Tag: author
Affect vs. Effect = Influence vs. Result
[found on quickanddirtytips.com]
“What Is the Difference Between Affect and Effect?
Before we get to the memory trick though, I want to explain the difference between the two words: The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.
When Should You Use Affect?
Affect with an a means “to influence,” as in, “The arrows affected Aardvark,” or “The rain affected Amy’s hairdo.” Affect can also mean, roughly, “to act in a way that you don’t feel,” as in, “She affected an air of superiority.”
When Should You Use Effect?
Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning “a result” seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, “The effect was eye-popping,” or “The sound effects were amazing,” or “The rain had no effect on Amy’s hairdo.””
To read the full article on Affect vs. Effect from Grammar Girl at QuickAndDirtyTips.com, click HERE.
[found on http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/affect-versus-effect]
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Grammar Toolkit
[found on grammarist.com]
Have you ever been writing, and realized you have no idea what words you need—nor if they are a single word, two words, or a compound word? This site, grammarist.com, is an amazing tool for just such a panic attack. Take a look at the example for workout vs. work out:
“Workout vs. work out
As a noun or an adjective, workout is one word. As a verb, it’s two words—work out. So, for instance, when it’s workout time, you start your workout, work out for a while, and stop.
Work out is just one of many phrasal verbs with corresponding one word forms that function as nouns and adjectives. The one-word forms are sometimes hyphenated (e.g., work-out), but more often completely compounded. These forms never catch on as verbs in edited writing, though they are often erroneously treated as verbs in more informal contexts.”
To add this site to your toolkit for writing, click here.
[found on http://grammarist.com/usage/workout-work-out]
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Born to Write
Prologue, Wherefore Art Thou?
[found on writermag.com; by Bharti Kirchner]
“• How do you make a transition from the prologue to the opening chapter? A prologue raises questions and is often imbued with conflict, none of which will be immediately resolved. “I think that bridging is the most challenging aspect of writing a prologue,” Barnes says. “How did you adjust the tension once you’re building the story scene by scene? It’s not very often that readers can tolerate the intensity of presentation and emotion found in some prologues for the next 300 pages. The transition is the most difficult, and I often polish and tweak the few pages of a prologue more than I do any other set of pages in the book.”
• Should you use a prologue or not? “The most common mistake I see when writers try to use prologues is that they’re simply writing Chapter 1 and calling it a prologue,” Shortridge says. “If the text actually begins the story in place and time, if it is followed by the same story it begins, then it’s not a prologue and shouldn’t be treated as such.
“I think some early writers feel that prologues have a certain cachet, a sense of sophistication, when in fact they are simply a tool we get to use to introduce disparate elements into the beginning of a story. Not all stories should have prologues, and in fact, probably very few of them are served well by them.”
• Alternatives to prologues. Although a prologue has benefits, some readers skip them, deeming them optional, and plunge straightaway into the first chapter. Some industry professionals, too, frown upon prologues.
“Basically editors and most agents hate prologues,” says agent Andrea Brown, president of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. “They are sorely overused and seem like a cheap device. Much better for authors to be creative—come up with ways around them and start the novel with a great first chapter.”
What are your options then? Well, you can incorporate a past incident that was highlighted in the prologue into the main story line. You can dole out the data presented in the prologue a little at a time throughout the book without overburdening any single passage. “A skilled historical novelist won’t need to lay out a solid chunk of history [in a prologue] because the necessary historical details will be woven seamlessly through the story,” Donsbach says. This suggestion can work with any genre.
In the final analysis, use a prologue if it can enhance your narrative. When in doubt, leave it out.”
To read the complete article on prologues, or to read more excellent articles from writermag.com, click here.
[found on http://www.writermag.com/2012/05/07/the-pleasures-and-perils-of-prologues]
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Paths Are Made
5 Ways To Become Visible Online
[found on cindyratzlaff.com; by Cindy Ratzlaff]
“Five Strategies for Boosting Visibility Through Search
1. Match Your Content to Your Brand Promise. This is your number one strategy. Google and other search engines factor into your credibility whether or not people re-enter their search terms after being directed to your content. In other words, if Google recommends your content to someone who searches for “life coaching,” but finds that most of the people who click on your site need to search again because you don’t share any thoughts about life coaching, why to engage a life coach, what life coaching can do for people or any other relevant material, then Google will downgrade your reliability on this topic. Make sure that the content you are posting is a good fit for the keywords you are using. “Bacon” is a great search term. Everybody likes bacon. But if you don’t sell bacon, teach bacon recipes, share bacon-related news or in any other way talk about bacon, Google will penalize you for using the term “bacon” as a keyword.
2. Create a Positive Digital Footprint. Create a detailed profile on LinkedIn with a keyword optimized bio, photo and clear descriptions of your current business as well as links to previous work. Connect your blog and consider connecting your Slideshare account so you can easily demonstrate authority by sharing presentations through Slideshare. Upload a current professional head shot and make sure that potential customers or client can easily identify you, understand exactly what you offer and connect with you. Create social media profiles with keyword optimized bios and the same or a similar photo on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and depending on your brand, Pinterest. Demonstrate authority in your field by communicating in your true brand voice on each of these platforms with consistency, clarity and authenticity.
3. Pay Attention to the Metadata. The individual keywords and phrases you use as descriptions on social media sites, blog posts and websites are metadata. Metadata is what helps search engines find you and recommend you when people search for what you have to offer. When people are searching for what you have to offer on search engines like Google, they are highly predisposed to take an action. They’ve professed a need, hopefully been pointed to your home base and now it’s up to you to convert. Think about metadata like digital breadcrumbs. You are leaving a trail so people can find you.
4. Create a Path to Purchase. You’ve optimized your keywords, left digital breadcrumbs, put out your welcome mat through social media and now you have people on your website. What do you want them to do next; sign up for a newsletter, buy a product, book a discovery session with you? Make their next action step crystal clear and easy to take. Add your opt in box to the landing page. Welcome them to your site with a video that gives them an opportunity to know, like and trust you. Give them an incentive to stay through a free offer. But you need to know and you need to project the exact next step you want people to take. Don’t leave them guessing.
5. Dare to be an Actual Person. There are many sophisticate ways to help verify your authorship to search engines and these are two quick and easy ones I recommend doing right away. Create a G+ account for yourself. Hyperlink your G+ account to your byline (see above where I’ve done this) in your blog posts to help Google verify that you are who you say you are. Link your YouTube account to your G+ account as well for the same reason. Authority trumps nearly everything in search.”
For more excellent tips from Cindy Ratzlaff, click here.
[found on http://cindyratzlaff.com/blog/personal-branding/5-strategies-to-boost-your-brand-visibility-and-rank-through-search]
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Just Keep Swimming…
Doubts or Hunger
“I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.”
— Cormac McCarthy
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Grand Opening—Or Nothing At All
[found on hatrack.com; by Orson Scott Card]
“If you mess up the opening, nothing you do later in the story will fix it. And because mistakes in the opening will reverberate through the rest of the story, when you finally do fix the opening you usually have to throw out and redo everything that you wrote after it. With rare exceptions, you simply have to get the opening right before you can go on.
But what is the “opening”? The first sentence? Having a good first sentence is nice, but it’s not the opening. By definition, the first sentence is in the first paragraph, and the first paragraph is free. That is, the first paragraph of a story does not have to be in the same voice or mood or tone as the rest of the work. The first paragraph is important for setting the scene, for giving vital information that allows what follows to make sense. But the real opening is after that first paragraph — when the story starts in earnest.”
For more amazing tips on writing from Uncle Orson’s Writing Class, click here.
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