techniques
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 with fewer words
Being able to write tightly and yet convey an idea effectively is tough. It takes a lot of practice, but not everyone knows where to begin.
This blog post offers four nice bits of advice on doing more with less.
How I blog
Like many of you, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands. By day, I’m a partner in a technical writing consultancy. By night, I’m a partner in a technical communications consultancy. And a husband. And a father. And a freelance writer. And someone who contributes to three blogs. And finding the time [...]
Writing with a wiki
Recently, I installed a wiki on my Web site. Why? I decided to try working on a few projects with a wiki rather than (or sometimes in conjunction with) Google Docs or Writeboard.
I tried that experiment a couple of years ago with a great wiki service called PBWiki. But, for some reason or another, various [...]
Going analog
One of the keys to writing is to approach the task with a clear mind. Barring that, a clear understanding of the flow of the document that you are writing or intend to write. Sometimes, though, you can’t get that by sitting in front of a computer. You might be able to write, but what [...]
Pecha kucha and writing
Pecha kucha (Japanese for chatter) is a creative and innovative presentation format that involves giving a presentation with 20 slides, and focusing on the content of each slide for 20 seconds. That gives the presenter six minutes and 40 seconds to make the point of the presentation. While presenters who use pecha kucha can’t get [...]
Using a wiki to write a book
This May, I’ll be heading to Vancouver, British Columbia to attend the DocTrain West 2008 conference (I’ll also be participating in a panel on blogging there).
Writing conversationally
If there’s one thing I dislike, it’s writing that’s too stiff and too formal. I don’t have a lot of fun reading work like that, and I sure hope I don’t write like that.
Something that I try to do with my articles and blog postings is to write in the way in which I speak. [...]
Is your writing better when under deadline pressure?
In a recent blog post, white paper guru Michael Stelzner discusses how writing when busy, or on a tight deadline. And Stelzner is busy: he and his wife are expecting their third daughter.
Under the kinds of time constraints that accompany a new baby, Stelzner found that:
[T]he reality of a major event [...]
Productivity for writers
Keeping track of your tasks can be difficult. There are a number of ways in which to do it, and one of the most popular is Getting Things Done (GTD). A while back, I tried to get into the GTD flow but found it to be a bit too complex and involved for my needs. [...]