Gosh, to think I missed out on all the excitement!
Regarding spelling creatively: I worry about the text messagers. I regularly get e-mails from one of my nieces in txting style. With as much writing like that, I wonder what her real writing is like. C u l8tr!
Proper way to produce an m-dash in text-only content?
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant
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Celeste Stewart
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- Location: California
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Celeste: I'm roflmao...not really, but I do find the whole language of text messaging amusing, but also annoying. I hate sitting at dinner with the jingle of received text messages the background music.
Ed: I'm thinking of putting out an APB on Strunk and White. They've been nabbed. I can't blame the dog since I don't have one, but I do have cats and kids. I fear the worst. I guess I'll just have to ask Santa to bring me a new copy.
T
Ed: I'm thinking of putting out an APB on Strunk and White. They've been nabbed. I can't blame the dog since I don't have one, but I do have cats and kids. I fear the worst. I guess I'll just have to ask Santa to bring me a new copy.
T
Just an observation about standards, etc. As long as the marketplace continues to reward sloppiness and silly errors, why would anyone be motivated to change? I'm not perfect by any means but I do my best work and now I'm becoming discouraged because my stuff isn't selling, yet other stuff with run-on sentences and poor punctuation--even titles ending with periods--seems to fly off the shelf. I know there isn't an answer to this -- just wanted to vent a little. 
This is an age-old problem, as I'm certain everyone here is aware. It's certainly gotten worse, but think about those writers who have a new book out in mass market paperback every month. Mass market paperbacks sell well because they are cheap - even though usually not terribly well-written.In a fair world, Nobel and Booker Prize winners would have books selling off the shelves.
This dilemma is frustrating for me, too. But there are so many factors at play - personal pride, hungry bellies, mortgages due, future writing opportunities, personal writing reputation. Sometimes its a choice between a quick $10 that you're likely to make now rather than $50 that you may or may not make in the future.
This dilemma is frustrating for me, too. But there are so many factors at play - personal pride, hungry bellies, mortgages due, future writing opportunities, personal writing reputation. Sometimes its a choice between a quick $10 that you're likely to make now rather than $50 that you may or may not make in the future.
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jak
[quote="grouchy"]...I'm not perfect by any means but I do my best work and now I'm becoming discouraged because my stuff isn't selling, ...([/quote]
Join the club, grouchy. I've been trying for a while and just can't break in. Love to know where I'm going wrong.
Really enjoying reading these threads though. Amazing what you can learn on here, even when you think you know it all already.
Join the club, grouchy. I've been trying for a while and just can't break in. Love to know where I'm going wrong.
Really enjoying reading these threads though. Amazing what you can learn on here, even when you think you know it all already.
Your post makes me think... Ed, has CC ever tried letting newer writers seek out feedback from the pros? I don't think you would want to be the one to provide it, once an article has been through the approval process, but I would love to get feedback from, oh, say, Celeste, Word Gypsy and some of the other top-selling writers.
Any other discouraged writers interested?
Any other discouraged writers interested?
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Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Yes, we're always willing to share our tips.
With CC you have three main options:
1. Write what you want
2. Write what the customer requests via public requests
3. Write what the customer asks you individually to write via a private request
It's unusual to get to #3 without first proving yourself through #1 or #2.
I got my best customer by answering several of his public requests. Hardly anyone else was answering these requests - probably because they were "techie." Too bad for them because he keeps me busy! I was in the right place at the right time. So, stretch yourself and try those requests that no one else will touch.
With CC you have three main options:
1. Write what you want
2. Write what the customer requests via public requests
3. Write what the customer asks you individually to write via a private request
It's unusual to get to #3 without first proving yourself through #1 or #2.
I got my best customer by answering several of his public requests. Hardly anyone else was answering these requests - probably because they were "techie." Too bad for them because he keeps me busy! I was in the right place at the right time. So, stretch yourself and try those requests that no one else will touch.
Thank you as always, Celeste.
JD, my daughter brought home a corrected worksheet when she was in second grade: The teacher had given them several sets of four or five jumbled words, and they were supposed to make a sentence out of each set. For one the words were "dog up the jumped." My daughter decided the sentence could be "Up jumped the dog." The teacher made a big red X over it because it was supposed to be "The dog jumped up." She picked the wrong student to do that to.
