Blog - Archive for April 2009

Blogging For Beginners: The Use Of Keywords

Posted: Monday, 20th April 2009

21st December, 2009 - This article has been revised, and may now be reproduced, subject to the conditions shown below.

Blogging as a means of driving traffic to your website is a well-documented fact. I’ve written in Essential Blogging Advice For Beginners about the need for beguiling blog branding, tantalising titles, and compelling content for your blog. What I want to write about today is the crucial role of keywords, and how to manage them.

Keywords are imperative in that they are what the search engines pick up on in your articles.

Articles on related themes: Title; Blogging

2 comments | Read more »

Creative Writing As A Means Of Illustrating Compulsive And Obsessive Behaviour

Posted: Wednesday, 15th April 2009

I hope you’re not going to lose patience with me, but I’m so impressed with Friedman’s Fables that, yet again, I’m going to apply one of them to a real-life situation, in what I call a ‘combi-blog’. Because it addresses not only a real life relationship problem but is also of relevance to writing fiction.

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS FIXATED?

I was speaking with someone recently about the people we all encounter from time to time who seem to become fixated by some destructive notion or action and who, despite all our best efforts – yours and mine – appear to be incapable of changing that mindset.

Articles on related themes: Book Reviews; Books, Reading & Words; Personal Growth

Read more »

Writing And Editing A Book For Publication: Listening to Dialogue

Posted: Sunday, 12th April 2009

Whilst it is true that editing and proof reading are an editor’s job, many would-be authors erroneously believe that they will undertake to knock their unleavened narrative into shape. However, your manuscript is unlikely to progress from the slush pile to the editor’s desk unless it has undergone some serious editing before hand. And whilst professional editing is available, it is not inexpensive. For most of us, editing and proof reading at home should be accepted as the natural outcome of creative writing projects if we are to have any hope of being published.

Articles on related themes: Writing & Publishing A Book

Read more »

What Drives You: Final Instalment Of The Easter Story

Posted: Friday, 10th April 2009

Previous Episodes: What Drives You? Part I & Part II

The rev rave on the cliff top was no longer a happy blare of horns and engines but had taken on an entirely different ambience, bordering on what appeared to be mass hysteria. From where he stood, in the corner of the car park, the nearly-red little car could see it all. The down-turned bumpers; the gnashing radiators and whining engine noise; the water spurting from windscreen washers, only to be dashed away by swiping blades.

And the flowers! Garish displays of red and orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. He rubbed his headlights.

Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Life, Faith & Other Stuff

3 comments | Read more »

What Drives You? Part II

Posted: Thursday, 9th April 2009

What Drives You? Part I

Now read on:

The rev-rave on the cliff top was a riot of music and laughter, as engines were tuned and horns were blasted. The little once-white-now-pink car was ecstatic; he’d never seen anything like it before. His little red car – he still thought of her as his, though she was surrounded by an adoring rally of other brightly coloured cars, all shiny and new – turned a loving gaze towards him.

His engine raced. He flipped his sunshine roof back and forth like the other cars, flashed his headlights and pooped his horn with abandon. The scent of high octane stardust was intoxicating.

Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Life, Faith & Other Stuff

2 comments | Read more »

What Drives You?

Posted: Wednesday, 8th April 2009

Once upon a time there was a little white car, shiny and new.

Articles on related themes: Life, Faith & Other Stuff

Read more »

Writing In Style Requires Rewriting & Revision

Posted: Sunday, 5th April 2009

Can any one of us honestly say that the first draft of our book has been written in style? Yes, we fall in love with great chunks of our work – phrases, paragraphs, heck, whole chapters. But I’d be the first to admit that if I put my work away for a few weeks and then take it out to read again, some of it is pretty cringey! Without a re-write and some revision it could never, remotely, be considered a good piece of writing.

Articles on related themes: Writing & Publishing A Book

Read more »

Really Good Writing Requires Really Good Editing!

Posted: Friday, 3rd April 2009

Anyone, it has been said, can write. But the secret of writing well is in the rewriting.

GOOD WRITING STYLES

I was very fortunate in that my first book was commissioned. Actually, what happened was that what had been one book became two. It had taken me many years to write it – plus many rewrites. And even when it was accepted by a publisher, I was still expected to undertake a great deal of editing before a final draft was deemed ready to go to the printers.

The ability to produce a good piece of writing over and over again does not come easily.

Articles on related themes: Writing & Publishing A Book

2 comments | Read more »