The Fabulist Flash

Issue 61

2006 Holiday Celebration

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Ten Tips for Writing for the Web
3. The Proof Is In The Proofing
4. 5 Tips to Writing Tips Articles
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

Welcome to Issue 61 of The Fabulist Flash.

I love good quotes and I have two favorites that act as personal mantras.

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
--Seneca

"Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there."
--Will Rogers

These ideas from Mr. Rogers and old Seneca are a big part of my life right now. My book is arriving in stores and libraries around the country and a box of them showed up at my door this week, too. It was a thrill to slit open the carton. There's a rush of scent that escapes at that moment, a smell of paper and ink, not to mention accomplishment.

Yep, I'm on the right track, but I've got to keep moving. Now that the book is going out to the world, the next work phase has begun. It's repeated in all the how-to books, "Promotion is a bigger job than writing a book." I'm lucky to have the help of a publicist. Ken at Newman Communications is taking care of contacting a media list and following up with phone calls. With those chores being handled, I'm heading off in a different direction. I contacted all the mayor's offices in the cities profiled in 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live. Those contacts have already gotten me two solid articles promoting my book, including color book cover photos.

What are your mantras and livable quotes? How do they enhance your own personal philosophy?

There's still time to take advantage of my holiday sale. Use Coupon Code HOLIDAY2 and get $2 off all the Greeting Cards and Wall Calendars in my Art Cards & Gifts collection.
Order today, Sale Ends November 14

If you'll be in Las Vegas on Sunday, November 13, 2005, stop in at reJAVAnate Coffee Lounge--3300 East Flamingo (at Pecos)--between 2-5 PM for a panel discussion on how writers get published. This event is sponsored by The Henderson Writers' Group and I'll be a panel member.

This week's issue has two tips articles to help improve your writing: Ten Tips for Writing for the Web by David Beveridge and The Proof Is In The Proofing: 7 Tips To Develop Great Proofreading Skills by Marige O'Brien.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a writer, photographer, professional speaker and author of 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live. Learn more about Gregory and his work at www.kompes.com

2. Ten Tips for Writing for the Web

Ten Tips for Writing for the Web
by David Beveridge

Write for a reason
Get to the point. One of the basic references for Web design is Steve Krug's, Don't Make Me Think. My book for Web writers (not yet available in stores) will be called, Don't Make Me Yawn. The Great Democracy that is the Web has spawned far more spam and yammer than thoughtful prose. Don't fall in love with your own voice. Make sure every word supports the message.

Write for "scanners"
The five-second rule applies, only make it shorter. Visitors look at a Web page, then they read it. Think of your page as the cover of a magazine. A visitor will first absorb the total picture, then kick into reading mode and skip tra-la from headline to headline until they find, a) what they're looking for, or, b) something better. Don't lose the scanners with deathless prose.

Get engaged
Lively writing will draw visitors to your message. I know you're trying to be precise. I know you're trying to be complete. I know you need to get the whole message across. I know. Believe me. I'm reading it and trying to...zzzz.

Compartmentalize
Give long content a good home. Okay, sometimes content gets long. Sometimes it is supposed to be long. Sometimes it even has to be long. Understood. When that is the case, tease it up front, and put the long content where the long content goes. People who want to read it will follow the trail, and the rest of us will be spared.

Above the fold
Sorry, guys, page length matters. Newspaper page, Web site, or on the street, real estate is real estate. And in real estate, location rules. If I have to scroll down the page to find your content, I know it's not the good stuff, because you told me so. Most of the time, I won't even bother. So keep your key messages Top, Center.

Grammar kind of counts
Complete thoughts...less important...key words...phrases. Just kidding, ha ha. The point is, this may not be advertising writing, it may not be headline writing, and it had better not be bad writing. But in most cases it also is not pure narrative. Sentences, loaded with subordinate clauses, clogged with interesting but unnecessary detail, need not begin slowly, gain traction, and rise to a crescendo before a graceful, gradual, inevitable descent to a complete, satisfying end. Just say it, and get out.

