What's around the Bend in the Road?

Wild, scenic 

An open-road and clear landscape invite riding on horseback, revving the ATV,  rambling on foot...and writing ideas. What's around the bend in the road? 

 

Writer-reader landscapes are more like cityscapes than country roads. They crowd with changing information and writing connections, exchanging ideas, creativity, information, and building fiction.  

     Writing is a place now where modesty may remain in private but in public titles and updates must appear. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are gathering places much like small towns' community message boards. Blogs spotlight books, articles, or events.

     I have two active blogs, this one and another. Now I feature a new Amazon aStore (fun to build) featuring books in different categories. I can add one or more other stores this way, through Amazon Associates, free.   

     Writer, is your work getting better? Do you allow it on a blog or website? Wherever you are, are you thinking about what might be around the next bend in the road you're traveling?

Writing Style Exposed

See the sign? "Writing on the wood is prohibited." (Photo: Nicolas Karim)

Yesterday I posted something new on Opinari Writers about my writing aims. I called it My Writing Style. I show how starting with a longer topic to trim it down helps clarify one's thoughts. Yet, letting everyone know exactly what you're aiming for can be a bit daunting, especially when it's so easy to get off track. Having a statement about style as a writer helps.  

The only way to grow in life and writing is to get out there and lay some things on the line, with careful personal barriers to keep it professional. The possibilities to practice writing for an audience and growing your audiences are as many as you can use over a long time. I keep learning more about digital tools and resources.

One favorite resource is Zemanta, a collector of article and photo data for free use. I turn to Zemanta almost every time I finish a new blog post. I try to read most related Zemanta "related articles" features that I select but lack time to read every sentence in all of them. It helps that the technology allows me to get the gist of each related work by a pop up of the beginning text when I point to it. The selected ones appear after the post, under "Related articles." 

I recently learned about LinkWithin, which chooses from other articles I've posted. LinkWithin's selections vary at the very end of the post pages, under "You might also like."   

What made me rethink what I had done in posting my writing style statement was what followed when I later investigated a Zemanta option I'd selected. It was from The Times (London) Literary Supplement (TLS), a column about style that I read and became so enthusiastic that I commented...on its comment block on-line. 

I think it's risky for an unknown American writer to send comments to established English writers. Our languages, American English and English...well, they are not the same. I learned this while living in Switzerland and working with TESL/TEFL/ESL teachers from Britain (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales in our group). On the occasional eating out together, I could not understand many words and phrases in their vocabulary. 'Felt lost, at times. (Did they do that on purpose? hm mm. No, I think not. They were a nice bunch.)

The chief reason I sort of squirmed after commenting today on the TLS article page is that I do not claim to be anything important in the areas I love to write about--history, literature, news, politics, philosophy, people, global issues, and so forth. I rely a lot on what I read as well as research. I make no claim to be an "important writer." I am an enthusiastic writer who also enjoys having research in the mix and connecting with somewhat like-minded or curious readers. 

I don't think, as some do, that it's annoying that "every Jane and Joe writes and self-publishes books and blogs and all sorts of stuff!" Good for them, I say. Nobody is forced to partake of their words.

We writers love, endure, and share stories, ideas, information...and selves. We  hope, by working at it, that we are improving in the skills and framing of our work to reach more interested readers.  

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