Yes, it can save words to write this way, but at the expense of making the reader stop. When I read this I paused first at ‘intentionally.’ With the meaning of that word fixed in my mind I read on looking for what this writer did on purpose. Then I hit the word ‘factual.’ Now I have to keep both of those words in my mind. Sadly, I’m not that smart and so I end of having to reread the sentence to get it all into my brain that has been dulled from a few too many beers the night before. Having to stop like that takes me out of the story.

He intentionally makes many factual errors in the book.

Reads a bit better, doesn’t it? ‘Factual errors’ now exists as one unit, and it’s easy to get even a around it. Plus, ‘intentionally makes’ is another unit that works together. Having ‘intentionally’ next to the verb also makes more sense.

This is just a small fix, but it’s always good to change anything that makes the meaning of your sentence clearer and the words flow more naturally.

———–
As a side note, having your reader stop to think is not always a bad thing. The idea in a sentence just may be so large that the reader needs to pause to let it sink in. That’s how it is for me when I read Nadine Gordimer, she packs so many observations about human nature into each sentence that I enjoy stopping periodically to turn them over in my mind. I love that about her stories.

Myself, when I get deeply  involved in a project, I only leave the confines of my tiny home office to open the back door to let out  my whining dog.  When I do venture out, I enjoy taking my laptop to a coffee shop and just hearing other voices.  (the ones in my head argue too much which is annoying after awhile)  However, with the economy as it is, I’m sometimes loathe to spend money on expensive beverages with names I can’t pronounce just so I can use their wi-fi.  And for the times I do go out, I want to be able to control what I spend, since I’ll often get lunch while I’m there.  So, I just hadn’t been going out.  Not a socially healthy thing to do, especially for writers who need to see the outside world occasionally.

So, I came up with the idea of buying a monthly gift card for myself to the local coffee shop.  That way, I feel more comfortable going out since I know I already spent the money so I might as well use it.  And, since I have to make that card last all month, I won’t go over budget.  There has been a lot of criticism of gift cards in the news, but by paying attention to the terms and how you use it, you can use these cards to your advantage.

Starbucks and Panera Bread are the two I use. I’m sure there is one or multiples in your area.  Neither gift card has maintenance fees, nor expires.  Both cards also offer an auto-reload feature when your card balance dips below a certain amount, but that sounds like a financial disaster to me.

If you register your Starbucks card on-line, you’ll get two free hours of wi-fi a day and unlimited brewed coffee refills — plus some advertisements, I’m sure.  The free refill is only for coffee, so you’ll have to pay for that second mocha-latte raspberry cauliflower drink.  To get the wi-fi in the US, create an AT&T account.  If you live in Canada, the wireless provider is Bell Canada, and you’ll instead create an account with them. Here’s the details on Starbuck’s wi-fi services.  To receive these perks, you must use the gift card once every 30 days, probably not a problem for most people.

The Panera gift card doesn’t offer as many extra benefits.  On the other hand, they already have free, unlimited wi-fi and refills on coffee.

For those who travel, these gift cards can be great to get some work done away from the hotel room.  However, not all Starbucks will accept their cards.  You can use it at any regular Starbucks in North America, but not yet at all shops in other places like airports, bookstores, and college campuses.  For Panera Bread, they have different cards for the US and for Canada, which at the moment aren’t interchangeable.

So, if you drink a gallon of coffee a day, or just want an excuse to get out the house more, try using a gift card to manage your caffeine expense.

Resources
Panera card FAQ

Starbucks card FAQ

Info on Starbucks Wifi

Starbucks Canada Wi-Fi info

Even though it was released in early 07, many people have not upgraded yet.  So, what can be done so that everyone can open the same file, regardless of their software version?

Word 2000, XP, 2003

If your version of Word is pre-2007, download the free Office Compatibility Pack from Microsoft.  Once installed into your older version of Microsoft Office, this extension will allow you to open .docx, dotx, and all the other new formats for the rest of the Office programs such as Excel and Power Point.  However, you can’t save in the new format.  Re-save it as the older .doc.

Download the extension here
1. Click the Download button in the upper middle section of the page.
2. Double-click the file.
3. Accept the license agreement (as if you had a choice!) and you’ll get a message once it’s installed.
4. Double-click a .docx file and it will now open up in Word.

