A hare's breath escape
• I just finished indexing Her Hidden Children, much helped by the fact that I could find search terms by letting Adobe Acrobat search PDF files of all chapters. But before you index a book, you need to strategize about the book's purpose as well as the reader's needs, something discussed at this site.
• "Hare's breath escape" is just one of many "dreadful phrases" collected by Teresa Nielsen Hayden. As she says, most are more common in print than in speech, so why do poor writers mis-see them? See also Egg corns.
• M.J. Rose at Buzz, Balls, and Hype wonders if writers should also be bloggers.
When it comes to writing, the most important job we all have is to write our books. If we don’t put our best effort there we aren’t doing our jobs. No author should sacrifice writing time for blogging time or promotion time if it’s going to weaken the book.
Of course, she's a novelist--and she blogs.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with having a blog geared to your peers. I read other authors’ blogs – and enjoy them – but of the dozen or so I frequent – not one has ever convinced me to try that authors’ fiction.
Those blogs aren’t talking to me the reader.
Read it all.
Tags: Writing, Blogging
• I just finished indexing Her Hidden Children, much helped by the fact that I could find search terms by letting Adobe Acrobat search PDF files of all chapters. But before you index a book, you need to strategize about the book's purpose as well as the reader's needs, something discussed at this site.
• "Hare's breath escape" is just one of many "dreadful phrases" collected by Teresa Nielsen Hayden. As she says, most are more common in print than in speech, so why do poor writers mis-see them? See also Egg corns.
• M.J. Rose at Buzz, Balls, and Hype wonders if writers should also be bloggers.
When it comes to writing, the most important job we all have is to write our books. If we don’t put our best effort there we aren’t doing our jobs. No author should sacrifice writing time for blogging time or promotion time if it’s going to weaken the book.
Of course, she's a novelist--and she blogs.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with having a blog geared to your peers. I read other authors’ blogs – and enjoy them – but of the dozen or so I frequent – not one has ever convinced me to try that authors’ fiction.
Those blogs aren’t talking to me the reader.
Read it all.
Tags: Writing, Blogging
posted by Chas S. Clifton at 1:01 PM Permalink
3 Comments:
Eggcorns! Who knew? (Okay, a bunch of my readers knew. I didn't. For me, it was a happy discovery.)
M.J. Rose's piece struck me as a real thumbsucker. No two writers handle blogging the same way, or use it for the same purposes. IMO, M.J. Rose would do well to spend some time writing about subjects other than writing.
yay.. this book i have ordered, and am waiting for it to be printed, cause i have quoted from it already but don't have the page number as yet!!
but that is ok cause it will be out beofor i am anywhear near handing in my thesis..
cheers Polly
I think interactive writing has value. It may be creating bad habits, in that people respond more quickly to my blogging than my books, but it also creates good habits, in that I'm writing every day. More importantly, I'm deciding what to write every day. And that helps me as a writer.
How about "cut the mustard"? Damn, I hate that.
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