Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.
- Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
- How Can I Be Helpful?
- The Actual Writing
- Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
- Repeat
Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.
Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
How Can I Be Helpful?
The Actual Writing
Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
Repeat
read more »
Poetry fisticuff
In one corner Billy Collins. In the other corner CA Conrad for a dispute over Emily Dickinson’s sexual preference. This should be a great fisticuff battle… except it’s taking place in the American poetry scene which will be mostly ignored by the general public.
In one corner Billy Collins. In the other corner CA Conrad for a dispute over Emily Dickinson’s sexual preference. This should be a great fisticuff battle… except it’s taking place in the… read more »
4 reasons why ad agencies are impotent at branding
Repeat after me: Branding is product, service and experience.* It’s not a wicked cool logo with drop shadow and PMS color key nor a catchy slogan. It’s simple and complicated and it’s why ad agencies typically don’t get it.
- Ad placement drives profits
- Advertising creatives are spoiled. And entitled. And enabled.
- The integrated agency is a fallacy
- Advertising is a knock-knock joke. Design is a dialogue
Design is dialogue sums it up for me. Know your audience, build community, and provide consistent, satisfactory customer experience.
*Watch this video for an excellent overview of what brand is (via AdPulp).
A good book is like a good conversation with a good friend.
Repeat after me: Branding is product, service and experience.* It’s not a wicked cool logo with drop shadow and PMS color key nor a catchy slogan. It’s simple and complicated and it’s why ad… read more »
kipple
noun • useless junk, especially junk you don’t remember acquiring.
Coined by Philip K. Dick.
A baby albino crow is now a permanent resident of Monika’s Wildlife Shelter in Surrey.
The male crow, about five weeks old, was turned in to the shelter Wednesday. Monika Tolksdorf, who runs the centre, says it’s not “a total rarity” to find a white crow, but that the bird won’t survive if released.
“Usually they die, because most of them go blind because they have no protection from the sun,” she says.
Tolksdorf says the crow was not injured when it arrived.
On average, one or two albino crows arrive at the shelter every year.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Albino+crow+taken+Surrey+wildlife+shelter+includes+video+attack+crows/3110245/story.html#ixzz0qBNsffSn
Hey, if Buddhism and other Eastern traditions are about compassion, why not skip the scented bath, skip making amends with the self, skip realization of “the opportunity to embrace aparigraha or non-grasping.” Instead, go down to the local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and help some people who don’t have the resources to send flowers to themselves, people who actually need help. Rather than continuing the endless processes of anointing yourself with overly scented candlelit self-love.
carfax
noun • a junction of four roads; the main intersection in a town.
From an Anglicisation of the Latin quadrifurcus “four-pronged, four-forked”
malapert
adjective • /mălˈə-pûrtˌ/ • impudently bold in speech or manner; saucy.
noun • an impudent, saucy person.
“Reading aloud lets you craft great writing” writes James (of Men with Pens) how goes on to offer a few tips on writing including: We Have Voices in Our Heads Have You Lost Your Voice? … read more »
Writing tip: Read it aloud
“Reading aloud lets you craft great writing” writes James (of Men with Pens) how goes on to offer a few tips on writing including:
- We Have Voices in Our Heads
- Have You Lost Your Voice?
- Reading Aloud Without Saying a Word
Link: How to Become a Better Writer and Get Readers Loving You
The last couple months I’ve been writing scripts for a proof of concept (POC) audio production. Often I’ll find myself pausing during a reading and re-write portions of copy because it sounds weak or clunky or maybe too upbeat when it should be somber. During a recording session with other voice talent, we may continue revising copy because transitions, though they look good on paper, may not perform well. So, yes, reading your writing out load us beneficial to improving writing skills.
