#amwriting – Page 19 – Jean's Writing

How to recognize your fingerprints in a story

Published on September 1, 2017September 14, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell8 Comments

If someone dusted your story, would they know it was yours?

Fingerprint and keyboard

All writers have a unique pattern of word usage.

That’s right. Take a look at your writing. Do you use a certain phrase or word over and over? I gotta admit, this is something I haven’t thought about before. Sometimes I overuse words in a draft and will toss them out later. But, I’ve never given much thought to what words or phrase identify me.

Until I read an article by Ben Blatt.

Writers are creatures of habit and have a singular voice they will not or cannot change. We don’t like change any more than any one else. If we are comfortable with a word we use it like sprinkles on ice cream. What I discovered from Mr. Blatt is using a word often is not always bad. Famous authors all have a “tell”.

Now as with all things there is an app for that. LOL

Keep reading!

Can You Identify an Author By How Often They Use the Word “The”? By Ben Blatt

Authors leave a distinctive hidden fingerprint in their stories.

Do you know yours?

Want to find out?

Thanks to Mr. Blatt you now can!

MoWa Literary Fingerprint – Author Identifier By Ben Blatt

Can’t wait to play with this!

What about you? What do you think?

Leave me a comment and let’s talk.

Please head over and “like” my Facebook page at Facebook at jeanswriting . Or to connect with me, click the “write me” tab. Don’t forget you can follow me on StumbleUpon, on Twitter @jeancogdell , and Amazon.com.

Please stop by and say “hey!” I’ll leave a light on.

Starting a story need not be hard

Published on August 30, 2017August 21, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell5 Comments

Writing prompts make starting easier.

If you’re new to my blog, I love writing prompts.

But not all prompts are created equal. That’s why I was so excited to find this blog post.

Ten Minute Writing Exercises by Practical Creative Writing

What’s so different about these prompts? The prompt is not a word, picture or one sentence. No, there are three. Three questions to ask about one situation. I think this exercise could be applied to a WIP. Hmm… (I’m thinking.)

After you’ve read the post I’d love to know what you think.

Do you find this type of suggestive writing helpful?

Could you apply the same three question approach to your WIP?

I think it would be helpful for when I get stumped.

Leave me a comment and let’s talk.

Please stop by and say “hey!” I’ll leave a light on.

How can you make your blog more user friendly?

Published on August 28, 2017August 21, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell10 Comments

Simple things can improve your blog.

Make your blog easy for readers.

for a more user-friendly blog…

Read – From Myths of the Mirror comes… 7 Steps to a User-Friendly Blog

You might find a couple that will help readers find and click through your blog.

Numbers 3 & 6 helped me.

I added the translate button. It had never occurred to me that not every browser gives you the option to translate a page. Good to know. Also, I hadn’t thought about limiting the number of posts to show up on the first page. My blog now loads faster since I limited that to 3 posts.

Which one of the 7 do you need to change on your blog?