My favorite Sunday paper–The New York Times–has an interesting article on status updates in Facebook. You can read the article by clicking here. Suffice to say that I need to work on the poetry of my status updates, to create more “spontaneous bursts of being: perfect.”
Category: Writing Resources
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Check out the post on the Writer Beware Blog for an in-depth discussion. I don’t think authors have much to worry about since the quality of audio that the Kindle2 offers will match (if ever) the quality of a professionally produced audiobook. At best, the audio option will be a service to the visually impaired. I love audiobooks, and I’ve listened to quite a range of quality. A non-professionally produced audiobook can be entertaining for all the wrong reasons, but if I really want to enjoy a book audibly, then I’ll ante up for a professional production. The Kindle 2 offers a convenience only.
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Every so often I get a comment on one of my posts that leads me to an interesting and link-worthy website. Such is The Virginia Creeper’s House of Horror. This website is hosted by Laura Wright, a “multi-published author” according to her bio. Now I have not read anything by Laura–yet–but her websites are definitely worth frequent visits. You will find free downloads of fiction and articles on horror writing. Be forewarned, however: some of the links are not yet live and navigation among the websites is a little awkward. Patience, patience. All good websites have to start somewhere.
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I recently created a profile on Facebook, at first to follow the lives of the younger members of my families. But I’ve since gone Facebook crazy with adding apps, including trying to add my blog posts. Although this old gal has a bit of a learning curve with Facebook, it is insanely easy to set up compared to MySpace and much more fun. But, you may ask, is there any value in Facebook for the aspiring writer? Jump over to Wicked Wordsmith for a great post on “Using Facebook to Your Advantage.” Blogger Angela Wilson interviews Mari Smith on the pros and cons of using Facebook as a marketing tool. It’s a great interview with lots of tips and insights for tyros like me and, maybe, you too!
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I subscribe to a few literary agent blogs: Nathan Bransford-Literary Agent, Bookends, LLC–A Literary Agency, and Lyons Literary LLC. I’m sure there’s plenty more out there, but these suffice for my limited perusing time. The great part of these blogs is that they are interactive: that is, their posts encourage lively discussion, and they sometimes offer free critiques which they then post as part of their blog. They are educational, which is their greatest appeal to me. Although I’m not yet peddling a novel, it’s never too early to learn about agents, that crucial link between you and publication.
Powered by ScribeFire.
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Well, I wasted no time in trying out this Firefox add-on recommended by BJ Keltz. Very easy to install and set-up. Apparently, I can post entries to other blogs I might have, and Scribefire also provides a list of my entries and categories. I can tag, too, and have my post bookmarked for del.icio.us. So far, I am happy.
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I came across a neat WordPress & writing sister this morning: BJ Keltz at Write Your Mind Journals. In full disclosure, BJ has me on her blogroll. I’ve gotten a couple of hits from that, so I thought I should check her out (and return the favor). BJ blogs about her business (selling writing journals) and writing. Her blog is visually appealing, and her entries about journaling will strike a chord in any writer who sees writing as a tool as well as an art. I highly recommend that you click on the tab “Tools of the Trade.” BJ reviews a number of Firefox add-ons that she uses for writing. I am definitely going to check them out — if I can ever get Firefox 3.0 to stay installed on my Mac OS.
To the right of her blog, you’ll find a link to her store. I have not (yet) purchased anything from BJ, but I am sorely tempted. I’m a bit of a journal collector, and I love browsing through journals when I’m at a bookstore (or any store, even Target sells journals!). But I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any more journals until I had filled all the ones I have now … but you know what they say about promises :-)
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Last week I started a new job. Well, more like a new old job. I’ve taken a position as a survey coordinator with a former employer. I have the distinct pleasure of working again with a group of people that I respect and like. There are some new faces, of course, but overall it’s a great group and I’m happy to be back with them. The downside is I haven’t written for my blog since starting my new job until now. I have been writing, however. Check out The Writer’s Resource Center and see all my long comments to John Hewitt‘s latest series on becoming a technical writer. He’s using a new style that I think is working very well. He ends his post with a few questions, and that’s what does me in. Although I’m not a technical writer, John and I apparently have enough work experience in common that I can’t help but write essays in responding to his questions. I hope he doesn’t get tired of hearing from me :-)
John’s new series and my new job are leading to me rethink this blog. I want to stay focused on writing, but I don’t want to just rehash what everyone else in the blogosphere is saying about writing. My new old job is in the field of public health, and I think there’s a lot to say about that field. In particular, how to write about public health:
- how to write reports that may have a widely diverse audience (general public as well as public health professionals)
- how to integrate public health statistics in a way meaningful to the lay person
- when and how to use graphics, figures, and tables
- how to decide on what public health topics to write about
If you work in the public health field, or have an interest in public health, please leave a comment or email me directly with any suggestions you might have for my blog.
And, as always, thanks for stopping by!
Marie at 1 Write Way 