A collection of blog posts that offer advice for writers
Why every writer should be a blogger too. The Virtuous Cycle and other benefits.
First of all, blogging forces you to WRITE and allows you to publish your own writing instantly, The immediacy of the work and reward system create a virtuous cycle.
Virtuous Cycle: You write a blog post. You publish it. People read it. You feel great because people have read your work. You write another blog post… etc. Continue reading “Why every writer should be a blogger too”
Last month I had a piece published on the Self-Publishing Magazine’s site, under the heading ‘Author Life’. I focused on avoiding procrastination and setting writing goals.
You can read the article here- Author Life: Part Two
I dipped a toe into the murky pond of self-publishing a few months ago.
My aim? Not to sell a book, but to see how easy – or how hard – it was to convert a document into a printed book, using Amazon’s CreateSpace service.
The final result is a 36 page non-fiction booklet of 8,000 words, based on one of my walking experiences. Soggy Socks is not a masterpiece. But it’s OK. As I said, my aim wasn’t to sell any copies, but to experiment with the process.
I did order a single copy for myself.
(Well, OK, two copies actually.) Continue reading “The unexpected downside of an ISBN number.”
You never know what will happen when you start publishing your thoughts to the world. Some of the unexpected outcomes are…
Blogging is a strange art.
It’s a form of self-publishing, but without the extensive editing and revision that most authors inflict on their self-published prose.
As a result, the content and quality of blog posts can be scrappy and variable. Poor grammar, dodgy spelling and clunky structure are commonplace. And, all too often, blog posts are prime examples of unrestrained egotism, being supremely uninteresting to everyone except the blogger themselves; acting more like personal diaries than public publications.
And yet, blog posts can be riveting, giving insights into topics you would not otherwise consider, and presenting intriguing snapshots of other people’s lives. The instant aspect of publishing a post also gives blogs an immediacy, a vibrancy, and a topical relevance that makes blogging more like journalism than other forms of writing. Continue reading “How blogging improved my writing.”
Yesterday I found an interesting link via Stumble Upon. It was an article with the intriguing title, ’45 ways to avoid using the word very’, and is written by Amanda Patterson, who runs writing courses in South Africa.
Very Certainly worth taking a look at.
The challenge for writers is to avoid laziness and to choose the right words, rather than the easiest words. That can be hard when the story is flowing very easily freely and you want to get it all down very quickly hastily, before you are either interrupted or lose your mojo.
I’m very guilty of using the word ‘very’. Perhaps I use it too much? I’ll be watching out in future.
Here is a link to the original web page: ’45 ways to avoid using the word very’. You might find it very useful invaluable. (Although, you first have to forgive the very sexist blatantly sexist comment in the third quotation at the top of the page.)
Ruth Livingstone 