http://www.echievements.com/blog Every word is an experience; every experience is a word. Learn to write better, clearer, wiser, smarter, and make money with your words. Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:48:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Thinking and doing are coincident. An action never takes place without the preceding, predominant, or simultaneous thought. I am what I am because of my thinking; I do what I do because of my thinking, and taking action teaches me. This feels like an invisible hand at one time smacking me and the next moment [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/get-ready-get-set-write Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist. One day she had a stroke. You’d be foolish to avoid this 20 minute Ted Talk about what she learned. Best of all, you will learn that you have a choice about who you are. You will discover that you are more than you understand.]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/do-you-ever-wonder-about-who-you-are See larger image The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition (Paperback) By (author) William Strunk Jr., E. B. White Article writing for the Internet lacks style. Too many disingenuous words are compiled to manipulate sales or Google. Basic elements of grammar, spelling, word usage, and author style are diminished by haste and shoddy marketing. Throwing words [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/the-elements-of-style-authored-by-william-strunk-jr-and-e-b-white Words matter…style matters…courtesy matters…people matter. Article writing should embrace style and, reveal courtesy with appropriate grammar and correct spelling. Why? Because people (your readers) matter. Learning the skill of careful writing takes time. Each article may have a flaws. The flaws decrease with the more you write. “Results increase as efforts decrease over extended rehearsals” [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/my-article-may-i-introduce-myself Here’s an example of an author’s submission to Echievements.com. Really? Who in the world can make sense of this? What is the point of such writing? Do people buy a service or product from this illiterate buffoon? He could have tried harder. Damn, he could have just tried. The longer]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/why-bother-writing-stuff-like-this Every day, I approve five articles for Echievements, The Writer’s Community. Every day, the same stuff. Titles in lower case, no information in the resource box, spelling errors (Good grief! Spell check tools are every where), and empty-minded drivel. Many writers think an article directory is for their advertisements. I reject those articles with a [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/edit-articles-before-submitting-to-an-article-directory Kindergarten children learn about sharing. Cute little guys, away from mom and dad for the first time, share toys, graham crackers, and “circle-time” space with new classmates. Every now and then, kindergarten teachers remind their knee-high charges “to be nice and share.” The folks at “Men With Pens” learned well. The article, “Do You Have [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/do-you-have-to-have-all-the-answers My daughter and I climbed Mt. Washington with 8 other dads and their daughters. Most of the dads know something about each other. We talked while watching our daughter’s high school events. Three of my daughter’s closest friends climbed the school bus steps for the first time on the same day. At the eighth grade [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/climbing-new-heights-when-writing Looking at the last date of an entry to The Echievements Writer’s Bin makes me wonder, “How come you’ve not been writing?” Part of me says, “I’m tired and have too much to do.” To that my schizoid mind replies, “Well, you could write instead of falling asleep on the couch.” There’s a better reason. [...]]]> http://www.echievements.com/blog/creative-writing http://www.echievements.com/blog/birds-do-it-bees-do-it-and-writers-should-do-it