Trial Readers

Recently I was privileged to be included as a Trial Reader for a friend who is currently looking to publish her book.

This is a great concept that I have never heard of before, and I am excited to be considered worthy.  If you are new to the idea, it might be worth your while to read the article she posted.

Ten Volunteers Required — the hows and whys of Trial Reader reviews

I’m off now, I have homework to finish

Learning How to Write to Publish

My very first blog back in May of last year still stands.  I am still learning, and attempting to put in to practice what I am learning.

Since writing that first blog, I have actually started to follow some writers, authors and teachers.  And from each one I have learned something different.

I could probably spend years reading and learning from others, and still not get down to the business of actually publishing something.  I don’t mean publishing a blog or articles on the internet.  I’ve done that and have enjoyed it.  But it does little for my goal of learning to write to publish.

I could wax poetic, or rant about random issues; I could express myself on political or religious views.  But in most cases I wouldn’t stand a chance against so many hundreds of thousands of people who are much more knowledgeable in those areas.

If I am honest, I write because I really love recognition, so what can I write about with passion that would interest the multitudes and feed the need of this writer for recognition?  That’s a question I am still working on.  I have lots of ideas but I need someone to bounce those ideas off.  Working on that too.

Writing to Learn: Writing to Teach

In the process of discovering why I write as posted previously, I am now looking at my second reason which is writing to learn and to teach.  When I look at some recent work, it is mostly here, that I work.  With that in mind, let me tell you about a new series I am working on.

Success!  Women who have found it, or women who are looking for it!

I am in the process of writing a series which includes a look at several women of success.

This started as a result of the wonderful networking that was a part of a social networking site I built for women a few years back.  It had it’s moment of glory and was quite successful.

Regardless of it’s closing, some of the connections made were completely amazing and that networking continues to this day.  As a way to say thank you to some of those women, I am writing a series about their successes.

Some have recommended other women I should consider, and while this is definitely not where I was going to go with it – I can see the potential.

Having said that I would like to get some opinions on what you as a reader would consider worth your time to read.

Two Tips for Technical Writers

Recently I have had the privilege of teaching computer basics to a wonderful group of adults.  A great deal of the writing for this group was technical – not my favorite genre – and for most of them, it seemed very dry.

Add a little humor

Writing technical material with a dash of humor makes me hum that famous line from Mary Poppins:  “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down…In a most delightful way”  [are you singing the song to yourself?]

Cartoons, jokes, and real life experiences are often just what the doctor ordered.

K.I.S.S.

When writing technical information for the beginner it is helpful to remember they are beginners.

That is not to say they are stupid, it just means they are beginners in the field you are writing about.

Here’s where it gets hard…put yourself in their shoes and write in the simplest terms.

Whenever possible, simple step-by-step instructions are the best way to teach.  So learn how to write them clearly and in simple terms.

Pictures are always helpful so if you are teaching a program use the print screen to document every step in a picture format.

It’s very easy to get ahead of yourself when writing this type of work.  Make a habit of trying to follow your own instructions once you have written them.  It’s a great exercise in editing your writing.

A Brief description of my recent travels

It has taken me a half a decade to travel to the US nation’s capital city of Washington DC.

Even then I had to do so while on business. Therefore my opportunity to visit all the sites was extremely limited. We managed to see the Lincoln Memorial, and walk all the way up to the White House stopping along the way to see the

• Korean War Veterans memorial
• WWII Memorial
• Washington Monument
• The Reflecting Pool (at sunset – quite stunning)

We then took a tour around and checked out the following buildings so that we could say we “saw” them. We did not however have time to check them out close up:

• Ronald Regan building
• Old Post Office building
• National Archives building
• Traveled around the US Capital
• Supreme Court
• Library of Congress
• Jefferson Building
• National Gallery of Arts
• Smithsonian Castle
• Air and Space Museum
• NGA East Building (unique architecture)

Because we had to be in classes all day and run to catch a return flight on the 3rd day, we did not have the opportunity to visit the MANY museums located on “The Mall”.
I will write likely write a hub about it just because I can, and perhaps post some of the pictures there. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you plan some time to visit the US capital city if you plan to travel to the US. It is an absolute treasure trove of history, and quite a moving experience even for a visitor from Canada.

Putting Passion Behind Your Words – Guest Blog by Cynthia Clampitt

When I talk with people who imagine themselves becoming writers, one of the things I emphasize is the need to care deeply. It is, in fact, the most important rule of writing. However, there are a number of things about which one can care. Of course, it’s delightful if one can always write about a subject with which one is in love, but needing to pay the rent sometimes requires that we write on topics that are less than exciting. That is when it is important to remember that the topic is not the only thing one can consider. There are, in fact, two other key things about which a writer must care, and both are more important even than the topic, at least if one wishes to become a consistently good writer.

