Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Your Story

Fellow bloggers agree: blogging about writing is great. We put into words of all the ideas that rattle around in our heads and meet and learn from successful people in the writing profession, all while practicing the craft. But as valuable as this experience is now, in a 100 years when things have changed dramatically, there will probably be little value to the things we are discussing here.

On the other hand, any kind of a record of everyday life, however mundane it may seam, may prove invaluable to posterity and future historians. So while you’re feverishly working away at your profession, don’t forget to leave a little something about yourself behind.

Three ways to keep a journal:

• The time-honored tradition of pen and paper. For some, this is the ideal way to compose anything, and certainly the portability and convenience cannot be beat by even the smallest of laptops. A planner, a palm, or even your slightly-used pizza napkin will do in a pinch.
• Blog. There are tons of user-friendly, free services out there now. (blogger.com, aeonity.com, wordpress.com) These services, especially Blogger, are great for allowing you to insert pictures, videos, and all kinds of stuff. Plus your mom and those that love you will love having access to you. Of course these services also allow you to control who can view your blog.
• If you need writing prompts than you might try LDSJournal.com. This service was started with members of the LDS faith in mind (journaling and record-keeping is a big deal to them). No worries though, this service could be beneficial for anyone, and an LDS membership isn’t required.

  They offer a question of the day to get you going, and they also have a great “all about me” section with questions about your childhood, education, vacations, and other personal history prompts.

  The down-side (or maybe the upside, depending on your view) is that security is tight, and casual, viewing-only access is not allowed. Also I have yet to figure out how to include photos and videos.

However you do it… do it! Get going and earn your immortality today.

Tips and Tricks Tuesday: Demo Skills Without Upsetting Clients

Linnea Dodson addressed this problem among tech writers. Trevor Dolby touched on this problem in the editing world. I’m sure it wouldn’t take much digging to find a dozen more people wondering the same thing: As writing and editing professionals we all need a portfolio, right? So how on earth do you fill a portfolio without imposing on the confidentiality of your clients?

You can stuff books full of tributes, accolades, and honors, but how much does that really say about your ability to do a job? As mechanics of English, we need to show our prospective employers the tools in our drawers and not just the papers hanging on the walls.

Luckily Dodson and I have some decent ideas.

For tech writers she suggests the best place to go for help is home:

• Rewrite the warning labels on your medicines or the legal fine print at the bottom of your sweepstakes ads. Put a before and after in your portfolio to show that you can decrease word-count and increase readability.
• Write how-to’s for your appliances.
• Include a training guide for something you do everyday. Note: while you should have a little fun with this activity, Dodson warns, “‘Juggling in 10 Easy Steps’ may not fit every company to which you apply.”

Dodson makes a point easily aimed at editors too. Why can’t they do the same thing? Perhaps their clients don’t really want their befores and afters shown off. No problem:

• We all edit constantly. If you see something that’s already been published but could use some touching up, go for it. Just be sure to give appropriate credit where due.
• Help out your friends and family, and with their permission, change any personal information and include befores and afters of their projects.
• Pull out a dusty piece of your own work and give it a good re-hashing.

Get creative. Identify what you want to display, and then figure out how to do it. Unfortunately this is work you probably won’t be paid for, and it needs to be your best, but with some imagination it doesn’t have to be painful.

Good Advise for Bloggers In Clear Blogging by Bob Walsh

We are currently reading from Clear Blogging by Bob Walsh (Apress 2007) in my Web 2.0 class. I’m learning a TON from this book. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to be a serious blogger. Here’s a few ideas from the book (and a few from our class) that I thought might be useful to all who blog:

• Own Your Words. Keep a cool head and don’t get carried away. I can’t find the exact quote, but Walsh says something like: Never publish anything you wouldn’t want your grandma or boss to read, because odds are they will read it.
• Keep an idea list. In an un-published draft page or elsewhere, keep a running list of post ideas. Sometimes we have more good ideas than we can possibly write about at the moment, and sometimes we sit at the keyboard with nothing to say. An idea list will help even things out.
• Keep a “my bad” list as well. Notice words that you tend to misspell or mistype. Paying attention to these words will help you correct problems.
• Use tabs, labels, or categories. Help your readers find more of what they love. Add tabs, labels, and/or categories to each post to organize your site. Your readers will appreciate being able to find things efficiently.
• Show your favorites or “best of.” In your sidebar or somewhere else, display a list of links to your “favorites” or “best of” posts. Your audience will appreciate seeing the work you are most proud of.

