All Things Writing

The Craft of Writing


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Book Proposal Sample Chapter

Working on the sample chapter for a book proposal. It’s amazing how many times a sentence can be tweaked before it “sings.” But once it does… I guess that’s the moment writers live for – that moment when it just sounds right.

I don’t know about you, but for me, once the first section is set, it all falls into place. I know that’s supposedly because my vision is clear then, but it’s more than that. I can have a detailed outline that tells me each thing to cover in sequence, along with a killer topic sentence, but that’s still not the same as when the first section takes on a life of its own.

I think moments when it all clicks are the reason I’m a writer.

So many things to write about! I want to write about them all!

Gina


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The Changing Nature of News Coverage

Unknown-5I’m glued to my video stream – as are many of you, I’m sure – as events in Boston unfold. I can’t help but remember back to 9/11, when the source of ongoing news was the television.

I’m not one to watch the same coverage over and over and over. I also tend not to watch most unfolding news coverage because frankly, I don’t think most of what is shared is information that should be shared. My concern is that it provides “tips and tricks” for those who are intent on causing harm while giving me information I simply don’t need.

Maybe it’s because Boston is in a part of the country I know well. Maybe it’s because it is such a horrific story. Maybe it’s because it is all unfolding in real time. Whatever the reason, it’s a story I want to follow. It’s also a story that has made extraordinary use of social and digital media. From smart phone footage to Twitter tweets, streaming video, and text message alerts, the events of this week have unfolded in a way that can be followed independent of a conventional television set. Continue reading →


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CSS and php

I was so proud of my new blog. It is a WordPress.org site. It was gorgeous. At least it was gorgeous until I needed to do something with the header.php file. That evidently overrode much of what I’d done in CSS. Now it looks sort of like alphabet soup – and yes, I’m being generous.

At least I know where I went wrong. I also know how to fix it. And I now know how to generate a screen that tells people I’m working on my site and gives them a link to click to get to the old site. All in all, I’d say I’m doing very well.

I’m certain that any of this I can do, anyone else can do. I encourage you to give it a try if you’re just not happy with the way your blog looks or you want a widget that contains script. That was the motivator for me. I wanted to help the kids at One Simple Wish badly enough to go through this rigamarole at this precise moment. These foster kids are well worth the time invested in the switch.

So what is your reason for wanting more control over your blog or Web site? We want to know.


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Oh. Yes! I have gone the way of WordPress.org for one of my blogs and am alive to tell the tale. I’ve removed spaces between widgets, reduced the size of the text in the text widget, centered things, squished things, AND discovered the meaning of the post formats.

More to come in the future…


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Must-Haves

If you’re going to go it alone – or at least try to – in establishing yourself with a blog and various other social media accoutrements, here are some things that can save you some sanity.

Podcasts: Yes. You create the audio recording. You can use GarageBand for that. It works great. You might want a different mic. All of that is discussed in this post. However, unless you bleed through your eyes, you may not discover that you need to burn a feed and submit the feed to Apple. How do you do that? My suggestion is to run to Feedburner. It works. Oh. And you’ll also need to upload your audio file somewhere. You can upload it to your WordPress site, but you have to upgrade it first. You’ll find that info when you click on Media and look closely at all the stuff you ignore when uploading images. Continue reading →


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Nike Steps in It

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“Winning Takes Care of Everything”. Thanks, Nike. Good to know.

I can now stop telling my kids that personal integrity, character, making things good, and not getting into a mess in the first place are all essential parts of being a person with integrity.

They’ll be delighted to hear that all they have to do is win. The other stuff is so much more work. Continue reading →


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Tackling HTML and CSS

I’ve noticed I can add CSS to my blog to make it do what I want. That has not made sense to me until now!

Yes. Going with the theory that knowledge is power, I am tackling HTML and CSS – in the most basic sense. Continue reading →


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The Value of Giving Up

There is value in giving up. I’m sure of it. I mean, how many hours is it worth to get the image for your blog to fit in the blasted little square? I’m not sure, but I know  it is not the number of hours I’ve spent futzing with it.

Help_mI’ve been a financial analyst, so I know the mesmerizing quality of figures run through various scenarios. I’ve already admitted to being blog-stat-enchanted. Neither of these practices come close to the effort I will put into something that “only needs a tweak.”

There in lies the fallacy.

There is no such thing as “only needs a tweak.”

In the spirit of the original cookie to a mouse, each tweak inevitably leads to another. and another. and another. Maybe this is because I have no real idea of what I’m doing. I’m ready to admit that freely. However, as a writer, I need an online presence. I also need a way to promote my book through the site I created for that purpose. In order to do that, I either need a lot of green – so not happening – OR I need the stubborn determination and dumb luck to do it myself. Continue reading →


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Blog Stats

What can I say? I’ve been studying my blog stats like a miser counting his gold coins.

I’ve read everything I can find on click counts, views vs visitors, the use of ….more in posts, linking internally, linking externally, linking extra terrestrially. I’ve also read and practice the publicize tips through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest… People who haven’t seen me in years are starting to hate me!

But those stats. Those stats are so alluring.  Continue reading →


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iMovie

So you need to make some sort of video out of still images. Not possible you say? Yes. It is.

In iMovie you can take the still images and manipulate a number of variables to create an automated slideshow with narration. The narration could be music if you prefer. The template can be no-template-at-all, or the template of your choosing. Continue reading →