WritingThoughts

With today’s “Of Note” selection, I feel a bit as though I’ve come full circle. You see, today’s writing blog of note is Carson Brackney’s Big Red Notebook.

You see, it was my review of another Carson Brackney blog that started the “Of Note” series. Of course, back then I really had no idea just how many writer’s blogs there were (and are).

Carson Brackney’s Big Red Notebook is really geared more towards clients and potential clients, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything there for the writer. I particularly like these recent posts:

• Five Characteristics of Fantastic Articles
• Rethinking the Mythological Duplicate Content Penalty… It’s Really the Unique Content Advantage
• Does your sales copy show a real understanding of your customer?

It’s good to see Carson blogging again. I think that you’ll agree that his blog is interesting. As for me, all I can say is: welcome back Carson!

If you somehow missed the previous of note mini-review, it features The Blood Red Pencil blog. You can read all about it here.

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in “Of Note” yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. I know there are a lot of great blogs out there; I discover more new ones each day. (So many blogs, so little time …)

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.

Every so often I get one of these offers - just write an article (or two, or three) for us free of charge and it will help you market your freelance writing business by giving you exposure as a writer on our website. You probably know the kind of offer that I mean. If you’re a freelance writer, then you’ve probably gotten some of these offers yourself.

Now, a decade or two ago, this type of offer might have had some real merit. Back then, it was pretty difficult and possibly costly for a writer to promote their skills. Only large companies could afford to have a web presence and traditional advertising was (and is still) expensive. The offer to write for exposure would have been. . . well, somewhat tempting.

I’d say that blogging and social media have changed all that. For a few hundred dollars almost anyone (and I mean anyone) can have a web presence and promote themselves. At no additional cost, that same someone can sign up for multiple social media venues and use those venues to promote their website - the only limitation being the time that it takes to actively participate in social media.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not against doing an occasional guest post as a favor or as a possible way to expand my own audience when I have time. I’ve done it in the past and I’m sure that I’ll do it again. Nor am I against accepting a guest post here from bloggers whose work I am familiar with and admire (particularly if they are NOT trying to hard sell a product that is only marginally related to this blog’s topic). In fact, I know of several bloggers who have successfully used guest posting to build their community.

However, when it comes to writing with only exposure for compensation, I am generally against it. For one thing, it takes valuable time away from working on paying gigs. Plus, in my experience, such offers rarely live up to the promises made. Most of those who make the offers are talking in terms of potential exposure (if they really did have a successful venue they would be able to compensate the writer for their work).

At any rate - this is my experience with write for exposure gigs. What’s yours?

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My last “Of Note” selection was Writing Fundamentals. You can read about it here.

Today’s “Of Note” selection is a little different. It’s a multi-author blog featuring many of my favorite writers - The Blood-Red Pencil.

I have to confess that the title of this blog initially conjured up some rather macabre images in my imagination, but there’s actually nothing scary about this blog. With the clever tagline of “Kill Your Darlings,” The Blood-Red Pencil actually deals with nothing more frightening than editing.

The list of authors (or should I say editors?) for this blog reads like a who’s who of the writing blogosphere:

• Billie Johnson
• Charlotte Phillips
• Chris Verstraete
• Dani Greer
• Elsa Neal
• Emma Larkins
• Helen Ginger
• L.J. Sellers
• Lillie Ammann
• Marvin Wilson
• Maryann Miller
• Morgan Mandel
• Shelley Thrasher
• Susie Hawes
• Sylvia Dickey Smith
• Velda Brotherton

The huge group of successful and experienced contributors only serves to enhance this writing blog’s value.

If you’re a writer and you’re serious about it, then you should be editing your work. You need to be reading The Blood-Red Pencil.

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in “Of Note” yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. But hey, why not drop me a note (laura at symbol writingthoughts dot com) and tell me why you think your writing blog is notable? If I agree, then I just might feature it here.

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: Laura Spencer

I paused as I finished writing a recent blog post for a client to take a look at my work.

“Yes,” I thought to myself, “Miss R. would definitely have marked this one up.”

I counted two. . . no, three sentence structures that my high school English teacher, Miss R. would have marked in red.

“Yep, there’s a cliché. Here’s an incomplete sentence. And, there’s a sentence that I’ve started with a conjunction.”

In my high school days, all of those “mistakes” would have been corrected by my English teachers.

The difference is that back then I was learning proper grammar and sentence construction and now I am making these constructions on purpose to achieve a conversational tone. Plus, I’m doing it with my client’s full knowledge and approval.

Often, when I blog I try to achieve the same tone that I would use during a personal conversation. Sometimes, I actually imagine myself discussing the post verbally with a reader.

While I wouldn’t use a conversational tone for every writing project, I think that conversational tone makes for good blogging.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m very grateful to Miss R. and my other English teachers. I still love red ink. Without it, I’d never have become the writer that I am today.

Have you broken any writing rules lately?

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

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Whew! Well, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve had an “Of Note” blog here at WritingThoughts.

The last “Of Note” blog was Writer Dad, back in August. (You can read the mini-review of the Writer Dad blog here.)

It’s not that I haven’t found any good writing blogs lately. In fact, I have a whole list of great writing blogs that I would like to profile here. It’s just a matter of finding time, so stay tuned! Sooner or later, I’ll get to them.

Writing Fundamentals is the writing blog of Darlene Schacht. Judging from the sidebar, Darlene has a long list of writing responsibilities. Yet, she makes time to update her blog and share her writing tips with us.

