The Fabulist Flash

Issue 50

Rocky Shore Mousepad

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Feature Article
3. Feature Article
4. A Writer Tidbit
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

Welcome to Issue 50 of The Fabulist Flash.

Over the weekend I attended Dottie Walter's Master Weekend in Orlando, FL. I don't know what energy Orlando emits, but I found myself constantly lost as I explored the city over the long weekend. I've been there many times and have had this problem before. I've learned to just go with the flow and to schedule my travel time accordingly. Luckily, that was the only downside of my trip.

I enjoy attending conferences, seminars and workshops. Learning new concepts, expanding my craft, and exploring new ideas and opportunities are only a small part of most of these events. Meeting others with the same desire to learn and learning from the best in the business create an exciting atmosphere. There were only 15 attendees this weekend allowing for lots of interaction time and one-on-one time with Dottie and plenty of networking time with the other participants.

Dottie's life is an amazing story. She's something of a business pioneer; a woman of firsts for women. And, she's still an inspiration today. Dottie has simply done so much, met so many people, and knows everyone and everything connected to the world of professional speaking.

Dottie offered excellent information on the life of professional speakers, how they fit into the world of meeting planners and associations, and many different ways to turn our lives, books, experiences and products into multiple income streams. The downside is that she's short on computer and Internet technology and the applications of that technology to the speaker's world. But, solid foundation information is necessary if you're going to enter the world of professional speaking and that's Dottie's strong suit.

If you're interested attending one of her upcoming events or learning more she offers a long list of quality educational products. Visit her website (http://www.speakandgrowrich.com) for more information.

Needless to say, I've now got a huge, new "To-Do" list and a long list of books to read. It's going to be an exciting fall. There are two feature articles this week. In Real Life Critters Susan Stephenson shares her experiences and offers tips on starting your own writer's group and in Top 10 Common English Goofs by Web Authors Kempton Smith provides some grammar tips for writers.

Take advantage of my Back to School sale! Save $5 on orders over $50 of Art Cards and Gifts. Sale ends September 6th. Use Coupon Code: B2SALE

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a writer, photographer and professional speaker. Learn more about Gregory and his work at www.kompes.com

2. Feature Article

Real Life Critters
by Susan Stephenson

Writing is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. Often, you spend hours with only your screen for company. Online critique groups and writing groups can help by expanding your network and providing valuable feedback on your writing. My membership of the Muse-it-up Club (and subsequent connection to writers all over the world), has certainly helped me banish my feeling that I'm writing within a vacuum.

But nothing beats the immediacy, the warm human contact and just plain fun of an honest-to-goodness, real-world critique group. We've recently established such a group in Coffs Harbour, on the east coast of Australia and this is how we did it.

Four of us were participants in a local writing class. We'd spent many hours in each others' company and believed that we knew each other well enough for trust and honesty. We were ready to take our writing more seriously. While only one was currently seeking publication, all of us were determined to persevere and improve our writing skills. We got together to decide on our goals and the practicalities of implementing them.

We meet weekly at my home on Wednesday evenings from 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm. We each bring text of around 1000 words to share orally for critique. The text can be a troublesome part of a longer work or several paragraphs requiring feedback. Once a month each member brings an additional printed text of 1000 words. This is handed out for the other members to take home for written critique, due the following week. Each member receives three oral critiques weekly, and three written critiques monthly.

We established contingency plans. If a member is going to be absent, another will fill the gap. If someone else wishes to join the group, it will be a matter for the group to decide. We assess how the group is going at regular intervals: is it meeting our needs and how can we improve outcomes for each member?

Weekly meetings go something like this:

• Warm-up: brainstorming topics on a chosen theme
• Grammar Guru: speech tags
• Ten minute writing: "Bugs"
• Oral critiques
• Editing: deleting unnecessary words
• Problem characters: hot seat
• Business: handout for written critique, role-allocation, sharing success.

Our group shares some roles. We take turns in choosing and bringing: writing prompts for ten-minute writing, warm-ups, other writing activities. Other roles are not shared. One of our members is happy to be Grammar Guru every week as he is particularly concerned with editing and the group activity flows from problems he finds in others' works. I willingly took on the role of recorder and send out an email newsletter each week, reminding our members (and myself!) what was done in our meeting and what is required for next week. Each of us provides support, encouragement and honest feedback to the other group members.

