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As a writer, you should commit murder every day. More importantly, you should be learning to enjoy it. It should be painless, quick and satisfying for you. The end result should provide a clear, final path to your end goal – that being, to print or pixelate. How and why would you commit murder? Self . . . → Read More: Leave blood on the editing floor … murder your darlings 
Now is the best time to be building a tribe. Social media has irrevocably changed both our personal and business playing fields. There is no going back. Many even say that success now depends on participation. In fact, digital technology as a whole has forced us to reinvent ourselves. We need to cast ourselves in . . . → Read More: Build your tribe by using a c-word [or three] regularly 
I’m really not trying to make a habit of it, but of late I’ve confessed a lot. I admitted to you I was an addict. I told my Mum I was scared. Then my sister got the nitty-gritty on the dragon fears that have been haunting my days and nights. To explain them – I’ve . . . → Read More: Everything [almost] exposed: foes, foibles and fears on Murderous Monday & Tradecraft Thursday 
Nowadays we’re very demanding when it comes to stimulation, entertainment and achievements. Life revolves around crowd (or community) kudos, acceptance and attention. Personal belief seems to fall on fallow ground. However, gaining and holding that sought-after attention is tough – it’s elusive in this digitally saturated world. Toggling between tabs and screens is the norm, . . . → Read More: The Grand Design of writing 
Similarly to novelists, copywriters and business writers need to be able to think (and write) their way into the head of their reader. We must be able to bring to mind readers’ feelings, loves, hates, fears, dreams and foibles. Naming and knowing all the demons and angels that endlessly circle inside their heads and are . . . → Read More: Think like your reader: what are they running away from? 
What keeps you awake at night? Is there something that you can’t seem to forget … something that inhabits your dreams and leaves its essence with you each morning? Is there a hidden passion, yearning to be unlocked? Despite what everyone says, we do not exist for the sole purpose of grinding out a living, . . . → Read More: Where there’s a will, there’s a payday 
Across continents and centuries, dragons have featured in myths, legends and storytelling. To most people they imbue a sense of other worldliness to stories; drawn from a time, mind and place of make-believe. Others say they are now only hidden from our view, because our seed of belief is too weak to grow. . . . → Read More: Have courage: Breathe dragon-fire into your 2012 year 
This year has been a big one for me. It was full of challenges, milestones, action, successes and the obligatory few stumbles. But that’s what life is about isn’t it? You have to stretch yourself across it, as well as living the length of it – otherwise it’s a life only half lived. If you . . . → Read More: My 2011 confession as an AWOL writer 
So you’re writing a letter or pixeling an email …. You’ve toiled for ages trying to pitch it properly, edit it and then proof it to make sure it’s error-free. But there’s one more thing to decide… What is the accepted way of signing off these days? Do you use: Yours faithfully Yours sincerely Kind . . . → Read More: Editing clips: Signoffs 
The longer I spend in the blogosphere the more I realise that there are so many overlaps between traditional media and the world of blogs. The cold hard facts about the extent of the ‘creep’ may be news to you, especially as a business owner and marketer. Many people still question the validity, purpose and . . . → Read More: Are blogs ‘media’ for marketers? 