Hyper about links
Use them as aids to navigation, but do not overuse. Hyperlinks are the fundaments of the Web, after all. They are the codex, why it's a web, so that you can follow links from place to place to place to place, all interwoven. Okay. Just don't overdo it. Too many links are like too much caffeine. You get the jitters, it's hard to keep your mind on point, and all that bouncing makes your stomach a little woozy. Use links to enhance, not scatter, the experience.

Smooth or Extra Chunky
Just enough information makes visitors feel refreshed! Chunk your content into easily digestible portions. My brother-in-law-the-restaurateur talks about "plate coverage," making sure the beans and the catfish and the French fries coexist in harmony and balance. Portion control for your visitors comes from teasers and intro paragraphs and "Learn more…" and "Read article…". Chunking your content gives visitors a taste, rather than a force-feeding.

Think with your eyes
Use visual cues and graphical elements to strengthen content. Graphics happen. White space happens. It's okay. Work with your designers to bring (even more) life to your words. And as important, make sure that your words fit with the other elements of the page. You're not writing your novel here. A Web page is a collaborative effort.

Tighten it up
When I was in grade school, my newspaper editor father reviewed my papers for me. He never understood why I cried when my three-page report on Chile became a two-paragraph brief under the machete slash of his red pencil. But he was right. I didn't need that word. I didn't need that paragraph. I had said the same thing on the previous page. I did need to revise and rewrite and cut and cut some more. I did, and I still do, and so do you. Writer, edit thyself.

About the Author
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David Beveridge is a Project Manager for Brook Group a Web design firm near Washington DC. More of his work can be found at Usability and Branding.

3. The Proof Is In The Proofing

The Proof Is In The Proofing: 7 Tips To Develop Great Proofreading Skills
Marige O'Brien

In many professions, especially writing and internet marketing, the primary form of contact with customers is via the written word: website content, display ads, Spam-compliant emails, not to mention forum posts and even responses to queries, etc. The list is endless. And all of them have one thing in common: They are based on the written word.

Because of this, the importance of proofreading one's work, word-for-word, cannot be over-stressed. No one would think of making a presentation while wearing a shirt covered in grease or spaghetti-sauce stains. Nor, despite a few eccentric exceptions, of appearing at one's wedding in sandals and baggy shorts. Yet that is exactly the same thing as allowing even one 'typo' to appear in the final copy of any professional text.

To avoid these written faux pas, proofreading skills are essential. Proofreading to writing is the equivalent of house cleaning to home design or laundering to dress-making: While the house may be beautiful, it is nothing more than a fancy pig's sty if not cleaned up; the gown nothing more than a rag, if not treated properly.

But proofreading is not an easy skill to develop, primarily because, for mystical reasons no writer will ever understand but will nonetheless verify (myself included), once a thought has been translated to a page, the author often develops a specialized kind of blindness, one in which they can no longer see what they've written clearly. Instead, all they see is what they *intended* to say.

But there is hope. As with any skill, producing letter-perfect copy comes with practise. Following are seven tactics for effective proofreading. None of them will guarantee perfect copy. All of them have their weaknesses. But if at least two or three are employed on a consistent basis, typographical, punctuation and/or grammatical errors will show a marked decrease.

1) THE TRUTH ABOUT SPELL-CHECK: THERE, THEIR OR THEY'RE
Upon its release, Spell-check was touted as every writer's dream, allowing those without secretaries (i.e., 98% of us) to forego the tedious chore of proofreading. To say that it fell somewhat short of that goal is an understatement. However, it IS useful as a basic, first-run-through tool. And it does point out the most obvious errors.

2) AS YE SPAKE
"You know, you can just, like, go over to this website and. . . "

This sentence is an obvious example of one of the most common errors in writing and is hardly ever caught during proofreading. That is, general improper usage. As anyone learning a foreign language can attest, there is a distinct difference between what is acceptable in the less formal, oral format than its written counterpart. While writing should be fluid and succinct, it should not mimic spoken -- even well-spoken -- language.

