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Finding My Writer in Hallmark Movies
I love my sappy Hallmark Christmas movies. I found it interesting that writers seemed to make up a disproportionate number of the heroines with the last crop. I know I watched three surrounding writers – but there were two that connected with me in more than just the, “I need a tissue, because love wins…
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What Makes a Good Blog Topic?
The answer is, of course: it depends. What is the purpose of your blog? Are you establishing your expertise? Are you in a field where the rules change (legal, financial)? Are you in a field where the players change (sports, politics)? Are you in a field where there’s always more to learn (tech, medical)? Are…
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Politics, Thought Leadership, and Morals
As a member of the board of my local chapter of the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators), I was involved in a conversation about should we be talking politics. We didn’t come to a conclusion. Also with that group, I’ve been in conversations about thought leadership – what is it and who are some…
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Musings of a Writer without a Book … Yet
Well, I’ve drafted enough of How to be a Writer without Writing a Book to get feedback. So out to the beta readers it is. Now I’m facing a whole new world of writer-hood: getting published. Initially, my intention was to self-publish, and I still may. However, my writing coach has convinced me that the…
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Baseball Blog Brainstorming
During the post-meeting networking portion of a recent BNI meeting, one of the other members asked me for some time to help her with her blog. Eden is the Marketing Manager of an advanced IT solutions company – but that’s not what she wanted help with. She wanted help with her personal blog. So we…
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List Building: The Free Download
One of my coaches is encouraging me to increase my engagement by offering something. You know, the ubiquitous “Free Download” that tons of people sign up for and almost no one reads. I know that almost no one reads these things because I have a computer folder filled with the free downloads that I think…
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Punctuation for Clear Communication
I tell people that I edit for readability – and that readability is not always grammatically correct. I tell people that because I am not fluent in the formal terms of grammar. I don’t want to try to defend my edits based on participles, infinitives, dangling modifiers, or gerunds. (No matter how many times I…
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Vacation and the Business Owner
My original plan for this blog was an attempt at something useful that would convince entrepreneurs that they really do need vacations in their life. That went nowhere quickly. I’m not sure I could say anything that hasn’t been said in a way that could be any more compelling. So, for fun, I went to…
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Why do Businesses Blog?
The short answer to why a business needs a blog is: to be found. The internet is a wonderful and horrible thing for business. Wonderful because the web is open 24/7 and a company’s web presence tells the world what they do – also 24/7. Horrible because every other business on the web is also…
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Free from Fiction
After three years, I guess you can say I have a new tradition: Logistics Nazi for Mary Knipple, Organizer of the Independent Editors at the San Francisco Writers Conference. TANGENT: “Logistics Nazi” is a term I came up with over a decade ago to describe my uptight coordination of something like six people to meet…