CommenTerry

Leaving Out Small But Important Words

One of the primary reasons that I need to proofread everything I write is my tendency to leave out small but important words. The absence of these words can change the entire meaning of what I’m wanting to say. For example, leaving out the word “not” will make a sentence say just the opposite of what you want it to say. Other omissions, although not quite as severe, can render a sentence almost incomprehensible.

 Then there are those which, if left out, will make a writer sound like Tarzan or otherwise make him or her seem ignorant to the average reader. Unfortunately, word processing software can only do so much, such as checking for spelling and grammar. The problem is that omissions can fly under the radar, as they often do not involve misspellings or bad grammar (technically, anyway). Therefore, I have to be vigilant about my proofreading or risk making a fool out of myself.

Stuff I Will Not Respond To

I try to make a habit of responding to most of the comments people make about my articles and postings. I do that to show my appreciation to those who take the time to read and comment on my work. However, there are some types of comments I will not respond to. It would obviously be a complete waste of time to do so.

I will not respond to stupid comments. I define a stupid comment as one in which someone tries to argue something that they are obviously ignorant about. Logic would not appeal to them, so they would just come back with more of the same drivel. Responding to such a comment would be like trying to eat soup with a fork.

For example, someone responded to a recent article that I did about Rand Paul. In the response, this person tried to imply that Rand Paul is a neo-con. Rand Paul might be a lot of things but he is certainly not that. In fact, he is the antithesis of a neo-con. This person obviously didn’t have the foggiest idea what a neo-con is, but that didn’t stop him or her from trying to pin that label on someone.

And then there are those knuckleheads who think they’re putting me in my place with a lot of ignorant babble that, in many cases, is fraught with errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Those kinds of comments serve only as a monument of humiliation to their author. There’s no point in answering such self-inflicted wounds.

I take time to think out what I want to say. I choose my words carefully. If someone comments on something I write without actually having read it, why should I bother to respond? I want people to comment on stuff that I have written, not on something that they have imagined that I wrote. I tend to ignore comments based on the latter.

I favor comments that are based on facts and logic. I frown on thoughtless, emotional, or fanatical generalizations. For example, if I say I oppose some tenets of Affirmative Action and someone tersely responds, “You’re a racist.” If you’re going call me something like that, at least have the decency to provide a thought-out explanation of why you believe I’m a racist.

At least that would provide the foundation for a sensible debate. But how is someone supposed to respond to someone else calling them a racist then running away? In cases like that, it’s tempting to come back with something pithy and sarcastic. But I generally try to resist that temptation. Generally.

What's in Your Pending Articles Folder?

I don’t know about other writers, but I keep about five to ten articles in a “pending articles” folder at all times. The articles I keep there are those that, in my opinion, are not quite ready for primetime yet. A few are ultimately merged in with other articles. About 20% of these articles, however, are eventually deleted and therefore never make it to the light of day to seen by anyone other than me. The remainder are published somewhere (my blog, if nowhere else) sooner or later. Most of the time, this happens sooner rather than later.

Articles in this folder include those that I have just started on, along with those that I’m not quite satisfied with for whatever reason. That reason could be any one or combination of the following: (1) the article’s style needs some work (it’s too simplistic, rambling, repetitious, etc), (2) I’ve not been able to make it say what I want it to say, (3) it’s incoherent or not coherent enough for my standards, (4) there are words that I’m looking for but can’t think of yet, or (5) I have yet to organize it or my thoughts properly.

Do you keep a pending articles folder? If so, what are your reasons for keeping articles in it?

Five Things This Writer Can’t (Won’t) Do

Many authors, especially those who write for the Web, use various techniques and practices that help them get the maximum number of readers possible. While I’ve successfully used some of them myself, there are others that I just refuse to do. I have listed five of them below.

1) Write about the most popular subjects. Sorry, but I can’t write about stuff like hairstyles and crafts and I don’t do reviews, even though I’ve noticed that people who focus on such topics get tons more readers than I. The problem is that I’m not interested in things like that – certainly not enough to write about them, no matter what the potential reward. I can only write about the stuff that interests me. If that means fewer readers and diminished chances to make money and gain notoriety, so be it. I’ll succeed on my own terms or I won’t succeed at all.

