are a novel writer, we need to be prepared to write on any genre if our job requires us to provide editorial services.

One of the most common writings requested by customers these days is content writing. Content writing is all about creating useful and informative content for websites and the social media.

Content writing is a branch of digital content marketing, which aims at writing in a way that draws the targeted audience to the site in engaging them to active participation. This participation may include readers commenting on blogs and social networks, clicking ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ or ‘Tweet’ about the written post or uploaded video.

According to Content Marketing Institute (CMI), “content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”

A good content strategy often begins with the use of search engine optimization (SEO) technique to obtain higher number of visits to the site. Among the first things we need to consider and ask ourselves when writing for content marketing are:

• Who is our audience? What do they like to know or talk about?
• Where do they usually hangout online? Which social network, community or forum?
• Which style of writing best suit the targeted audience? Social or formal? Business-to-customer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B)?
• What is the objective of the writing? Is it to bring awareness of a need, a message to convey, a goal to achieve, or something to educate and inform?
• What keywords should be included in the content writing for SEO?
• Is our writing easy to read and understand? Are there technical words or jargons in the content we need to change or remove for better clarity?
• How can we measure the results and know which conversations catch fire?

The path towards good content writing and content marketing requires the constant analysis and evaluation of which approach best fit the targeted audience at a specific time. What works best, however, changes all the time, so there is no hard and fast rule to optimal results. The most important point to take away regarding content marketing is, without good content, marketing is impossible. Unless the readers find value in what we have written, they are unlikely to participate in the conversations to find out more. What we write in the content to draw interest and engage the audience is therefore crucial and foremost.

More Readings
What is Content Marketing?
How to Develop a Social Media Content Strategy
Content Writing Tips for Engaging Your Audience

Creative Writing

When writing, think of different ways
to tell your story, and show your
readers what you think

Challenges of Freelance Writing

Writing freelance has its ups and downs. Sometimes we get many assignments, at other times we get none. Keeping ourselves alive and supporting our dependents in such a way is not only unreliable, but also unsustainable. Unless we have lots of savings to spare, working freelance or providing editorial services as a full time job may not be the best option for livelihood.

Nonetheless, working freelance has many advantages. Among some of the greatest benefits of working freelance is flexibility—we get to choose to take on an assignment or not, depending on our timing and availability. We can spend more time with our family and do the things we like or choose to busy ourselves earning money. However, if there are not enough requests for freelance writing and our finances are tight, we may be left in jeopardy. For some of us, such a free and casual lifestyle may not be viable.

Observing from past trends, editorial service requests seem to come periodically. In certain months of the year, requests can be overwhelming, and if we are alone doing the work, we can only do as much as we can, and drop the rest. Unfortunately, by dropping the rest, we face the dilemma of not earning enough to sustain during off-peak.

One of the best ways to work around having insufficient funds during times of low editorial requests is to have multiple source of income or a contract with a corporation or organization for an ongoing project. Such a project may be to write for a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter or in-house magazine, or an arrangement with a publishing house to write for its periodicals.

Contacts and connections, however, are crucial if we hope to get writing contracts. Unless we know the right people, if we plan on going full time into writing freelance, we need to consider carefully all the aforementioned pointers before we jump in.

Two Facets of Freelance Writing

Writing for freelance entails two facets, one as a professional providing service to the customers, the other as servicing customers to provide them what they want. The former assumes as professionals, customers should accept and go with our style or way of writing, proofreading, and editing. The latter does not assume anything, but goes with customers' planned agenda, which often involves many rounds of re-writing, proofreading, and editing.

Of the two facets, the first approach is usually much sought after by freelance writers because of its clear cut relations with the customer. The second approach, however, is what most customers seek today. Customers want to be able to maximize their invested cost to put their engaged freelancers to work for them, not as slaves of course, but much like employees or people who owes them a living.

Sadly, reality often dictates how freelance writers should decide on which facet to go with. Either we are worth something to our customers, or we may end up always waiting, but never receiving.
If you are a freelance writer or someone who is providing editorial services to customers, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject here.

Academic Writing Services

As a writer in the business of providing writing services, I frequently get requests by people who are willing to pay me to write their academic theses and assignments for them, which I of course refused. The reason is obvious—it is not only ethically wrong to cheat, but also against my professional principles.

The fact that it took me years of hard work studying part-time before I received my degree makes me abhor anyone who cheats or take a shortcut to get his or her certificate, diploma or degree. The value and worth of achieving one's own by one's own effort and knowledge is paramount to any future success. I have learned much through serious study, not pay someone else to write for me. In the real world, there is no way for anyone to be useful to the society if that someone paves the way to success through dishonesty.

