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Bad Boys of Writing: Just Write and It Will Be Spectacular

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Meet the Bad Boys of Writing

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Everyone knows them and hangs out with them. They are the bad boys of writing. Handsome and seductive fellows, they have weaseled their way into our thinking. They’re conmen really — conmen in the true sense of the word — they play a confidence came.

The bad boys take advantage of us because we wrote so much in school. They mess with our heads because we learned to write on cue. We confused the act of writing with the art and craft of writing. We don’t do that with wearing shoes, or living in a house or driving, but we do that with books and writing. So the bad boys of writing have a field day.

It’s time we showed the bad boys that we can beat them at their game.

Meet Bad Boy 1: Just write and it will be spectacular!

[Read more…]

6+1 Traits: Conventions –The 6+1 Secret Rules of Online Writing

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Writing for Online Is Different

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Effective writing is writing that works. It follows a set of rules we agree on. We call those rules writing conventions, as in conventional writing. Where some writers can trip up is that they don’t realize that the conventions for writing for print are slightly different from those we use when writing online. The differences are small in nature, but big in impact. They can mean a reader stays to read or clicks on by.

Now I’m anything but conventional. Still I know the value of following convention to make my readers feel comfortable in knowing how to navigate through what I write. [Read more…]

6+1 Traits of Search Engine Relevant Content

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Get Relevant

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A 7-year-girl stands staring at a 27-car pile-up in which her dearest pet, a golden retriever, was thrown from the car onto hard pavement. The pup is in the road unmoving and ignored. A TV reporter — desperate for a Pulitzer — asks the child, “How do you feel now that your dog has died?”

The thoughtless question to the little girl is irrelevant to the story about the 27-car pile-up.

The reporter herself is irrelevant to the little girl. . . .

Unless the little girl caused pile up and killed puppy, her feelings (besides being obvious) just aren’t relevant.

Maybe that works on TV, but not the Internet. That reporter would have Google Page Rank Zero. Who’d do a Google search for a story on how that little girl felt? [Read more…]

6+1 Traits of Effective Blog Writing

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Effective Writing Traits Kids Know that We Don’t

I’m writing a writing program again. Writing programs are like other products. They have their individual nuances. They offer particular features and benefits, but all solid writing programs offer certain things in common. The engine of any well-built writing program is the 6+1 Traits of Writing.

If you’re reading this post, it’s unlikely that you encountered the 6+1 Traits as a student. You could find plenty about them on the Web now. Unfortunately, what you found would take the form of lessons and research for teaching school children. Why should school kids and their teachers be the only ones with direct access to the information and the rest of us have to adjust our thinking?

I’ve decided a simple action is in order. [Read more…]

Don’t Fear the Blank Screen — Be a Miner

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Staring at a Blank Screen

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Staring at a blank screen does nothing for me. In fact, I recommend against it. In my way of thinking, blank things encourage more blank things. When I want my head filled with information and ideas, not with blank, emptiness I do this. [Read more…]

Editing: Just Some of My Very Different Thoughts

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Power Editing

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Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
— Mark Twain

In the Successful Blog Cafe last week Rob at Jamdo’s article offered advice on how to strip out excess words in your posts to increase keyword density. That’s good editing advice. In fact, much of editing is taking out ALL of the words that you don’t need.

Words that Writers Don’t Need

As bloggers, we write in a conversational tone, but conversation moves fast and easy. We can correct if someone doesn’t understand what we’re saying. They can interrupt if we’re going on, and on, and on, and on. We’re likely to notice if our audience walks away while we’re still talking.

Unfortunately, we don’t have those luxuries when the words are written. More written words don’t necessarily build more bridges and rapport. Additional words can get between the reader and our message. Here are places I go to remove extra words that creep in while I’m writing. [Read more…]