Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Do you suffer from “login fatigue?” I know I do. Login fatigue is that overwhelmed feeling produced by having too many computer login names, passwords, and codes to keep track of. (A Google search for “login fatigue” resulted in 75,400,000 entries, more than a hundred times higher then when I last checked. I am sure […]
I have paid to enter some contests. It’s okay when you win, but it’s a double hit when you don’t. Contest Fees I’ve paid from $1 to $20 to enter contests, and each time they gave a compelling reason why I needed to compensate them to consider my work. And each time I’ve felt duped […]
Selecting the right word is important for writers. In fact, aside from using the correct punctuation to frame those words, it is the only thing. This may seem shocking but at the most basic level, all we do as writers are figure out what word comes next. Then we insert punctuation for clarity. The words […]
Part 5 in the continuing series on using WordPress for blogging: a platform-building, book-selling tool. WordPress categories and tags are confusing. They seem to do the same thing and offer similar results. WordPress Category A category is like a file cabinet drawer for your posts where you place related content. Categories are general groupings of […]
The main benefit of writing short stories before writing a novel is to identify and learn how to fix problems with our writing style and voice. And every writer has them. Here are some other benefits: For those who write nonfiction, the same rationale applies to writing articles, blog posts, editorials, and so forth. In […]
It seems people are jumping on the podcasting bandwagon. They want to grow their audience and build their platform in order to sell their books (or whatever other product or service they have to offer). This makes sense. Look at the recent surge of interest in audiobooks, with people who “read” books by listening to […]
The Hemingway Editor Guides Authors in Improving Readability A friend recently turned me on to the Hemingway Editor, a nifty online tool to assist writers in improving our work. The website says, “Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It’s like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on […]
Do you know how many words you typically write per hour? Do you know how long you can sustain that rate? This is a critical number to know when estimating how long a project will take. We need this for meeting deadlines and for quoting projects. Without having a firm grasp of our typical writing […]
Many writers want to write a book about their health scare that almost killed them. But will publishers be interested in that book? These stories are very personal for the writer, very real and raw. Unfortunately, it isn’t unique, and publishers want unique books. (Unless a writer has a big platform that will move books. […]
I used to be addicted to alliteration: the repetition of similar sounds near each other in a sentence, usually at the start of words. “Similar sounds” is an example of alliteration. An extreme example would be “Similar sounds starting successive words…” Just as some people consider a pun as the highest form of humor, I […]