More writing Stories

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iA Writer for iPad has been popular as a distraction-free writing app, and I’ve been looking forward to the Mac version. Now that it’s finally here, I take it out for a test drive and let you know whether it’s worth the money or not. Read more »

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QuietWrite

If you find that the busy interfaces of standard word processors detract from your ability to concentrate, there are several options for “distraction-free writing,” including WriteRoom, OmmWriter and DarkRoom. Now there’s a web app called QuietWrite that tries to create a similar environment. Read more »

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Fans of Groupon note that it has more than 100 writers, editors and fact-checkers on staff — more than a lot of medium-sized newspapers — and is continuing to hire and train writers, many of whom are (or were) journalists. But is that really something worth celebrating? Read more »

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nanowrimo

National Novel Writing Month, or, National Stop Procrastinating and Write Month, is soon upon us. This year marks the first time the iPad is available during the prose-fest. Here’s a breakdown of your best bets for getting some of that writing done on the iPad. Read more »

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ommwriter_feature

OmmWriter is a full-screen writing application for the Mac designed to block out distractions, similar to WriteRoom. The developers behind OmmWriter recently released a new free version, which you can customize with a little elbow-grease and some image and sound files of your own. Read more »

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ipaddock_thumb

One of the best features of the iPad is its lack of features, especially when it comes to writing. Knowing that chat is not running and Twitter is turned off lets the writer focus entirely on the task of writing. Read more »

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It’s been a little over a month since I’ve introduced the iPad to my digital workflow and I’m now convinced that I had an iPad-sized hole in my life. The iPad is a device I rarely leave the house without. Read more »

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If you’re going to spend your career dealing in text — the currency of most online communication — you might be interested in upping your ability to express yourself, specifically your written communications skills.

This isn’t as big a deal as it sounds. Read more »

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If content is king, and a picture tells a thousand words, then text is the currency of online credibility. Few of us actually consider ourselves “writers,” yet most people who work online spend hours each day writing. Read more »

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I’ve been on my fair share of remote writing projects, including technical writing, contributing to books and writing for publications. Working on such projects and hearing from clients and colleagues about successful (and less so) remote writing projects, I’ve come to see that actions of both […] Read more »

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With so much discussion about how the Internet is changing journalism and media, there’s surprisingly little said about how writing itself has changed. But as more people have spent more time writing on the Internet this past decade, the way we write has changed significantly. Read more »

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If you want to become better as a writer, there’s only so much you can do working alone. Or, at least, your progress working solo on improving the caliber of your material will be much slower than it would be if you weren’t your only critic. […] Read more »

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Words occupy so much of my waking life that dictionaries are also devotional texts for me. As I become less dependent on traditional books and print media and more involved with web tech and digital publication, my desire to find a truly great dictionary web app […] Read more »

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Eliminating distraction is a constant concern for the at-home worker. My PS3 is around three feet from my workstation, and the TV is just another foot beyond that. When I want to sit down and do some writing, I’ll try anything to make sure my attention […] Read more »

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Like over 300,000 other Mac users who downloaded the MacHeist nanoBundle (as covered by Simon), I received WriteRoom as part of the package’s bevy of software. This lightweight word processor promises distraction-free writing. Having read about it and the productivity concepts underlying it in the past […] Read more »

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As I sit down each day to do my work, the vast majority of which involves writing (articles, web site content, tweets and blog posts), I can’t help but think about the writing rules drilled into me by past English teachers. In most cases, their advice […] Read more »

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November is almost here, and that means it’s also nearly time for NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the abbreviated term. It’s an event run by Office of Letters and Light, a not-for-profit organization that takes as its […] Read more »

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Writing content for the web can take many forms, but a good number of those forms will probably involve an interview at some point or another. As a general rule, good interviews have three characteristics: One, they make you forget that someone other than the reader […] Read more »

