It’s a lot easier to understand what our writing voice is as a writer if we first look at its components. I see four elements that comprise a writer’s voice. Writing Voice Personality Each person has a personality: how we act, appear, and relate to others. Likewise, each writer has a personality, how we come […]
Category: Writing and Publishing
Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
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Kill Passive Writing
The sentence, “In my opinion, passive writing is bad,” exemplifies the passive voice. The active voice says, “Kill passive writing.” My title proclaims this. By nature, my words, both spoken and written, are passive. Many years ago, I became so irritated with Microsoft Word pointing out the passive sentences that I turned off the option. […]
If blogging is a form of self-publishing, then is writing a blog post the same as other writing? Well, yes and no. While there are similarities, there are also some key differences. If you want to blog, here are seven blogging tips to be a successful blogger: 1. Make Your Title Search Engine Friendly Forget […]
When I write, I’m compulsive about saving my work at each lull in my typing and often in between: “alt,” “f,” and “s” at each pause and sometimes even typed midsentence. I don’t want to lose a thing. There’s a reason for this. Early in my career, and in the early days of PCs, I […]
There are many good (and some not so good) resources that cover self-publishing. Some of these are in the form of books, others as podcasts, and more as blog posts, all from industry insiders. By far the best one I’ve seen is the book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki […]
This week two friends expressed frustration with their attempts at building a platform for their writing. One lamented that with his work, family, schedule, and carving out time to write, he simply doesn’t have time to invest in growing his platform. My other friend is taking an extended break from all blogging and social media. […]
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Why I Save What I Delete
When I delete something from a work in progress—be it a book, article, or post—I try to save it. Often it comes in handy later. Last week’s post, How Much Has Your Writing Progressed in the Past Year?was running long. I shortened it to make my point more succinctly. I deleted content that didn’t move […]
Last week, I shared how going on a writer’s retreat gave me the opportunity to pause and reflect on my writing journey over the past twelve months. I had written nearly every day during the prior year, making progress but not seeing it. I ground out words with methodical repetition, not realizing I had reasons […]
A few years ago I attended a writers retreat. Aside from a chance to write in a different venue and hang out with other writers, I enjoyed an unexpected benefit: I recalled my writing journey over the past twelve months. It’s wise to periodically look back and evaluate progress, yet we seldom do. As writers […]
Last week I talked about writing contests. These competitions come in two flavors: free and fee. I generally don’t enter any fee-based contests, though last week I made an exception. Here are the pros and cons of both. Free Contests: Freewriting competitions are egalitarian; they are fair and open. This appeals to my sense of […]