Our group, Write Offs, is working out for all of us. Meetings are relaxed, informal and fun. Sharing the process of skill-development is motivating – we've all found ourselves working harder and smarter. It's so rewarding to not only get immediate feedback but be able to ask for clarification or examples there and then. Hearing genuine laughter at your witty, well-crafted sentence has amazing punch compared to a smiley face or LOL!

The virtual reality of online critique groups can be a life-line for writers. But if you have a hankering for some old-fashioned, real-life critters, get some writing friends together and go for it. Another weapon in your writer's arsenal could be just the shot-in-the-arm you need.

About the Author
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Susan Stephenson is a member of the Muse-it-up Club, (http://pages.ivillage.com/rockofrealm/museitup/) and Write Offs. Her work, both fiction and non-fiction, has been published in Writer's Hood, Absolute Write newsletter, The Traveler, Flashshots and Jackass College. She is currently working on the second draft of her children's novel, MouseHouse.

3. Feature Article

Top 10 Common English Goofs by Web Authors
by Kempton Smith

In reviewing and browsing web sites over the years, I have compiled a list of the most common misuses of English by web authors. Here they are in Letterman (reverse) order.

10. Who, which or that?

"Who" (or "whom") refers to persons. "Which" refers to animals or things, never to persons. "That" can refer to either persons or things.

Examples:
The girl who was hungry.
The dog that wagged its tail.
The software which I wrote.

9. Anyone vs any one

"Anyone" means "any person," not necessarily any specific person. It could refer to multiple people simultaneously.

As two words, "any one" refers to a single person.

Examples:
Anyone can download my software. But the software can only be used by any one user at a time.

8. Commonly misspelled words

All right
Dependable
Independent
Recommend
Responsible
Separate

7. Don't put punctuation at the end of a URL

While not technically an English grammatical error, don't put a period or anything immediately after a URL reference. Doing so will usually invalidate the URL. You might call this an internet grammatical rule.

Example:
Notice the lack of a period in the following sentence. My URL is http://article-promotion.blogspot.com

6. Software not softwares

"Software" can be singular or plural. Never use "softwares."

5. Do the quotes go after or before the period?

Put quotes after a period or comma. Put quotes before a colon. Put quotes after a question mark unless the entire sentence is a question. This is a US English standard. British English usage can differ.

Examples:
He asked, "Are you hungry?"
She replied, "Yes, I am hungry."
Did she say, "Yes"?

4. There, their, or they're

"There" is used in two ways. It can specify a place. It can also be used as an expletive or empty word to start a sentence.

"Their" is used as a possessive form of "they".

"They're" is short for "they are."

Examples:
I live there, not here.
There are nine planets in the solar system.
The two boys raced their bikes.
They're both tired after walking up the stairs.

3. Powerful

Too many developers describe their software as, "XXX Software is a powerful, easy-to-use, ... ." I searched download.com and found 2149 descriptions or titles of software containing the word "powerful." Powerful has many meanings, most referring to how effectively something is performed, as in muscular. A car with 450 horsepower is clearly more powerful than one with only 200 horsepower. But what is powerful software? If you mean feature-rich (like Adobe Photoshop), then say so. If your software does only one thing, but it does it completely or thoroughly (like CounterSpy), then say so. But please, no more powerful software.

2. Site or sight

A "site" is a place.

"Sight" refers to your sense of vision.

Examples:
A web site is a place on the internet that you visit with your browser.
A beautiful sunset is a marvellous sight.

And, finally, the most common English blunder by web authors is:

1. Its or It's

Use "it's" only when it means "it is." Unless you can replace "it's" with "it is," use "its." Never use "its'."

Examples:
It's raining today.
The dog wagged its tail.

Conclusion:

English is very difficult for persons whose native language is not English. It is also difficult for many English-speaking authors.

Unfortunately, most of the common grammatical errors will not be caught by a spell checker, so you have to manually check your writing for them.

An excellent reference is the short and timeless book, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. A free online version of this book is available at http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

I hope that web authors can use this article to recognize and correct some of the most common grammatical blunders that abound on the internet.

About the Author
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Kempton Smith helps internet businesses promote their products or services online by ghostwriting affordable, unique, keyword-rich articles for them. Email him now at articleghostwriter@yahoo.com for a free article for your online business, no obligation. Or for a free report on how to use articles to promote your product or service, visit http://article-promotion.blogspot.com.

4. A Writer Tidbit

Do you want to attend a writer's conference but don't know how to find one? Search the Shaw Guide (http://writing.shawguides.com).

ADVERTISEMENT
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5. About The Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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