by Scot Herrick on August 27, 2007
This blog is about technology for writers. It is about how to use technology to help market a writer’s work.
But, it’s really about how to use technology to start and enhance relationships with readers.
For those of us in the technology business, we can get pretty engrossed in our technology. We can get hung up on the next shiny thing out there. We can write passionately about the need to upgrade your blog software from WordPress 2.2.1 to 2.2.2 because of the security. Or we can Twitter with others and proclaim it to be a networking tool.
Balderdash.
It’s important to maintain your technology, just like it is to maintain your home. But it’s not about the home or the technology, it’s about the people who are in the home or using the technology.
If technology can’t help you enhance your relationships with people, or the way you use the technology inhibits your relationships with people, then we should all stop using the technology. If technology becomes a barrier to meeting, chatting, and working with people, we need to change how we use it in our work.
In the end, it’s about people. Writer’s know that. As you embrace new technology in your writing work, notice whether or not the technology helps you in your relationship with people or how it could. That’s the measure of something that will work for you.
Scot
by Scot Herrick on August 21, 2007
One of the more interesting concepts in blogging happened over at Writing Thoughts and Grow Your Writing Business. The challenge? Write one post on a problem and another on your solution.
Now, this is one of those blog “meme’s” where bloggers think up an innovative way to get people to write about their subject. My issue? The meme is usually about something totally unrelated to the topic on your blog — and you know how I am about that topic. You need to write about the topic of your blog and stay there because it helps define your brand.
Well, this meme was perfect for it. I wrote an article that was on topic for my blog — The Problem: My Hosting Company Sucks — and a solution to it through — The Solution: Changing Hosting Companies. Both were struggles with technology for a writer. And, believe me, they have been struggles.
Yvonne and Laura have posted all the articles for the problems and the solutions and they are a great, eclectic set of issues presented by writers. I’m passing them on here as a great representation of the different avenues you could pursue for a writing blog and how to stay on topic.
And, oh-by-the-way, great reading too.
Scot
by Scot Herrick on August 14, 2007
One of the fun things on the web is that you can see interviews with authors. Here’s a great interview with Diana Gabaldon on the Writing Process, including some great ideas on solving writers block.
[youtube O_mH1YLTM5E Diana Gabaldon]
Just over 8-minutes long.
Scot
by Scot Herrick on June 7, 2007
I don’t know about you, but I get lost in the weeds of life. Often. Don’t you? You will be writing away and find out two weeks went by and nothing else was done. We’re intense. Focused. Productive.
But we shouldn’t be. At least all of the time.
I’ve been focusing on few things over the last year. Gotten a lot of stuff done. But, it hasn’t been very rewarding.
Vacation has borne that out. Getting away from it all has helped ground me and helped my creativity. It’s not just the vacation. It is, for me, working on a variety of different things, moving each of them forward that aids in creativity. Not just being focused. Varying the intensity of what I work on increases my creativity.
When you work on your publishing, then on the seminar you are developing, then on the technical aspects of your web site, then on your publishing, and then on your queries you come to see how all of them are interconnected.
That helps my creativity.
Of course, working on a variety of things can mean you get nothing done. But that’s a different problem.
Scot
by Scot Herrick on June 5, 2007
This vacation was very “old skool.” I went on the Internet twice during the week — both times for less than fifteen minutes. I checked stuff, paid a bill, and made sure the world was still there. And then went away.
The same for cell phone service — most of the time I didn’t have any.
Pretty nice, huh?
The technology for writing was in full force, however. It was just very analog and not very digital.
I used a journal for the trip itself to help my wife and I to know where the cool places were for next time.
I used a different journal to record thoughts on my writing. Topics such as what to write for publishing this week. What themes my blogs should have. What things need to be improved upon for my writing.
Paper and pen or pencil still help me think much better than electrons being typed on a fake page any day of the week. The digital technology merely becomes the place where I publish the thoughts from the paper.
Technology for writers is, of course, more about the digital stuff. But analog tools are critically important and shouldn’t be forgotten.
Scot
