To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week:
On writing:
Grammar Girl’s Tips for Effective Proofreading (Ragan.com) – Mignon Fogarty, aka G.G., confesses that she’s just as prone to typos as the next writer/blogger. Her remedies: have someone else read your work, or if you can’t, read copy backwards, out loud or in print – or my favorite – leave it alone for a while, then look at it with fresh eyes.
- Stephen King on the Creative Process, the State of Fiction, and More (The Atlantic)
- Top 10 Tips for a Successful Podcast Interview (Productive Writers)
- The Top 7 Reasons Why Publishers Reject Nonfiction Book Proposals (Working Writers)
On the writing business:
Reuters looking for local stringers (SPJ) – The international financial news wire service needs contract writers to carry out its plans to expand into U.S. state and local non-business news. According to the SPJ story, rates range from $25 to $50 for tips and quotes to $200 for covering breaking news.
Top Sites for Journalists (Scoop.It) – Somebody’s picks for best j-sites. According to what I could gather from the website, Scoop.It is a curation tool (not unlike Paper.li) meant to be used as an e-learning aid. From the looks of it, though, I’d say it’s got all kinds of journalistic possibilities. For example, this could be great way to show all the blogs entered in the 2011 WordCount Blogathon on one page – hmmm.
An Hour in a Room With Arianna Huffington Guest Starring Biz Stone (TechCrunch) – Reporters covering AdTech conference use 56 minutes of one-on-one time with the HuffPo founder and new head of editorial at AOL to talk about lawsuits, layoffs and the difference between bloggers and writers.
- Rolling Stone’s Will Dana on Long Form: ‘Quality Will Win Out in the End’ (Yahoo News)
- Sometimes, Just Writing the To-Do List is Enough (Amanda’s Wrinkled Pages)