2) Write on demand. I can’t do that any more than I can poop on demand. I apologize if that’s a little too much information, but I couldn’t think of a better way to express myself on this issue. I’ve tried writing for sites that offer pay and/or extraordinarily high readership in exchange for writing about very narrow subjects of their or their clients’ choosing. In many cases, they want articles of 500 words or more. For some of that stuff, I can hardly think of one sentence.

3) Tailor articles and their titles toward popular keywords. I don’t think so. Pardon the expression, but I have no desire to become a keyword whore. I don’t feel comfortable twisting my words like that in order to create contrived articles. It seems like such an unnatural way to write. I have to write the way I think and I don’t always think in terms of keywords. Anyway, if I tried to cram an article with keywords, I would almost certainly put in too many, which would result in the search engines flagging my articles as spam.

4) Network. I’ve never been able to do the networking thing, whether on the Internet or in person. Sites like Facebook and Myspace are definitely not for me. I know that kind of thing helps build popularity for a writer and his or her work, but I’ve always been a nonconformist and a kind of lone wolf. It just seems to me that there’s a little too much kissing up and brown-nosing involved in the whole process. I hate that kind of politics.

5) Promote. Excuse me, but I’m a writer, not a promoter. I barely have enough time for writing. My goal is to write the stuff and let someone else do the promotion. The way figure it, if my writing is good enough, I shouldn’t have trouble finding people who would gladly promote it for me. Therefore, I’m going to spend my time being the best the writer I can possibly be, not trying to artificially inflate the numbers for mediocre work.

Ten Ways to Become a Better Writer

No matter how skilled and competent we are at writing, there is always room for improvement. Below I have included ten ways to become a better writer. While many of you may already adhere to most of these, you might find some of them helpful.

1) Practice, practice, practice. As with any other discipline, the more one practices writing, the better of a writer he or she will become. I can see a marked difference between the quality of the articles I write now and that of the pieces I wrote four years ago. While practice rarely makes perfect (contrary to the old proverb), it almost always leads to steady improvement.

2) Avoid unnecessary repetition. Too much of it makes a writer seem amateurish and pedestrian. To keep away from repeating key words any more than is absolutely required, use an online thesaurus to find synonyms for them. For example, don’t keep repeating the word “necessary.” That word has plenty of synonyms like required, needed, requisite, essential, compulsory, obligatory, crucial, etc. Make good use of them.

In addition, don’t repeat people’s first names throughout an article. Except when required for disambiguation (i.e., when your article includes two or more persons with the same surname), include a person’s first name only on your article’s your first mention of him or her. All subsequent references to that person should be limited to his or her title and surname (ex., Mr. Smith), or just the surname (ex., Smith).

3) Read newspapers on a daily basis, especially the editorial sections. Read the letters to the editor, but give special attention to pieces authored by prestigious, accomplished writers like George Will and William F. Buckley, Jr., and study their writing styles. Although Buckley is no longer with us, much of his work is still available for perusal on the Internet. And don’t just read the work of the people you like – also read the opinions of those with whom you disagree. You need perspective from all sides of any issue.

4) Listen to intelligent people when they speak. Tune in to what they have to say. Through osmosis, you might begin to speak and write like they do. What goes into your ears comes out of your mouth, and is hopefully reflected in your writing.

5) Use numerals in sentences only for values of 11 or greater. Spell out zero through ten. And never use a numeral of any kind at the beginning of a sentence. Exception: It is okay to use a numeral for any numeric value, if it is not part of a sentence. An example would be numbered items that are followed by a period or right parenthesis.

6) Don’t write about the same stuff all the time. Write about a broad cross-section of subjects. That shouldn’t be too difficult, as most people are interested in more than one thing.

7) Expand your vocabulary. Learn new words, become familiar with their usage, and then start using them. Use an online dictionary to aid in this process.

8) Use short paragraphs of no more than four sentences. As many have pointed out before, people just won’t read articles that include long paragraphs. Many readers find them intimidating and most of the remainder don’t have time to read them anyway.

9) Don’t ramble. William Shakespeare once said that “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity is indeed a good thing in all forms of writing. Don’t use ten words to say something that could just as easily be said with five. The use of superfluous words will not make you seem any more intelligent.

10) Use commas and shorter sentences for clarity. Long sentences without commas are very difficult to follow and are easily misunderstood. Here’s an example:

“On my way to the doctor’s office I witnessed a traffic accident in which two people were injured I stopped my car got out and offered assistance you would have done the same thing right.”

