Monthly archive July 2010

To pay the bills, I'm a web designer, and one of the biggest problems I run into is people who think that websites magically get filled with content.

Most prospective clients think that all they have to do is hire somebody to build their website (somebody who knows nothing about them or their business) and somehow, magically, POOF! that stranger will fill their entire site with pages and pages of content that tells everything about them, in just exactly the way they want it told... all without any input from the prospective client, and all without paying any money for it.  **sigh**  It's one of the most frustrating parts of the business.  I tell my clients: "I know nothing about you, nor do I know anything about your business.  How in the world do you except me to write the content for your website?"

So, faced with my own issues of needing to put together a whole section of content for my Literary Midwifery business that I intend to fire-up in the near future, I'll tell you the process I'm going through.

1) Search the web (google, yahoo, and/or other search engines of your choice) for existing businesses similar to yours.  Find 6-10 that are as similar as you can get.

2) For all of these sites, print off copies of their websites.  Print off "Services", "Fees", "About Us", and all their other major pages... don't worry about blogs and stuff like that.

3) Read through the stack of printed web pages, and with a bright-colored pen, highlight the sentences/ paragraphs/ sections that ring true to your business and your imagined website.  Don't think too much, if something catches you eye, highlight it. (Read more)

There are some days and some chores that the only joy to be found in them is the joy of finally having them done.

The last of the contest entries are judged and sent on their way.  Now I can finally go to bed, so I can get up early tomorrow to do all the work that I should have done today but didn't have time for.

I understand that people enter contests because they don't have other means of critique available to them... but if you're one of these folks, please take a moment to appreciate the time and energy that the judge on the other end put into your entry... especially if yours was one of the really bad ones that the judge spent an hour just trying to figure out one useful thing they could say.

*sigh*  I swear every year that I'm not going to do it next year... and I do anyway.  I'm such a wuss when they beg and plead.  :-)

But!  IT'S DONE!  And that's a joyous thing!  :-)

I'm reading contest entries this afternoon (yes, they're waaaayyy late, I know), and I found myself writing the following, then I had to go take my kid someplace. As I drove, I thought about what I'd written, and I realized that I'd never thought about it that way before, and it seemed fairly profound, so I thought I'd share it.

Historical entry page 7:

Ben took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He preferred the backwoods of the colonies to this dangerous jungle of London’s upper society. At least there, he could shoot his predators. {{This is good, but totally out of character for who he’s been presented as so far. Nothing has been mentioned of ‘backwoods’ or ‘shooting’, so I-as-reader assumed he was American upper-crust. If he’s not, it needs to be mentioned waaaaay before this. Don’t make the reader go back and re-evaluate the characters. You need to build the character from one point to the next, not contradict the character from one point to the next. The reader’s assumptions about the character are often based on the words that aren't on the page even more than the words that are on the page. If he’s not American upper-crust, then he’d be doing a lot of thinking of how he should act and re-act. If living the life of the British upper-crust comes naturally, then he wouldn't need to think about how to act or re-act, so he wouldn’t be thinking about it, so the words wouldn’t be on the page. So you can see how the reader’s assumptions are often made by the words that are not on the page.}}

We-as-writers spend tons and tons of time working and tweaking the words that are on the page....  How much time do we spend on the implications of the words that aren't on the page?

I feel like I'm suddenly back in the saddle. 

I haven't written for months because I've been busy on another project that is so off-topic for most of this stuff that I'll just leave it at that.  If it actually grows into anything viable, then I'll go into more detail.

But last week, out of the blue, I started on a new story.  Which, of course, is the last thing I need to be doing as I've already got too many stories in process.  And this morning, my main characters from my very first manuscript started yammering at me, for the first time in years.  So, I'm assuming that I'm getting back into the fiction business.

Nothing's moving in the submission process for my erotica.  The one place that asked for the full replied thanks-but-no-thanks, and everybody else has either said we're-too-busy or not replied.  So, need to send it out on a second round when I have the time.

Beyond that, all the kids except #3-son are home for the summer, so the house is full and noisy.  #3-son is working for my brother in Texas.

And, for the most obvious change, I redid the look of the website.  Obviously tons more to do on it, but I decided that if I was going to be serious about getting my act in gear, I had to quit act like the cobbler whose kids didn't hae any shoes, and get my own blasted websites in some kind of reasonable order.  I have my work cut out for me, but it'll be nice to have it done.

Anyway... obviously late, and I have early plans tomorrow, so best head to bed.