An Idea is Like a Ghost
Writing Exercises
I used to write writing prompts and writing exercises daily and weekly for my site, Word Grrls. These are my posts from that site. I will add fresh writing inspiration now and then.
There are 1,788 posts filed in Writing Exercises (this is page 3 of 179).
Les Miserables: Even After all These Years
My sister-in-law gave me Les Miserables (by Victor Hugo) for Christmas one year. It was a big book, a tome. But, I was curious. I hadn’t read the book, seen the movies or performances. Also, the story is over 100 years old (closing in on 200 years even) and I really like history. What better way to see history than from the words written by someone who was there.
Jenny Holzer Writes Projections as Art
Jenny Holzer is an artist presenting ideas in words for public spaces. Build a Better Mousetrap for the End of the World
Would you even guess this is a mousetrap? It’s vintage, from the 1930’s approximately. I first saw it on a video from Shawn Woods and then I went looking on eBay out of curiousity. Shawn Woods makes videos of how mousetraps actually work at catching mice. If you are especially squeamish or strongly against killing rodents, don’t watch.
The Most Precious Thing… Journals
In the end, we loaded our technology (computers, hard drives with all the historical pictures on them), my old Smith Corona typewriter (yes-crazy!) and we stood holding what we decided were the most precious things… our cottage journals.We began our first journal on our first day as we moved in to this place. Our kids’ friends wrote enthusiastic missives about how beautiful everything was. Our kids wrote about their feelings, capturing with words what their hearts were beating. “Powered down. Closed up. Fits perfect.”The words of our son as he did his first final closing at age 18.The journals number four now and have chronicled friendships, community losses, high points, low points, activities, picnics, first fingerprints of grandchildren, celebrations, achievements, jobs, retirements, comings and goings, weddings, funerals. Our life is there.We carried the four journals to the boat. The most precious.We were lucky, and so many of us felt lucky as the water bombing planes extinguished the fire and summer students were planted in the forest to seek out hot spots for a week afterwards.We felt so lucky.And so grateful. The journals are back on the bookshelf, fuller still after the summer of 2016.
Your Monster in Your Haunted House
Create your own haunted house.
Blogging 101: Say Your Name
I haven’t re-named any of my sites but I have gone through and put more thought (and some humour) into giving them new bylines. I can’t promise they will still be the same a month from now. But here they are today:
Today’s challenge:
You set your blog’s address when you registered at WordPress.com, but your blog’s title — what readers see on your site when they visit — can be changed at any time. Today, let’s make sure you love yours.
Today’s assignment: edit your title and tagline.
Why?The title is the first thing most readers will see.
Your title and tagline work with elements like like your address and theme to give visitors context and help them decide to stick around.
Your title doesn’t need to be the same as your blog’s URL — there’s no need to call it “maryjanesmith922.” Your title should reflect you.A title is typically only a few words, so consider adding a tagline — a phrase that appears under your title and helps flesh it out. Think “Burger King: Have It Your Way,” or The Daily Post: The Art and Craft of Blogging.” Look at the post your wrote yesterday. Why are you here? Let us know in your tagline.
Here are the details on editing your title and tagline, along with some accumulated wisdom from other WordPress bloggers. Here’s one of our favorite nuggets of advice:
Try listing adjectives that describe your personality, and play around with the words until you can tweak them into a name that’s catchy but uniquely “you.” Puns always work well. Start with certain common phrases, songs, and literary titles, and then mix the words up. Or use your own name in a clever way.
She’s a Maineiac
If you’re already thrilled with your title or you want to do more, feel free to publish a post, too! Let readers know what inspired your title and tagline, or, If you need want writing inspiration, take a look at today’s prompt.
Content Shock
Let’s fast forward one more time to 2014 and look at the two factors that impact the economics of content marketing — the amount of content available and the amount of content consumed (supply and demand).
Of course the volume of free content is exploding at a ridiculous rate. Depending on what study you read, the amount of available web-based content (the supply) is doubling every 9 to 24 months. Unimaginable, really.
However, our ability to consume that content (the demand) is finite. There are only so many hours in a day and even if we consume content while we eat, work and drive, there is a theoretical and inviolable limit to consumption, which we are now approaching.
This intersection of finite content consumption and rising content availability will create a tremor I call The Content Shock. In a situation where content supply is exponentially exploding while content demand is flat, we would predict that individuals, companies, and brands would have to “pay” consumers more and more just to get them to see the same amount of content.
My comment:
You’re talking about what is mainly regurgitated content, repeated from one blog to the next and the next and then shared on social media too. There is still a "market" for fresh and original content – something which has not been duplicated and repeated and made to suit the almighty Google.
Niche blogs from people who actually are a source of information, an authority on their topic and artists who still create something of their own will still have readers.
The problems will be copyrights, not having content ripped off (shared without permission). With so many content marketers, content curators, social media and Google rank obsessed people it is not so hard to get original content picked up and shared around. The hard part is keeping the source link (the artist’s link) with the content.
There is a lack of original content and the marketers are quick to dive in when they actually find something unique because it is becoming harder to find something that hasn’t already been shared and overshared.
Life Is…
This was part of a quiz. Which would you answer, take some time to think about it.
Hard to choose between life is an adventure and life is a journey, for me. I think the tie breaker is that the journey sounds more like work than an adventure which is full of opportunity, new things to learn and adventure, of course.
Move Words Around Like Pieces of a Puzzle
4. Move words, sentences, paragraphs around the page like pieces of a puzzle. The beauty of writing on a computer is that you can move words and groups of words effortlessly. Just reminding yourself of that tends to make it easier to find your writing flow. If you get your mind set that the words will be seen by the audience exactly as they flow onto the page, it can be paralyzing.
For those overwhelmed by the amount of ideas banging around in their head, jot the ideas down, one by one, in a loose cross between thought-notes and an organizational outline. Then, you can slowly work your way down your list, flushing out concepts into sentences and paragraphs without worrying that you might forget something critical.
via 8 Writing Strategies for People Who Say They Can’t Write | Entrepreneur.com.