Would you write if the Internet didn’t exist? 
That’s the question that Deb Ng is asking over at Freelance Writing Gigs. A lot of interesting comments for that post.
My answer: definitely. Like Deb, I started writing before the Internet and Web came into widespread use. My first articles were banged out on a Smith-Corona electric; I later graduated to a Smith-Corona word processor and then a desktop PC.
But the fact is that I would still be writing, even without the Web. Things would just have to be a little more personal. How? Face-to-face meetings, regular phone calls, query letters with my actual signature on them, and a stream of faxes — all of which I remember doing regularly to drum up assignments and business.
Of course, my postage and phone costs (not to mention my use of paper and envelopes) would definitely be higher.
Back from beyond
Well, not that far from beyond. It’s just been a little while, and a lot of work, since I last posted in this space. I learned a lot during my break from blogging, and some of those lessons weren’t pleasant. Like what?
I have several of these bad writing habits. I won’t mention which ones, but I’m trying to break them. And have been for a while now …
I can still get a lot done, quickly, if I put my mind to it and set aside the time. And the quality of the resulting work is still quite good.
Using online tools is a boon.
I still have a number of projects I want or need to tackle, and really need to set aside the time to tackle them.
Even a good time/task management system will break down every once in a while. The solution? Just get back to work and follow your schedule or to-do list.
The most important lesson? Life can really get in the way of your work. On the plus side, though, my family now has some nice, new storage space.
Thought for the day
There have been plenty of self-destructive rebel-angel novelists over the years, but writing is about getting your work done and getting your work done every day.
— Michael Chabon
Battling inertia
For all my grandiose talk about going mano-a-mano against writers block, time management, and using to-do lists I still get hit by bouts of inertia. Like the bout of inertia that I’m facing now. Well, let me clarify that: this has been affecting my article writing. I’ve got a bunch of articles to finish, but I can’t seem to get the thoughts from my head through to my fingertips and on to my computer via the keyboard.
There are a lot of reasons for what’s happening. Once again, I’ve taken on more assignments that I can comfortably handle. I have to finish creating the slides and a script for a presentation; and have to finish a proposal for another presentation. And my wife has been on a bit of a renovation bing — I’m spending a lot of my free time working around the house rather than banging off articles.
Taken together, that’s sapped my energy and my will. I’m somewhat overwhelmed and that’s causing the inertia.
Luckily, I’ve been slowly gaining ground in this battle. I’m doing a little here and a little there, and I’m slowly catching up. Not quickly enough, it seems sometimes, which has been adding to the inertia whenever I do have the time and energy to do more work.
The bottom line? I’m taking a short break from posting in this space. I’ll be back in a week or two. In the meantime, why not post a comment about how you fight inertia, writer’s block, or whatever you want to call it.
Word processing, on a diet
Sometimes, using Word or OpenOffice.org Writer is overkill. Actually, it’s overkill for a lot of writing tasks. As I discuss in this article, you can do much of your work in a lightweight word processor — either on the desktop or on the Web.
What is your writing weapon of choice? Feel free to leave a comment.
Recycling your articles
Recycling isn’t just good for the environment, it can also put some money into your pocket if you write for a living. This post outlines a few ways in which you can profitably recycle your writing.
When I’ve recycled articles, I’ve either expanded the piece or ripped out and replaced sections to create a variant. On occasion, I’ve shortened articles or mashed them up with others to create something new. It doesn’t take long, and the rewards are obvious.
I have to say, though, that I definitely have to try some of the advice in that post.
Have you tried recycling articles? If so, what success have you had? Feel free to leave a comment.
Image from http://www.sxc.hu
Thought for the day
If your words aren’t truthful, the finest optically letter-spaced typography won’t help.
– Edward Tufte
Using a wiki for a simple writing project
While wiki guru Stewart Mader wrote a book using a wiki, in my experiments with a wiki as a writing tool I’ve started off small. No books (at least for now); instead, I’ve been writing articles using DokuWiki.
Another look at dealing with article ideas
As I’ve written in the past coming up with good article ideas can be tough. This blog post offers 12 tips for generating ideas for articles. Even with a good amount of advice, though, there are still problems with ideas.
To be honest, I don’t have trouble getting ideas. As you probably know, and as the post I linked to above demonstrate, ideas are just about everywhere. The problem really lies in the quality of the ideas. Some ideas are good; most are shaky at best.
Read the rest of this entry »
TextRoom: a full-screen editor with a twist
As you’ve probably read in this space, I enjoy using full-screen editors. They enable me to write without any distractions — I can focus on writing and not have my attention pulled away by email, RSS feeds, or anything else.
My favourite application in this category is JDarkRoom. But I’ve found a new one that’s giving JDarkRoom a run for its money: TextRoom.
Standing apart from the rest
Admittedly, TextRoom is like just about every other full-screen, minimalist editor out there. It has most of the same features — the ability to change fonts, configurable interface, autosave. all of that. I guess in this category of software, there’s little new that you can do (although, I wouldn’t mind being proved wrong1).
But TextRoom has one ability that sets it apart from other editors: TextRoom can keep you on your toes and remind you of your deadlines.
How? In the Options window (press Ctrl+P to open it), click the Targets tab. There, you can do the following:
- Set a target word count for a writing session. Say you decide that you need to write 500 words before going off to do something. Set that goal, and TextRoom will display the goal and the number of words that you need to reach that goal in the bottom left of the screen.
- Set a deadline for a particular piece of work. TextRoom will remind you about the deadline.
There’s also a timed writing feature that I haven’t figured out yet.
The drawbacks? No spelling checker (although TextRoom does maintain a running word count), and you have to save your writing as a text file. There’s an installation program for Windows users, but Linux users need to compile TextRoom. No Mac version is available yet.