Typing on a borrowed computer, no spellcheck or word count, no thesaurus and no saved files for updating the newsletter. Worst of all, the space bar is temperamental. I miss my computer but I will have it back soon. Just trying to sort out the car and job stuff.
How addicted are you to your computer and the information you have stored in it? Could you go without for a day, two days, a week? What would you miss most? Which are the really important files that you can't do without? What about other things like that desktop wallpaper you saved from that really neat website?
All kind of things you rely on your computer for. So, wouldn't this be a good time to back it up. At least make copies of information you don't have a back up for. What are you doing tonight that you couldn't put off to take the time to back up your files? Won't you wish you had when it's too late?
Get a CD burner (if you can) and back up your important files and data once a month. You can use a rewrite able CD and just copy over the same files each month. Even the regular CD's are not very expensive. Whichever way you do it, back up your files on a regular basis. You never know when you will be without your computer: whether it's permanent or just while traveling or having repairs done, etc.
This message brought to you by the Society for Missing All Data, SMAD for short.
Using Catchy Phrases
Hitting their sweet spots has never been more important than for someone writing on the Net. What is a sweet spot? To take it out of writing context, think of yourself driving over a bumpy train track but steering your car to the side, to a spot where it's not bumpy. That, sweet spot, is the easy on your car and yourself.
In writing the sweet spot, as I think of it, is hitting just the right word or phrase. Something that your reader is looking for and has a personal 'thing' for. For instance, to appeal to women you can use words like 'diva, goddess, grrl'. Phrases like 'adventure living, backpacking, Earthy' appeal to nature lovers. There are better choices but those are the current pickings of my brain. Hope you get the idea.
Anyway, those catchy phrases and words are even more important online because people will be searching for them. Your article will be picked over by search spiders and those catchy, sweet spots will be caught in their web and added to a mind boggling list. You may not be first on the search list but you will appear somewhere. That's why those sweet spots should be considered, not just in titles, subtitles and descriptions but throughout the article or essay. Don't go crazy over it. Too much is not a good thing. But keep them in mind and don't think it's too cliché to use the odd cliché if it's an effective sweet spot.
Consider some of your own sweet spot words and phrases. Which appeal to you especially? Why?
One way to find sweet spots for a certain group of people is to join one of their online discussions, chats or boards and keep track of what comes up frequently. Let me know if you come up with more sneaky ideas.
In writing the sweet spot, as I think of it, is hitting just the right word or phrase. Something that your reader is looking for and has a personal 'thing' for. For instance, to appeal to women you can use words like 'diva, goddess, grrl'. Phrases like 'adventure living, backpacking, Earthy' appeal to nature lovers. There are better choices but those are the current pickings of my brain. Hope you get the idea.
Anyway, those catchy phrases and words are even more important online because people will be searching for them. Your article will be picked over by search spiders and those catchy, sweet spots will be caught in their web and added to a mind boggling list. You may not be first on the search list but you will appear somewhere. That's why those sweet spots should be considered, not just in titles, subtitles and descriptions but throughout the article or essay. Don't go crazy over it. Too much is not a good thing. But keep them in mind and don't think it's too cliché to use the odd cliché if it's an effective sweet spot.
Consider some of your own sweet spot words and phrases. Which appeal to you especially? Why?
One way to find sweet spots for a certain group of people is to join one of their online discussions, chats or boards and keep track of what comes up frequently. Let me know if you come up with more sneaky ideas.
Get Your Attitude Grrls!
I read this from a Harlequin Flipside romance writer. At the time I read it I scoffed and thought "how lame"! Now, I've had time to re-think while the idea has simmered on the back burner of my brain. Here it is...
I used to give advice to my university students - all aspiring writers. On the first day of class I would tell them to give me a good Elvis snarl, growl, then say "I can do that!" Surprisingly, I got a lot of resistance, but after a couple of minutes of good, solid growling I explained how that pit bull attitude is the start of achieving anything they want. It's all about the attitude.
My friend Toni had that "can do" attitude. An immigrant from Italy, she went after what she wanted. Her dream was to be an attorney and later, a criminal court judge. She snarled, growled and she did it! And you can do that too! So let me hear that snarl, hear that growl and say "I can do that!"
Dianne Drake
Go get your pit bull and tackle something that's been intimidating you! You go Grrrl!
(You too boys).
I used to give advice to my university students - all aspiring writers. On the first day of class I would tell them to give me a good Elvis snarl, growl, then say "I can do that!" Surprisingly, I got a lot of resistance, but after a couple of minutes of good, solid growling I explained how that pit bull attitude is the start of achieving anything they want. It's all about the attitude.
