Category: Just a thought

Blogging: Using Categories and Tags

Chris Hall2 Comments

Some useful info on those funny little ‘tags’ and their ‘category’ cousins – use them to full advantage!

Christine Goodnough's avatarChristine's Collection

Some time ago I started dropping in on First Friday to meet and greet a few new bloggers. A lot of them are just learning the ropes and open to a little guidance, so I often leave some advice about categories and tags. I’m posting this here today in case these thoughts may help some other newbies and maybe some longtime bloggers who haven’t attached much importance to this angle.

Categories & Tags

…are very useful creatures. You can create them as you publish each post, using the sidebar on the right. Tagging our posts is how we invite other bloggers to check out what we’ve written. For example, if I create a Personal, or an Education, category or tag for my post, it will send my post title and a couple of lines to the Reader. Other bloggers searching for posts on Personal or Education will see mine listed…

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How Goodreads Can Make You a Better Writer

Chris HallLeave a comment

Do have a look at this post! Nicole makes some great points.
I’ve become an avid reviewer on Goodreads and totally agree that being positive about another person’s work is important. As a writer, I guess you just have to take reviews on the chin, as with anyone who puts their work out there. I have some experience of the other side of this having worked as a curator in an art gallery. It’s never easy rejecting people’s submissions.

Nicole Melanson's avatarWordMothers - for women writers & women’s writing

Nicole Melanson ~

Sculpture of boy whispering to woman “Seen that last review yet?”

If you want to strike fear into the heart of any author, sidle up alongside them at a party and whisper, “Goodreeeeadsssss” in their ear.

For the uninitiated, Goodreads is a platform where readers rate books and recommend them to other readers—readers being the key word. Goodreads was never intended for authors, yet authors can’t resist snooping around in there. On rare occasions, the end result is a burst of pride, but more often than not, the author slinks away with a bruised ego—or rather, the wise author slinks away with a bruised ego; the Devil-may-care ones roll up their sleeves and fight.

Insider tip: this fighting from an author on behalf of her book? It’s not a good look. Not under any circumstances. Nope. Never. Sorry. Even if the reader is totally wrong about the novel you’ve devoted 10 years…

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Do writers really go on holiday?

Chris Hall2 Comments
Do writers really go on holiday
©Island Safari Lodge, Maun

Well, this one does! Or rather, I’m going away from home – just for a week – to somewhere new and exciting.

Tomorrow we fly to Botswana, to Maun by the Okavango Delta. A rather different part of Africa from where we now call home (Somerset West in South Africa). More like ‘wild’ Africa.

I’ve scheduled a couple of posts but my laptop is staying at home, so back to pen and notebook. Will there be scary, dark stories? Will there be animal adventures and tall tales set in the bush?

Time will tell. But be assured, I’ll be writing!

Time Waster!

Chris Hall7 Comments

Novels_do_not_write_themselves-1

Okay, so I’ve spent too much time NOT writing today. I’ve been prevaricating; engaging in displacement activity.

But, I came across a nice little time waster on this rather wonderful writer’s site: CONSTANT LEARNER and of course I couldn’t resist!

Okay, it’s a marketing ploy, and maybe you’ve seen it before.  If you haven’t, this is what the ‘I Write Like’ site says about itself.

And, well, well, it seems: 

Also like Margaret Atwood and Charles Dickens, depending on the text I entered.
I’m honoured. And obviously inconsistent.

Oh, and if you ‘analyse’ this post it’s: Stephenie Meyer!

Click on the box above if you want to try. But don’t spend the whole day on it!
Or don’t blame me if you do.

I’d love to hear your results…(can I tempt you…?).