I’m working on some ad copy for a prestigious land and housing development in Branson, Missouri. These Branson lots, from what I’ve seen of the developer’s plans and website, are beautiful. They’re located on a nice resort golf course and within a few miles of one of America’s leading country music/family entertainment meccas — Branson, Missouri, which was a real contender back in the 1980s and 1990s with Las Vegas and Nashville for attracting star power and big-name entertainers.

Read more on How do you maintain a professional perspective on writing you don’t enjoy doing?…

I don’t know whether any of you writers that come here do Hub Pages or not. Anyone? Anyone making money, or making much money, at it?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then obviously you don’t make money building “Hubs.” But I’ll explain what the place seems to be all about and maybe it’ll work for you.

Read more on Anybody here made any money to speak of doing Hub Pages?…

That last post I made about the expression “put your [fill in the blank] on steroids” prompted a discussion with my wife, Shirley, about whether that is a simile or a metaphor. (If you reread my post, you’ll see I made a quick “cop out” by saying the word steroids was “used metaphorically.” Confession time for the old blogger guy. He He.)

Read more on Is it a simile or is it a metaphor? Who remembers how to tell?…

Funny how cliches creep into the language, isn’t it?

I was looking at some stuff related to steroids — yes, I am a baseball fan and, yes, opening day is very soon — and realized as I searched Google that the expression “put you … on steroids,” meaning something like “make your … spectacularly, gigantically, great” and is used about everything from muscles to websites. (My search also taught me that there really are such things as legal steroids out there which are sold both in stores and online. But be very careful if you’re in the market for the legal steroids, would be my suggestion.)

Read more on When did it become so common to ‘put your [fill in the blank] on steroids’?…

I love to think about words, the meaning of words, and even the SOUND of some words. Do you do that, too, or is it just me?

I’ve read that some words are considered inherently funny. One source I was looking at traces this idea to a 1936 article by journalist/curmudgeon H. L. Mencken, in which he says “k words” are always funny. (I think Neil Simon used this idea in his play “The Sunshine Boys.”) Think about that, and you’ll realize various cartoonists often show their characters speaking or spelling “hard c” words (cop, carrot) with “k”s as a humor device (kop, karrot), don’t they? And sometimes “hard c” words just sound odd or funny to me, even when they aren’t. The word “corset” comes to mind. It sounds funny to me, for whatever reason, though it really isn’t inherently funny at all. Maybe it’s another example of a “hard c” word that’s funny in my mind as a “k word”?

Read more on Do you judge a word by its sound? Are some words inherently funny?…

Easter Sunday is a time of good news for our family. We are Christians and we rejoice in calling it “Resurrection Sunday” — the day when we rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus and what it means in our lives.

Read more on Personal Note: My blogging days may become much more limited — ‘real life’ is rearing its ugly head…

Wow. Now I have a feeling for what may have been running through their minds as Noah and his family battened down the hatches on the Ark.

We’ve enjoyed a day and a half now of sunshine and 60+ degree weather yesterday and today. But that comes on the heels of torrential downpours. We really had a deluge here. My house survived it. We have an ancient sump pump in the basement that cranked right along to handle the rivulets of water that poured steadily through the rickety door on our cellar like basement.

Read more on Personal Note: It REALLY rained where we live — everyone out there okay?…

Even though I believe in the old adage that your writing should always “show, not tell,” if you are writing a fiction scene or describing a character, there are some things you simply have to tell in some detail — or leave them out entirely. That “leave them out entirely” is often the better option. For example, I’m a huge Robert B. Parker fan. I’ve read all of his Spenser novels and most of his other stuff. Even though I’ve read them all, enjoyed them all, and really wish I was that good as a writer, I cannot stand the way he goes to such lengths in almost every scene to describe the clothes his characters are wearing.

Read more on How much detail is too much detail when you write a scene or describe a character?…

I was reading my issue of “The Morning Nudge” this morning, that really encouraging, useful email newsletter published by our writer friend Suzanne Lieurance of The Working Writer’s Coach, and realized that fear is an issue in my writing efforts.

Read more on Does fear ever hinder your writing? How do you deal with fear?…

Sometimes the simplest high-tech tools are the most useful for writers. I’ve written previously about my nifty little AlphaSmart “Neo,” the keyboard that really can go just about anywhere. I hope you’ve had a chance to get one for yourself, or you’ve perhaps found something similar.

Read more on Simple tool for backing up or moving your writing files…

Those of you who write for a living, either wholly or in part, probably remember a time when you had to write something on assignment or as part of your daily job that really was difficult to do.

Read more on Tell us about some of the difficult writing assignments you’ve had to do…

I’ve always given some thought to setting up a forum for writers and bloggers to share their questions, answers, and tales of woe and whoopie. Problem is, there are millions (yeah, maybe really millions) of forums on the Internet for blogging and/or writing. What could I offer that isn’t already done frequently and done better in the way of a forum?

Read more on Anybody interested in a forum for the writers and bloggers hanging out here?…

Do you frequent many forums? You remember those Web-less-than-2.0 relics, don’t you? I say that because all the buzz about writing and community on the Internet these days is about “Web 2.0,” though I’ve never really been able to pin down just what that MEANS??

Read more on Internet writing: My ‘quickie’ lesson for joining and posting in forums…

There was a time when buying a laptop computer was only a dream or a some-day-when-I-succeed goal for writers. Those of you new to the business will have to trust me on this: Any sort of portable computer, notebook computer, laptop computer, whatever, was extremely expensive, very limited in features, and very awkward to use.

Read more on As a writer, what do you prefer — laptop or desktop, or do you have both?…

In a recent post, we discussed the importance of organization and scheduling your writing efforts. I came up with a revolutionary way that works for me. It’s called a pocket organizer or calendar. Yes, truly “revolutionary” because it’s so “low-tech” in our world of computers and gadgets.

Read more on Back to the basics again: Get organized, schedule your time and writing wisely…