The way I usually come up
with these tips is I’ll think of something – usually while at work or while driving
to work – make a note of it, and then forget about it for a few weeks or months
until I need to write a post. Then I’ll
go through the notes to see what I can do.
But sometimes what I figure is a good idea, can’t really be stretched to
more than a paragraph or two. So here
are some of these quick tips.
Be careful with slang
This started when I got a
notice that someone had replied to a YouTube comment. I read the reply and didn’t know what they
were talking about. Turns out, it was a
reply to a comment I made a year or so earlier.
I went back to that video, read my comment and I think a couple earlier
replies, then the new reply, but still didn’t know what they were talking
about. Part of it was they used a term I
had heard the kids use but only had a vague idea of the meaning. I looked it up, got the official definition, but
still didn’t know what they were talking about.
Either there is some other meaning to this word, or they didn’t make
their case that clearly. So if you use
the hip new slang all the kids are using, just know there’s a chance some of us
old fogies won’t know what you’re saying. But old fogies aren’t the target audience, so
what does it matter? On one hand, you
can’t write something that will be of interest to everyone, but on the other hand,
the more people that can understand your writing means the more people likely
to read it. There is a balance one needs
to find.
A Something File can be
useful
This began with a
microfiction story I wrote. At some
point I had started a “To Do” file, where if I had an idea – for a story or general
thing to do – I could just open it and type out my idea. And then every few months I’d clean it out
and find better places for the story ideas.
Sometimes, when I wasn’t feeling well, I’d open this file to just write
“something” so that I could say that I had written something that day. I was thinking about it one day and decided
that I’d keep the “To Do” file for non-writing ideas but I should start a new “Something
File” just for my writing ideas.
Sexbots
Years ago, there was this
site – which is still up but the pages are corrupted – where you could post stories
of a few hundred words. One day, I wrote
a story with “Sexbot” in the title, and in about a day it had more views than
some of my stories got in a week. Sometimes,
it can be useful to jazz a title up a bit, to get more notice.
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Image from Pixabay.
