Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: post (Page 2 of 2)

How to write a killer fast blog post.

March 24, 2014 / / 6 Comments

Hey There!  Today i am actually going to give some instructions!  I know, but don’t unsubscribe yet.

Have you ever needed to crank out a blog post in record time?  I know I have.  The best solution for this situation is to Pre-Write a bunch of posts and keep them in Queue. Read this page for more.

I have squandered my 2 weeks worth of posts so I really need to re-write the pre-write.  But say you don’t have a post to get out, and you really want to.  Here is what I do.

Shut down everything on your browser except for your wordpress editor.  If you use something else like Word or the like just have that open.  Sit down and clear your mind.  What is the first thing that pops into your head?  Really, the first thing no matter how obscure.

My first thought?  Boondoggle.  Very obscure.  So now you have a topic be it boondoggle, purple unicorns, or wordpress plugin updates.  That is what you will roll with.

Don’t even write a title to this right now.  Go to the body of the post and start to write.  You only need to write 100 words or so in this stage.  If this were an infomercial I would say “In only 100 words you too can have a killer fast blog post!  Send 19.95 now for an amazing offer!  But wait there’s more!  Order now and have your order doubled only fo rthe price of shipping and processing!”

See what a good deal you are getting just for reading today?  Anyway, start with a short, modest goal.  You will be surprised at how quickly a post can bloom from 100 words to 5 or 600 or more!

Take your topic, (boondoggle) and write what you know about it.  Don’t research or even look at anything yet, just use your brain.  I could write,

Does anybody remember boondoggle? That wonderfully cheesy plastic cord that the camp counselors showed you how to weave into great keychains? How you just wanted more of the stuff to make more and more intricate keychains without caring what the ultimate point was? It was a lot of fun when I was younger and I rediscovered some of that when my daughter was getting her kidney transplant.

All of that in only 67 words. The most amazing part, I jut got boondoggle in my head, started writing about something simple from camp and ended up circling back around to my daughters transplant.  There is more to be written about that and in the end will probably have nothing to do with boondoggle.

Come up with the first title that hits your mind, the more snarky the better, like “Boondoggle and Transplants: Summer camp to lifesaving days”  Ok that is not very snarky but should bring a viewer or two.

So here is a quick blog post that I started on a whim and now it is topping 500 words.  It isn’t hard to start and get something going without a lost of work.

Of course, you can make it a detailed post and search the net for history of boondoggle and include patterns and theories and funny anecdotes from retired camp counselors about how boondoggle saved the camp when they wove fishing nets so they didn’t starve in the summer of ’87 or how they used that same net in ’88 to hold the dam back and save the camp from flooding.

But that is too much work.  Keep it simple.

Tomorrow is fiction Saturday!  The Man in the Hazy Suit continues!

Have a great weekend

-Justin

My review of How To Build An e-Book!

March 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Hello folks!  Today I am going to review a fabulous book that I had the opportunity to pre-read for clarity. (ie I got a free copy to read through and evaluate.  assume all links are affiliate links.).  That book is called  How To Build An E-Book.  It was written by Aaron Pogue over at Unstressed Syllables.com.

This book was launched a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t put up this post then because I thought there would be so much promotion that mine would get lost in the stream.  So I am here today to review this fine book and bring some new life to it.  Aaron’s sales page is here:Click here to visit Aaron Pogue.

Hello Aaron.  Ok here is a list of things that I noticed while reading your book.  They are in no particular order so take them as you will.

First, this book is very well written.  It is easy to read and in a very conversational style that flows very quickly.  It really goes in depth on how to convert blog posts to a useful ebook.  Aaron is a technical writer (as well as novelist) by trade and his attention to detail is fantastic.  The book is easy to understand and it really lays out the right way to put your ebook together.

I mainly write fiction but the information Aaron presents can be modified to even make a fiction ebook look good.  I actually used some of the techniques to tweak my first fiction ebook: Death With A Vengeance.  It is also instrumental in the planning of my non-fiction ebook about my daughters kidney disease and dialysis.  The chapter on Outlining brought back horrible memories of both high school and college English classes but gave me a great reminder on how to do it.  I haven’t needed to outline anything in years but for this book I am writing it was essential.