While my belief is never to take up any paid academic writing assignments requests, I recently found out there are those who do the exact opposite and seize this as an opportunity for earning money. In fact, some even advertise to encourage students to pay them to write their essays and theses!

I am appalled by such practices! Although writing academic assignments for requestors can earn much, it questions the integrity of the achiever. It is no wonder some potential employers doubt the credibility of potential employees when they read résumés that state academic achievement through part-time courses. Such a practice can cause significant damage to many who have really studied, of whom I was one of them.

If you are a student seeking help for assignment writing or an academic writing service provider, I pray that you would quit such unethical practices. Students who need help should seek friends or others, share information and come up with their own ideas, not pay someone else to write for them. Academic writing service providers should consider other writing services rather than just writing ‘on behalf’ of students.

May we all agree to join hands to walk the straight path in building our own integrity and credibility!

Writing a News Feature Story

When writing a news feature story, one of the first things you must consider is the target audience. Is it for the general public or is it for a specific group of readers? If you are writing for the readers of a lifestyle magazine or for the lifestyle section in the newspaper, for example, you would need to consider whether you should write from the view of a third person or second?

Most feature stories are written from the third person. Exceptions where the second person is used instead is when the story is about 'what you should get', say, for an occasion or a festive season. Seldom is the first person used for feature writing except when the author is the narrating his or her own experience.

Take for example the first paragraph of a feature story on entrepreneurship written in the third person:

John lost his job two years ago due to the economy downturn. Believing it to be only temporary, he actively seeks employment while upgrading his skills through short-term courses. Today, he is still unemployed. Now at the age of 41, he is forced to consider self-employment and entrepreneurship but is hesitant because he has been an employee his entire working life.

If this first paragraph is written in the second person, it would read:

You have been an employee your entire working life. Two years ago, you lost your job due to the economy downturn. Believing the downturn to be only temporary, you actively seek employment while upgrading your skills through short-term courses. Today, you are still unemployed.

As you can read from the two approaches, the third person's voice draws the readers into the story better than the second person because there is no need for personal involvement in the story unless it is a call to action. It works fine to use the second person if you are writing for a lifestyle magazine showcasing shopping goods, but not quite fine for a news feature story that aims to convey a message containing facts and advices.

When writing for a news feature story, four components should be considered: anecdotes, quotes, facts, and statements of theme.

An anecdote in a news feature story should be written from a third person as the narrator. The purpose of this is to use content 'pull' to attract readers to a sense of reading a novel or a storybook. For a feature story to be successful, at least one anecdote should be included to help readers visualize the 'reality' of a situation or the life of the person being told in the anecdote.

A feature should also include facts and quotes for angles of human interest. Facts may be research finding that quantify the content of the story, official statistical figures, or actual events witnessed by people:

According to official figures from the manpower department, unemployment is now at 4.5 percent.

Quotes are actual account of events by witnesses or spoken comments of people interviewed. Quotes can be direct or indirect. For a feature story to be credible and interesting, both direct and indirect quotes are necessary.

A direct quote is the actual spoken words by persons interviewed:

"I have been an employee my entire working life," said John Doe, 41, a retrenched worker.

An indirect quote is a paraphrased or rephrased writing of actual words spoken by persons interviewed:

John Doe, 41, said he has been an employee his entire working life.

Statements of theme are sentences that links original theme of the story to various parts of the feature. This is especially useful when there are multiple sections or story points that need to be expanded in different areas of the feature. The objective of statements of theme is to draw the readers back to the main theme of the story.

The feature story is usually written with each paragraph pulling the readers forward to read on to the point of closure or a conclusion or instructions to proceed further. It is usual to end the story by drawing the readers' attention back to the points being told at the lead paragraph, but with added knowledge on the subject.

Writing Press Releases

If writing press releases is a part of your job, then among the first things you must remember is although your final target audience is the readers of the news, the media as the vehicle for getting the news published is just as important.

The media need not and usually do not publish a large part of what you write in the press release. Catching the media's attention or interest to your piece of news therefore should be your first objective, and that will require the news to be noteworthy.

If the news is about a new product or service, then you as the writer must highlight what is different that makes it stand out from the rest. If there is nothing worth highlighting, such as a unique selling point, then there is unlikely any news going to get published. Journalists always seek out only what is newsworthy.

One of the greatest mistakes vendors of products or services make is to have press releases contain too much technical details or the over emphasis of numerous features or functionalities. If there is nothing different or outstanding among the many things mentioned, then there is nothing much that will attract or draw the journalists' attention to write about it.

Vendors often think that information in the press release is what the end users want to read about, but frequently such details are not newsworthy for publish. Even if it does get published, it will often be placed at the end of the story. Information or text placed at the end of the story, depending on the space available in the newspaper or other media, may be lifted off by the editor or gatekeeper to give way to other more noteworthy news.

