Early in my career, I worked as a tech writer. I knew the importance of making copies of my work, so I would faithfully make a backup each Friday as I wrapped up the workweek. One Friday was particularly hectic and in a rush to begin my weekend, I postponed making my backup, planning to […]
A concept not fully realized by the reading public is the idea of “ghostwriting,” sometimes called work-for-hire. Ghostwriting is when other people pay you to write for them, which they then legally claim and market as their own work—and you can’t. Ghostwriting is more widespread than most people realize. At some publishers, I’ve heard that […]
An earlier post was titled “Write Every Day.” This advice was a bit hyperbolic. It was designed to garner attention and encourage aspiring writers to pursue writing diligently and take the craft seriously. Even so, it is far from an absolute law or inflexible rule. The points are: For some that may dictate writing every […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As a magazine publisher and editor, I receive frequent pitches from publicists wanting me to read (and hopefully review) their client’s book. Of course, they are all too happy to mail me a free copy – and sometimes the books just show up unannounced. Since I like to read, their […]
Depending on one’s perspective, the “how” part of writing is either self-evident or an endless mystery. I offer a few initial thoughts on the topic of “how to write.” Writing Tools First is tools. Writing Mode Second is mode. That may sound funny, but here is what I mean: Writing Process Third is process. Here […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD It recently became time to replace our 24-year old furnace. As the installer wrapped up his work, he began teaching about the critical aspects of carbon monoxide detection. I had placed our lone detector where the furnace and water heater were located; detecting the poisonous gas at its source, I […]
Like physical exercises, which are beneficial for your body, writing exercises are beneficial for developing your skill as a writer. While exercise is seldom pleasant, it is a wise and worthy pursuit. Here are some exercises to consider in developing your craft as a wordsmith: Personally, I have done most of these at one time […]
Being a numbers guy, I want to share some stats about this blog: 3 years, 1 month: the amount time I’ve been blogging 457: the number of posts 123,300: the number of words written (enough for a decent sized book) 1,272: average number of posts viewed per week (the most was 2,954) 14,718: the number […]
Hopefully, you’ve given some thought as when is the best time to write, as well as where is the best place to write. Even if these decisions are works in progress, needing to be fine-tuned, you need to move on. Now we get to the question of what to write. Although, it may seem a […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I’m a huge fan of technology—and the allure of speech recognition (also called IVR or interactive voice response) carries with it great appeal. Yet when it comes to real-life implementations, I find it decidedly lacking and frustration-filled. In the past I’ve been reticent to state my disinclination—knowing that I’m part of […]