Aaron also gets into some simple points of Microsoft Word (or other word processors) and talk about styles for chapter headings and how to bookmark and link in between pages in the ebook.  There were several points that I didn’t know about and now use quite often.  I have been using Word since the old Wordperfect went belly up and there were several things that I still didn’t know.

This ebook has a really good flow to it.  The headers and footers are very clear so you always know where you are.  It is littered with practical examples of how to put the concepts into practice, from pictures to links, to info boxes that show what is exclusive content to your ebook and what has been published on your blog.

He even includes a checklist that you can use to follow the concepts exactly as they appear in the book.  Most of these things I had thought about but I didn’t know how to put them together in a coherent and cohesive manner.  This checklist solved that problem.

At the end, he also discusses how to publish your ebook and get it out to the masses.  From formats to publish in to using distributors like e-junkie it is all here. Click here to visit Aaron’s Sales Page!

All in all, this is a great book for learning to make an ebook.  You can tell that Aaron really loves his work and is good at it.  He has easy descriptions of the hard stuff like outlining (I hate outlining but it must be done!) and publishing.

If you want to publish your own e-book from your blog posts, go get this book.  It is well worth the $49.97 that he is charging.  He also has the book split into three modules that run $19.99 each if you would rather go that way.

Bottom line: Want to write a successful ebook from your vast collection of blog posts?  Get Aaron’s ebook today and get started!

I Need A Blog Like I Need A Hole In The Head!

September 26, 2013 / / 15 Comments

I need a blog like I need a hole in the head.  As long as that hole is a mouth we will be ok.  Sure my blog may not be oxygen or food but it is still important to my well being and therefore important.

I want to write.  I need to write.  My whole website is taking far too much time… as a hobby, but just enough as a business.  And a business is what I am running.  This discipline of writing every day is starting to take hold and become a habit.  The online friends that I am making are resources that give me support and inspiration.  Most people here in Blogistan will give that support freely and quickly, as long as there is reciprocation somewhere along the line.

There is a list of people that I now think of as friends on this whole internet thing.  I like to read what they have to say, I like to interact with them and I hope they like to read what I have to say and not just think I am an annoying little insect that can just be brushed aside.  I will not be brushed aside!  I will come over to your house and….  wait that was a dream.

I am finally starting to figure out my life and my blog.  It is not finished, there are always little tweaks to the site or things to add or make more ascetically pleasing.  There are new and exciting things to read and get involved in.  There is lots of writing to be done.  There are stories to format and tweak into e-books that will start making me money.  There are newsletters to format even though there are no subscribers (sign up here or I will come over to your…:))

This post is short, there will be longer ones.  Most of them lately have been longer.  And longer fiction on Saturday.  And e-books that are not just reprints of blog posts but actually thought out, well formatted pieces that people will actually read and not stick in an obscure downloads folder on their computer.

I need a blog like I need a hole in the head.  A funny expression, but now it feels like I need my blog or there is a hole somewhere in the core of me.

Until Later Loyal Citizens of Blogistan,

Justin

I am a kid in the Blogistan Candy Shoppe

July 2, 2013 / / 4 Comments

You can get on the internet just about anywhere now.  You can read blogs and write blogs and comment.  It is so cool it’s not even funny.  There is so much information out there that it can be overwhelming and daunting.

I feel like a kid in the candy shoppe when I look around and try to figure out what it is that I want to read, watch, listen to, or write.  There are so many possibilities.  Is it podcasts?  Is it the latest TV show? Is it fiction? Is it technical? or is it about real people doing real things.  When  it comes down to it, it is all about us, the subjects of Blogistan doing real things and boosting each other up.

So I have a question for all of you out there in Blogistan (ruled by the Evil Prince Dave Doolin).

What is it you like to reach for in the Candy Shoppe?  What do you go for first in a world filled with wonderful things?

And a Second only slightly less important question: What would you like to see more of on this site?  I’ll tell you now, video is probably not going to happen.  I am seriously considering audio though.  How do transcripts of posts sound? Or would each recording need to be original?

Please let me know what you all think out there.  The community must be served.

Thanks in advance and with flourishing bows,

Your humble vassal,

Justin

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