Microsoft’s documentation for the extension.

Word 2007

If you have Word 2007, you can always save in the older format.  Word 2007 can open and save in both formats.  Two ways to do it:

For an individual document:
1. Before you save it for the first time, click on the Office Button in the upper left hand corner.
2. Click “Save as.”
3. Choose “Word 97-2003 Document.”
4. Give it a name and hit Save.

To setup the older .doc as the default format:
1. Click on the Office Button.
2. Click “Word Options” at the bottom right of the menu.
3. Choose “Save” from the Left-hand Toolbar
4. Find “Save files in this format”
5. From the drop-down box, select “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)”
6. Click OK at the bottom right.

Of course, for anyone to get anything useful out of writing group, there have to be members giving something.  In a critique group, that “something” is feedback on other members’ writing.  The second interesting sentiment I heard in the discussion was a member who said she often didn’t feel qualified to say what she thought of a story because she didn’t know all the terms and techniques yet.

I’ve been in this group for around seven years.  It took me a while before I felt comfortable giving critiques to other writers.  Their stories always seemed way better than mine.  What could I possibly tell them?  When I did see something I could point out, I didn’t know the correct writing term.  Sometimes in writing there is a feeling that something is off, like that strange odor in your car (at least when I leave my gym bag in there), but you can’t put your finger on what it is right away.

One of the strengths of a group as opposed to just having one person read your work is every person will read differently.  For instance, I am anal about details. I’ll find that place you hit the space bar an extra time.  Yet, I’ll miss issues with the overall arc of a story.  By involving everyone in your critique group, you’ll get that much more thorough feedback.  That’s what’s in it for you.  For them, they’ll be learning both by giving critiques and learning ways to improve their own writing.

Here are a few suggestions to create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable giving feedback:

* When making a negative point, direct it at the story, not the writer.  “The dialogue is weak on page eight.”  And tell the writer themselves when they’ve done something well.  “You wrote the dialogue very realistically on page nine.”  That small change in the subject really makes a difference.

* The people in the group who have been there for years can share the harshest crit they’ve gotten.  Here’s mine- Years ago, I was asked, in all seriousness, if English was my first language (It is!)  The person asking wasn’t being mean at all, but I had made a ton of grammar errors that made him wonder.  I sure hope I’ve gotten better since then.

* Encourage people who aren’t comfortable giving feedback as a writer to instead give it as a reader.  Anybody who regularly reads knows they can spot issues in even the most polished book.  Giving your feedback as a reader can eliminate the worry that you won’t sound “like a writer.”

* Finally, relax.  No writer is perfect, we all need honest feedback.  Even the best-selling authors need editors and fresh eyes to help them fix their stories.

Ever day I drink too much coffee. “Every day” indicates how often I rot my stomach.

On the other hand, “everyday” (without a space) is an adjective. It means “ordinary” or “unremarkable.”

During the winter, shoveling my driveway becomes an everyday chore. “Everyday” describes “chore.”

The way to tell which to use is ask the question- can I replace it with “each day?” “Each day I drink too much coffee” sounds fine. “An each day chore” makes no sense.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia entry on Determiners

On Target, a communications newsletter from Purdue University

I read that in an article by Rob Owen in today’s Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the upcoming network TV season. This quote was pulled out, but even if it hadn’t it would have stood out to any reader. Not what I wanted with my morning coffee. Wait, here’s another quote from Silverman:

Last summer you saw every single movie was derivative. It was either a theme park ride with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ a toy with ‘Transformers,’ a comic book with ‘Spider-Man.’

If television and the movies push creative content in front of a run-away bus named Profit, what does that mean for all the other fields in creative writing? If anything ever called for a stiff drink and a shrink to find out why I chose this career, this would be it.

However depressing this seems, there is a bright spot. Well sort of. First of all, this stuff has been going on for years. This is well before my time, but have you ever seen some of those Elvis movies? Definitely not made to win critical acclaim. This is nothing new.

