Happy Thanksgiving dear friends and readers. In honor of this day of ultimate gratitude, I give you the following poems that were included in my book of poetry “Short Poems for Longing Times.” I have been writing non-fiction for many years but also write for fun and inspiration poetry. Some times poetry is the shortest route to the divine and sublime.
Why YouTube and Amazon Are Not Places to Go for Help–or Good Writing
Bad writing on the Internet wastes people’s time and money. The massive mega-media universe of neophytes who attempt to demonstrate complex do-it-yourself tasks, sends people in directions that they shouldn’t be going if something was written correctly in the first place. Crowdsourcing of information by amateurs can make writers who understand that small details are essential, absolutely crazy. My latest Odyssey involving a dripping bathtub faucet illustrates the importance of interviewing true experts.There is nothing more powerful than someone who has done something many times and is an expert in the process. Continue reading
What Makes a Great Automotive Feature Article? Heroic Odysseys
Great feature writing starts with a concept and the writer goes on his/her own odyssey. She meets many foes and friends on her odyssey to discover what no one has before. Good feature writers tell stories about people overcoming tragedy and transforming the world around them. Continue reading
The 20 Top Best Ways to Come Up with News Releases
I’m been writing news releases for over twenty years, using various methods to create new ideas. I have a technology client who bought a package of news releases from a news release service and was having trouble coming up with ideas for news releases. Continue reading
The History of Connected Cars
I have been writing about connected cars for some time, but not as long as they have been around. The history of connected cars is fascinating and started in 1996 with Motorola and OnStar. The whole idea was to get help to people who are in car accidents. Last year, I was commissioned by a company in Germany to write a brief history of connected cars. It has taken a while to get the design and software to work but the result is lovely and fascinating.
Why Haiku Writing is Good for All Writers and Editors
My writing was recently featured in a Haiku anthology. My poem contained exactly seven words. From the seven words, the author of the anthology wrote three pages about why it was such a good Haiku based on the writings of the classic Haiku poet, Issa.
The most important features of good automotive feature writing
There has been a recent trend in writing for everything to be a mashup of something previously written. I have seen articles supposedly by important sources that don’t reference where they got the information from. How do I know that the information is correct if I don’t know where it came from?
Feature writing requires the many features including citing of expert sources and fresh comprehensive information which is an art that few writers can do anymore.
Just because something is written and looks nice, doesn’t mean that it is true. Without citing sources news and even feature articles can be fake. Continue reading
Please Think Before You Send Emails or Call
I don’t know what happened but this year starting in January, I was bombarded with email news releases that had absolutely nothing to do with topics that I would even consider writing about.
I was very busy in the fall writing for Get Creative/USA Today Gannett and I was not reading spam emails or deleting emails. My inbox was getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
My inbox had a total of 10,362 emails in it. When I decided to clean up the mess I saw some interesting trends. Continue reading
How this freelance writer meets every deadline even impossible ones
Freelance Writer Now has the word “now” in the title because many people don’t realize they need a writer until the last-minute and then they want one “NOW!” It takes a talent, planning, skill and professionalism to deliver great writing on time. I am proud that I was asked to meet what I thought were impossible deadlines and create articles that withstand the test of time. Continue reading
Why native advertising branded content will disrupt publishing and help writers
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a major media publishing company, asking if I would write branded content native advertising. The first thing I did was to look up a definition of branded content and native advertising online. There is mention of BuzzFeed starting this phenomena and then the major publishers such as the New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. In these cases the advertiser and the publication work together to create content about the advertiser.
I understand why this happened, I have been a publisher since 2007 and have over two decades of experience writing. The trend has been for people to increasingly read content on devices in which you cannot see the advertisements and it is difficult to click on the ads. On top of that, there is a trend for search engines like Google to not even send searchers to content that has too much advertising on it. Ad blocking software can remove ads from the web reading audience completely. Continue reading