As a writer, can you invent your own words or your own language? Sure, why not?

I’ve tried occasionally to write science fiction, only to find that I lack the science background and become too impatient to do the research to make it seem authentic.

Read more on Can you invent your own words or language? Sure, why not?…

I just saw a CNN story about the prevalence of student cheating in schools — at every level from elementary school to graduate school. The story pointed out (and I verified it) that Googling “how to cheat on school tests” brings up more than 300,000 hits, ranging from websites to YouTube videos.

Read more on Cheating on tests — what does that have to do with writers?…

There’s a universal “rule” of writing, akin to the old “Murphy’s Law” thinking about life in general: Typos happen. I have no data on the matter, but I’m pretty sure typos happen in ALL written languages, too.

Read more on Agh! Those typos are always an embarrassment, aren’t thye?…

Here’s my newest writing lens at Squidoo.com, “Idiotic mistakes in English grammar, usage.”

Several of the “rants” or “pet peeves” which I discuss in that lens are matters we’ve discussed here. But go take a look. As long as we writers continue to make such idiotic mistakes in English grammar and usage, I’ll continue my rants.

Read more on Newest Squidoo lens looks at ‘Idiotic mistakes in English grammar, usage’…

Okay, I’ve got to pass this Squidoo lens along for your consideration: “Online freelance writing jobs.” I ran onto that particular lens and several more by Allison Whitehead just this evening. I was a bit hesitant to pass along the link, and here’s why.

Read more on Let me recommend another Squidoo lens for writers ……

Does the distinction I tried to make in my earlier post between marketing diet pills and fat burners really apply to writing fiction?

You bet it does. The “what’s in it for me” concept applies to just about every relationship in your life, certainly to your writing. Whether we’re talking about writing, social relationships, or personal relationships, we’re talking about “salesmanship” of some sort. You are constantly reselling your self in one way or another to editors, to friends, to loved ones.

Read more on Writing demands that you sell yourself by showing ‘benefits’…

If you’ve done much copywriting, or really any copywriting at all, you’ve undoubtedly heard an expression something like, “Write about benefits, not features.” What does that mean? How do you understand the difference?

Read more on Targeting ‘benefits’ instead of features when you write ad copy…

On any given day, I suppose you could go to any city in America, throw a rock up in the air, and hit someone who says he/she is a writer.

Maybe that’s a bit extreme, but I’ve never seen so many people who are self-labeled “writers” or who would say the “want to be” or “hope to be” or “plan to be” a writer. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but until/unless a person is writing he/she is NOT a writer. Being a writer is completely up to you, because only you can make the time and follow through on the decision to write. No one can write for you.

Read more on Unemployed or self-employed? How do you see yourself? Does it matter?…

Okay, friendly readers, I posted here last week about getting back to Squidoo.com to create a new “lens” — one of their quaint terms for what the rest of us would call a “web page.”

Read more on Take a look at my newest Squidoo lens — I just finished it…

Probably you’ve already heard or read that Michael Crichton has died of cancer in Los Angeles. He was 66 years old. Perhaps you know him best from his television work as one of the creators and long-time writers/producers of the hit show “ER.” Or maybe you remember him for “Jurassic Park.”

Read more on One of the great writers of our time, Michael Crichton, has died at 66…

There are so many ways people have tried to cheat to get paying traffic from the major Internet search engines that I want to make some of this clear. If you are new to website building and writing Internet content, you certainly don’t want to be smacked by Google for doing something you didn’t know was “wrong” or disallowed.

Read more on Explaining more about the misuse of keywords on your website…

Not too many years ago, people who wrote content for websites discovered they could use words closely related to their site content — and search engines such as Yahoo and Google would flock to their websites. People were searching for those words, hence the search engines would bring ready readers or customers directly to their websites if they simply loaded up the site with keywords.

Read more on More about using keywords in your Internet writing…

The Internet is the most marvelous tool you will ever find as a writer for promoting your writing, calling attention to your writing interests, showing off your writing skills — frankly, it’s the best tool ever invented for self-promotion, whether you’re a writer, an affiliate marketer, or any sort of salesperson.

Read more on Greatest tool available for writers today — the Internet…

If you’re one of the many writers out there seeking to draw traffic to a website by writing articles and submitting them to various online directories, here’s an idea you might want to look at.

Read more on Do you write articles to promote your website? Here’s an idea ……