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If you’ve ever harbored the desire to write for the silver screen and tried to do something about it, you’ll already know about Final Draft, the showbiz industry’s favorite scriptwriting software. Everyone in Hollywood uses it; Studio Execs, beleaguered Producers, hot-shot directors… even Michael Bay uses […] Read more »

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Document collaboration with distributed teams can be a bit of a headache, as I’ve noted in previous posts. No doubt, if you’ve ever tried it yourself, you don’t need me to remind you. More tools are available than ever before for getting this kind of work […] Read more »

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As a freelance online community consultant, I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to stabilize my income to reduce the ups and downs that come with having my own business. The most obvious solution is to manage your pipeline to make sure that you have new projects to replace the ones that are completing, but it’s also a good idea to have alternative income streams to complement your main client work and fill in any gaps. Read more »

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The key to successful document collaboration, as far as I’ve been able to gather in my many attempts, is making sure that the process is as simple as is absolutely possible. People only seem able or willing to work together on text projects if it takes […] Read more »

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In my line of work, I do quite a bit both indoors and outdoors. As such, it is crucial for me to know the weather forecast at the drop of a hat. The weather app built into the iPhone is a simple, no fluff, no garbage, […] Read more »

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Thanks to a few lucky opportunities at school, my transition from print to web was a gradual process, and a move that I made voluntarily. That’s not the case for a large number of writers currently making the same transition. The print journalism and publishing industries are in big trouble, with no sign of turning a corner anytime soon. More and more print publications are switching to the web, and finding it hard to deal with the fact that they can’t just move their existing content and keep on doing the same thing, business as usual.

Likewise, writers can’t just keep producing the same kind of content for a different medium. The web, and its readers, demand a different kind of writing, delivered in a different way. It can hard to find the right mix, especially if you’ve spent your entire professional life writing one way, only to be asked to completely change that up. Here are some tips and resources to help get a handle on just what kind of change is required. Read more »

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Maybe I’m biased towards writing-related topics because of my background and personal projects, but I also think good writing is one of the most important cornerstones of good business, and therefore useful in any line of web work. One of the best ways to improve any […] Read more »

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I take a cautious approach to collaborative writing. It’s not that I don’t enjoy collaborating, or want very much for it to work out. it’s just that, in practice, it often doesn’t. And I’m speaking from experience. Lots of writing workshops, some blogs, personal projects, etc. […] Read more »

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You may be interested and motivated to become a freelance writer, but it’s hard to know where to start. First, you should write, but that goes without saying. How do you turn your passion into paid work? It’s not a simple process, and it involves a […] Read more »

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In the course of playing and reviewing a number of iPhone games, I realize I’ve come to expect, and even allow for, certain shortcomings. I expect lag in a graphics-intensive game. I expect buggy controls that feel less than intuitive. I expect omissions that are promised […] Read more »

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I first heard about Scrivener on MacBreak Weekly a couple days ago, and although it has been around for a while, this was the first time that I heard about it. It was only mentioned as “I only use Scrivener now” when they were talking about […] Read more »

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No, that’s not “The View” you’re watching! It’s “the GigaOM Show,” this week with two female hosts, a female guest, and some touchy-feely subject matter. Given Om’s recent heart attack and the loop it threw us for, the team went with a health theme and brought […] Read more »

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Fortune magazine recently ran a feature on PayPal alumni that includes folks like Slide CEO & Founder Max Levchin, the YouTube boys and David Sacks of Geni. The star of the story, however is Peter Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of PayPal and now a hedge […] Read more »

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While the news of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader could signal a changing trend in the way that readers consume their information, unremarked upon is how the rise of the e-book reader will eventually change the world for writers. If readers can download books into their Kindle […] Read more »

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As email is the prevalent form of communication for many web workers, it’s gotten a lot of attention: how to handle your email, how to empty your inbox, email etiquette, and more. But perhaps not enough time is spent learning about how to communicate with email. […] Read more »