Writer's Notes - By Jeanne Dininni

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Random Rantings Irritating Issues Lessons Learned - Writer's Notes

RSS Feed and E-Mail Overload: Similar Problems

October 12th 2007 18:51

Many Thanks for Your Feedback!

I'd like to thank everyone for all your excellent feedback on feed-reading. It's been very helpful! You've given me some great ideas that will help make my feed management easier and more productive; and hopefully your comments have been helpful to other readers, who may have been experiencing some of the same issues, as well.

Feed Readers: Tools to Make Our Lives Easier

Feed reading is really a very convenient way to "visit" the blogs we enjoy--without having to surf all over the internet to find them. Having them all in one place is a great feature. When we look at feed readers as tools to help make our lives easier, we won't feel enslaved to them, but will use them in the ways that prove most helpful to us. If that means deleting posts that we haven't had time to read, so be it. If it means deleting entire blogs that we never read, we shouldn't feel guilty about doing so. The feed reader is there for us, after all.

Feed Readers and E-Mail: Both Benefit from Labelling

I still haven't tried labels in my feed reader, yet, but will do so as soon as I can find the time. Lately, I've been concentrating my energy and effort on labelling my e-mails in G-mail. I'd never used this feature before, and so organizing my saved e-mails has been pretty time-consuming. Just as my feed reader has become overrun with posts, my e-mail account has become overloaded with e-mails. Using my account for writing-related queries and submissions, church writing projects, and miscellaneous blog-related activities--in addition to everything else--has caused my inbox to be fairly inundated with mail; therefore, e-mail labelling was my area of concentration yesterday.

Labelling: A Big Job Once E-Mails Get Out of Hand!

So far I've only completed the e-mails that were in my inbox--though I spent a good part of the day doing it. (I told you my inbox was overloaded!) I have yet to tackle the ones in the archives. Since so many of my e-mails are writing-related, I really need to keep accurate records of my online correspondence, so I wouldn't want to delete those; though I'm sure there are some individual e-mails--and no doubt entire categories, as well--that I could probably live without. I'll have to give that a bit more thought.

Clear Out Your Inbox By Labelling and Archiving

I'd definitely like to begin keeping the number of messages in my inbox down to a manageable level, and I think labelling and archiving will help me do this--though I realize that I do need to rethink which e-mails I really need to save, as my archives continue to grow. All I can say is that it's a good thing G-mail offers close to 3,000 MB of storage. It's hard to believe, though, that with all the e-mails I've got archived, I'm only using 3% of that space! (This makes me realize that G-mail gives me plenty of space for letting things get out of hand--or should I say "plenty of rope to hang myself"?) So I'm the one who needs to decide when enough is enough--because G-mail certainly won't do it for me! (When G-mail was first launched, it offered 2,500 MB of storage space, and that amount has grown daily, until now it's over 2,900 MB!)

Minimize Archived E-Mails: Print/Delete Some of Them

One thing I've begun doing to get rid of excess e-mail is printing out the e-mails received from family members and then deleting them. This way, I have hard copies which I can keep, just as I would if a family member had sent me a letter via snail mail. This works well for me, since I generally bring them over to my mom's house to read them to her and share the latest family news.

I print out other select categories of e-mail, as well. This does, of course, use up more printer ink--not to mention paper--but that's simply the price one must pay for the added convenience of the practice. (No doubt most of us have quite a few e-mails we could simply delete--without printing--and we wouldn't really miss them. We all need to decide for ourselves which ones those are.)

What Are Your E-Mail Practices, Tips, or Techniques?

How do you handle your e-mail? Have you been able to tame the e-mail monster, or are you becoming buried in electronic messages? Are you an e-mail pack rat, or do you ruthlessly delete all but the most crucial communications? If you have any e-mail management tips or techniques you'd like to share with the rest of us, we're all ears!

RSS Feeds and E-Mail: Both Require Organization!

RSS feeds and e-mail accounts--with their many, many blog posts and e-mail messages--are formidable opponents. Yet, my plan is to vanquish both through organization! I fully intend to tame the RSS feed and e-mail monsters one way or another! How about you?

