I’ve been out of touch this past weekend thanks to a combination of back pain and the installation of the entire Sims 2 collection on my Mac. It took me weeks to finally get the installation done (thanks to a random list of things I’d rather not discuss), and back pain had rendered me completely immobile for days.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with this strip from xkcd.com to think about. I’ve said time and again that writing is not a science. There’s no point forcing it to conform …

…can be yours if you purchase this book/e-book/package/collection!
Now where have I seen that before? Just yesterday, I was walking through a bookstore (yet again) when I spotted something that got me interested. It was a pretty thick book, and, after perusing it for a while, I realized that it was geared specifically towards aspiring writers who wanted to write the next great novel.
I didn’t read it thoroughly, but the blurb alone promised great things to the buyer. This book will give you all the necessary information on …

Writers can be a rather frumpy lot. We tend to hold on to things we believe are “correct” or “appropriate”, in the same way that the Grammar Nazi believe modernizing the Queen’s language is sacrilege. We hold on to things that we learned from our teachers, mentors, literary idols. We tend to find solace in age old practices, thinking that we can never go wrong as long as we stay true to these time-tested adages.
Unfortunately, that’s not quite true. Here are some myths we might have …

If there’s something I can’t stand on the internet, it’s the way some people so willingly gulp down all the bull crap that comes their way.
Seriously. What happened to common sense? Did the advent of the internet drive it to the ground?
It all started with the fake egg. Some email went around, asking people not to purchase eggs from China, as there certain unscrupulous businessmen in the country who made fake eggs. The email came with a rather lengthy step-by-step tutorial on how fake eggs were …

One of the first projects I ever clinched online was rewriting. The client would hand me a grocery list of information, and I would have to rewrite everything into a single paragraph. My topic? Aromatherapy and hydrosols. It wasn’t difficult at all; in fact, I could finish one assignment in an hour. Sometimes, though, I get too comfortable (since each article would have to follow a specific format) and I have to think of new ways to reword things in a manner that’s still fresh …

…is that you have to meet them.
I’m sort of an over-achiever, as you may have noticed by now. I try to get as many things done as possible. The thing, though, is that sometimes, I multi-task too much and end up with egg on my face. Several times in the past, I took too many writing projects and tried to complete them all at the same time. I thought, of course, that I was some sort of superhero who could finish all the projects on time.
Unfortunately, …

Despite what other people may insist on telling you, it’s not very easy finding a writing opportunity online that actually pays. Some freelance writers may make it all sound like such a breeze, but trust me, it’s not.
My foray into online job hunting began two years ago, when my offline resources started to dry up a bit. I was looking for a real job in the physical world when I came upon a job posting that was looking for academic writers. At that time I thought it …

I’m not the most PC writer in the world, obviously.
I have this penchant for using the word “retard” to describe my enemies, random stupid people and even myself whenever I make some bone-headed move. I have nothing against people who are “mentally-challenged” (the PC alternative, if I remember correctly); I just use the term “retard” at its barest: underdeveloped mental capacity. It’s a fancy way of saying stupid or dumb or some other synonym. It’s not an attempt to disparage or offend anyone; it’s just a linguistic …

Yes, you read that right. Don’t write like a pro.
More importantly, there’s really no such thing as a pro. Get that eyebrow down and read what I’m about to say carefully. Yes, there are professional writers. Yes, they have great writing style, hence their successful writing careers. But here’s the catch: you don’t have to learn to write like them to succeed.
In fact, you probably can’t.

If there’s something any writer worth his salt should know, it’s that without readers, you’re pretty much screwed. It’s doubly difficult for bloggers, given the massive amount of aspiring writers they have to compete with online. Face it: unless the fickle readers of cyberspace deem your blog worthy of their time, a successful online writing career is never going to happen.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that bloggers are resorting to a tactic that has kept tabloids, reality shows and Paris Hilton’s career afloat to this day. …