My friend Toni had that "can do" attitude. An immigrant from Italy, she went after what she wanted. Her dream was to be an attorney and later, a criminal court judge. She snarled, growled and she did it! And you can do that too! So let me hear that snarl, hear that growl and say "I can do that!"
Dianne Drake
Go get your pit bull and tackle something that's been intimidating you! You go Grrrl!
(You too boys).
Blog for Fame
Want to be famous and trendy on the Internet? Join the personal publishing era - get blogging.
Weblogs are part scrapbook, part magazine, part journal, part soapbox, part obligation and part fantasy. Anything that can be typed on a computer keyboard or made into a digital file (images, sounds and scanned items) can be part of a weblog. People (bloggers) with a scanner or digital camera can include pictures of themselves and the objects they write about. Links to other websites are what really make a weblog a digital twist to the old fashioned scrapbook. The best weblogs are those with well-written journal content, interesting links and an eye catching design.
However, don't get the idea that weblogs (blogs) are just another personal home page. News and commercial sites use them too. Blogging software makes updating simple and quick. Just open the program, add your content and click. Automatically the software puts your entry into HTML, sets up the navigation (layout, date, etc.), and publishes it to your website.
Some blog software will have more features. Movable Type is very popular but not simple to install. Blogger.com is simple but (has been) unreliable due to high use. As a new blogger, you need something easy to use with dependable technical support. Almost all blog software is free for personal use.
There is a group online called GTA Bloggers, for people with weblogs in the Toronto area. Join the email list or read the website if you need help, inspiration, ideas or just want to chat with other bloggers. I also found a webring for Ontario bloggers. Take a look online for blogging groups in your own area.
Weblogs are part scrapbook, part magazine, part journal, part soapbox, part obligation and part fantasy. Anything that can be typed on a computer keyboard or made into a digital file (images, sounds and scanned items) can be part of a weblog. People (bloggers) with a scanner or digital camera can include pictures of themselves and the objects they write about. Links to other websites are what really make a weblog a digital twist to the old fashioned scrapbook. The best weblogs are those with well-written journal content, interesting links and an eye catching design.
However, don't get the idea that weblogs (blogs) are just another personal home page. News and commercial sites use them too. Blogging software makes updating simple and quick. Just open the program, add your content and click. Automatically the software puts your entry into HTML, sets up the navigation (layout, date, etc.), and publishes it to your website.
Some blog software will have more features. Movable Type is very popular but not simple to install. Blogger.com is simple but (has been) unreliable due to high use. As a new blogger, you need something easy to use with dependable technical support. Almost all blog software is free for personal use.
There is a group online called GTA Bloggers, for people with weblogs in the Toronto area. Join the email list or read the website if you need help, inspiration, ideas or just want to chat with other bloggers. I also found a webring for Ontario bloggers. Take a look online for blogging groups in your own area.
Frankenstein with Words
I was downstairs, getting some cereal and looking at the breakfast dishes my Mom left when my brother came to take her to the airport this morning. I was thinking how we imbue (there's a 20$ word for you) inanimate objects with feelings, thoughts and ideas. I mean, it was just a coffee cup, but it made me feel a twinge of sadness. Funny how that cup is still exactly where she left it, as if waiting for her to finish her coffee. Meanwhile, she is on the plane, flying back down to Florida, right now.
Anyway, that's how the idea started. It got me thinking that we do the same thing when we write. After all, words are just flat letters on a flat page or computer screen. Whatever life they have, whatever feelings they have, are life and feelings that we give them. Not just in fiction writing where you have to make readers care or have an interest in reading about your characters. But, in non-fiction too where you appeal to reader's curiousity, make them read on, hear what you have to say. Make them want to read about and consider your ideas.
So, writing is in fact like being Dr. Frankenstein - giving life to inanimate objects. Though the writing isn't a dead thing being brought back to life it does compare as the same words and letters have been used over and over for so many generations of writers and read by so many generations of readers. Words can be a dead thing if no one gives them that spark of life.
That spark is what lifts writing off the page.
Anyway, that's how the idea started. It got me thinking that we do the same thing when we write. After all, words are just flat letters on a flat page or computer screen. Whatever life they have, whatever feelings they have, are life and feelings that we give them. Not just in fiction writing where you have to make readers care or have an interest in reading about your characters. But, in non-fiction too where you appeal to reader's curiousity, make them read on, hear what you have to say. Make them want to read about and consider your ideas.
So, writing is in fact like being Dr. Frankenstein - giving life to inanimate objects. Though the writing isn't a dead thing being brought back to life it does compare as the same words and letters have been used over and over for so many generations of writers and read by so many generations of readers. Words can be a dead thing if no one gives them that spark of life.
That spark is what lifts writing off the page.
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