07/06/2010 • 9:10 AM 0
i.e. means that is.
e.g. means for example.
THUS:
I dress like a bad immortal from Highlander (i.e. all in black) therefore I am cool as far as I’m concerned.
My daughter says things that are apparently cool (e.g. “Cool beans” upon seeing or hearing something exemplary of its kind and wonderful) though I don’t know what such phrases’ origins could be.
Filed under: grammar, writing tips, eg, examples, grammar, ie
07/04/2010 • 9:30 AM 1
In my last post I wrote about the time it takes to write a blog post. (More accurately: I wrote about the time it shouldn’t take.) There’s a faster way to add content to your blog and keep your readership happy. Here’s how:
1. You don’t have to spill your guts with every blog post. Save some expertise for the work your clients pay you for and make sure you don’t spend more time marketing than doing your actual writing (i.e. the writing that is your legacy.)
2. Every post doesn’t have to be deadly serious. Blog posts can be a (short) rant and funny stuff. too. Make sure you provide value and information to your readers, but vary the tone so you don’t come off as relentless.
3. Link to other blogs, videos, and information you find useful, funny or helpful. You do not have to write something fresh for your blog every day. Yes, establish yourself in your web presence. When your readers scan your blog, the voice in their heads should be yours. However, your readers will appreciate your use of your blog as more than a soap box. You are also a filter for information you think would tickle their brains. Link freely when you run across someone else’s brilliance. (And help your search engine optimization in the process, too.)
4. Link your Twitter posts to your blog. This blog has something fresh on it throughout the day as I find things on the feed that makes me laugh or think. Show your appreciation to your fellow birds with friendly tweets. Twitter is a conversation. Let your blog readers in on it and hope they’ll follow you there, too. (Look to the right for a taste. Find me on Twitter @RChazzChute, please.) And no, it doesn’t take long. I scan Twitter during commercials or at night when I struggle with my racing insomniac brain.
5. That’s four to-dos. Here’s a to-don’t. When you don’t have anything to say, don’t. Resist the urge to fill your blog with drivel. Because the word “blog” comes from web log, some people still think of it as a diary. If you’re Kevin Smith, you can do that, but, like Highlander, “there can be only one!” Don’t think of your blog as a diary. Think of it as a magazine.
BONUS:
In the words of one epublisher I met recently, “As soon as anybody tells me what they’re having on their bagel, they’re gone!”
It’s true. Not even Kevin Smith could get away with that. Probably.
Filed under: writing tips, better blog posts, writing tips
07/03/2010 • 9:40 AM 0
I’ve spoken with many authors who are reluctant to make the jump to social media to market their work. Often, the concern is that the marketing aspect will take too much time. “When will I find time to write?” they ask. These people might have a time management problem, in which case, make a schedule to which you will commit.
Good news: If social media is taking up that much time, you’re probably thinkng too hard. Some gurus advise that each blog post should take an hour to write. No way. Think in terms of writing an email to a friend. You are the expert. You can come up with lots of information in a quick post that will be helpful and encouraging. You don’t have to sweat it too much. The work you really have to sweat over is the work for which you are paid directly.
Truism: To live in this world, you have to market. Get over yourself, Butch.
More good news: Marketing with social media is the most fun you’ll ever have.
BONUS:
And if you are committed to long blog posts–sometimes we must and do–break it up with subheadings and graphic elements, or I swear to you, it will be unread.
Filed under: Publicity & Promotion, writing tips, promotion, publicity, social media
07/01/2010 • 9:08 AM 0
Outlines save time.
The novice should outline so they don’t get sucked down too many rabbit holes. It is soul-crushing to write and write and then to discover that you need to back up 50 pages to get out of a dead end. I just write a sequence of events and don’t bother with the Roman numerals they taught you in grade school. A good outline will help you avoid pitfalls, allow you to play with timelines, beats, plot structure and pacing.
Outlines get a bad rep because people think an outline stifles creativity and gives too much structure. My reply: an outline is only a straitjacket if you allow it to be. You can deviate from the road map and explore but retain the strength of story through an overview.
If you are a discovery writer, it is incredibly freeing to just sit down and go, but you are risking wasted time. Given how long it takes to write a book, who has time to waste? At least have some target for where the story is going to end up.
