Editing my Novel (Again)
Saturday, September 20th, 2008 Posted in Writing | 1 Comment »In the past few weeks I've been working on editing my novel. Yes, the one I said I was starting to edit a year ago. The one I finished writing almost two years ago. It's called Turn Left at the ...
Unclear Writing: What Does That Even Mean?
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 Posted in Writing | 3 Comments »Here's a real life writing example from the 'what does that even mean?' file: "Mike's personal history and present ministry evidences in The Foursquare Church indicate his unique gifting and calling as regarding his new pursuits among us." It comes from a ...
Pick Your Words Honestly
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 Posted in Business & Marketing, Writing | No Comments »I have a client that needed to cancel an event this week. But that's not how they're phrasing it. Instead of canceled the event was withdrawn. What does that even mean? I understand what they're up against. They don't want the negative ...
Writing Bad Copy
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 Posted in Writing | 1 Comment »While writing ad copy for a missions organization tonight I almost wrote the phrase "missionary position" in an entirely non-sexual context and for a moment didn't realize how bad that would have been. Then I realized it and wondered if I ...
79% of Books Sell Less Than 100 Copies
Friday, October 12th, 2007 Posted in Reading is Fun, Writing | 1 Comment »Some depressing stats for writers from Chris Anderson's The Long Tail: In 2004, 950,000 books out of 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than ninety-nine copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 ...
Blacklisted for Church Marketing Sucks
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 Posted in Company News, Writing | 4 Comments »I've been blacklisted because of the word 'sucks' for the first time since starting work on Church Marketing Sucks more than three years ago. OK, so 'blacklisted' may be a bit harsh (but it makes for a good story). In ...
Interview with Christa Ann Banister
Monday, October 8th, 2007 Posted in Reading is Fun, Writing | No Comments »So apparently friends publishing novels is a trend. Another writer friend, Christa Banister, has a new novel coming out next week, Around the World in 80 Dates: Confessions of a Serial Dater. Christa was my editor when I wrote reviews ...
Is Click Here the Best Text to Make You Click Here?
Thursday, October 4th, 2007 Posted in Behold, the Internet, Writing | No Comments »You've got to be kidding me. A pro copywriter is arguing that 'click here' is the best text to use to tell someone to, well, click here. For years I've been avoiding the inane 'click here' like the plague because it's ...
Editing My Novel
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 Posted in Writing | No Comments »A few days ago I dusted off my latest novel, Turn Left at the Blacktop, and started editing it. I haven't touched it since finishing it for last year's National Novel Writing Month, but I thought it was time to ...
How Many Spaces After a Period?
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 Posted in Writing | 7 Comments »It's been an issue of great debate in both my professional and personal life: how many spaces should you put after a period? Some people prefer two spaces, some prefer one. You can read all sorts of background and history and ...