The first thing to remember is your audience. Care deeply about your reader. You may not care about the topic, but they do, or they won’t be reading it. Think of them and focus on delighting them.

The second thing is your craft. Care deeply about writing well. Even if a topic is not exhilarating, writing a beautifully crafted piece is something of which you can be proud.

I love writing about travel, food, history, and culture, but I have written some absolutely riveting pieces about how the artwork that goes on the sides of trucks is designed, in order to both advertise the company and increase the safety factor of the truck moving through traffic. I’ve also written about fly fishing and getting out of debt. Because I kept the audience in mind and focuses on crafting the best writing I could, I was delighted with all these pieces—and so were the people who offered me additional work, increasingly on topics I did love.

So whatever you’re doing, do it beautifully. Care about your audience. Care about your craft. You may actually be surprised at what you learn when you do something outside your area of specialization, but even if you don’t, you’ll be becoming a better writer.

Cynthia Clampitt

Writing for Enjoyment – Part Three

Only one more post about writing for enjoyment. Although I think I could write several more, I will start looking at my other 2 reasons.

I will be traveling shortly to a different country. This will be the second time in my life that I have travelled outside of my own country. While I am looking forward to the experience, I’m a little nervous with all the new security measures they take for international travel. However, as I am traveling with a co-worker, there will be someone to share the experience with and to commiserate with if it comes to that.

After the travel is done, we hope to do a little bit of a `walk about`. If we have to travel, we figure we should take advantage of it and see the sites. I will bring along my trusty journal and expect this to be a fun writing experience as well.

To recap, writing for enjoyment can certainly be a part of my travel experience and I expect to see some prolific results.

Stay tuned.

Writing for Enjoyment – Part Two

I’m trying to lay out the reasons why I write. I’m not sure how you work, but for me putting it in print – or in writing helps me to solidify / clarify things.
I’m going back to my three reasons for writing:
• Enjoyment
• Learning / Teaching
• Revenue opportunity
My first reason is because I enjoy it. Perhaps that is why I think that first point deserves two posts on its own. Perhaps as I work through this, I will find several more posts for each reason.
One of the real pleasures of writing for me is to record the history of our family. And without getting in to the treasures you can find while doing genealogy research; birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and the birth of children are all milestones for which I love to write poems.
I find there is not much in the way of revenue opportunity for poetry of this sort, but it is something in high demand within the family circle. And it’s always so much fun to teach everyone some of the history of the family, and share some quirky antidotes of the person celebrating the milestone.
So to quickly recap, high on the list of writing for enjoyment are poems for milestones in a rather large and constantly growing family.

Writing for the Enjoyment

Sometimes I just get the urge to pick up a pen and write the good old fashion way. No keyboard, no spell check and no “delete” key.
Many writers claim they keep a journal, and I was given one for Christmas. On those days that I just get that urge to pick up a pen, there is my trusty journal.

• Now here is a place you can write anything you want. You can contemplate the mysteries of the universe with no fear that someone is going to watch what you are doing, look over your shoulder as you work through something, or criticize your idealism.
• You can bitch at the world in general, or you can complain with the bluest language without fear of censorship.
• You can espouse great love for your family because here your sentiments are not too mushy.
• You can talk to God as if he were sitting there having a coffee with you, and no one needs to know.
• It’s here in your journal that you can paint fabulous pictures of vivid sunsets that touched your soul on your drive home from work.
• It’s here in your journal that you can write for the sheer pleasure of it – for you.

Why do you write?

Type in the word “write” in any search engine you choose and you will come up with hundreds of thousands of different sites, blogs, quotes, suggestions and in some cases, pure dribble.
Understanding for me sometimes takes a long time because I am a “hands on” person, meaning I learn by doing. I believe the technical term is a “tactile learner”. Getting to this point has taken me some time.

What have I learned recently that has taken so long?

It’s simple: writing should have a purpose. It seems pretty simple and straight forward once you actually see it. I’m guessing many people will read this and think I’m a bit dense not to know that already. What brought this point home to me was reading about publishing. I read copious amounts of information daily. In fact most days I feel bombarded and completely inundated with information overload.
Believe me this had to jump off the page and hit me squarely between the eyes before it sunk in. But now that it has, I have decided to sit and come up with three reasons why I write. I figure once I have that out of the way, I just might be able to go on and do something productive with it.

3 Reasons to write

• Enjoyment
• Learning / Teaching
• Revenue opportunity