I’m reading an anthology of steampunk essays and fiction titled, well, Steampunk. It’s a sub-genre of science-, speculative-, historical-fiction. What’s intriguing to me is the hard-boiled… read more »
Strange, like fiction
I’m reading an anthology of steampunk essays and fiction titled, well, Steampunk. It’s a sub-genre of science-, speculative-, historical-fiction. What’s intriguing to me is the hard-boiled speculative science with smartly dressed Victorian, British fashion. For those of you serious about Steampunk, would you believe there is a Steampunk Emporium (providing clothing and other accessories) and Clockwork Couture (another purveyor of fine clothing and accessories).
Writing tips from C. S. Lewis
Here’s a few writing tips from the author of Til We Have Faces:
1. Read good books and avoid most magazines.
2. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good.
3. Write only about things that interest you. If you have no interests, you won’t ever be a writer.
4. Know the meaning of every word you use.
Here’s a few writing tips from the author of Til We Have Faces: 1. Read good books and avoid most magazines. 2. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good. 3. Write only… read more »
An honest sinner
It’s either a clever turn if a phrase, or not. “I grew up in the Bible Belt…” the anonymous contribution to The Sun’s Readers Write section begins and concludes that “…it was better to be an honest sinner than a dishonest churchgoer.”
The phrase that arrested my attention is “honest sinner.” Juxtaposing words in that fashion are delicious.
So, I looked up the etymology of the words to see if the anonymous author is clever or something else.
“Honest” comes from the Latin meaning “honorable.”
“Sinner,” or its root word “sin,” as far as I can find comes from the Latin meaning “guilty,” thus sinner means “guilty one.” Further, “sin” means to “miss the mark,” specifically, “to miss the mark of righteousness.”
So the anonymous author constructs a phrase meaning “honorably guilty” or “honorably missing the mark.” Either conclusion (“honorably guilty” or “dishonorably attending church”) seems disappointing. To open up the phrase a bit more — the author proposes that it is better to honorably miss the mark than to charade dishonorably in church. At this point I realize that the anonymous author reveals a logic similar to that of wet noodles. I’m too disappointed to continue to write about the author’s logical fallacies and philosophical short cuts.
It’s either a clever turn if a phrase, or not. ”I grew up in the Bible Belt…” the anonymous contribution to The Sun’s Readers Write section begins and concludes that “…it was better to be an honest… read more »
Organic garden — the last weekend in June And here on earth come emulating flies, That though they never equal stars in size, (And they were never really stars at heart) … read more »
Gardening and fireflies
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.
(link: Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost)
Some evenings, as the sun sets, I water the garden. A two-gallon water can is used and one can of water per garden box seems to be sufficient. The other night while I watered the garden in the evening, the fireflies appeared to come up from the ground and surround me; almost as if the water droplets transformed upon impact and rose into the gathering darkness as luminous creatures. Within an hour or two I could see their light in the tallest oaks and pines surrounding the cottage. But, alas, like Robert Frost offers “they can’t sustain the part” of the stars above.
Like twilight time, the garden is transitioning. The snap peas began to wither a few days ago. I can’t tell if it is due to the lack of rain or the peas have passed their season of growth. I’ll plant kale and shard to replace the pea plants. So far the most produce comes from the chili pepper plant and the lettuce. The zucchini and squash are disappointing. It appears the leaves have some kind of mold; yielding only four vegetables. It’s too early to tell, but it looks like the tomato plants will yield well this year.
5 notes from the lecture “The Excess of Poetry”
James Longenbach presented a lecture titled “The Excess of Poetry” at the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers this morning. Here’s a few of the notes I wrote:
- The act of writing is itself an excess.
- What matters in the Pisan Cantos is not the information provided but the tone.
- Our minds are strategically selective. We manage excess by focusing on some things while ignoring others.
- The Pisan Cantos are organized by tone: elegiac, colloquial, haranguing and reverence.
- What writer does not compose him/herself out of nothing?
There are more notes I wrote, but they are a bit scramble. Longenbach presented poems by Keats, Dickinson and Pound as way to explore the “fine excess” of poetry.
Coffeehouse Junkie 
