For you music lovers, just thought I’d share a very cool item I found on YouTube:
“Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale using audience participation at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus,” from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.”
What do you think?
Topic:
Share your best writing tip and be featured in my Words•Music•Village blog
Expect an informal, let’s-help-one-another lunch gathering. Come ask questions, gain resources and meet other freelance writers. We’ll share our own best writing tips and hear what works for others. I’ll gather the tips and write up each one, along with background on you and your writing, as an entry in my new series of writing-tip blogs.
Also, if you have something noncommercial you’d like to showcase — a tool, a resource, a tip — please contact me and I’ll slot you in for 15 minutes of our undivided attention at the meeting.
Next gathering:
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
(Freelancers typically meet for lunch on the second Tuesday, and authors on the fourth Tuesday of each month.)
Where:
T.C. Eggington’s
1660 S. Alma School Rd., #129
Mesa, AZ 85210
(Just one block south of I-60 on the west side of Alma School Road, toward the south end of the strip mall)
480.345.9288
Cost:
A writing tip, and your own lunch.
RSVP:
PLEASE show the consideration of reserving your spot at the table by:
• RSVPing through the “Attending” link on our Facebook Event page
• Emailing Ann Videan with “ALWAYS May 8” in the Subject line
If you’ve RSVP’d and run into a conflict later, please let me know before the event so I can make the necessary adjustments for the group. Cheers!
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We’d love to have any experienced writer join us at our next meeting … anyone who spends a significant part of his/her week writing, and wants to rub elbows with other writers.
Please do add a your best writing tip in the comments below, but I will feature only those who attend the meeting in my blog. I’m encouraging face time here, wordsmiths!
I’m one of 20 authors featured at this event and can’t wait to talk about books and writing with you!
Join me for the 2nd Annual Arizona Dreamin’ readers conference Fri. and Sat., June 1-2, 2012, in Chandler, Ariz. This glorified “Girl’s Night Out” allows you to rub elbows with authors – including me – who write fiction in diverse genres, which involve a thread of romance.
For just $35, expect to:
• Meet 20 authors of various genres of romance. Choose 6 you find the most interesting for “Book Clubs” (10 readers with one author in 30-minute sessions to ask questions and talk about their books).
• Enjoy a free Hospitality Suite with snacks and beverages.
• Meet Jimmy Thomas, international book-cover model, and have your photo taken for a charitable donation.
• Munch out with an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner.
• Provide input for the “Man of Our Dreams” cover model competition during dinner.
• Win huge raffle baskets.
• Take home a FREE goody bag!
• Meet with two publishers to see if there is a book in you.
• Visit our event bookstore with discounted pricing.
Venue:
Windmill Inns & Suites
3535 W. Chandler Boulevard
Chandler, AZ 85226
Looking for easy places to grab great photos/images for blogs and other writing? Check out these cool portal ideas from Storytellers AZ writers at the April 12, 2012, meeting.
Storytellers AZ writers – like Brian LaPan, Tyler Hurst, Sarah Marques and Matt Fox – meet the second and fourth Wednesday each month, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Gangplank in Chandler, AZ.
• Freedigitalphotos.net, where you can find varying levels of royalty-free photos
• Compfight.com, for a free WordPress plug-in
• Flickr.com’s Creative Commons, offering a vast array of amateur and professional photographer’s images
• iStockphoto, professional images available for a nominal fee
Can you suggest another portal for photos and images which might help other writers or creatives?
Check out our StorytellersAZ iTunes podcast for more hands-on ideas from our writers.
Passive:
For her Coffee CommuniTea (CCT) blog, Ann had visited the Souvia Tea Shop and had found this perfect tea-shirt.
Active:
Ann explored the Souvia Tea Shop for her Coffee CommuniTea blog and discovered this perfect tea-shirt.
(Visit Ann’s CCT watering hole reviews at https://anvidean.com/coffee-communitea/.)
My main pet peeve when editing involves the overuse of passive voice. I don’t mean past tense, where you’re describing things that happened before. But passive voice, which uses far too many “to be” verbs and far too few active verbs.
Passive verbs = is leaping, are creating, have experienced, was learning, were thinking, have been choosing.
Active verbs = leaps, create, experienced, learned, thought, chose.
Your goal? Communicate your message in the most compelling, concise manner to intrigue customers and get them talking, right? Here’s how…
Your message jumps off the page when you use active voice. Plus, you shorten the length of your writing by one-third. (This most valuable tip takes into consideration the on-screen scanning that people – myself included – use as an excuse for reading these days.)
Active voice takes practice, but simply watch for “to be” verbs followed by words ending in “-ed” or “-ing” and replace them with active verbs. Example:
Passive: The voice was mesmerizing to the student.
Active: The voice mesmerized the student.
Also, try to start your sentences with the subject and use an active verb to describe what the subject does. Example:
Passive: The young girl was overwhelmed by the depths of the woman’s presence.
Active: The woman’s deep presence overwhelmed the young girl.
Employ these two tips alone and just watch your writing become much more effective!
Tell me about your main editing pet peeve.
Ann Narcisian Videan: Book Shepherd/Editor/Author 