WritingThoughts

Well, the kids went back to school last week. I know that a few schools started back this past Monday. If you had kids out of school during the holidays, chances are that they are back to their regular studies now.

I had been looking forward to a return to my “regular” writing schedule (as if there is such a thing for a WAHM …). Unfortunately, my darling husband (DH) seems to be suffering from a stomach flu. So, today I have a sick DH at home.

The only thing that’s predictable is unpredictability …

Feel free to comment and share about your New Year’s, your writing schedule, or your family’s bout with the flu.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

If you’re a blogger, writing a book may be easier than you think. I’m not necessarily talking about turning your blog into a book, although this post from lifehacker explains how that can work.

What I’m talking about is the discipline of writing regularly. One of the biggest hurdles for would-be authors is actually getting the book done. How many writers have unfinished manuscripts? (Come on, ‘fess up if you want to.)

Indeed, if you look at a book as a whole, then the prospect of writing a 150 to 300 page document can seem daunting. However, if you’ve been blogging regularly for at least a year, then you may have already written the equivalent of 150 to 300 pages.

An average page in a book has about 400 words. (Of course page sizes and typefaces vary, so there’s no way to get a figure that will represent every single book.)  For me, my average blog post is about 250 words.

So, using my own posts as an example, if I blogged five days a week every week I would wind up with about 65,000 words (250 x 5 = 1,250 | 1,250 x 52 = 65,000).

Now, if you divide 65,000 words by a page (400 words), then you will see that you wind up with 162 pages. That’s easily enough for a short book!

Am I going to do this myself? Probably not this year …  However, as I was thinking about these statistics the other day I found them to be very encouraging. I hope that this post encourages some of you.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

WritingThoughts is one year old today. It seems hard to believe that it’s been that long since I started blogging.
There have been a lot of changes in the last twelve months.

Probably the most notable change to the blog is that I now have readers. Between 150 and 200 of you stop by here every day. (I know this, because I check the stats.) On the first

Like chickenpox, my blogging has spread. Now, I have a second blog that I own, OpinionMom, where I share my opinion. Blogging has also become a part of my writing business. I have a paid blogging gig over at Work From Home Momma and later this week I’ll make an announcement about another paid blogging gig.

But enough about me. This blog is really all about you. With that in mind, leave a comment and let me know what you enjoy here and what you’d like to see added.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

I’m taking the next week off from blogging to spend time with friends and family. I’ll be around here periodically during the week, but not posting or answering comments on a regular basis. This blog will resume its regular posting schedule on Wednesday, January 2nd.

In the meantime, here are some posts that you might enjoy reading. (You knew that I wouldn’t leave you high and dry without anything to do, didn’t you?)

• [The First] Six Months of WritingThoughts – Most Popular Posts – If you’ve just started reading WritingThoughts, you may have missed some of these classic posts.
• Fortune Chooses the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business: We Pick Our Favorites – Reading through these just might make you feel better about your own mistakes.
• Great Ad 14: Santa Drinking Coca Cola Vintage Ads – Enjoy classic Coca Cola Santa advertising through the years.

Are you still looking for something to do? You can always munch down on Cheerios Snack Mix.

See you next year!

It just might be your page’s load time.

The other day I went to a blog that I read frequently and was disappointed to find that it took over three minutes for the page to paint on my screen.

Yikes!!!

If I had not REALLY wanted to read what that blogger had to say, I would have left the site. As it was, I checked my e-mail, made a note to myself, and generally found myself getting a little irritated while I waited.

No matter how good your writing is if your page loads too slowly your readers and potential readers aren’t going to wait. (Remember, thirty seconds is frequently cited as a guideline.)

There are a lot of things that can slow your page load time down. Some of these things include:

• Graphics
• Ads
• Embedded YouTube(TM) videos
• Page Design

Now, we need all of these things in our blogs. (Well, not really … but, we really do want them.) So the trick is to incorporate them wisely.

If you’re like me, you may not really know how to speed up your page load time, without research. Fortunately, I’ve started the research for us. Here’s a great list of resources to help you speed up your site:

• From Daily Blog Tips, 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site
• From Tips for New Bloggers, Faster Web Page Load Time
• From Blogging Tips, Decrease Your Page Load Time – Save Traffic

What are your tips for speeding up your blog?

Okay, it’s not quite July, but with the kids out of school until January 1st my holiday work schedule feels an awful lot like the one I had during the summer months.

In fact, I’m back to my summer schedule of timing my writing projects around my kid’s activities. It’s a good thing that I had that summer schedule down to an art form, I guess.

Does anyone else revert to their summer writing schedule during the holidays?

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

I scored a 93%, how did you do?

(I’ll have to look at the one I missed and see what I did wrong. I took it in a hurry.)

I Scored a 93%!

I’m really excited about this week’s blog “of note,” Punctuality Rules. It’s one of several blogs run by a very busy blogger named Deb. (Another one of her blogs that you all might be familiar with is Booking Through Thursday.

Punctuality Rules! is about grammar and words, but Deb makes it exciting. Whether you want to brush up you writing skills, or are just looking for a good blog about writing, Punctuality Rules! is it.

Here are some of Deb’s recents posts:

• Building Blocks – a post about words.
• MM: Just Between You and Me, er, I, er, Us… – the usage of You, Me, and I is explained.
• Writing Traditions – an interesting reflection on what it takes to be a writer.

I need to read this blog as often as I can. Not only for the writing and grammar advice, but also for the inspiration that it provides.

Note: If you’re consistently posting great information and haven’t seen your blog featured in Of Note yet, I apologize. I’ll probably find you soon. I know there are a lot of great blogs out there; I discover more new ones each day. (So many blogs, so little time.)

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved

According to the statistics program provided by my web hosting company, most of the visitors at WritingThoughts are on this site for less than thirty seconds.

That means thirty seconds is all the time that I have to get my message across.

How can I do this? How can I capture my reader’s attention in thirty seconds? Consider the following methods:

• Use a catchy headline
• Include an arresting graphic
• Use bulleted and numbered lists
• Make the text scannable

Remember, if the reader can’t grasp the concept quickly, then you’ve lost them.

When you work at home dealing with time off can be difficult because, unlike at a corporate job, you’re not paid for your vacations. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are typically days when people don’t work.

Ideally, you should save for vacations and holidays all year long – but sometimes it doesn’t it work out that way.

Without savings, there are basically two options:

1. Tighten your belt. Live on a smaller budget.
2. Work through the holidays and/or vacation.

For myself, I plan to work full-time next week. For the final week of the month, I plan to take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off and work half days the rest of the week. I’ll also take off New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. (I guess that’s a combination of option 1 and option 2.)

What are your writing plans for the holidays? Will you work, or take time off?

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved