Couple of things before I launch into my Flashicle:
1) Nobody knows what a "Flashicle" is, so it never gets googled. I'm changing the lead to WRITING ADVICE FLASHICLE...just so I'll get googled by people looking for writing advice.
2) Bruce Bethke, a friend of mine both on and off the Web, said on his blog on Wednesday, April 9, 2008: "So blogging takes the back burner. Yet blogging can't take the back burner, can it? I mean, ya gotta keep those clicks coming! My readership drops off exponentially every day I don't post a new and substantial article, but only rebuilds linearly when I resume posting meaty, beefy, daily chunks. No wonder bloggers are committing karoshi at the keyboard..." (http://rantingroom.blogspot.com/) I will be blogging more regularly with a few new features.
And now, back to our irregularly scheduled blog...
My first thought about people not commenting on my flashicles was that it was because I wasn't popular (wah, wah, wah). My second thoughts a few nights ago were that it was because I wasn't blogging often enough (see above).
All this thought about a new PIE led to wondering what a reader might SEE when they click on my webpage. Originally, they would have seen something about me, something about my archives (not very impressive) and something about my links. I changed all of those around and added a few of my writing credentials.
As well, I noticed that my PIEs got more comments when I took on icons like Star Wars, Star Trek and religion. While I've always tried to tie religion and SF together, my ICONS haven't been big enough, so in the future look for me to pound on DUNE, MILES VORKOSIGAN, PETER HAMILTON and JOHN VARLEY. And look for the titles on their works to be displayed a bit more prominently.
Last of all, I'd just like to say that the writing hints I throw out have been an attempt at distilling the wisdom of what I've read from the REALLY famous people. Not necessarily new stuff, and certainly not my original ideas. Rather my intent has always been to MAKE IT INTO BITE-SIZED PIECES. Now that I've done some redesign, we'll see what happens.
For now, I'm going to stay with the simple formatting -- it's clear, it's clean and it doesn't do much to detract from what I have to say. Besides, two people I respect immensely -- author Bruce Bethke and agent Nathan Bransford ( http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/ ) use the same one I picked. So, there, *thbttthbtt* (comic book alliteration for that sound you make with your tongue when you're sticking it out at someone.) That's all for now. Nothing particularly irritating here except when I got a little whiney there...
April 15, 2008
WRITING ADVICE: WISDOM vs POPULARITY
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
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1 comment:
I look forward to reading what you have to say about Peter F. Hamilton. He's particularly interesting in the ways he deals with the intersection of science fiction with religion and things generally thought of as the supernatural (but which he gives a naturalistic basis). There are all sorts of interesting philosophical and theological discussions that can be sparked off by his books.
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