Friday Morning Musings

-
Up with the chick-a-dees and the Facebook in-box where I receive these messages from hapless guys who can't spell. What's up with the inability to spell? Now I realize there are those who shorten phrases in text. U know ... and then there is R U ... makes me think of Toys'R'Us. Yet there are those out there who literally cannot spell. I'm not talking sort'a can't spell. I'm talking barely using the alphabet. First, if you're a guy who messages a "publisher" who is also a writer, give this some consideration. Do you think someone who is all about spelling (I'm an editor, too) will appreciate the failure to attend spelling class. What does the ability to spell project? Think about it? In our digital-ease world, you realize that spelling and punctuation take center stage more than ever. You are projecting quite a bit of your "learned" ability in writing. A guy who can't spell the word "beautiful" (thank you for calling me that) isn't going to impress me even though he said something nice. Maybe to the average person who doesn't making a living off the English language this wouldn't be quite so unattractive ... or maybe not. To a professional editor and writer, well, it's bothersome. Next in line with I failed to attend spelling class is the failure to write literately. It comes off as (wait for it) ... illiterate. Again, who are you messaging? A literate woman. The extreme messages where the messenger failed to spell a single word correctly and then put together a sentence I can barely understand isn't a winner. Just remember "gang'o'mine," your spelling and writing abilities project something about you. Just saying ...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Step-by-Step Building Sexual Tension Between Characters

-
We'll do a kind of mini-workshop on the blog to show you how to build sexual tension either in a book or script. Watch the two methods I employ between Brea and her love interest Drew. Read it below, and I will deconstruct it for you to show you the slow progression and build up. Please notice, I know the entire storyline between these two, so I'm working by making subtle gestures that only an informed audience would notice, which is why you need to know where your story is going and how you intend for it to end so you can build the foreshadowing into the story. I'm not suggesting you don't let some parts of the story organically evolve, but I do know that to build the story arc you need to the end game and character flaws and motivations. So, let me deconstruct that scene for you. Notice a lot of looks pass between them (keeping the focus on the eye-to-eye contact, which is one of the keys to building sexual tension). And mind you, nothing is sexier than a forbidden
Read more

Can I Pick Your Brain?

-
I am blogging about this in response to another blog I saw on the subject. I didn't completely read that author's total opinion, but I read enough to post a big, "You tell 'em sister!" In my line of work as a publisher and marketing specialist, I run into prospective clients who basically through the excuse of preliminary research, put my staff to work to put together proposals, get print quotes, ask endless advice, ask for multiple meetings, etc. -- all under the guise of "picking our brains" and potential business. While we've gotten better about discerning the difference between real business opportunities and those who make endless requests only to spend time drinking coffee with us and going nowhere fast ... except off to either another publisher with our materials (usually one that in their minds is less expensive) or to try and self-publish (again, using our materials). Whether people set out to deliberately use and run, isn't the point.
Read more

In Loving Memory -- John Andrew Gamble, 1962-2011

-
Image
I rarely discuss my private life on my blog, but I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to my brother who passed unexpectedly sometime in July in Wasilla, Alaska . John was a true mountain man. He wasn't the least bit materialistic and never cared about worldly possessions. In the last 20 years after he moved to Alaska, I saw him three times, so we were not close; but I admire that he decided to live life his way up in the wilderness fishing for endless numbers of day. I always wondered how he seemed to never bore of it. He would catch so many salmon, he would live off fresh fish year round. He loved to cook, and I honestly have no idea why he got a degree in marketing from Sacramento State. Looking back on it, I think he would have made a terrific ranger. From an early age, he loved nature. He used to catch trout with his hands up at our family cabin. We would wander the forest together. When we were little, we spent sometimes two to three weeks up there, hiking around the w
Read more