There will be a thousand small changes to make when you’re done the first draft. You’ll have to adjust times, facts, locations and ensure a believable character arc.
Outlines will save you at least a bit of that work.
Filed under: publishing, writing tips, outlining, writing tip
06/30/2010 • 4:33 PM 0
The best type of exercise is the one you will do. And so it is with your writing schedule. Here are a few options.
Write when you get up, when the kids are asleep, when you’re at work, on lunch breaks, during commercials, at parties, in log cabins, in hotels, alone, with others, during NanoWriMo, any time you get a few minutes, when you make big blocks of time, when you get a babysitter, when you could be watching TV, on the bus and subway, in a hammock…
1. Just write when you can.
2. Write consistently.
3. Write now.
4. Revise.
5. Circulate your work.
6. Repeat.
Filed under: writing tips, writing schedule, writing tips
06/28/2010 • 1:28 AM 0
The publishing conference was great. Sometimes people serve as excellent models. The people who aren’t great models can teach you something, too. When you’re networking, it shouldn’t look like that’s all you are there for. In fact, that won’t work. You’ll just come across as pushy.
One attendee made sure everyone had her business card, but she was wasting her time selling before even trying to connect. I prefer that people ask me for my card and not the other way around. It’s not always inappropriate to offer a card, but if you have no idea how you could help someone through your work, pushing them on people can do more harm than good.
Yes, business cards are still useful. A well-designed electronic business card attached to your email looks great! (www.vistaprint.com)
Sell yourself first. Your product or service always comes second.
I gave out very few cards this weekend, but each person was a quality contact I made an honest connection to.
Filed under: Publicity & Promotion, writing tips, business cards, networking, publishing, self-promotion
06/21/2010 • 4:20 PM 4
Family Guy spoofed it. I’ve read lots of snarky bits over the years and I say it’s time to end the discrimination. I have a dream! I’m sick of your facile condemnation so I’m coming out and I’m not ashamed. So here goes…I write at (choke) Starbucks. Don’t judge me! It’s the only coffee shop I know where I can sit for hours at a time and nobody’s going to 
give me a dirty look for loitering. I get away from the kids a bit (love ’em, can’t get much done with them wanting to play on Wii) and I get stuff written so come down from your throne you %!!&! snobs!
Here’s a couple of things to consider: I write with an Alphasmart Neo and I really love it. You’ve seen it advertised in Writer’s Digest etc.,… It’s a tough little keyboard so you can just stuff it in a backpack; it runs for 700 hours on three AA batteries; you can download to it and from it; it doesn’t heat up like regular laptops do and it’s cheap.
Best of all, it has the same virtue that Starbucks has: no distractions. In my home office I can get sucked into all the wonderful distractions that home offers. There are games and internet surfing to do on the home computer. The Neo is just a keyboard. No games, no e-mail, no net. It’s just a glorified typewriter. Yes, I wish it had a mouse sometimes, but for just raw sitting down and burning through, the Neo is your baby.
*The Second Cup is okay, too.
Filed under: Rant, writing tips, AlphaSmart Neo, Writing at Second Cup
06/20/2010 • 7:53 PM 0
Filed under: Writers, writing tips, John Irving, On Writing
06/19/2010 • 12:10 AM 2
Horror doesn’t just describe a genre, but what the reader is supposed to feel. I took in a short gasp of horror when I read a sidebar in The Writer which blithely informed us that we’d learn more from Danse Macabre than we’d glean from Stephen King On Writing.
Everybody’s entitled to their wrong opinion but the casual dismissal of On Writing took me aback for the simple reason that Danse Macabre is broad and descriptive of the genre, but On Writing is prescriptive, beating the adverbs out of you and even giving a solid example (if not a template) for approaching agents etc.,…. I’ve read and reread On Writing and it bears reading and rereading. It’s useful in its instruction and lyrical in biography (though for no reason I can understand King denies it’s a biography.)
Lots of people–okay, I’ll say it, English Majors–have discounted King in the past, and too easily. They forget that not only has he been one of the most successful writers on the planet, he used to teach writing, too. If you are a writer, you must own this book.
Filed under: book reviews, Writers, writing tips, book review, On Writing, Stephen King
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