Writing

So, would I rather be a full-time author?

Dave Farquhar Writing , ,

When I wrote my take on used-book sales, I originally included a question, then took it out because it turned into a sidebar. But it’s a valid question.

Would I rather be a full-time author? Read more

Giving and receiving criticism in writing

Dave Farquhar Writing , , ,

Internet pal Rob O’Hara wrote last week about why he hasn’t published a book in five years. The resulting discussion has the potential to get ugly–not that I think it will, but the potential is there. Writing about writing, and criticizing writing, is difficult.

I don’t have the solution–I can just tell you it’s difficult.

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Writing clearly vs. concisely

Dave Farquhar Writing , , , , ,

I had a disagreement last week with a technical writer who argues that a sentence should always have as few words as possible. No exceptions, for no reason.

I don’t agree.

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Don’t overthink writing

Dave Farquhar Writing

A longtime reader asked me a few weeks ago about my writing process. Today I’ll finally address the question. He asked me whether I correct as I go, or whether I write as fast as I can and correct later. But my experience over the last few weeks makes me think there’s something a lot more important for me to say.

Do what works, and don’t overthink it.
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How to not let your writing get in the way of your message

Dave Farquhar Writing

My boss told me to write something on the third-grade level yesterday. Curious what level I normally write on, I found this readability index tool.

Depending on whose algorithm you use, I typically write on the 5th-7th grade level.
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How blogging helps my professional career

Dave Farquhar Writing

My boss’ boss (I think we’re just two levels of management removed now) spent half the day composing a long e-mail message containing a large number of questions. He sent it to my boss, who forwarded it to us. I read the 10 or so questions that pertain to me.

Then I took a walk. Walking to the bathroom and using the facilities always seems like a good idea before I start writing. Read more

The difference between blogging and true journalism

Dave Farquhar Writing ,

If you want the difference between true, honest-to-goodness journalism and blogging, this Slashdot story is a good place to start.

The key is the word “reporting.”
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What you should know if you want to write a book

Dave Farquhar Writing

And here’s some first-person testimonial about book-writing in the 21st century. Most of it rings true. It took me 9 months to write a book, vs. 2.5 years. But my advance was smaller than what she got. I don’t know my sales figures, but she seems happy with sales figures that I would have thought were disappointing. Royalties of a dollar a book are about right (mine were closer to $1.75), and working for less than minimum wage is definitely a possibility. She’s also right that publishers will not promote you. You absolutely, positively have to promote yourself. They’ll put your book on store shelves and send a few copies to reviewers, but from there you’re on your own to sink or swim. Read more

Milestone! I’ve been pirated!

Dave Farquhar Personal, Writing , , , ,

In searching for the abstract of my book, I found more than I expected: What appeared to be a pirated PDF copy of the book in its entirety. What’s worse is that it appeared #1 in Google’s search. Numbers 2 and 3 were various pages on my site, #4 was my Wikipedia profile page, #5 was O’Reilly’s page, and #6 was Amazon’s page. So it’s easier to download a pirated copy of my book than it is to buy it. (It’s $2.03 at Amazon right now. Maybe I should buy some copies.)

I’m having trouble deciding whether that bothers me. The likelihood of me ever making another 25 cents off that book is slim. There was some talk at one time of releasing the book under some kind of Creative Commons license, but I never received the paperwork so I guess they changed their mind. As far as I know, it’s still under copyright.

And the copyright doesn’t belong to me, so ultimately it’s not up to me. I wrote it, but O’Reilly owns the copyright. So I e-mailed O’Reilly to ask them if they care.
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How to use WordPress’ drafts feature to your advantage

Dave Farquhar Writing

In 1994, I was a rookie columnist for my college newspaper. My predecessor, Judd Slivka, had stepped aside to become sports editor. Judd asked me one day how my new gig was going, and I observed that ideas were coming to me faster than I could write them. “Write them down,” he urged me. “You’ll need them later.” And he was right. It took about a month for me to learn that  ideas come in waves and droughts, and survival as a weekly columnist depends on stretching those waves far enough to cover the droughts.

And bloggers face exactly the same challenge. Otherwise, they run out of ideas and become people who post something only occasionally, and, eventually, not at all.

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