When proofreading, the signs of this type of misuse are: Overly informal slang; lack of reference within the context (i.e., over-using pronouns); and an abundance of typically oral modifiers (but, like, you see, etc.).

3) WHO SAID *THAT*?
While writing, an author so often becomes embroiled in the act itself -- of refining a thought or idea, of showing a progression of that thought -- that he/she loses perspective. In the process, incomplete sentences may be left hanging, replacement words may be put in the wrong part of a sentence, complete thoughts might be chopped up. For this reason, it is often easier to see these errors if, no matter what the deadline, the writer takes a break before reading over their copy, then comes back and reads it through from the beginning. In this way, these type of errors will become glaringly obvious.

4) PRINT IT OUT AND READ IT AGAIN
Though it's doubtful gremlins really do reside within printers, the fact remains that most 'typo's' can be found more easily in printed form. And, while it *seems* more efficient to proofread the text first, *then* print it, it actually wastes time. Perhaps it is because reading for sense and content, reading for typos AND correcting all at once can be a matter of covering too many bases. Whatever the case, printing a copy makes proofreading much easier.

5) FRIENDS READ FRIEND'S COPY
There is an old proofreading saying that "a fresh pair of eyes make all the difference." This is because after repeatedly looking at the same copy, the brain actually stops processing the information. By asking someone else to look over the same copy, the "fresh pair of eyes" can find the otherwise elusive typo. Co-workers, friends, and relatives can be the best help in this case. For long documents or a complete website, an alternate suggestion is to hire a professional proofreader.

6) READ IT OUTLOUD
While it may seem to contradict the advice in #2, above, reading the text aloud often forces one to recognise a typo or grammatical error the eyes have scanned over and missed a dozen times. This goes to the core of why proofreading is so difficult: Simply put, the mind naturally adapts to what it sees very quickly. If one sees the same error repeatedly, without it being corrected, it ceases to recognise it as such. Thus, in proofreading, our own capabilites betray us. Professional proofreaders (yes, there is such a profession, though now only associated with the law and publishing fields) use a technique in which one proofreader will read aloud, while another proofreader (using a second copy) follows along, making corrections. This is an extreme measure, but worthwhile for any text that must be absolutely letter-perfect.

7) THE WORLD IS YOUR EDITOR
Especially in the case of a substantial body of work (a website, for instance), an open invitation for correction should be given. Though, again, it seems contradictory to what has already been said here (in #5, above), inviting the corrections of the world at large allows for a greater source of information. And, of course, this is only after all other efforts have been made. Even with two or three people viewing the text, a broader forum of information can always pick out one or two straggling typo's.

Using even one or two of these tips will enhance the body of any author's work, allowing them to enjoy a professionalism they would otherwise be denied. Think of it as buying a new suit and tie, then dry-cleaning them regularly.

About the Author
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Marige O'Brien works as a writer, web designer and Internet Marketer. Visit her website, http://marige.4t.com/.

4. 5 Tips to Writing Tips Articles

5 Tips to Writing Tips Articles
by Gregory A. Kompes

Tips articles, brief pieces that range from a simple list of 5, 7, or 10 items, to longer, descriptive pieces, are adored by many editors because readers like them and they make great publication fillers. They're also an excellent way to build your clip file and promote your book or yourself as an expert in your subject or field. Plus, they're easy to write.

1. Pick your topic.

2. Brainstorm 5, 7 or 10 ideas related to the topic

3. Describe why each of these ideas are helpful to readers

4. Proof your work

5. Submit to editors interested in your topic

5. About The Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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The Fabulist Flash
PO Box 570368
Las Vegas, NV 89157

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Make plans now to attend the 2006 Las Vegas Writer's Conference March 30-April 2, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.