Category Archives for Articles
How Seasonal Changes Affect Your Creative Process
“Nature is a writer
Springtime is a poet
Winter – dull but brilliant prose master
Summer, butterflies for apostrophes
Autumn an artist, colors with words implied …”
— Terri Guillemets, “Nature’s Inkpen”
Power Up Your Business with Guest Posting
You’ve got a blog, you publish frequently, and you’re meeting your content goals every month.
You’re living the good life as a fancy, badass entrepreneur.
But are you living your blogging life to the fullest?
While you’ve been growing the content on your own blog, reaching the loyal audience who’s come to know and love your content, you come across a guest post on Fancy Small Business Blog written by one of your competitors. (You know which one I’m talking about.)
It’s an article about successful marketing strategies in a niche market, and it’s something you feel like you could’ve written yourself.
Sure, you might grumble a little bit (“How did they even land an article there?”), but that’s not going to help you get published on successful blogs.
Rules of the Writing Road
About an hour east of Chicago, I looked at my college roommate, who was at that moment driving a large moving truck towing a car, and said, “There’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.”
If you’re on a road trip, especially one anywhere in the general vicinity of the great city of Chicago, you’re pretty much contractually obligated to quote The Blues Brothers.
Whether you’re “on a mission from God,” hitting the road with your best friend to escape a sedate life, or headed to a drag queen pageant, road trips are the basis for a lot of stories, both personal and fictionalized.
Stop Comparing, Start Writing — How to Become a Real Writer
“He thinks you just need to get a job.”
My brow furrowed while I took a quick, defensive inhale of breath. I’d been sitting across the table from my aunt on a hazy, summer afternoon, discussing my career path and where it might lead over lemonade and paninis.
She mentioned that my uncle, apparently, thought I was unemployed.
“But… I’m not…,” I stammered, nearly choking on my swallow of sandwich.
“Ohhhh yes, yes, I know. You do that blogging,” she zipped back, tapping her fingers in the air on an imaginary keyboard.
My eyes swiveled downward, a millisecond-long “Is it worth it to bother explaining/correcting?” internal debate raging my head, and I decided that I would not spend the afternoon teasing out the semantics of my job description.