Writing

Maximizing the value of each word

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged style writing on by

When I’m polishing text that I’ve written, I find myself thinking about the value each word contributes. Can I replace a long phrase with a short one with equal value? Can I use a high-value word in place of one that has relatively little?

By “value” I mean the precision and impact which each word contributes to the statement. A precise word has more value than one with a broad meaning. A straightforward word or phrase has more value than a cliché. A sentence with a high value per word has more impact than one that’s full of low-value words.
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Working with Finale and Open Office

This entry was posted in Editing Writing and tagged Finale music OpenOffice on by

A current project of mine is compiling and editing the songbook portion of the ConCertino 2018 program book. I’m using OpenOffice for the pages and Finale for the music notation.

This is the first time I’ve worked with the full version of Finale on a project. Previously I’d used the budget versions, called Finale Allegro and later Finale PrintMusic. When the publisher dropped PrintMusic and offered a cheap upgrade to Finale, I took them up on it. I didn’t think that the extra features would be that useful for my purposes, but they’ve turned out to be quite helpful.
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The right word 4

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged usage vocabulary on by

Of all the crimes against good writing, the worst is using the wrong word. A grammatical error looks sloppy, but as long as it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence, people will get what you mean. Use the wrong word, though, and you fail to convey what you’re trying to say. That amounts to failing as a writer.

Usage errors fall into several categories. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it includes the types of errors that annoy me the most.
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W. A. Mozart, ghostwriter

This entry was posted in Writing on by

A stranger approached Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in July 1791. He wanted Mozart to write a Requiem for a patron and to finish it as quickly as possible. Mozart never finished it. On December 5, he died. Some people think he was poisoned.

The patron was named Count Franz von Walsegg. The Count wanted to pass off Mozart’s work as his own, in memory of his recently deceased wife. In other words, he hired one of the greatest composers in history as a ghostwriter of music. Mozart’s students, Franz Xaver Süssmayr and Joseph Eybler, finished the work. Walsegg made a partial payment to Mozart; it isn’t clear whether he paid for the completion. The condition of secrecy had been thoroughly ruined by that point. German Mozart postal commemorative
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HTML for blog writers

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged HTML technology writing on by

If you write for websites, you need to know the basics of HTML. Even if you do your writing in Microsoft Word, Open Office, or a Web editor, it will get turned into HTML (or, less often, PDF). You need to understand how it will work in its final form.

HTML is a markup language. It’s text which contains plain human language plus tags that tell the browser how to render it. The tags are more guidelines than rules. They indicate an intent rather than dictating an exact appearance. In different browsers, or even different settings in the same browser, you might see differences in fonts, spacing, colors, and so on.
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Being an honest ghostwriter

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing and tagged ethics ghostwriting writing on by

It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
(Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5)

When you aren’t writing under your own name, the boundaries of honesty aren’t quite the same. You aren’t being hired to say what you believe, but to put someone else’s ideas into words. It isn’t dishonest as such to say things which you don’t personally believe are true, but you don’t have a license to lie. Where’s the boundary you can’t cross without becoming dishonest?

Advocacy vs. deception

The slope is slippery, so I stay well back from the brink. I’m willing to present a case for a conclusion which isn’t clearly false, even if I have doubts about it. For instance, I see no ethical problem with writing an article that says cloud-based VoIP is best on one day, then an article the next day saying an on-premises IP PBX is better. Both are true under some circumstances. However, I won’t write an article claiming an IP PBX is illegal — at least, not until I learn that some government has actually outlawed it.
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Blogs for bloggers 1

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged blogs RSS on by

We writers learn from one another, as well as getting encouragement. Here are some blogs that I can recommend for writers in general and especially for bloggers.

I’ve included the RSS link for each blog. RSS feeds are a great and underutilized way to keep track of interesting content. In case you aren’t familiar with them, they’re a way to subscribe to site updates without filling up your mailbox. You use an RSS aggregator website or application (I use Leaf on the Mac) and check it whenever you like. It will list the latest entries for each site that you’ve subscribed to. To subscribe, you copy the feed link and follow your aggregator’s instructions to add it. If you can’t find the feed link, aggregators can often find it for you if you give them the site URL.
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Finishing what you start 3

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged writer's block writing on by

For some courses of action, the first step is the hardest. Joining the Army. Making a dental appointment. Talking to someone you find attractive. For writing, it’s getting to the finish that’s usually hardest. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, getting an idea and writing a few sentences isn’t hard. But somewhere along the way, you’ll often get stuck.

In my case, writing factual pieces, it isn’t writer’s block in the normal sense. It’s usually that there’s something I don’t understand well enough. A lot of times, I write about something that I generally understand but I’m not an expert on. I have to pick up a more complete sense of the topic. What I’ve researched fits together, yet there’s something left unsaid that I need to figure out in order to create a satisfactory article. Sometimes it’s actually an unimportant detail, and eventually I decide I’m just obsessing over it. But usually it’s something central to the topic, and if I don’t understand it, I could be basing my whole article on a false premise.
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