I especially like the way that Darlene peppers her blog posts with examples from her own writing and the work of other writers. She also discusses topics that I would consider to be the “nuts and bolts” of writing. Her blog is a great place to go when you need to brush up on the basics.

Some recent Writing Fundamentals blog posts that I have enjoyed include:

• No Time Like the Present… Should you write in present tense? I don’t typically, but Darlene’s post make me want to try.
• The Doer (for lack of a better word)…A very clear explanation of Active and Passive voice.

(I apologize for not linking to Darlene’s specific posts. I could not get that feature to work for her blog.)

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in “Of Note” yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. But hey, why not drop me a note (laura at symbol writingthoughts dot com) and tell me why you think your writing blog is notable? If I agree, then I just might feature it here.

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: Laura Spencer

Is your writing timeless?

By timeless I mean, will your content be meaningful to readers ten or twenty years from now?

An example of writing that is already losing its meaningfulness would be an article about how to program a VCR. Or going back even further, a magazine article about how to operate an eight-track tape player.

Since most people now use DVD players and even fewer people use eight-track tape players, these topics now have a limited audience (although there was a time when they may have been popular). In five or ten years, articles on these topics will have an even smaller audience.

If you’re like me, most of what you write will be dated at some point in time.

That’s okay, as long as both you and your client understand the difference between creating content that will become obsolete and content that is timeless.

Just in case you don’t, here are some ways to avoid dating your writing:

1. Avoid product references. Products come and go. Features change. Example: Rather than write an article about a specific money management software, write an article with general tips about managing your money.
2. Avoid references to current personalities. Quick - who lost the presidential election of 1988? Do you remember? Neither do most other people. Unless a celebrity has been a household name for at least five years, using their name will date your piece.
3. Avoid using too many slang words. Every generation has its own unique way of communicating. Sometimes slang words catch on and become mainstream. More often, they slip from usage and become meaningless.

Here are some tips to keep your writing timeless:

• Focus on universal aspects of your content. Some human problems never change. Write about those. Ignore problems that are likely to be specific to a particular time period.
• Picture your audience. Would your child understand this article? How about your grandmother? The more people that you can envision reading and getting something from your writing, the more likely it is to be timeless.

Other great posts to help you write timeless articles and posts:

• Brian Clark at CopyBlogger, Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques.
• Daniel Scocco at Daily Blog Tips, 5 tips for writing timeless content.

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: www.sxc.hu

I know that a lot of writers have blogs for their writing business, so here’s a contest that might be right up your alley.

Over at Business and Blogging (another place that I blog), we’re running a contest for bloggers who are willing to share their community building tips.

Why not check it out? Here’s the link: Business and Blogging Contest

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: Laura Spencer

Okay, I came upon this week’s “Of Note” choice through a comment he left on one of my posts. (You see, it really does pay to leave those comments. . . sometimes.)

It doesn’t matter how I found this blog though, I’ve enjoyed following the WriterDad blog for the past few days.

The WriterDad blog is more of a personal journal, than a typical writing blog. Normally, I don’t follow this type of blog (let alone profile it). The author of this blog does such a good job, I decided to make an exception.

This blog is written by a writer known only as (you guessed it) “WriterDad.” I don’t know who “WriterDad” is, but he does have a way with words. I like the way that he starts each post with a famous quote too.

Here are some recent posts that I enjoyed reading:

• Your Baby’s Born in the Rough Draft. You raise it in the Rewrite
• One World, One Dream

Our last “Of Note” blog was Graham Strong’s A Few Strong Words blog. You can read a mini-review here.

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in “Of Note” yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. But hey, why not drop me a note (laura at symbol writingthoughts dot com) and tell me why you think your writing blog is notable? If I agree, then I just might feature it here.

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: Laura Spencer

I know that I do.

Of course, I started this blog with all the right intentions, hoping to spotlight some of my best work here. In the real world, however, it just hasn’t turned out that way.

Don’t get me wrong.

There’s some good stuff here, on WritingThoughts. Plus, I hope to post some good stuff here in the future. Stick with me, please!

By and large, however, my very best work usually goes to my customers who are all over the web. I do some of my best work for offline clients as well.

That’s okay, though.

When I weigh the benefits of making a decent living as a copywriter against the benefits of being as creative as I want (but going for months without pay) getting paid wins every time.

Sure, I may daydream for a few minutes about this pet project, or that one - but in the end, work for my clients comes first. That’s as it should be, I think.

What about you?

Do you do your best work for others? How do you feel about that?

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: www.sxc.hu

Lately I have been following Graham Strong’s A Few Strong Words blog.

I thought that WritingThoughts readers would enjoy Graham’s blog, so I’ve decided to make it this week’s “Of Note” blog.

Some recent posts of interest include:

• What the Heck is Blog ROI? - A continuation of Graham’s recent discussion on Do Blogs Work?
• The Writing Tip I Learned from Paris Hilton (True Story) - It just goes to show that just about anything can inspire a true writer.

If you’re looking for a good writing discussion, then Graham’s blog is the place to be.

Our most recent “Of Note” blog was Writing For Hire. You can read a short review of that blog here.

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in “Of Note” yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. But hey, why not drop me a note (laura at symbol writingthoughts dot com) and tell me why you think your writing blog is notable? If I agree, then I just might feature it here.

Contents (c) Copyright 2008, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

Image Source: Laura Spencer