Branding is the ubiquitous must-have for everyone these days. No matter if you’re a business, cause or person you cannot leave the house, office or screen without your brand in place and set for action. It should ooze from every pore of your business. The very feeling of your brand, what it stands for and . . . → Read More: The 10 never-leave-without commandments of branding 
Is your story true? Can it be trusted, or is it full of spin? Are you lying [by omission] or deceiving [by embellishment]? Or in all honesty, should your story be more accurately labelled, truthiness? Truthiness is a “truth” that a person claims to know intuitively “from the gut” or that “feels right” without . . . → Read More: The truth may hurt, so I’ll [lie] spin you a story 
Are you a serial un-finisher? [Yes, I did make up that word; it’s a bad habit I’m trying to amend, and I don’t know how to spell it exactly] Another bad habit that I’m trying to overcome is UFO’s …. or rather Un Finished Objects, which is the name that all handcrafters know them . . . → Read More: Blog posts are unfinished business 
I need you to do something. I need you to start thinking. About yourself, please. We’ve covered the eight basics of writing a killer CV, now it’s time to look at the specifics. To do that you need to ask yourself some serious questions. As strange as it sounds, very few people really know where . . . → Read More: Write a killer CV that gets eyeballs: Part 2 
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la” “Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la”….. Yes, it’s almost here. Santa sliding down the chimney (lucky we have one and that the three possums that have fallen through have cleaned . . . → Read More: Editing clips: Holiday greetings … 
Have you been tending to your boilerplate lately? Is it smokin’ hot? Does it sell the sausage as well as the sizzle? OK, OK, OK…..what the hell is a boilerplate? Up until a while ago I’d only really heard the term bandied about by ‘older’ pseudo-boffins (at my previous places of my employ) who wanted . . . → Read More: Crank up the heat on your boilerplate! 
No one wants to write a CV. It’s akin to pulling your own teeth. Perhaps that’s because it requires you to analyse and coldly review yourself. It puts you under close inspection – under the microscope one may say. Sounds uncomfortable don’t you think? But who really needs a CV these days? I know many . . . → Read More: Write a killer CV that opens new doors: Part 1 
Life seems to have got a little out of control. Go-slow lanes have disappeared, there’s no fallow time in the year, fruit and veges are always in season, our homes and lives are never-endingly lit (by the eerie pixel light of small and large screens), our circadian rhythms don’t know when to sleep and the . . . → Read More: Who filled my creative well with rocks? 
The one certainty in business today is change. In a landscape that constantly fluxes when it comes to technology, volume and approaches, the majority of business-people would agree on one thing. And that is, that it’s unpredictable. On this thought, of recent months I’ve changed around my freelance business; altering approaches and remixing where I . . . → Read More: When letting go [clients] means more [better things] 
I come from a long line of makers. My Nana knitted like an angel. My mum is a brilliant crafter – creating magical dolls, clothes and quilts, knitting and sewing her way through her life; a journey that to this day has yet to stop. My father was also a maker, re-user and re-inventor, (a . . . → Read More: Are you maker, a user or a destroyer? 
It’s a symbol that is increasingly seen these days, especially in text and SMS messages. And yet, when my son saw me typing the word ‘ampersand’ in my headline, he curiously asked “What’s that mean Mum?” This gorgeously squiggly symbol has a long history, and in some typefaces or fonts it can take on very . . . → Read More: Editing clips: When to use and what is an ampersand? 
Selling is not a dirty word. It’s not a dark art either. But in many places and homes (but not this one), selling is a dirty word. Perhaps that’s because the word selling often conjures up ideas of foot-in-the-door sales people, high pressure tactics, used car salesmen and other unsavoury practices. The fear of using . . . → Read More: The four-letter curse word – should you or shouldn’t you use it? 
Is it? Well no. You don’t need to write in corporate speak just because you’re writing to people at work, your colleagues, employees or CEO. Some say that business-to-business (B2B) writing is different because you’re writing to a company. But companies are made of people. Just because they wear suits, earn lots of money and . . . → Read More: Is business writing any different to other writing? 
A lot. When Gary Vaynerchuk (now a multi-millionaire entrepreneur and pioneer of social media marketing), first started out in his father’s liquor business, he was only sixteen. He was too young to legally drink. Starting out as a cashier on the floor of Shopper’s Discount Liquors, at the time the store was selling hard liquor . . . → Read More: How many blackberries does a non-drinker need to eat to become a sommelier [and entrepreneur]? |
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Focus on the golden 20 per cent – but are you sure?
Remember the 80/20 rule?
Also known as Pareto’s Principle, it talks about how 80 per cent of your results come from 20 per cent of your actions. In theory this applies to anything you do, think, record or research.
This week when you’re planning your work, drafting your next proposal or reviewing your business, focus . . . → Read More: Focus on the golden 20 per cent – but are you sure?