Get Through Hump Day With These Writing Prompts From Twitter

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While Wednesday is traditionally a low day for workers – who wants to be stuck in the middle? – it doesn’t really have much of an effect on many freelancers, does it? For some, however, weekends are sacred. It is time for family. It is “me time”.

For the latter group, then, Hump Day certainly exists. Since I try to keep the weekends free for things I don’t get to do during the week, I usually experience the blues on Wednesday (even though I end up doing some work on the weekends).

The result?

Words don’t come easily. My fingers are so uncoordinated I can’t type without making a mistake every 30 seconds. My mind wanders as if it were a leaf being blown by the wind. [Read more…]

Add These Writing Tweets to Your Reading List This Week

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I’m glad that you enjoyed my curated list of fun gifts for writers – at least that’s how it seems to me. (Or it could be my imagination…wishful thinking.)

Anyhow, some of you may be familiar with my “writing tweets” posts, so today, instead of material gifts, let me share some tweets which will you’ll find useful, inspire you, and make you laugh, too (I hope). [Read more…]

#TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter: How to Irritate a Writer

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You may not have a long list in your head right now, but I am sure you can rattle off several ways to irritate a writer. Pet peeve, anyone?

Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, and Five Quarters of the Orange (if you haven’t read the last book, I highly recommend it), has started a trend on Twitter called #TenTweets.

The topics #TenTweets covers changes, but a few months ago, it was “Ten Things Not to Say to a Writer”.

It does what it says on the tin: things that you shouldn’t say to a writer, unless you want to get on their wrong side – and we know what that means.

irritate a writer

Today, just for fun, let’s take a look at some ways to irritate a writer – inspired by #TenTweets.

Enjoy!

OUCH!

Another OUCH.

I do make money, thank you very much!

Or, what’s your day job?

This is a really good thing to say to irritate a writer. I can’t blame any writer if they block (or worse) anyone who says this to them, can you?

Now I know we can all relate to this one. How many ads have you seen that say this?

Family Guy fans, you get this.

Hmmm…

Why don’t you???

This last one cracked me up. By the way, if I work at a coffee shop, I prefer Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Their chai tea latte is better.

Now I am sure you’ve got a running list of your own. Care to share?

Follow Joanne Harris on Twitter for more #TenTweets.

Also read: A Writer’s Pet Peeves

Writing-related Tweets to End the Week on a Good Note

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Not too long ago, I shared some writing-related tweets that I thought would inspire you and give you ideas.

This morning, it occurred to me that I haven’t checked my Twitter feed for writing quotes/articles in the past couple of days. I don’t have to tell you what happened next.

Here are some of the most interesting writing-related tweets I came across this morning. There’s some good reading material in this list, as well as some fun stuff. Enjoy!

Writing-related tweets to welcome the weekend

If you’re a screenwriter, or you’re trying to break into the screenwriting scene, these two tweets will help you.

This next tweet is really sweet.

Novelists who live with partners under one roof, what do you have to say?

This next tweet shares a link to an amazing article showcasing some of the most creative books, past and present. They really are amazing!

Because I like to lighten things up, I’ll leave you with these.

What do you say when you finish a plot or a piece?

When revision after revision after revision gets to you, remember the definition of spontaneous.

Have a great weekend, everyone. See you on Monday!

Writing-related Tweets You’ll Want to Read Today

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How active are you on Twitter?

I don’t think it’s wrong to say that, while it is not mandatory to be on Twitter, it does help. A lot.

Some of you may even have stories about you made connections with other writers. Others may have found clients via Twitter (or the other way around). Then there is the constant stream of information that you can find – articles, ideas, quotes, thought-provoking questions, and so on.

As you can see from my Twitter stream, I am not that much of a tweeter, but there are times when I do find myself reading tweets a lot. Today is one of them.

I found a bunch of writing-related tweets that I think you’ll want to read as well, so I am sharing them with you.

First, some useful reading.

This one is a good article for those who are writing stories or novels.

This next tweet is targeted at crime writers. Perhaps some of you already use the idea.

Do you write personal essays and hope to get them published? Here are tips on how to do it.

For sports writers, here is a contest for fantasy football.

Who doesn’t love quotes? Whether they’re inspirational or funny, they can you a boost. I hope you like these two.

Have a great day, everyone. I hope you enjoy these tweets!

Talk Your Way to a Job

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Networking Freelancers

(Photo credit: solobasssteve)

The popularity of social media in today’s job market has made everybody believe they can talk their way to a job. It gives them an excuse to visit their favorite social media site and say they are doing it as a part of their job search. While freelancers and job seekers can find jobs on social media sites, it needs to be handled carefully to be successful.