When writing a press release, therefore, a good approach is to use the 'reverse pyramid' methodology, where the most important is placed at the top and the less important at the bottom. The first paragraph, as the intro of the press release, should summarize the key points of the entire story to answer at least three of the 5Ws and 1H—who, when, why, what, where and how.

Within the press release, at least one quote or two from a spokesperson should be included as a standard practice. This is because journalists in general prefer to have someone say something within the story so as to eliminate the monotony. This is especially true for a feature story.

In short, it means when writing press releases, always remember the media plays an important role of what gets published, therefore, the content must be newsworthy.

Ellipsis and Em Dash

Ellipsis is represented in any piece of writing by a row of three periods or full stops (...). At times, it may overlap with the use of em dash (—).

Ellipsis is useful for omitting certain words in long speech writing, citations or quotations. When using ellipsis, however, the writer must be careful not to change the meaning of what the speaker is actually saying. This is a basic journalistic rule and ethical practice for any kind of writing. When ellipsis is used at the end of a sentence, it usually signifies something is 'to be continued ...'. If used somewhere between a sentence, it is considered an omission to shorten a sentence, often to remove words that are not critical to the objective point at hand. For example:

Before Jane went about looking for the dog again and again, but was unable to find it.

After Jane went about looking for the dog again ... but was unable to find it.

According to the MLA and AP style guideline, ellipsis should precede and proceed with a space for correct usage as shown above. There is a tendency for many writers to omit the space after a word, and this is not a correct usage following the standard style guides.

Em dash is represented by a longer dash (—), and should not be mistaken as figure dash (-) or en dash (–). Figure dash is used as a hyphen and en dash in a range, for example 'three to ten people' or 3–10 people.

Em dash is used in two ways, one as a break between a continuing sentence and the other at the end of sentence.

When used as a break between a continuing sentence, it sets off from the parenthetical information to indicate a break in character thought or speech. For example:

Every single thing we do — big or small — is significant in the sight of God.

When facing tough situations, the best thing to do is to first know God’s will through His word — the Bible.

When used at the end of a sentence, it usually refers to an aposiopesis — a sentence deliberately broken off and left unfinished which ending is supplied by your imagination or to give impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. For example:

"Get out, or else —!"

Em dash is frequently used without a space around it. Even with universities and various educational sites, many in practice advise no space before and after the use of an em dash as a house style. Certain newspapers use a dash in place of em dash or en dash because of the limited space within the columns.

According to the MLA and AP style guide, the em dash should precede and proceed with a space in all uses except at the start of a paragraph or for sports agate summaries.

Reaching the Readers

One of the text that come highly recommended on writing is the book by Kathryn Lindskoog, Creative Writing: For People Who Can’t Not Write. In this book, the author suggested a number of areas writers should pay attention to in order to reach out to their readers.

First, write creatively, because the world will never be starved for want of wonders.

Second, write simply and correctly, not necessarily with large vocabulary, but with untangled thinking to keep sentences from going awry.

Third, avoid pitfalls and pratfalls, as they can make the writer look foolish, sidestepping into the booby traps of misspelling or overwriting.

Fourth, show instead of tell. Make familiar things new and make new things familiar.

Fifth, write something funny or at least interesting. Write things that please the ear, tease the brain or ease the heart.

Sixth, think up ideas that can make some earnings out of writing. Get published, paid and read.

Seventh, let the readers see and hear what is going on for themselves instead of interpreting and summarizing it for them.

Eighth, continue to strive to do better and stretch the limits, because with each new piece of writing, it usually gets more difficult than easier.

All the pointers mentioned above are good advices for writers to put into practice. However, if our wish is to be really good writers, we will need to look into other pointers as well. Here are some pointers from me.

Ninth, get to the heart of the matter. In order for us to get to the readers’ heart, we must write with a heart that cares enough to want to know what matters to them.

Tenth, don’t just write what ease the readers’ hearts or what they like to hear. Share what we have seen and heard that our readers may understand plainly and also learn from us. Even if we are writing fiction, our plot can include true to life examples, like our own experiences or those of other people we know.

Eleventh, understand your target readers, their background, their culture and practices. Remember, if our target is to the masses, then we must write in a way everybody can understand.

Twelfth, use references to substantiate claims if writing non-fiction, and use identifiable traits to describe the behavior of characters in the story when writing fiction.

There are of course many other areas we must also consider as writers. This blog entry merely touches the tip of the iceberg what’s involved in the writers’ craft. In the real world, writing skills are very much dependent on one’s own flair for writing, the degree of our creativity, the inspiration, and the talent given to us as individuals.