Author Archive
Fixing broken numbered lists in Word
Numbered lists in Microsoft Word are broken; the situation in OpenOffice.org Writer isn’t much better I’m afraid. If you have a document that contains several numbered lists, don’t be surprised if something goes wrong with the automatic numbering. Usually, this involves a new list continuing from the previous one — for example, the previous list [...]
George Orwell’s diaries now online
I’ve never been much for keeping a diary or a journal. And I’ve never really been into reading those of others, either. The daily minutiae of my life, and even the lives of the wel-known, aren’t all that compelling to me.
That said, you might find this interesting: the diaries of George Orwell are being put [...]
Use your allusion
Using allusions in your writing can help make an article, story, or even just a passage more interesting, more compelling, or more thought provoking. And it doesn’t take much, either. Simply mixing in a reference to a book, a quotation, or an idea adds a nice bit of spice to any writing.
Sometimes, it’s easy to [...]
Writing technical articles
No, I’m not talking about jargon-dense academic works on science, computing, and what not. I’m talking about articles and blog posts that explain how to do things with software and gadgets. Articles aimed at a mass audience.
I’ve met a number of writers who think they can’t tackle these sorts of things because they assume [...]
Renovating a house is a lot like writing
Except for breathing in dust, frequent trips to the building supply centre, and the occasional self-inflicted whacks with a hammer …
Seriously, though, my wife and I have been doing some work around our home and I’ve seen a number of parallels between the renovation process and the writing process. Intrigued? Then read on.
Writing visually, thinking visually
One of the many projects that I’m chipping away at is a presentation that I’ll be giving next month. That presenation is forcing me to think and write visually. And that could be a good thing for my other writing, too.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]