Magazine and newspapers are the same. Magazines have their “evergreen” topics that they cover at least once a year, gift buying guides for Valentines Day, neat places to take summer vacations, etc. Does this mean that creativity never existed in commercial creative writing? Some people may say so! Well, those who chose this writing field as a career did so for a reason – we like, even love to put words into sentences. Even with those tired cover stories the glossies use that stronger muscles and better sex all at once, there is a lot of room for creativity. A writer who can put his or her unique spin on a story and their individual voice will make readers pay attention to even a topic they’ve seen so many times before.

Here’s a few ways to keep that interest:

Use your personal experiences
These experiences that you have with your topic are what makes your writing different from anybody else’s. More importantly is how you felt and reacted. These are what you’ll use to build an emotional arc in the story. In an writing an article on choosing mountain bike tires, I might bring up the memories of riding on my first cheap set and how nervous I was as I skidded and slid down the trail. Another writer could even use the same material, but our stories will still be unique to one another.

Think about the audience
How do they deal with your topics on a daily business? If the article is on the benefits of getting out of bed earlier in the morning, what is in for them? Don’t stop at just that they might get more done in the day because they have an extra hour. Deepen your argument and show them why this really could help them. You have to sincerely tune into your audience. Avoid leaving them thinking, “What does this jerk know about my life? I have to put the kids to bed then read reports for work until almost midnight, and he wants me to get out of bed early?!”

News-worthy events
Is there something in the news that can be tied into your topic?
A recent survey on what people really want as a Christmas gift can make an interesting holiday gift-giving guide. This can have an added benefit of making a publisher decide to run your article sooner if it has a relevant, time-sensitive angle. Many newspapers have RSS feeds of their articles. Spend a few minutes perusing them for unique angles

Flip it around
Look at the topic from a totally opposite view point. Everyone knows that the rising cost of gasoline is hurting those who drive. Knock that on it’s head and write instead about the historical trends of gas prices, or maybe why people still love to take their annual summer vacation despite the higher costs. Even if you don’t ultimately write from that different view it will still give you insight into the complexities and tangents of your topic. These can all be used to expand your article in fresh ways.

Think large
Take a regional story and present it in a larger context. An example, that was unfortunately way overused, was the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Many stories used that tragedy and brought to it a larger frame of reference exploring what the event meant for the nation as a whole, not just one town in Colorado.

Think small
Or try the opposite. How does your topic affect a suburb in Indiana? What’s different in how it affects a mid-western town in Nebraska or a neighborhood in Atlanta? These can fit in with a regional market, but they could also be an interesting story for a national audience too. I personally find glimpses into the lives of people in places distant to my own to be intriguing.

I hope these give you some ideas on working within the constraints of markets obsessed with their revenue and profit instead of their quality. None of us can change that, but we can still make our audience believe in the words we write.

And just because I don’t want this to end too optimistically, here’s one last quote from the newspaper article. The CW’s Dawn Ostroff talks about those semi-hidden advertisements known as product placement and how younger people will react:

There are so many different kinds of product placement that you can do these days that’s just organic to their lifestyle.

Sorry, I can’t come up with much good for this trend. By the way, wouldn’t you rather read this article on a shiny new Dell Inspiron laptop?

I realized it’s actually just an old cliche, but with two extra words thrown in. Compare that line to “If we don’t we’re gonna blow a fuse.”

Omitting “50-amp,” while just a small detail, but it changes the line from something interesting to just another worn-out saying. After all those controlled substances, I don’t know if the Stones still know what a fuse is, let alone the amperage rating of one, but it works well in the song.

That detail also changes the length of the sentence. Read these lines out-loud:

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, we’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse

Notice how the last line takes just an instant longer to say because of the “50-amp?” Even though it still follows the alternating lines rhyming scheme, it breaks the flow by being just enough longer. Any longer and it might be too awkward, but this one additional breath makes it stand out.

Of course, song lyrics are different from article and fiction writing. Lyrics have to fit a music’s rhythm and could be considered more like poetry than prose. Yet, we can still learn some lessons from how a good line in a song makes us nod our head. Getting our prose to swing at climatic points in our writing makes it that much more lively. As Ella Fitzgerald sang, “It don’t mean a thing . . . “

Obsessing over things being flawless is not an easy habit to break. Especially, with writing and editing. Anyone who’s ever submitted a piece on which they thought they had caught every mistake, only to discover that they misspelled their own name, knows what I’m talking about. A piece of writing can never be perfect- we all know that. Yet, how do can we ensure that we get the piece out to a client or boss in the appropriate amount of time while still maintaining a high level of quality?

