Arild Nygard

Archive for the ‘Love Of Writing’ Category

Montreal, is it Spring or…I can see that the cold snap and snow did some damage to our little pearl in the Saint Lawrence river. Nature gives and than turns around and takes it all back.. Or almost!

How can we let this happen all the time – I’m talking about pot holes Oh My.. pot holes again…Hmmm, seem that we wrote about that once before, oh well nobody cares unless they get their tire ripped to h..l in the middle of nowhere.

Just had a little ranting there – sorry about that just had to get it out of my system.

It has been a while since I last posted and I always think that nobody read this stuff anyway so who do I write for than. I just write for the share pleasure of putting pen to paper as it is called.
I was once told that the more I write the better I will become at putting words to thought. I guess there is some truth to that. I can sit and write for a while but I have a problem when doing so. I can’t stop correcting right away when I do a typo.

I’m trying to get it under control so that I can get more flow to my writing. Oh well I guess I’ll get it one day.

I once used to talk to this guy in Ontario about things that related to the Internet. It was some really enjoyable evenings we used to have on Yahoo chat in those days. He once asked me if I would like to write on one of his blogs.. At the time I agreed and I did this for a while. I seem to remember that he sold the site to somebody. Anyhow I wondered what ever happened to this guy.. Oh well I’ll never know I guess. Life passes us by so fast, before we know it will be all over and we sit looking back wondering what could we have done different.

What is writer’s block?

Well, I just can’t think of a single darn thing to
say. Oh well, I’m outta here!

Sound familiar? No! Oh, get real! We’ve all
experienced this phenomenon when we absolutely have to
write something, particularly on deadline. I’m talking
about. . . . .uh, I can’t think of what the word is .
. . oh, yes, it’s on the tip of my tongue . . . it’s:

WRITER’S BLOCK!!!!

Whew! I feel better just getting that out of my head
and onto the page!

Writer’s block is the patron demon of the blank page.
You may think you know EXACTLY what you’re going to
write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears
before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.
I’m not talking about Zen meditation
stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of
blank.

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Now that you’ve finished writing your eBook and have a
basic understanding of what an eBook compiler does,
you may be feeling overwhelmed by the number of
compilers on the market. To help you make your
decision, I have tested and reviewed the best-rated
eBook compilers currently available.

Read the rest of this entry »

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence.
When you look at the whole project, it seems like an
impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down
into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain.
You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at
its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you
possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by
step.

Read the rest of this entry »

What is an eBook compiler?

You’ve written and revised your ebook, hired an artist
who has produced outstanding graphics, and now you’re
ready to actually put together your ebook. What you
need to make an ebook is software called an ebook
Compiler.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have been away from this site for a long time and today when I was reading one of my e-mails about finding your voice I came to think about this site.
I have long been thinking about how I write and how it is perceived by the people that read my stuff if there is anybody bothering to do so.

“Finding your voice” is a term that was used in the e-mail. Following this type of thinking is what many people should do when they write for the Internet and other places also for matter. The Power Of Voice is particularly a term that I like. There was a program on TV, a reenactment of the speech that President Lincoln had many years ago on the field of Gettysburg. We all know it as the Gettysburg Address. 

In this reenactment, when he writes the speech on the train while on the way to Gettysburg, he reads the speech out loud to his trusted servant “George” and asks for his opinion. George is hesitant and finally answers the he likes it, he really likes it. We all know what impact the speech has had on our lives; imagine what the people that was actually there must have been thinking. I guess we can say that Lincoln had found his voice, wouldn’t you say? There have been many people and many famous speeches since but I don’t think anybody comes even close to Lincolns.

The e-mail I received today kind of made me thinking about my own voice… What is in store for me – will my voice be heard? As I write a bit here and there and post it on the Internet, am I really using my own voice? What purpose is it to the stuff that I write?

As in the e-mail, some people that write for the Internet simply say that the stuff is good enough for first page on big G, so it must be ok. I like to think the same for my own ego but honestly I think that I could do and use some improvements here and there. Learning and having reached this far is just the beginning.  I hope I can continue to learn and become much better at it. I know it takes time and practice just like anything else. If you want to succeed, you got to work at it.

Just take the fact that the e-mail I received today made me thinking a bit differently.

+++

Do you have a story or something that impacted you in a certain way? Maybe it made you think carefully about something that you wouldn’t have been otherwise.

Paul Myers is well known in some Internet circles and has his own newsletter called TalkBiz. You can read his work here: http://www.talkbiznews.com

Can you believe this, it’s already March. The winter flew by very fast I think. Maybe it’s just me – oh well so be it. Been away for a while but finally back at it again. Montreal is still in it’s winter sleep. Not much more than pot holes and snow cleaning going on with our city workers. Can you believe this weather, freezing cold and the next thing you see is RAIN… There is a lot of things happening in the  environment since we are getting creamed as we are these days. It’s all upside down and probably will be for long time to come..

