Blog: Mel's Muse - Related to Content
How Key Personality Traits Affect The Writing Process
Posted: Thursday, 8th July 2010
If you are a book author and you’re writing non-fiction, how do you decide what material to put in and what to leave out? How, in fact, do you organise the content of your book?
WRITING AND PUBLISHING A BOOK
Chances are that if you’re an aspiring author and you haven’t yet approached a publisher, your ideas are simply floating around in your mind. But even for a published author this may be true – initially, at least, during the cogitative period. This is a natural part of the writing process and cannot be hurried.
Articles on related themes: Content; Writing & Publishing A Book
A Personality Test: Can It Define Blog Brand, Niche & Writing Content?
Posted: Thursday, 13th May 2010
Does it ever occur to you that who you are might define not only your blog brand and niche, but also the content and style of your writing? One of my readers wrote to me recently and, as part of her e-mail, made the following statements:
- Just did the personality test on your website - I'm ESFJ - which was a bit of fun, but distracted me longer than I'd hoped!
- I far prefer having people dictate what I write than have to come up with something myself!
PERSONALITY TEST
Before we look at them point by point, I’d like to give you some general background information.
Articles on related themes: Personal Growth; Content; Brand; Blogging; Article Writing & Blogging
Blogging: Does Adding Your Credentials Add Or Subtract Followers?
Posted: Sunday, 18th October 2009
Do you ever feel that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know? I, for instance, didn’t know until I wrote that sentence that The More You Know was the title of public service announcements in the USA! Googling the phrase – as you do – brought up the following YouTube spoof.
But the ignorance, or rather uncertainty, that I’m referring to has nothing to do with spoofs, public services or announcements. What I’m confessing to is a genuine insecurity, and I’m hoping you will help me to overcome it.
How To Blog To Sell When Writing And Publishing A Book
Posted: Thursday, 15th October 2009
You’re an author and you have a book to sell. Selling in bookshops is one thing; selling online another. You have a question: which is superior, social media or search engines when it comes to promoting your work?
In my last blog post I concluded that, as a reader or researcher, I prefer the latter. It follows, therefore, that from the other side of the coin, as a book author, this is the method I would choose to use to promote my material.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Content; Writing & Publishing A Book; Blogging
How To Write Description In A Novel: Describing Location
Posted: Wednesday, 9th September 2009
When you read a novel, you are being invited to inhabit an imaginary world: a fictional place, in which fictional characters live, and move, and have their being. If good descriptive writing is used, their experiences become, for the duration of the book, yours, too. But because the medium is textual, visual imagery has to form part of the narrative for it to become effective. Your job, as writer, is to create, through the words that you choose, a cinematic experience in the imagination of your reader.
Articles on related themes: Content; Writing & Publishing A Book
The Basic Rules Of English Grammar
Posted: Monday, 3rd August 2009
I came across the following rules of English grammar and, since no one seems to know where they originated, am reproducing them here for the benefit of writers and aspiring authors.
I’m not sure that I agree with all of them. How about you? Leave a comment at the end if you have anything to add or contradict in the following list.
- It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
- Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
- And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
- Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
- Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
- Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat)
- Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Content
The Secrets Of Article Writing: Know Your Market, Know Yourself
Posted: Thursday, 14th May 2009
Part 2 of 6 in a Series on Article Writing
I began this series of articles with one titled Ten Tips On Writing An Article and I'm going to unwrap each of these ten points in turn and look at them in detail. Some may require more than one post to develop the theme, so I hope you’ll stick with me and see it through to the end.
YOUR SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE
The first tip on my list was know your market.
Articles on related themes:
Content
Creative Writing Tips And The Definition Of Denouement
Posted: Tuesday, 5th May 2009
This article has been revised & updated on: 6th September, 2010. Photo: Looking back down to the end of the funicular railway at the sea below!
I expect many of you, as an aspiring author, will know that a novel has a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s pretty obvious, I would have thought. But that statement is not quite as simple as it may first appear.
The Beginning of a novel is neither defined by, nor confined to, its opening sentence. Nor even its first paragraph, section or chapter. A novel’s Beginning is the first quarter of its length, and its End is the last quarter of its length.
Articles on related themes: Content; Writing & Publishing A Book; Plot; Creative Writing
Essential Blogging Advice For Beginners
Posted: Thursday, 23rd October 2008
There may be those, as I have already said, who decry blogging as adding to the ‘misinformation and ignorance’ of the ‘digitally addicted’, but without doubt blogging has become the buzz word of the internet. Whether you’re blogging for profit or simply for fun, the aim of the game is always to attract more readers to your site.
BLOGGING FOR PROFIT - OR NOT
I have been asked to speak, next month, at a London-based meeting of the CMPA – a branch of the Music Publishers’ Association – on the subject of blogging.
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