Here’s my new method. I got the idea from “Putting a stop-loss on your worries” (chapter 10) in Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Hadn’t read it for years, but for some reason it surfaced in my mind recently. Briefly, it says that we should only distress about something for as long as it’s worth. In other words, if fretting that we sent a poorly worded email, that anxiety is only valued at a half hour. After that, it simply isn’t worth it to beat ourselves up. In reality it only affects our life in a small way and that recipient probably didn’t even read that email closely. So, we put a stop-loss, a bottom level, to how much we let something bug us.

How does this apply to writing projects? Here’s an example, and I’m just throwing these numbers out there. Say I can earn twenty dollars to write this blog post. I put a fifteen dollar per hour value on this type of writing. So, it would be a bad business decision for me to take three hours to complete this post, which would get me only six and a half dollars an hour. Would you ever take a job if they told you that was the wage? I know I wouldn’t, unless of course they give me free hot dogs and beer all day long.

Here’s a more complicated example. The project is writing multiple-choice questions for a high school curriculum. The ones with one blank take an average of about nine minutes, the dual blanks questions take around thirteen minutes. Also plan for about two hours to edit and format the whole group. After I put a value on my time, this helps me both negotiate a price and keep me on target. All I have to do is divide the total price by my hourly rate to see how many hours I can take to finish the project and still earn a decent wage. The times to do the work are what it would take me to do a good job. I don’t want to plan on rushing things, unless that’s a requirement for the project. Then I either increase the price or decrease my quality control somewhat.

Of course, there are exceptions with using stop-losses on both our anxieties and writing projects. Sometimes life throws a nasty spit-ball right at our head. Some worries keep us up at night because they indeed have enormous consequences for us and those we care about. In writing there’s always the project where we thought we knew enough to do it, but later found it will take hours of extra research. Or the computer will crash and we’ll have to retype a document. (You do back up, don’t you?) Yet, applying this stop-loss concept gives us some control over seemingly nebulous things. Such is life, and writing.

Update: This morning, totally by accident I came across this same idea in Writer’s Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, page 210. Since I had read this book in the past, that’s probably where I got the idea from! In the book are more examples of treating writing as a business, as well as tons of other advice for nonfiction writing from querying to researching to article structure. A useful book overall.

However, my current project is writing and editing practice questions for a curriculum on college entrance exams. Everyone who has taken these knows this means learning all obscure words to score well. So, I’ve been brushing up my dusty vocab skills, and finding that the meaning of some words I thought I knew were a little different.

That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about language. There are so many different words. Many words have at least one synonym, but there still are subtle differences. Having a large working vocabulary helps you find the proper word, or ‘le mot juste.’ (Sorry, but had to use it. I hate hearing that phrase almost as much as ‘in media res!’)

Learning these edumacated words has helped me understand the nuances in definitions and also how these words may fit or not fit a certain context. That’s the biggest reason to understand a word’s meaning. If I was writing a scene where a man was enthusiastically driving to his his wedding day, he is probably not going to think “basilica,” unless of course he is a geeky writer. But that word could work fine in a travel narrative where I want to give the feeling of a religious building that belongs to an older age. Plus, basilica, while a synonym to “church,” does have a slightly different meaning. A basilica has special papal privileges and a specific structure.

So, use your words correctly, and in context. Treat learning vocab as a butterfly collector would- always finding that new, fascinating specimen.

Some words I learned recently that I’ll probably never use in writing, but are still interesting:

conurbation N. an extended urban area, especially one consisting of several towns and merging suburbs.

emporium N. 2. a center of commerce [can be a city, such as New York City]

roborant Adj. strengthening

inequitable Adj. unfair, unjust

(definitions from Oxford American Dictionary, 1999)

My favorite new word
flaneur N. One who strolls about aimlessly
(from Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, 1998 )

The best way to learn a word is just flip through the old-fashioned dictionary. I know that book is heavy, but the exercise is good for us. If you’re one of those people who must do everything online, here’s some sites I’ve been using:

Dictionary.com’s word of the day archives

English-Word Information All those Latin and Greek roots you forgot from High School

Webster’s Online Dictionary Neat features include internet usage stats and art or book titles using the word.