When looking for freelance writing gigs, it is important to let people know you are open to receiving new clients. One of the benefits of social media is the people you are associated with know others and those people know more people. You never know who you can reach within your network on a social media site just by telling people you are looking for a freelance position. [Read more…]

Follow These Freelancers and Enterpreneurs on Quora

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Quora

A couple of days ago I was chatting with some friends over drinks, and the topic turned to social media. Given the status of about half of us as geeks, this was an in depth discussion that lasted for quite some time. Accompanied by plenty of eye rolling from the other half of our group with little interest in social media outside of playing Farmville.

When we talk about the web and technology related fields, those in the group as obsessed as I am will usually agree on the good, the bad and the undecided. But what shocked me was that of those there, only one other friend had used Quora. A fact that was stunning, given my recent obsession with the site and the way it is growing more and more by the day. [Read more…]

Can You Use Twitter to Sharpen Your Writing Skills?

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Twitter logo

It took me a while to get Twitter, but I have found myself using the microblogging platform more than I use Facebook these days. While your Twitter account is public by default, which can be a big turn off for those who are concerned about privacy, I have discovered the platform to offer more interesting information.

The links that people share are more relevant (to my interests). The conversations are snappier and hold my attention longer. And yes, I don’t see gory photos of people who have been injured or are sick and need help. (Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against promoting charitable causes, but I find it difficult to stomach very graphic images.)

On another note, I have been thinking if Twitter can also offer some interesting benefits to writers in terms of improving our skills. As you may already know, Twitter has a 140-character limit. That fact is where everything revolves around.

The value of brevity
Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was supposed to have said “Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few”, and I suppose that he would have been a Twitter user if he were alive today.

While there are some cases when we have to expound and write long pieces, there is indeed beauty in being able to get your point across in as few words as possible. It takes skill, though, and if you need to work on brevity, I think Twitter is a great venue to practice.

The importance of accuracy
More than having to keep it short – 140 is the magic number – people who use Twitter (and who care) also need to pay a little more attention to the accuracy of their message. And when I say accuracy, I am referring to grammar. There are many ways to shorten a sentence, but not all of them equate to proper use of grammar. You may be scoffing right now, but I have found myself pondering on the wording of some tweets to ensure that I get my message across, use the most appropriate grammatical structure, AND keep to the 140-character limit. It is a wonderful challenge at times!

To answer the question I posed from the get go, yes, I think that Twitter can be a useful tool for writers. Of course, the temptation of being lax (as I sometimes am, also with text messaging) will always present itself, but if you slightly alter your perspective, you can derive more from Twitter than simply interacting with other people online.

Are you on Twitter? Follow us @freelancewj, and let’s try to keep each other’s writing skills sharp!

Tweeting, Googling, and Capitalization

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Google Before You TweetDo you still remember the days when everyone knew that “tweet” referred to the sound that birds make? Those were the days when there was no confusion as to what the speaker meant.

How about the days when your mom may not have known what you meant when you said “Google”? Those days are long gone, and these two words have become so pervasive that even little children know what they mean. More so, kids use them on a regular basis!

There is one thing about the use of the words “Twitter”, “Google”, and their derivatives that may not be so clear, though. Used as proper nouns – the trademarks – there is no doubt about how we write them. We capitalize the first letter of the word. I am willing to bet my month’s earnings on that. 😉

With the way things have evolved, however, new words and uses have arisen. “Google” is also used as a verb. See the example below.

Why don’t you Google the restaurant’s location?

In this case, was I right to capitalize the first letter of the word, or should I have written “google” instead since it is used as a verb? Here is another example.

He tweeted that he was not feeling well.

Should I have capitalized the first letter, or did I get it right this time?

I have read various opinions on this, and the conclusion seems to be that people choose whichever method depending on their personal preference. As usual, I go to my most trusted source: Merriam-Webster.

Interestingly, it gives different answers for the two words. It defines “Google”, used as a verb, as: “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web”. There is also an additional note saying that the verb is “often capitalized”. The example given is below. ((Source))

Then where are they going, if not to Faulkner and Achebe and Naipaul? … To the movies; to television (hours and hours); to Googling obsessively (hours and hours); to blogging and emailing and text messaging…

To be honest, I tend to use lowercase for the verb, but from now on, I hope to be consistent with the example given above.

As for “tweet”, Merriam-Webster takes on a different stance. ((Source)) The definition is: “to post a message to the Twitter online message service”. The first letter of the word is not capitalized, nor is there any note about that point.

That solves it for me. How about you? Do agree with these “rules”? Why or why not?

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