creative non-fiction, essays, I want to be Erma Bombeck when I grow up
How often do you get writer’s block?
often, I have a tendency to feel like I have nothing of value to say, and when I do have something to say, that what I have to offer will be offensive to those that I care about
How do you fix it?
I write it in my journal or I just swallow what ever it is that I’m most passionate about and then I do a meme or post pictures in my blog instead of being brave (note: I definitely do not recommend this to others)
Do you type or write by hand?
both, the more emotional the topic the better it is to write by hand, but technical writing is always composed right on the computer
Do you save everything you write?
not everything, but a pretty big percentage, I like to come back to it later, even the junk, and see if it inspires something else later on
Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
see above. I go back all the time, it’s amazing what I find that I hadn’t noticed before
Do you have a constructive critic?
unfortunately no. I’d really like to find that. I have plenty of critics and I have lavish praisers, but no constructive feedback
Did you ever write a novel?
not yet, one of these days.
What genre would you love to write but haven’t?
science fiction
What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
horror, I don’t like reading it, so I doubt I would write it
How many writing projects are you working on right now?
no idea, 2 or 3 that i actively work on, but there are thousands of projects on my harddrives just waiting for me to come back and finish
Do you write for a living? Do you want to?
I would love to make a living from writing, but it’s not paying the rent yet
Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?
not yet
Have you ever won an award for your writing?
some blog awards, I don’t know if that counts
What are your five favorite words?
hope, silly, assiduous, engage, lounge
Do you ever write based on your dreams?
absolutely, maybe not the entire dream, but there’s a kernel in there that gets the ball rolling
Do you favor happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
I’m a sucker for happy endings, I read to escape, I like reading to make me feel better, not worse
Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen?
I haven’t tried that yet but it sounds like a good way to battle writer’s block
Joanna Young at Confident Writing is sponsoring a group writing project ending Christmas Eve called Simply the Best. The goal is for each blogger to scour their posts over the past year and identify the one post that they believe is their best writing of the year. Then, write a post that links to that best post and completes the sentence “This post is simply the best because…” in 30 words or less.
This is not as easy as it sounds.
For this challenge I have selected my post “My Mother’s Gift,” which was my Mother’s Day post this year. Have you read it yet?
This post is simply the best because I was able to be candid about my family, its an unusual and interesting story, and I was able to touch just the right emotional notes.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. To further simplify that, RSS takes blog posts and news updates (called feeds) and broadcasts them across the internet. RSS readers (websites or programs also called feed readers or aggregators) can then collect the feeds to which the reader has subscribed and present them in one, easy to read location.
So how does all this affect you?
Well, if my blog were the only blog you read, you may not have much use for a feed reader. However, over time, most people who read one blog will start to accumulate more blogs, and news sources, that they like to follow. It used to be a chore for me to go from blog to blog to check and see if my friends had updates. It was even frustrating, at times, to check a blog and see that they hadn’t updated. The feed reader allows you to subscribe to the blogs and news sources you love, and then read the updates in one location.
There are a number of different feed readers you can use: yahoo, newsgator, bloglines, netvibes, and pageflakes just to name a few. But my favorite is Google’s Reader. One of the things I like about Reader is it gives you options in how you view the posts: there are a number of sorting options, you can categorize the blogs, and you can quickly browse all the headlines or have it open up to show each article in full like a magazine.
How to Subscribe:
First of all, you need to set up an account with a reader. Here’s the link again to set up with Google’s Reader. If you already have a Google account (blogger and gmail both count as Google accounts) you can just sign into Reader using that account.
To subscribe to CoffeeJitters (process should be similar for most other blogs as well) look for the RSS button in the upper right hand corner. Mine says “Subscribe via RSS,” most blogs should have something along the same lines. Click the button.
It should take you to a page that shows you a list of readers from which to choose. Click the button for the reader you chose.
If you select Google, it may give you the option to choose between Google Homepage and Google Reader – select Google Reader. Bam! You’re there.
If you want to leave a comment on a post, just click on the headline and it will take you right to that blog so you can make your mark.
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