Blog – Page 246 – Monica Valentinelli

April 16, 2009Blog

Review of www:wake by Robert Sawyer

When I first started reading science fiction, I didn’t really like it at first. It wasn’t until I started reading Frank Herbert’s Dune that I enjoyed its possibilities. To me, science fiction is at its utmost best when it extrapolates and experiments, taking the “what could be’s” and turning them into “what if’s.”

www:wake by Robert Sawyer is that kind of a book. It takes a slice of our modern, everyday life and the topic on everyone’s mind — the internet. The first in a trilogy, this book is about a young, blind girl named Caitlin who wishes to see. Internet savvy, Caitlin travels from her Canadian homeland across an ocean to find her elusive sight.

Read on

April 14, 2009Blog

Not Happy with your Writing? Pick Up a Pen instead of a Keyboard

pen One of the things that I’ve discovered, is that if you overload yourself on the business of writing and the essentials of everyday life, your writing can be affected in ways that you don’t even realize. I find that this is especially true if you “rush” toward a deadline.

If you find you’re not enjoying your writing anymore, or if you realize that your writing has become crunchy and mechanical, I recommend putting away your keyboard and picking up a physical pen instead. Sometimes, all it takes to create a great story, is to channel the writers of old by getting back to the basics of writing implementation. Sometimes, all you need is a great pen, a journal or an old typewriter and some fancy paper to remind yourself that writing is not just about typing away on your computer. Often, the way we put the words down on the page can have as big of an impact on us as what we’re writing.

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April 10, 2009Freelance Writing

Is Your Next Writing Project Worth the Trouble? Use the K.I.S.S. System and Find Out!

There are a lot of ways to communicate your point, but sometimes the simplest vocabulary and the shortest sentences offer the the biggest benefit. While every writer knows and understands that, what’s not so simple is our process for making decisions.

Enter the K.I.S.S. system, which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. (The acronym can also be used to describe Keep It Short and Simple, too.)

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the challenge for a lot of writers is this little thing called “the brain.” This spongy mass tends to get in the way of great writing because it’s easy to “over-think” your projects and what you’re working on. Having a strategy to write is one thing, but thinking about your writing so much that you end up either a) not writing or b) writing something you’re not happy about. Our writing ends up suffering because we feel obligated to write something rather than focus on something we want to write.

If you feel you’re over-rationalizing your projects, then read on because I’ve got good news for you. You can use the K.I.S.S. system to simplify your woes and get back to writing what you want to write. All you have to do is ask yourself these simple questions and limit your responses to one, two or three word answers.

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April 4, 2009Consulting and Marketing

How to Make Your Voice Heard in a Sea of Content

fishing-boat Earlier I talked about the concept of content saturation, which spelled out the sheer volume of content added every month and how it’s affecting your writing. Do you have any ideas as to how you can navigate through this sea of content?

First, the cold hard truth is that no amount of yelling, screaming or crying is going to get your content read. Think about the amount of content added every day as an actual “ocean” of words and your potential visitors are akin to “fish” that you want to catch. If you’re on a boat, screaming your head off, are you going to catch a fish? If you tell your potential visitors that “This is the best article I’ve read in a long time. By the way, I wrote it!” will they come to your site? Probably not.

Instead, ask yourself why you are writing your content to figure out what kinds of fish you want to catch.

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March 28, 2009Novels

Book Trailer for Argentum, My Online Serial Novel

This is the first time I’ve delved into producing video. I’d appreciate you providing me with feedback if you have the time to check out this short book trailer for Argentum, Book One of the Violet War series I’m writing.

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