If you want to increase traffic to your blog, here’s some good ideas:

• Consider a focus. Blogs are a great for keeping a journal or log about your activities and interests. But if you want to attract an audience, choose a specific focus. People who are also interested in whatever you are focusing on will be more likely to re-visit your blog.
  
• Consider your audience. Place yourself in the shoes of those who you’re writing for. What do they want to hear about?

• Stick to a schedule. Your readers will appreciate knowing when to expect your content to change.
• Spend some time on your post titles. The title is the first thing your readers see. They often make the decision to read or not based on the title of the post. The title should be interesting and describe what the post is about.
• Be thoughtful about your tagline. (the subtitle of your blog) Use words that people search for. Your tagline, the titles of your posts, and the first few words of your posts are what search engines will crawl. If you have the words people search for in those areas, you will be placed higher in search result lists.
• Include your biography and a picture of yourself. People interested in your words will want to know about you. If you’re willing to disclose part of yourself it lends credibility to your words.

BE CAREFUL!!
Blogs can feel so personal. It’s just you and your computer, right? WRONG! Remember, unless you take specific steps, blogs are a public space.

• Keep your safety in mind. Little details can lead to identity theft, kidnapping, and other problems.
• Know your rights. Occasionally lawsuits are filed over the content of a blog. The EFF have posted a very readable legal guide for bloggers on their site. It’s worth checking out.
• Consider adding a disclosure policy. If you don’t want to be held responsible for any ignorant comments people make, apparently our sue happy society requires that this be spelled out somewhere. If you endorse products or advertise for anything on your blog, you might visit disclosurepolicy.org for a sample disclosure policy spelling out the intent of your endorsement.

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Carol Matas’ In My Enemy’s House

**spoiler alert** It was like reading an outline! Nothing was fleshed out at all. I appreciate when a writer describes the situation so well that you feel like you’ve stepped into the action. It’s nice when they lead you to certain feelings and emotions through creative, detailed language.

I never once got lost in this book. The language was full of, “I went here, I did this, I felt this.” It was like talking on the phone not visiting another world!

As readers we all hope for the best for the protagonist of a story. But I can’t imagine any reader appreciating the way that every time the main character tried to manipulate a situation, it worked out exactly as she had planned. So annoying!

Also, the whole book is leading up to a reunion of our heroine and someone important. (Anticipating this moment is the only thing that kept me reading.) As soon as she located this person, the book abruptly ends. We don’t even get to be there!

No wonder I found this book on a clearance shelf!

Jason F. Wright Recovering Charles

I truly appreciated a first-hand look at post-Katrina, New Orleans, without the biased, self-serving spin of the media or political figures. The story was charming and carried me along beautifully until the last chapter.

Wright spends the whole book weaving us into a very conflicted dysfunctional family. His main character has spent years trying to come to grips with his emotional baggage. Then, at the very height of all the drama, in a “pulled the rug out from under you” kind of move, he wraps it all up a few contrived pages. The ending felt very artificial, not at all natural for this character he so carefully dissected through the previous 200+ pages.

But it was still worth reading to gain what is hopefully an accurate perspective of this sobering event.

Tips and Tricks Tuesday: Is Reading Essential to Good Writing?

This blog entry from Perpetual Prose has got me wondering about a battle that pops up in all creativity-based professions (writing included), and I would love to hear your take on this: Does one need to study the masters of one’s profession in order to become proficient, or does the studying of others rob one of his/her uniqueness and reduce him/her to a parrot?

Wow. That’s wordy. Let me try again: If I read a lot, can I still write with my voice, or will I just regurgitate what I’ve read?

I read quite a bit and I can’t imagine turning into pen and ink parrot. It seams incredibly pompous to suggest that I would even be able to! I’m no expert, but the more I ponder this, the sillier it seams.

On the flip side, how would someone who’s never read, know anything about writing? To some degree we all learn by example, don’t we? We can’t learn everything by trial and error. Perhaps I’m not considering everything. Please feel free to point out what that is.

All that we read rattles around in out head and together with our experiences forms our voice. Since no two sets of experiences and repertoires of books read are alike, I don’t believe we should be troubled about mimicking others.

The more important question should be: Where is the balance between reading too little great literature, and reading to the point of distraction. How do we know when we are reading enough to understand what is valuable in a work of literature and leaving ample time and energy to practice writing ourselves.

Obviously that has to be a personal choice, as does the definition of value in literature. So perhaps one can be a great writer without reading after all! We just have to allow for that person’s definition of value in literature. If he/she is happy with what they produce, then so be it.

However, if he/she wants to appeal to an audience or get paid for their writing, they’d better widen their definition of value and start doing some research. Namely, reading.

What do you think?

Tips and Tricks Tuesday: Writer’s Block

We all dread that moment. You know the one. You’re staring at the empty page or screen, painfully aware of an impending deadline, ie: a commitment to publish a blog post on a certain day every week (Oops, sorry again), but you have absolutely nothing to say. Aarg! What do you do about that?!

I’ve noticed a trend when this happens to me. There’s almost always something in the way. I’m hungry or tired or angry or stressed out. Often there’s just too many thoughts rattling around in my head.

So the first I do is address my needs. I eat or take a power nap or go for a walk to calm myself. If there’s too much going on inside my head, I take a minute and write down all the thoughts that demand attention. Once my needs are addressed, and my mind is cleared, I am almost always able to write.

Of course more often than not, I cannot meet all my needs before beginning. So in that case I turn to a few exercises to get me going:

• If I have any great lines I want to include or points I want to make, I get those down first. For example, I wrote the last paragraph of this post right after I wrote the second paragraph of this post. Who says anything has to be written in order? I’m rarely able to think in order, so I rarely write that way.

• I make an outline. Even if I’ve already done that. When there’s a few parts written out, I start fitting those into place and summarizing what needs to go in between. Once the in between parts are labeled and identified, it gets easier to write those parts.

• My husband gave me a brilliant suggestion last night. He said if worse comes to worse, start writing alterations (the healthy, hungry hippo has to hijack a houseboat) or rhymes or work on some other literary trick. Write an elaborate description of an event or place. The point is to get the wheels turning in your mind. I haven’t tried this yet, but it makes sense to me. I bet it works.

• John August suggests setting a time limit. He pledges to attempt writing for 20 minutes and then gives himself 10 minutes of freedom. I think it would be wise to use that 10 minutes of freedom to do something very non-mental. I would listen to music and stare out the window or at the ceiling for 10 minutes. I’d be ready to mentally engage after that.

• David Hunter of The Writer’s Den suggests shuffling through discarded ideas and removing distractions like internet, phone, and TV.

• And while reading David’s post from The Writer’s Den (don’t visit if you hate colorful language, sheesh!) I thought of another good idea: switch mediums! If you always type, try good ‘ole pen and paper for a bit, ect. Ask someone to take dictation. It might just be enough of a change to refresh.

• Brian Clark of Copyblogger warns that writer’s block may be a sign of fear. (fear of rejection, fear of mediocrity, fear of success) He says don’t allow yourself to be your own worst enemy. Work past your fears.

• Melissa Karnaze, also of Copyblogger actually believes a block can be a “secret weapon.” In her post she gives some great steps to reach clarity, find what it is you want to say, and most importantly, remember why you wanted to write that piece in the first place.