The Internet has a lot of people writing and publishing. Some are very good and give a great value other are more b/s if you like. There is a lot of duplicate content online and I think that is one of the “Bad” sides to this kind of publishing especially if it serves no other purpose that cluttering up the net. I guess most people that do publish online have an idea that anything goes and whatever they write is “Good Stuff” so freedom of speech is really in effect here. Not much I can do about that. Read the rest of this entry »

Questions we ask when we want to write something and need a place to start can usually be triggered of by using the “Who”, “What” , “Where” type of markers. I call them markers as I see them as just that. They mark my beginning or a paragraph within whatever I’m writing at the moment.
”Who” am I writing for? It is a question that can be leading to many different other questions and all have to be answered in order to complete the topic.

“What” am I writing about? This is a direct lead in from the “Who” marker. If I write for expecting mom’s than it will be a subject directly related to that topic. Expecting mom’s.

The single “How” marker is sometimes the most difficult one to get going. This is where a lot of research comes in to play. I f you write for the Internet or I should say If I write for the Internet than I will do some keyword research and find words or phrases that expecting mom’s are asking online.

The list goes on and on like this until I have a complete picture of what I am doing and as notes and small paragraphs have been written as I go the whole thing becomes like a picture that you start elaborating on and before you know it you have a full fledged article or report made. It only remains to edit and do the final touch up before publishing.

I presume that if I do this long enough than after a while it becomes second nature to do this automatically.

So conclusion to the original question than must be that I’m not a natural writer, as I have to do a lot of work before I have anything good to write about.

Finding Inspiration is Important for me and I have to look for it all the time.

You hear people taking about how they wrote a report or an article in a couple of hours. I can’t do that. I have to sit down in quiet surroundings and think. I have to look deeply for inspiration and find a subject that I can write about. Than I do my research and write down keywords or phrases at the same time. As research is progressing an “idea” or outline is forming and I start to write. At first it is just a ruff draft that I write. I will get back to it later and do editing and corrections as needed.  The part of research is what takes time. I don’t like to write just junk that has no deep purpose or end result. It has to have a meaning and for that to happen I have to do the research. Get facts. Hey, maybe Ii should call it a fact-finding research and not just research. I was once told that one of the better ways to write was to start asking questions. Use the questions as a beginning and than write the answers to them. After editing and writing for a while you might see a nice report forming.

So here we go; what should I write about for my Site “ArildNygard.com”. It’s a site about writing. I sometimes get a bit frustrated and don’t know what to write about. Travel was one of the subjects that I was going to write about. I like to have a bit of everything related to living and working in Montreal, Canada. Looking at travel I think, why travel? What’s so special about that and what can I write that has not been written before by somebody else? Many before me have don this and I don’t know if it can be any new way or a different way that I can do this. Maybe I Should just get into the specific of one subject only and stay with that till I have built a base for anything else that might evolve from it. I guess you have heard the expression one idea leads to another being borne.

Keeping on writing just might do that also. You kind of get into the groove and than the trick become how to stay there, in the Groove I mean. Many times I have been in the groove and just lost it as external distractions kept on interfering and I finally gave up completely. I sometimes wonder how a professional writer can stay with it for so long time. I guess this is part of their training that they go through when they start out. I heard one female writer once say that even though you know how to tune your car, you are not going to do it as well and fast as a professional mechanic. The same goes for writing she said. I think it’s true to the nt’ degree. I used to find great comfort and inspiration by listening and working with likeminded people online. This has since kind of diminished as we all drifted apart it seem. I don’t know what happened but the inspiration has gone and I now think it a lot of time lost just listening to or socializing online.
Another think about writing that I kind of have problems with is the fact that I can’t stay completely on topic but seem to drift off a bit every now and than. I kind of get side tracked and wonder off into the blue somewhere.

Staying focused and on track is one of my priorities when I write and after my ruff draft is done I sometimes have just half of my original left. The other half has been edited away as it’s not on topic. I have been told not to worry about it but keep on writing anyway and just edit it in the end.

The ruff draft is just that, a ruff draft. It might take a complete re-write for it to be any good but it has to start with a ruff draft. How would I ever finish if I don’t do it this way? No way I can get it done and completed any other way. At least I don’t know any other ways that works for me. So finding inspiration kind of get’s done this way. I just start writing and as I write things kind of pop into my head and I write them down, sometimes I just write them down in the middle of whatever I’m writing at the moment. I mark the “Idea” with a star or something that makes it easy for me to find later on. It is a way that is less intrusive and don’t throw me off the original writing as much as if I had to stop and take a note pad or book and write it down by hand. The inspiration I find is usually good for a bit and I have to act as fast as I can on it as usually doesn’t hang around for long. Inspirations come and go!