Remember that little Twitter tweetup Anne Wayman and I hosted a few weeks back? Turns out there are more great ideas coming from those 140-character conversations than I ever expected. Today’s post is no exception. Andrea Altenburg, technical writer extraordinaire, has provided a superb primer for writers new to the profession. She’s graciously agreed to…
Beautiful Day
Forgive me now – I’m working on about 5 1/2 hours of sleep. If I ramble more than usual it’s because I’ve nodded off mid-sentence. The U2 concert last night, in a word, was magnificent. Truly. Only one other time have I left a concert feeling deeply moved, and that was Santana, whom you might…
Working With PR
Busy day again, amen. I finished a large project (just a section – more on the way), and got some smaller stuff accomplished. I worked on a personal project, then it was off to the pool to relax. Finally. I feel like I’ve been running through my week. It’s going to get worse before it…
Finding Work Through Prompts
Check out Wade Finnegan’s Quality Writing blog: he’s interviewed yours truly. Thanks, Wade! Yesterday was nuts. I spent the morning on a large project, then headed off to get some medical tests done. A communications foul-up had me taking a different test than the one I’d scheduled. It also meant my quick 45-minute trip turned…
Guest Post: Following Your Muse
I love when random conversations evolve into a learning experience. Such was the case last week when Anne Wayman and I hosted our second Twitter tweetup (#writingsquared if you want to read). Anne Maclachlan joined the conversation, and she said something that intrigued me. In an email conversation afterward, she told me she was “an…
Invoicing and Butt Kicking
I was reading a post over on Anne Wayman’s site on preparing invoices. One of the commenters posed the predicament of collection. He wondered aloud (and then said what he’d do) how one goes about collecting. While I love his response: “…kick his butt” it has some impractical applications in the real world. Figuratively, though,…
Better Client Contact
It rained yesterday. Just a short rain – less than an hour – but I was thrilled to see it. I can’t remember the last real rain we had. Wait – yes I do. End of May. Wow. Really? I spent the morning on a tricky client project. Usually they’re easy, but this one had…
Time Management for the Unorganized
Ah, timing is everything. I asked Anne Wayman to do another Twitter tweetup yesterday only to find out seconds before that I’d chosen the very time our President was tweeting. Nuts. I don’t know why I thought he was tweeting at 11:30. That time was stuck in my head. Oh well. Thanks to those of…
Learning to Trust Your Gut
If you’re around at 2 pm ET/11 am PT today, meet up with Anne Wayman and me for the #writingsquared tweetup! Bring questions and advice – all are welcome. Interesting day yesterday. Got a small project done, managed to stay awake long enough to get an estimate back to a client on a big project,…
Celebration and Recovery
How was your holiday weekend? How was the 4th or Canada Day for you? To paraphrase Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, the time of my life was had this weekend. It started Friday with time alone with the husband. Saturday was the farmer’s market in the morning and the pool in the afternoon. Sunday was…