Blogging for Writers

Should You Capitalize "are" in a Title?

Little words usually aren't capitalized in a title. (Unless they are the first or last word.) That's not a quote from the Chicago Manual of Style, but it works for me. Until today. I needed to know, for sure, if  "are" should be capitalized in a particular book title. I seemed to remember something about words with three letters not being capitalized, but I wasn't positive. So, a hunting on the net I went.  

I found a title capitalization tips page on Writers.com that cleared my confusion. It's a succinct summation of the author's journey through learning to capitalize titles. After reading it I decided "are" should be capitalized in this particular title because, though it is a little word, it is a verb. It is not an article (a, an or the); a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, for, nor); nor a preposition with four or more letters. Those would not be capitalized. 

Whew. Glad I got that cleared up, as is the rest of the world. What should I tackle next? 

Tips from Chris Brogan to Help Authors Use Social Media

Whether you have a book published or one still in the works, you've probably heard that author's need an online presence. Wondering how to do that? 

Chris Brogan, social media marketing and PR dude, offers a quick list of tips in his post An Author's Plan for Social Media. Don't feel you have to do them all. Pick a few and go with them. Read the comments too because there is good info there as well. 

Now, go get your blog on. 

Features vs. Benefits in Marketing & Book Proposals

What's the difference between features and benefits? Features are what a product has. Benefits are what a product does. If a feature of lipstick is it's rich moisturizers, a benefit of that lipstick is soft lips.

This is important for writers to understand when creating book proposals and marketing plans. Readers and publishers want to know what your writing has and what it will do for readers. For a more thorough explanation, checkout Brian Jud's Writing-World.com article. Note the telling quote by Charles Revlon, "In the factory we make cosmetics, but in the stores we sell hope."

Backstory: My first exposure to the idea of features vs. benefits came up while helping a friend with a book proposal. I had to understand the difference.  Off to Google I went.  Here's the helpful info I found:

Features vs. Benefits, or, "Why Should I Buy Your Book?" by Brian Jud on Writing-World.com

Writing-World.com Publishing Your Book page with loads of links

Michael Hyatt's e-book Writing a Winning Book Proposal also mentioned it. I didn't buy the $19.97 e-book because I don't need it yet. However, because he, as the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, included those components in his book I feel safe recommending the book.

I also found some non-fiction book proposal models Writers-World.com that didn't include the features vs. benefits items, but those proposals were a little older.

Though I don't condone Seinfeld's idea of friends with benefits -which I'm sure correlate to the friend's features- I do endorse blogs with benefits, which are also related to the blog's features.

Now, go get your blog on..with all it's features and benefits.

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece? Days 4 - 6

Can I take a sports talk radio quote I tweeted about and forge it into an article?  That was the burning question in my writing brain last week. The answer is maybe.

Yesterday I actually finished the draft of the experiment and it's more suited to a blog post at this point. I'll post it after I hear back from my critique team. 

It was a good writing exercise with a self imposed deadline.

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece? Day 3

"When you find the right guy you need to stick with him until he figures it out." - Erin Hogan referring to Rick Barnes 

That quote has been writing/thinking fodder for three days. Can I turn that quote I tweeted into a workable piece/post? Here's the product of day 3: 30 minutes on elliptical today. Found an inspirational post on copyblogger.com yesterday that helped clarify thinking on this project. Can't remember exact post and didn't spend too much time looking for it. (Yea me!)

During quick peak at copyblogger.com did find a different post that helped me today. How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes by Jim Estell. What a perfect fit for my current mindset. In the post I recognized things I was already doing. (Validation!) I also took away a gem - "Sometimes I have to give up a point to write a good article." Excellent. I will go with the four points I had outlined at the start of this session and work on them tomorrow. I feel so productive - easily humored.

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece? Day 2

During today's 30/30 started with some quick blathering about the writing process. Ended up figuring out a plan for the Rick Barnes "Tweet to Article" experiment.

Here's the text from that:

So, I'll look at yesterday's 30 minute writing and see what raw material is there.  My deadline will be Thursday. If I don't have it fleshed to an article draft by Thursday, I relegate it to a blog post. Yesterday worked with music on ipod, just listening through catalog, not sure if it will work today. Word count of topic material spewed yesterday is 274, just out of curiosity.

Stuck when trying to write. How to untangle my thoughts? What questions do I ask?  What's my point?

Started a semi-outline. A decent analogy emerged. (2 minutes left on timer now. Need to post.)

Good progress. Kept writing. Even did a bit of research without being sidetracked. (FireRickBarnes.com is parked, not active. Glad about that. Also glad the Horns beat OU last night.)

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece?

On sports talk radio this morning I heard a comment about basketball that applied to marriage. Did a quick tweet about it via @64mascots. Went to YMCA for 30/30 time (30 minutes cardio/30 minutes writing). Spent 17 minutes seeing if I could flesh out the idea into a coherent analogy. Simply typed ideas, some complete sentences, some not. The point was to get ideas down.

When I got to a digestion point, a point of needing to think more on the subject, I let it rest. Switched focus to producing a blog post in 13 minutes.

With about 7 minutes left it was time to post. Did a quick cut n paste from Google Docs to Typepad. Editing post just a bit.

30 seconds left. (What? iPhone died..no music, no timer..big distraction..ok, just finish the post.

Tomorrow's 30/30 will be spent on the same project.

Have you ever used a tweet for a springboard for a longer piece?

Using Upper Case Letters in Web Addresses

Are URLs Case Sensitive?

Does it matter if it capitalize web addresses? Based on this article from wisegeek.com it doesn't matter for domain names, but it does matter for pages on a website.

So, if I want people to be able to read my site name more easily on print materials or in other references, I can use capitals to make it easier to read. Examples: BloggingForWriters.com or LexicalLight.com. However, if I'm building a website or naming a blog page url I need to stick to lowercase.

Good to know.

(BTW, I'm trying out the Reblog feature on Typepad.)

Michael Hyatt: 10 Blog Mistakes to Avoid

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt has written over 1,000 blog posts and received more than 20,000 comments. Experience has taught him a few things about blogging. Read his post Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? for a quick overview of improving your blog writing.

I'm quite guilty of #1, not posting often enough, an issue I'm working on resolving. Writing catchy headlines is also a challenge.

Check out his post, do a quick assessment of your writing and go get your blog on.

Copyblogger: Tips on Writing Paragraphs

How do you write a paragraph? Google gives you 17.6 million hits to sift through for the answer. I'll point you to one option. 

Jon Morrow, assistant editor of Copyblogger, wants you to write better paragraphs. A Guy named Kawasaki, a two-headed baby, an echo, a monotone and ramps can help. His post, The Art of the Paragraph explains, in artful paragraphs, of course. 

Addressing copywriters and online writers, his suggestions lean towards a shorter style of writing since online readers are generally looking for smaller bits of information. If you're an author in another medium, take note of that. Adjust your style to your audience. (I won't create a two-headed baby about online reading negatively affecting offline reading habits.)

Take a minute to read Jon's post then go get your blog on.  

BTW, there are also some thoughtful comments after his post and plenty of food for thought about writing at Copyblogger.