The blogger code of conduct?
March 20, 2008
Via Steve Hodson
I saw this last year and didn’t say anything, because, at the time, I was still trying to work out where I *stood* in the blogging community…. The long and short of it is I’m not an A-lister, so I felt that I had to get closer to being ‘that’ before I started advising other people.
It now occurs to me that advising people on blogging is what I do as naturally as breathing, and though I’m tweaking my blogs to clean up the messages I’m offering. I’m ‘branding’ each blog to be a lot clearer if you will.
Farewell to a great
March 19, 2008
Where’s the ’secret’ post then?
March 16, 2008
About a week ago, I made a post that garnered 93 comments.
93!
If you’ve come to Ardentwriter since last night, you won’t have seen the post, but I wanted to say to those of you that took part - thank you. Those that followed the instructions to the letter were great - and those that didn’t also gave me food for thought.
So, over the next few weeks and months (cause, err…I was expecting 10, not 93) I’ll post the stuff you’ve asked about.
And the next time I make a post like that I might leave it for longer 
Buckling down
March 15, 2008
Butt in seat – or laptop on knee – or - pen and paper in hand are three of the most important traits any writer can learn. Once you’ve fed your muse, you gotta find a schedule of work – that schedule of work needs to be daily.
Not weekly, not ‘when you can be bothered’ – daily.
Writing daily is an art in and of itself. I was once told that once you got into a routine for 21 days, you would always do it, but that doesn’t work for me. I can ‘force’ myself to write and work, but I don’t like it. I still do it though.
Muse-ili
March 14, 2008
My muse is an informant. She comes in the night, and whispers stories to me. Constantly.
The problem is, she’s very easily led.
You see – most people can’t write without inspiration – and if you write – long term, you have to keep feeding your muse, or they starve. And a starved muse is probably a form of torture for writers, to be honest.
So, ratting on your muse and sharing everything starts with reading, and absorbing experiences. WE can only write about the things we have a passing knowledge of after all – even if it’s creating events in our head and following them through to logical conclusions. Or illogical ones.
What the heck are RSS feeds and why should I use them?
March 13, 2008
If you’re interested in anything RSS, you should probably head on over to my blogging blog, where all will be revealed
Completely Blogging is also offering *free* blog reviews, in exchange for a link back to Completely Blogging. We also offer lots of informationon blogging, social bookmarking and more.
Can yahoo pipes actually HELP your blogging?
March 10, 2008
Recently, I discovered a cool API that Yahoo had set up called ‘Yahoo Pipes’. Basically, what it does is ‘pipe’ feeds together into one ‘uber feed’, like connecting up a lot of little pipes to the main line.
It then spits that main line out in order of posts, into one feed, over however many blogs you’ve added to it.
The beauty of it is I can add any RSS based feed to it, and then republish it on ANY website I choose - so, any blog, free article site that I publish my work on, forum that allows me to grab feeds and more - and et voila, I’m able to combine it all into one constantly updating and evolving data stream that lets people see what I’m writing, where, and how its going.
How to blog series - sample article - Where do I start with blogging?
March 6, 2008
It has become THE single biggest web crazes online, and I was one of the first people to actually vocalise using blogging as a business model on Ryze and other online forums (and I so wish I’d followed through that thought too), so I’ve been doing this for several years now - and every year, it evolves that little bit more.
What writers and business owners can learn from Babylon 5
March 5, 2008
I am a sci fi geek.
I prove it, frequently, over at IRLfemale - gamer, irreverance and other fun stuff, but there’s something I worked out whilst watching Babylon 5.
Babylon 5 was a sci fi TV show that was plotted over at least five seaons. It got to season three, and J Michael Straczynski needed to change the story arc, due to the possibility of cancellation.
But it highlights a couple of things about good writing, better work, and engaging your audience.
Your first step to publishing that manuscript
March 4, 2008
Your manuscript is finished. You DID IT!
GO you!
And you’ll have to edit it of course, but after that?
What, exactly do you DO now?
Well, the first thing you need to do is decide what you’re going to do.
Should you query agents? Publishers? Go it ‘yourself’?
This can be a difficult decision for authors - because they can’t make up thier mind whether to risk possible rejection, or take a chance on the big contract.
I’ve got a different view on it all to be honest. I have a lot of books that are self published, and some that are tradtionally published, and though I’ve aimed high, my decision is based on how I’d perform ‘midlist’.