Well that’s it for me. Of course if none of this works, and the words still won’t come, listen inward. Maybe you shouldn’t write your story or paper. Maybe the timing is off, or your heart’s not in it. Trust your instincts. Put the thing aside. But good luck explaining that to your boss or professor! Now there’s a real problem!

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood

The small, farming community of 1950’s Holcomb, Kansas is overwhelmed and devastated by the brutal murder of an entire family.

Whether or not Truman Capote is a true genius has been debated, but there is no question about the quality of his work in In Cold Blood.

This book is insanely well written, a masterpiece. Without deviating from the time line, Capote kind of spirals us around and down through events in individual lives into the climax. His use of vignettes is unparalleled.

The tie-in factors between each glimpse is amazing, considering every horn-honk, every crunch of gravel, every blade of grass mentioned in the book is factual and documented. (except for one fictional encounter thrown in at the end meant to help the reader climb back out into reality again) The symbolism Capote pulls out of everyday objects is inspired.

I believe this may have been one of the first times an author ever attempted to invoke sympathy for the killers in a factual murder. In that regard, as in many others, Capote left large shoes to fill.

The questions raised made this a difficult book to read and left me (as it should) very unsettled. Be warned this does not wrap up into a neat little package, but read it anyway, for its brilliance.

Tips and Tricks Tuesday: Editing My Own Work

I’m always curious about what works for writers. What rules are most important? What spurs on their thoughts when up against a dead end? How do they organize a paper and why?

I’ve read from the cannon: Hemmingway On Writing, Strunk & White, ect. But at this point I’m really curious about writers like me, ordinary Joes and Janes doing it in their spare time.

I’m combing the blogosphere for posts about this, so if you know of one or have written one, please save me some time and link to it in a comment. In the meantime, because I shouldn’t ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do, I’ll post some of my ideas too. (I don’t profess to be an brilliant essayist worthy of dolling out expert advice to the masses, so don’t get your hopes up too high!)

That said, sit back and enjoy. Here comes my first installment of:

Tips and Tricks Tuesday
Editing My Own Work

(I realize it’s actually Friday, but I will be doing this on Tuesdays henceforth.)

Each time anyone writes anything, they should at least read through it once and edit it. I always do, even for text messages and facebook comments. After I write a paper or blog post I edit a little more in-depth (this is what I will write about today). And then of course there are other more formal writing projects that almost require more tweaking than writing! But there’s no need to go that far here.

• The first thing I do is address all the red and green squiggly lines. I don’t change them all, just double-check them.

  

• Then I read through for continuity. Which spots feel funny? Do I need a transition or more explanation anywhere? Is there anyplace where my words draw attention to themselves and therefore detract from the meaning? I re-word these parts so that hopefully my words are either invisible or add to the meaning when attracting attention. I don’t want the audience to think too hard about the structure of my sentences or my word choices.

• Then I check the flow. Does the order of topics and/ or paragraphs make sense? Would a different order be more helpful? Obviously intros and transitions have to be adjusted a little bit if you change the order, but that doesn’t have to be a big deal.

• After that it’s time to prune. Every single word and line has to count. If it doesn’t proactively add to the point; it detracts and must go. This part can be tough, especially if you’ve worked hard on a bit and have to toss it. I look closely for extra words like ‘really’ and ‘very’. These can almost always be eliminated, and the point is stronger for it. I look for extra commas. There are almost always a dozen or so commas that can go. I also check to see how many times I’ve used the word “was.” If I’ve used it more than 3 or 4 times I try to replace it with a stronger verb.

• When I’m happy with all of that I check the look and feel of the piece. Would a different font or size be helpful? Do I need a picture to break up all the writing? How about a bulleted list or other device?

• Then comes the home stretch. I read through one more time looking for anything that stands out in a negative way and tweak it. I make sure I’ve said everything I want to say. Then if there’s time, I sleep on it and check again in the morning.

Geez, now that I’ve written this out I no longer wonder why it takes me hours to write a post! But there’s nothing as rewarding as the feeling associated with a job done well.