If you’re like me, there are times when you probably let your fear of failure hinder your writing. But, perhaps you aren’t at all like me, and fear of failure never crosses your mind. My wife constantly suggests the quirks, neurosis, and other fun things that make up “me,” are not the same emotions and mental elements that make up HER and others. (My father was an alcoholic and my mother died when I was only eight, so she says I probably don’t see like just the way others do.)
Read more on Do you let fear of failure hinder your writing? Writers must be courageous…
If I could only share one or two “tips” for Internet writing, the most important would be this: Visitors who come to your website don’t really READ what you put on the website. I capitalized “READ,” because you need to keep an important distinction in mind between “READING” and “SKIMMING” or “SCANNING.” Website visitors rarely really read what you write — they skim through it or scan through it, picking up important words that catch their eye.
Read more on Basic tip for Internet writers: Visitors don’t really READ what’s on your website…
Let me make a special, quiet little plea on behalf of freelance writers, editors, and other self-employed “word people” everywhere. This is directed at President Obama (I doubt he reads this blog, but you never know who’s reading it, do you?) and his administration’s efforts to reform health care in America. Here goes:
Read more on Freelancers’ plea: Fix health care in America, please…
Have you ever thought about where words come from? Have you ever “invented” or wanted to invent your own word?
If you want to invent a word, here’s one way to do it: Create an acronym that gains wide acceptance, and pretty soon you’ll have a word. An acronym, in case you aren’t sure about what I mean, is a short word or abbreviation derived from the initial letters of the words that make up the complete phrase. An example would be the “ZIP” in ZIP Code.
Read more on In love with acronyms — or, one way words are invented…
Editor’s Note: This post has been “recycled” as part of a process to bring old posts back to the front of the blog for the “light of day” one more time. (This is done by use of a free plugin for those of you interested in doing it on your blogs.)
Read more on Year-end reminder: Yes, I am real, I am me, I am here regularly…
What are you reading and writing for the holidays? Do you have a favorite Christmas story?
I suppose my all-time favorites for Christmas are Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the old standby, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, Dr. Zeuss’s wonderful “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” and absolutely O. Henry’s wonderful story, “Gift of the Magi.” (By the way, you can find copies of most of these stories online. Just try Googling the titles.)
Read more on What’s your favorite holiday story? Have you written anything for the holidays?…
Just when you begin to believe a lot of the hype and raving about Twitter, along comes some real-world perspective about the online phenomenon.
I’m talking about today’s “Jeopardy!” episode. One of the clues was a very obvious reference to Twitter. As my wife and I both do, we were muttering and mumbling at the television. One contestant quickly buzzed in and gave his answer: “What is Facebook?” We both groaned loudly. The other two contestants were totally silent. Time ran out before Alex gave the correct answer, “What is Twitter?” There was no chuckling or audible response of any kind from the studio audience and all three contestants reacted as blankly as the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.
Read more on Putting all the hype about ‘Twitter’ in some real-world perspective…
It’s a “given,” I think, that writers communicate. Not just writers, but speakers; anyone who uses language as their stock in trade specializes in communications.
I’ve often thought that copywriters face some of the toughest communications tasks of all: They not only must explain or communicate features/benefits — they also must persuade people to use that information and take some kind of action. And often, copywriters are asked to communicate in ways that are impossible. For example, how would you write about food processors, or the value of a Louis Vuitton handbag, or the workings of a Honeywell Barcode Scanner, or the importance of any one of a million other high-tech, culturally alien gadgets and goodies to someone who has spent their life deep in the Amazon rain forests?
Read more on Writers communicate; copywriters may face toughest communications tasks…
EDITOR’S NOTE: I have recovered this post following a website “Crash.” The original brought two or three comments from readers who agreed that the teaching grammar and fundamental English writing skills seems to be disappearing in America. Unfortunately, I have no way to recover those comments and include them with this reconstruction of the original post. But those of you who commented are certainly invited to do so again.)
Read more on Getting to the basics: Were you ever taught how to write ‘clear, logical prose’?…
All right, for all you computer geeks and mini-geeks out there, I just read a newsletter article about “Gyy,” perhaps a pioneer in the next generation of laptop and other portable computers for writers. Take a look at the article in the link above. If you know Spanish and want to get more information, there’s a link at the end of the newsletter article to the Spanish website that’s home of Gyy’s parent company.
Read more on This just in: Spanish company to put tiny solar powered ‘netbook’ on market…
Amazingly enough, I just discovered that the new electronic “library machine,” or however Amazon bills it — Kindle 1 and it’s new, bigger brother Kindle DX — is actually accepting blogs into their library. Which prompts my question: Would you pay to read this blog? And would you pay to download it regularly via RSS feed and read it in your Kindle?
Read more on Would you pay to read this blog? Would you pay to read it on Kindle?…
Anybody out there using a WordPress plugin called the “GWA WordPress Autoresponder” to send out a newsletter for their blog?
I purchased the “Pro” version of that plugin at a special “sale” price, because it looked like just the thing for people to be able to subscribe to my newsletter list, receive opt-in confirmation that they were subscribed — then allow me to send out a once or twice a month newsletter to subscribers.
Read more on Anybody using ‘GWA WordPress Autoresponder’ to send out blog newsletters?…
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, if you’re going to put it on a website or a blog, you might want to consider the following helpful tools. They are all free. I don’t have the links handy for downloading them, but you can easily find that by searching at Google or Yahoo. I should explain that I use a Windows computer. I cannot offer Mac equivalents because I haven’t used a Mac in many, many years.
Read more on Here are some useful tools for writing copy to use on the Internet…
Deadlines can be useful as they focus our intensity and motivate us to do our best work. Or, deadlines can be treacherous if we ignore them and suddenly find us working under pressure that causes us to do our worst writing.
Read more on Never put off till tomorrow what you can write today…
Any of you use any sort of home alarm systems? Do you feel the need for such things? Have you had much property crime in your neighborhood?
Many years ago, in a house just through the block from where we live now, we had someone steal a tool box off our enclosed back porch. Other than that, I can’t recall any problem of theft of vandalism. Oh, there was a shooting just around the corner from our house a few weeks ago, but it was a personal beef sort of thing, not random crime or drive-by stuff like they see in the “big cities.” In fact, we’ve lived in this old house for 29 years next month — and violence or vandalism have never been a problem in our neighborhood.
Read more on Which story or character elements grab your attention — ‘negatives’ or ‘positives’?…