Now here are the same words, but broken down into three sentences, and with some commas inserted:

“On my way to the doctor’s office, I witnessed a traffic accident in which two people were injured. I stopped my car, got out, and offered assistance. You would have done the same thing, right?”

Now, isn’t the latter a lot easier to follow?

The Heartbreak of Accidental Pasting

It was all gone. All of that typing went for naught, all because I accidentally selected ‘paste’ instead of ‘copy.’ Believe or not, this kind of thing has happened to me more than once. I almost never enter any article directly into the editor of a given website or blog. I generally type it into a Word document first and then copy it into the site editor. I like the way Word catches spelling errors and other typos, automatically correcting some of them. It’s much better and faster than most websites’ resident spell-checkers.

Anyway, before attempting to copy my article to a given site, I should always save it to the Word document first, just in case. However, I still sometimes forget. It’s only after clicking the wrong button and overwriting all my hard work with the last thing I copied to the clipboard do I realize my mistake. Of course, it’s too late then. The horse has already left the barn. I call it the heartbreak of accidental pasting. I’ll learn my lesson sooner or later.

Less Knowledge and Fewer Apples

Not knowing when to use “less” as opposed to “fewer” is one of the most common grammatical mistakes made, even by people who should know better. Unlike some aspects of English grammar, the rules governing the use of those two adjectives are not very complicated.

“Less” is used for singular items and intangible concepts, whereas “fewer” is used for plural items. For example, one might have less knowledge, less gasoline, less respect, less stuff, and less money; but fewer apples, fewer accomplishments, fewer automobiles, fewer things, and fewer dollars.

How to Beat Writer's Block

Although I’ve never read any books or articles on the subject of writer’s block, I’d like to share some tips on how to overcome it, based on my experience as a writer and blogger. I hope they will be of help to others who have endured this condition from time to time.

First, never try to write when you’re tired. Always make sure you are well-rested and that you get plenty of sleep the night before trying to write.

Second, never force yourself to sit down and write about something if you haven’t already picked out a subject. Furthermore, it probably isn’t a good idea to start writing until you have some ideas/phrases jotted down to use as a template to work from. Trying to write without having such a framework in place is like trying to build a house without first having drawn up a design or a set of blueprints.

Third, the ideas and phrases that I referred to above are best captured while you are away from your desk, computer, or typewriter and not thinking about or concentrating on the task of writing. To paraphrase the late John Lennon, writing is what happens when you’re making other plans. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Lennon’s actual quote was, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” However, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me twisting it a little for the purposes of this article.

At any rate, have pen and pad available at all times of the day so you can write down those ideas and phrases that pop into your head as you are going through your normal daily routine. You’ll be surprised at the amount of good stuff that hits you right out of the blue at the most unexpected times. It would be a shame to not be able to recall it when you are ready to begin writing.

Fourth, when you finally have your notes together, you are ready to create your outline. From there, just write your article. Start putting those phrases together and, as your fingers tickle the keyboard, you will get into a groove and even more ideas will come to you. Such is how an article is born.

Fifth, have some relaxing music playing in the background while writing. It’s amazing how this will facilitate the thought process. You will be able to concentrate better and you might find that you won’t get tired as quickly. Smooth jazz and tunes from the 60’s and 70’s do the trick for me.

Sixth and finally, always have several completed or partially completed articles in the can to fall back on just in case. This is something that will remove the pressure of having to complete an article within a desired or required timeframe. In addition, this methodology gives you more chances to enhance your articles prior to publication than you will get with the write-one-publish-one system.

The way to accumulate a few of them is to take advantage of the times when your writing juices are really flowing by writing as many articles as possible. You’re not always going to be in a mood to write, but when are, go for broke. It’s kind of like the way an ant spends its summers saving up food for the winter.

For example, I post exactly one article to my blog each day. However, that doesn’t mean I write exactly one article a day. In fact, there are many days in which I don’t write a darn thing. I’m just not into it on certain days. But there are other days in which I am on a roll and end up writing as many as eight to ten articles. That’s an exceptional day, of course. On an average day when I‘m in a mood to write, I’ll do about two or three.

Hopefully, by following these tips and those that you have picked up elsewhere, you will never have to worry about writer’s block again. May you always find great pleasure (and perhaps a little profit) in writing!