A consistent writing style that fits your intended audience

Many blogs have a casual style. It’s probably a chicken versus egg argument about whether readers like on-line content to be laid-back because it fits the constantly shifting medium that is the Internet or it’s just what they’ve come to expect. Either way, if that’s what your audience wants, give it to them.

Yet, there are still many variations between blogs. Maxim.com’s audience of twenty-something year-old horny guys will anticipate different writing than the analytical and probably older crowd at the Dividend Growth Investor blog.

Often a blog is written for a reader with the same interests as the author. A good rule is if you don’t find something you write to be fascinating, chances are neither will your audience.

The hard part is when you are writing not just for yourself. Most people doing this crazy gig as a career will have to write for another audience at some point if they want to eat. The good thing about the Internet is for any topic, there are already a hundred blogs and forums. Research these to find not only the vocab and style, but also the niches for subgroups in each subject. A search on Maxim showed that they also have posts on finance. These titles should give you a feel for their style- “Investment Strategies For the A-hole In You” and “Dogs of the Dow.” Compare with these titles from Dividend Growth Investor- “Is Pfizer (PFE) a value trap for investors?” and “Average Durations of Previous Bear Markets.” A few Google searches came up with hundreds of finance blogs written for all types of readers.

After your know your audience, write using your own style, wit, and insights to create something that those reader will identify with, but also find unique.

Structured articles read better than stream of consciousness writing

It’s no surprise that readers look for articles with enticing leads wherever they’re reading, on-line or otherwise. And those openings better have equally strong supporting evidence, or readers will quickly look elsewhere. Even if blog posts are shorter and with a conversational style, the popular ones still have all the elements of good article structure- catchy opening hooks, paragraphs with details backing up the opening, seamless transitions between paragraphs or scenes, one idea per paragraph- all those things we learned in fifth grade English.

Stream of consciousness writing does have it’s place. A post on the blog Everything But Nothing, talks about the success of Julia Allison’s Non Society blog which is written nothing at all like a traditional magazine! When done well, stream of consciousness can really make the reader feel they are part of the narrator’s head, experiencing their life the way people truly do- in a disorganized, non-linear fashion. But, just because that’s the way people really think, doesn’t make it any easier to write it effectively. Personal journals are written in this style. Since blogs are often thought of as on-line journals, it would make sense to write the same way. The problem is, journals are meant for the writer to read. Blogs are for the world. Used infrequently and carefully, I think spontaneous, raw writing is very exciting to read, but I couldn’t read it every day any more than I could stand to read my own journal every day.

Pictures help both with the visual appeal and pulling in readers

A calm beach scene at the top of a post about taming personal stress, or a busy city at night for an article on the music scene in Baltimore; both set the mood and capture a reader’s attention to a post headline. With cheap but quality digital cameras and user-friendly photo software, it is easier than ever to turn snap shots into web-ready pics.

You don’t even have to use your own pictures. There are many free pics published under free to use licenses on Flikr and Picassa (look for terms like Copyleft, GPL, and Creative Commons). Creative Commons.org even has a search engine, search.creativecommons.org, for photos, music, even videos. However, to me a site that only uses perfect-looking, stock photos runs the danger of feeling impersonal. Like the clean and professional chain restaurant versus the local one with the mismatched furniture, the latter is often more intriguing.

Proofread

For God’s sake- read it over before you hit the submit button! Grammar and vocab rules still apply, even if the writing style is casual. Many common writing errors are very easy to spot. Reading out loud is a great way to find them. Even better, have someone else, with a little time and patience, read it. Even something as small as an extra space will catch my eye and distract me for an instant. It’s true that a great story won’t be ruined by one misspelled word, but why take the chance of turning off a potential reader? (I really hope I caught all my mistakes before posting this one. Otherwise I deserve to be flamed until my web browser screams in agony!)

There’s so much that can be said about each of these topics, which I plan on exploring more in depth in the coming weeks.