Writing for posterity. How long will your words be around? In the past writers hoped their words would outlast the worms that ate the paper and glue in their books. Now, our words could easily outlast several generations of our families, friends and co-workers. Kind of a funny feeling to think you might be talking about yourself long after you're gone.

Does it make you feel paranoid? Do you suddenly want to edit every email you ever wrote? Get over it. None of us are perfect. Our flaws will be what we are remembered for more than our perfections.

That doesn't mean you should be careless about it. Think about what you write, write it better, clearer. Make it last. If you keep your writing clear it won't become outdated any time soon. Clear, concise language is always in fashion.

Using obscure words, fad words will really date everything you type. Dated language is necessary if you are writing about a certain time period. It's part of bringing the reader into the scene, and maintaining the atmosphere through the story. If you pick up an old paperback at Goodwill or some likely place, can you guess the age of the paperback by the writing style alone? How many of those trendy words have since been retired? How many did you not even understand or remember?

You can't do anything about big changes like computers, space flight and child proof bottle caps. But, you can watch your language, avoid trendy words.

Happy writing.

We all have some goals as a writer. Whether you have written them down or just keep them somewhere in your head, they are there. Are they good goals, goals that inspire you to keep going or are you making goals into a torment for yourself? Having high goals may actually keep you from getting where you want to be. If your goals are too high you may not really think (expect) you can reach them. In that case you need to adjust your goals. Set them up as a path you can follow rather than a pinnacle you can't reach.

These are some goal setting guidelines based on those I read in "Writing for Magazines: A Beginner's Guide" by Cheryl Sloan Wray.

Start simple. If you are beginning your goals won't be the same as a writer you has been published a few times and has contacts with editors/ publishers already. Simple goals are comfortable, attainable for as long as you need them.

Challenge yourself. Having simple goals doesn't mean you won't be working, challenging yourself to do better and try bigger. Make goals simple so you won't give up in frustration but challenging enough to be taken seriously, worthy of working for.

Set goals that suit your personality. Don't try to make yourself into some other writer. Make the goals work for you, your style, your routine, etc.

Be concrete and specific. Goals shouldn't be too broad or lacking in detail. Don't have a goal of submitting an article to the local paper. Be specific, plan an article topic and set a date for submitting it.

Share your goals with a few writer friends. Pick a few people who encourage you and let them know what you're planning. They will help keep you on track.

Check your progress. Mark your progress somehow, keep a goal calendar to show yourself how you are making progress in keeping each of your goals. This way you can look at how far you have come when you need to keep yourself going, along to the next goal.

Stick to it. Remember you made the goals to help you become the writer you want to be. If the goals you set aren't working for you change them, use the guidelines here to set goals that will work.

Some good goals you could try are: I will write at least a page every day. I will be ready to write by 10:00. I will submit at least 2 of my articles every month. I will challenge myself with the goal of submitting to one big publication each month.

Good luck and happy writing.

"It is only through hard work that I can give an impression of ease and simplicity." Henri Matisse

It certainly is true that your life has an affect on your writing. Right from the first time you hear "Write what you know" to the first time you fall into despair and can't find the words to string together to say what you think. But, as writers we do need to get past these pot holes in the road.

I'm not saying it's easy. It's sure not fun either. When is it ever fun to pull yourself up and dust yourself off and admit you've been letting yourself procrastinate for something that would sound silly, even babyish, if you had to explain it to someone else. Of course, no one else will ever understand. But you do and that's enough. It has to be enough cause the words will wait for no one.

I've fallen into a pot hole lately. My personal life is catching up with me and I'm letting the negative feelings of others hold too much importance. I've been feeling like a piece of driftwood on the ocean of someone else's life. But, tonight I'm trying to get on with things. I hope you are doing the same if you fell into a pot hole or have been discouraged lately.

I wish all of us the best of good luck. Next week I will actually have something worth your reading time. I've been reading some interesting writing ideas. I think that helps to bring you back into focus when you stray. Also, I have set myself a goal. I'm writing a romance novel for Avon or Harlequin, which ever of them thinks it's do-able. Hoping, of course, that one of them will.

Good luck and keep writing.

Have you got the correct linkage?

I'm reading The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood. Among the things worth noting is using your linkage on a website. It's not enough to display links to other sites. What you need to do is click on your own links. That way the webmasters will see you and know you are linking to them. Otherwise they won't know you have links to them unless they stumble across you eventually.

So, if you have a blog and have links down your sidebar or in the blog itself, click them. Go to the sites and get yourself noticed. You'll show up as a referrer site in their web stats.

Not a long newsletter tonight. I'm behind and just didn't want anyone thinking I stopped sending the newsletter all together. Send me a note sometime. Does the newsletter help you, encourage you to keep writing? Let me know what works and what's just filling up space.

I do not like cutesy words. "Peeps" "sumpin" and "wassup" make me cringe. Perhaps I'm just showing my age, or being too particular and unbending. Whatever the case, I don't like them and I can't see myself changing on this.

It's interesting to think, the way the English language evolves, some of these so called words could become standard English, over time. Hopefully a lot of time so that I'll be into my next life and never see it happen.

What do you think about the use of cutesy words? Is it acceptable to use them in an article? I guess it really depends on the editor who will be choosing to pay for the article or not. Of course, a big guideline to language is the publication itself. What do the other writers write like?

Still you have to think of the readers when you submit an article. It's the readers and the advertisers who make the style guides in the end. These days the advertisers probably have more sway than the readers even.

Anyway, you can be sure that if I ever type something cutesy like sumpin, I will have been taken over by aliens or something even worse.

Happy writing.