Eager for your input,
Jeanne

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Posted By: Jeanne Dininni - Category: Random Rantings, Irritating Issues, Curious Queries, Lessons Learned

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A Simple Word that Sucks All Authority Right Out of Your Writing

June 18th 2007 13:30

Words: The Tools of Our Trade

We writers have an almost endless array of words from which to choose in crafting our written works. And, for the most part, we have an amazing degree of latitude in our choice of which of the terms from our (hopefully) wide vocabulary we will use in any given piece.

The problem lies in the inability of many to distinguish between those words in our immense communal bag of literary tricks which bear removing and using often and those which should be seldom used and would, in fact, very likely best be left sitting in the bottom of the bag, conveniently forgotten and undisturbed.

Write With Precision!

There are so many wonderful words which brilliantly advance our themes, expressing our thoughts with precision, painting pleasing (or at least appropriate) literary pictures in our readers' minds, beautifully clarifying our topics, and effectively allowing those who approach our works to grasp the thread of our argument, the gist of our explanation, or the heart of our story--and which do so without unduly and unnecessarily distracting the reader from our topic and forcing him or her to focus, instead, on our annoying word choice.

Don't Sacrifice Your Credibility

One term which I, personally, find extremely distracting and the use of which, in any kind of serious writing, in my view, immensely detracts from a writer's credibility--one of my literary pet peeves, in fact--is the word "sucks" when it is used in its slang form, to mean "is terrible or inferior." I would even venture to say that this use of the word in any type of serious writing and/or in any professional context is itself terrible and inferior--at least to me. (And, no, I won't use the term itself to describe its use.)

Writing Requires Craftsmanship!

I must be honest in saying that, as a writer who takes my craft very seriously--and as a reader who takes my avocation every bit as seriously--whenever I encounter this use of the word in a written work which is non-casual and is intended to be taken seriously from either a literary or a professional standpoint, my critical assessment of the writer (or at least of the writer's craftsmanship/good judgment) instantly drops a few notches.

Don't Drive Your Readers Away!

In fact, to be totally honest, it would take nothing short of a literary miracle to keep me reading beyond that point in a formal, official, literary, or professional piece. (Aside from excessive or extremely vulgar profanity, the use of this irritating term in a professionally written piece is one of the quickest ways for an author to lose this reader in mid-sentence, sending me on my merry way to look for greener literary pastures.)

Write With Purpose, Write On Purpose

I realize that today's younger adults have grown up hearing--and using--this term and it has become almost second nature to many of them. I realize, too, that, as the saying goes, "Old habits die hard." But, if you take away anything at all from this post, let it be this: To write effectively, you must not only write with purpose, you must also write on purpose. If you would truly communicate with your reader and capture his or her attention and interest--and hold it--you must choose your words carefully, targeting them to your audience, your topic, and your venue, and cutting out any terminology which has the potential to alienate your audience and thereby defeat your literary objective.

Is Alienation Your Intention?

(Of course, for some of you, your objective might actually be to alienate your audience--or a portion of it--in which case I would only say that this word should suit your purpose nicely. But this type of writing would not generally tend to fall under the purview of serious literary or professional writing, which is the kind we are discussing.)

So, please think twice about the terms you use in your writing--for your reader's sake--as well as your own! Don't give your reader a reason to stop reading and seek more suitable or appropriate content elsewhere.

Slang: When In Doubt, Leave it Out!

Slang can often be used very effectively; but only if it is used with discretion, if it is not overused, and if the slang terms chosen do not irritate, or lower your credibility with your reader, causing him or her to lose respect for you either as a communicator or as an authority on your subject--or worse yet, both.

Where slang is concerned, the recommended rule of thumb is, When in doubt, leave it out! It simply isn't worth the risk. Alienating your audience over such an unnecessary and easily correctible problem, would be very unwise. After all, it can be hard enough to hold our readers' attention even without throwing such literary stumbling blocks into their path. So, why would we ever want to do that?

May you always write effectively!
Jeanne

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Posted By: Jeanne Dininni - Category: Content Crafting, Timeless Techniques, Pet Peeves, Random Rantings, Irritating Issues, Insider Insights, Lessons Learned

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