JD, my daughter brought home a corrected worksheet when she was in second grade: The teacher had given them several sets of four or five jumbled words, and they were supposed to make a sentence out of each set. For one the words were "dog up the jumped." My daughter decided the sentence could be "Up jumped the dog." The teacher made a big red X over it because it was supposed to be "The dog jumped up." She picked the wrong student to do that to.
[quote="grouchy"]Just to back up for a minute to CLandes' comment about "Dumbing Down Kids" -- what's scary is that these dumbed-down kids are the ones that are running the Internet and doing the article-shopping, in large part. (Shivers) 
[/quote]
Needlepoint philosophers are fond of asking silly questions like whether a tree falling in an empty forest makes a sound. But when you get below that, into the real principles of philosphy, it's a question about how we know what we know--epistemology. (<-- note arguable use of em-dash.)
Grouchy's bringing out the issue in another way, perhaps phrased as: If the majority of people in a society accept significant language changes, does that change constitute "the" language?
Another version of the same question: Your product is worth whatever the market will pay. It doesn't matter what you think it "should be" worth, or what it used to be worth, or what previously similar products were worth. Any product is worth only what people will pay for it.
CC has the right (and obligation) to list the writing guidelines. Those guidelines hopefully will match the open market in a competitive way. Regardless of contradictory usage examples of an em-dash, THIS site seems to be saying it's two hyphens with no leading or trailing spaces.
That being said, "nucular" has entered into most dictionaries as an "alternate correct spelling." Why? Because so many people use the term. Does that make it right? Given that language lends itself more to consensus than objective standards, I think we're going to see a major revision to what used to be English. As such, we have to concede that, yes, the alternate spelling is right (and correct).
[/quote]Needlepoint philosophers are fond of asking silly questions like whether a tree falling in an empty forest makes a sound. But when you get below that, into the real principles of philosphy, it's a question about how we know what we know--epistemology. (<-- note arguable use of em-dash.)
Grouchy's bringing out the issue in another way, perhaps phrased as: If the majority of people in a society accept significant language changes, does that change constitute "the" language?
Another version of the same question: Your product is worth whatever the market will pay. It doesn't matter what you think it "should be" worth, or what it used to be worth, or what previously similar products were worth. Any product is worth only what people will pay for it.
CC has the right (and obligation) to list the writing guidelines. Those guidelines hopefully will match the open market in a competitive way. Regardless of contradictory usage examples of an em-dash, THIS site seems to be saying it's two hyphens with no leading or trailing spaces.
That being said, "nucular" has entered into most dictionaries as an "alternate correct spelling." Why? Because so many people use the term. Does that make it right? Given that language lends itself more to consensus than objective standards, I think we're going to see a major revision to what used to be English. As such, we have to concede that, yes, the alternate spelling is right (and correct).
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jak
[quote="grouchy"]Your post makes me think... Ed, has CC ever tried letting newer writers seek out feedback from the pros? I don't think you would want to be the one to provide it, once an article has been through the approval process, but I would love to get feedback from, oh, say, Celeste, Word Gypsy and some of the other top-selling writers.
Any other discouraged writers interested?[/quote]
Just like grouchy, I would love to get feedback from veterans. I have been reading all the tips on the forums and the blog, and trying to adjust my work. None of my articles have been rejected except the first one where I had not capitalised the title. I've also responded to public requests that have had little interest from other authors. I have a background in marketing and know how important it is to offer exactly what the customer has asked for. But I get no responses to my offers in public requests. It's hard to know what else to do to be successful .
I'd like to ask if anyone would read a couple of my pieces to give feedback but it's asking a lot because everyone is so busy.
Any other discouraged writers interested?[/quote]
Just like grouchy, I would love to get feedback from veterans. I have been reading all the tips on the forums and the blog, and trying to adjust my work. None of my articles have been rejected except the first one where I had not capitalised the title. I've also responded to public requests that have had little interest from other authors. I have a background in marketing and know how important it is to offer exactly what the customer has asked for. But I get no responses to my offers in public requests. It's hard to know what else to do to be successful .
I'd like to ask if anyone would read a couple of my pieces to give feedback but it's asking a lot because everyone is so busy.