writing
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Escaping the tyranny of “someone else”
Excuses, excuses. We can all come up with ones for not writing. The ones that I hear the most, and which make me want to scream, involve “someone else”. Mainly:
I can’t write this. Someone else knows more about the subject than I do!
Or:
Someone else can do a better job of writing [...]
Lessons in writing from song
I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good song. A good song can be relaxing and uplifting. It can also offer a few lessons in good non-fiction writing. Like what? Here are three:
Tell a story: A good song does this. With one or two exceptions, so does a piece of non-fiction. You want [...]