Rob Bignell's Blog, page 305

Writing inspiration: Read your favorite author

Read a short story or chapter of a book by your favorite author. Make a list of at least five things that you like most about the author’s writing. Try to incorporate those techniques or styles into your writing.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Providence, Rhode Island, or a small town like Gay Head, Massachusetts, I can provide that second eye.

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A disagreeable diversion: pastime v. past time

Knowing the difference between pastime and past time is long overdue.

Pastime (note the one t) is a hobby or activity that a person enjoys doing. For example, One of Emily’s favorite pastimes in Los Angeles was people watching.

Past time is a phrase meaning “should have already happened.” To wit, “It’s long since past time that you got your homework done,” mom said.

Hopefully, making this error will no longer be a pastime of writers.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Norfolk, Virginia, or a small town like Crappo, Maryland, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Observe your thoughts

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: For 10 minutes, write down the thoughts going through your head. Then read what you wrote. Spend another 10 minutes writing down your observations about your thoughts.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from an urban area like California’s Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Editor offers ‘Romantic Trails of St. Croix Valley’

Where’s the most romantic place in the St Croix Valley to have a picnic with your sweetie? That one beautiful vista that will leave you holding one another for hours? The best place to steal a kiss as the sun sets before you? I’ll tell about those and several other locales during “Romantic Hikes of the St. Croix Valley,” an hour-long presentation on Thursday, Feb. 12, at Chapter2Books in Hudson, Wis. Each of the trails will be pulled from my bestselling book, Hittin’ the Trail: Day Hiking Trails of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and most are within an hour’s drive of Hudson. The presentation starts at 7 p.m. Chapter2Books is located at 226 Locust St. in historic downtown Hudson.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Nashville, Tennessee, or a small town like Turkey Creek, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Creativity

“If creative work protects a man against mental illness, it is small wonder that he pursues it with avidity; and even if the state of mind he is seeking to avoid is no more than a mild state of depression or apathy, this still constitutes a cogent reason for engaging in creative work even when it brings no obvious external benefit in its train.” ― Anthony Storr

“Follow the path of your aroused thought, and you will soon meet this infernal inscription: There is nothing so beautiful as that which does not exist.” ― Paul Valery

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ― Sylvia Plath

“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ― Maya Angelou

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Nashville, Tennessee, or a small town like Turkey Creek, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: The amount of writing I have done and my skill as a writer grows every day.

Some days you just don’t feel like writing. This doesn’t arise from writer’s block or being overwhelmed by life’s many responsibilities. Instead, you obsess about how much there is left to write and find the amount numbing. You’ve already written a lot and yet have so far to go.

When your motivation nosedives, your inner critic has taken the controls. It’s saying, “You’re not a writer. You’re wasting your time writing. You’re not creative enough to fill those pages. C’mon, let’s go eat a bucket of ice cream in front of the television together – you’ll feel so much better!”

Push your inner critic out of the cockpit. Yes, writing is a lot of hard work and doesn’t always go as planned. But you have a vision, one of yourself as a published writer whose books are loved by readers and snatched up by eager fans. Keep a clear vision of what awaits you, and your motivation levels will rise.

After all, your inner critic is wrong. You are a writer, and you haven’t wasted your time. Rather than count the number of pages you have left to go (a glass half-empty type of attitude), think of how much you’ve written (a glass half-full type of attitude).

You’ve also grown as a writer. With each passage or chapter you’ve penned, your level of talent rose. Maybe the change was incremental and barely noticeable. But you improved. And as you edit and revise your piece later in the writing process, your talent suddenly will jump, like a jet soaring into the sky.

Accept that reaching your destination never is instantaneous. Each moment spent in flight – and each word committed to the page – always will bring you closer to your goal. Your endpoint, your dream, only becomes impossible to reach when you stop moving toward it.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Indianapolis, Indiana, or a small town like Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky, I can provide that second eye.

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Web text demands different kind of writing style

Most people read websites by scanning. That is, they don’t read every word but skim over the page, searching for words that are of interest to them. Once they find those words, their reading may slow to include every word, as if they were reading a magazine article or a novel.

Indeed, website visitors read only about 20% of the text per page, according to one study.

This then demands a different approach to writing than what you’d find in print (such as newspaper, magazines and books), where people are more likely to read a passage word for word. The challenge is to write as tightly and crisply as possible so that the website text is easy to scan through.

When writing for the web, follow these basic guidelines:
g Every word counts – Be succinct and specific by using fragments, short sentences and writing in the active voice. Every word used must carry useful information: Readers expect immediacy and utility when they come to a website.
g Bulleted points rock – Such points, like this list, are easier for website readers to scan.
g Create the tone that your reader would expect from your site – Visitors to a site for a party clown expect corny jokes. Visitors to a site for attorneys expect sophistication and no-nonsense professionalism. At the same time, you must be understandable … many people needing your service probably do because they don’t know much about what you’re the expert at.
g Short is better – Studies show that the idea word count for page is between 30 and 1,250 words. Any more and people typically skip the bulk of the text.
g Think search engine – Keywords must be included so that your website can be found on a search engine. With so many websites out there to choose from, you must embed in your web pages signposts that bring traffic to your site; those signposts are keywords. At the risk of being simplistic, if you sell T-shirts, that word needs to be in your text.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Columbus, Ohio, or a small town like Ricketts, Iowa, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing inspiration: Don’t fret about poor writing

Allow yourself to write “poorly.” Most writer’s block is caused by fear that you lack talent. This probably occurs because you’re unfairly comparing the body of what you’ve written to your favorite authors. Simply start writing and edit out the junk later.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Las Vegas, Nevada, or a small town like Accident, Maryland, I can provide that second eye.

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How to properly punctuate ‘et. al’

One of the most common abbreviation mistakes that new writers make, especially when penning academic papers, is the Latin phrase et al. Part of the problem is that we don’t know Latin; another part is that neither do our computer spell checkers.

Et al. means “and others”. Et is Latin for “and” while alii is Latin for “others”. In modern English, we don’t abbreviate et but we do abbreviate alii to al. Because of this, the correct way to spell et al. is with one period after the l, as in: Boston et al. found that hiking just 20 minutes a day can change a person’s mood for the better.

Sometimes writers will forgo the period after the last l, but for academic papers written in APA style, it is required. A few spell check programs will flag this as an error, however, so watch for it.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Reno, Nevada, or if you come from a small town Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Telling what ‘I feel…’

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: If undergoing a period of personal turmoil, write a page that continues with one of these writing prompts: “I feel…”; “I desire…”; “I need…”

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from an urban area like California’s Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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