CuteWriting

  With the plethora of interesting topics to write about, you’re fortunate enough to get the “boring” one. While it can be a pain for many writers to wind up with such a task, I’m telling you now there are ways to make yours more interesting than it is. So if you find yourself stuck with the dreariest topic to fill in a blog about, don’t fret. Here are the four best ways to unburden yourself. 1. Never a boring topic, only a boring writer. Here’s the hard fact: It’s never about the topic being boring. It’s about the writer making it boring. For instance, you’re supposed to write about aquariums. I know, how can you continuously make this topic interesting, right? Well, you’d be surprised just in how many ways you can make it an enticing read. Start by listing down the basic “what”, “where”, “when” and “how” surrounding the topic. You can ask (and research) about “What material was first used to make aquariums?” or even “How the first aquarium was built?” or “What are

What really is Search Engine Optimization? (Photo credit: Go Local Search ) In order to have your blog posts reach the top of the search results, you really have to do a lot of thinking. One of these ways that you can experiment with is SEO. Search engine optimization is pretty important even if you have a regular personal blog. Who wouldn't like their stuff seen by more than ten or so people daily? However, the posts that get seen by a hundred thousand people daily are really profitable. They are simply at the top of their search terms and are meant to be good for earnings. If you have strong keywords in your article, they are going to rank you the best in search results. Let's look at some of the important SEO decisions you should make as a webpreneur. 1. Building A Lot of Links If you are keen about getting maximum visits to your blog, one thing you can do is gather as many links as possible from as many sources as possible. A few of the best practices in SEO ca

As writers, we’re always pushing the envelope to express ourselves better than we did before. However there are times when we plateau, when our writing just doesn’t feel natural. Worse yet, there are times when we can’t get a good paragraph out. Those are times when we start thinking about pushing ourselves and our writing. When you need to tweak and boost your writing up a notch, it’s always good to try something constructive.  For those who could use a couple of tips, here are a few that are sure to help improve your writing and keep it from going stale. 1.Imitate Different Authors If you read other writers for inspiration, why not actively imitate their writing? Once you walk in another writer’s shoes for a bit, writing as they write, you get an idea on how to approach writing about things in ways you normally wouldn’t.  Moreover, it will force you to pay attention to what makes someone else’s writing style unique which, in turn, will help you find ways to make your

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) can seem like a mystery to some people. Whilst there are many guidelines out there that can teach you the basics of SEO, a balance will always need to be struck between writing engaging and authoritative content and following the rules of SEO in order to ensure that your texts are optimized for search engines. With the release of Google Panda last year, the lines between once holy SEO ground rules such as keyword density against the need to create  high-quality, fluid text have become blurred. However, being aware of the biggest pitfalls of SEO with regards to web writing remains absolutely vital for your writing career. Google Panda : The codeword “Panda” was used to describe the wide-ranging update that Google rolled out across its entire search engine last February. Panda concentrated itself on delivering the best search results possible to web users and Google took great care to actively demote those websites from search res

This is a guest post from Brandy Olsen Writing quality creative work is difficult. While there's no other form of writing that's freer from the confines of rules and research, the virtually bottomless bag of material that can be used to craft creative writing leaves many a writer unable to work past the inevitable analysis paralysis of having too much to choose from. The tenacity it takes to overcome this vehement objective standing between you and your fiction will define you as a creative writer. But before you set off down that road, stop and consider the following four keys to quality creative writing that can take years to realize if you choose to go about it by yourself: UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS UNDERSTOOD A good creative writer is able to read their own work through the mind of a reader who only has the writing itself to go off of. Otherwise, you can be writing what you think is a detailed yarn, which is in fact a befuddled mess of character actions. Readers don't

Good writers always want to better their craft. When it comes to improving your creative writing skills nothing beats learning new things about the world. Except perhaps cutting down on distractions and procrastination. If you've recently bought a new HTC 4G Android phone or any mobile device running on Android, then you definitely want to give the following five apps a look if you're interested in easy ways to improve your creativity while you write: 1. CIA Factbook App When inspired suddenly to tell a story, one of the first things that gets in the way are the facts, or lack thereof. Unless your story is set exactly where you live it doesn't take long to hit a wall in terms of describing the setting and the people. Luckily, the CIA Factbook app for Android grants you instant access to data on countless countries across the globe. You'll just be a click away from knowing that the largest city in Cameroon is Douala and that Swedish male life expectancy is 78, a

Have you started blogging yet? It starts with a basic set-up at Blogger or WordPress or even your own personal domain, and later, some search engine submissions, social media work, and getting the word out by means like emailing your friends. Now that your blog is ready, let’s have a look at what can go wrong in it—what can put your readers off! 1. Design & Speed There are a million coolest looking blogs in the Blogosphere. That means the readers are no longer looking for great website designs. They want information in a neatly arranged place that loads faster. The standard loading time for a blog should be less than 4 seconds, and make sure you have it. Otherwise, you know what it will be. 70 per cent of the readers get out of a site if it doesn’t load within the first 4 seconds. 2. Advertising Readers are smart now, and know well about Adsense or any other ad network you are using for monetization. They frown upon banners and suspiciously descriptive links that attract cl

[A guest post by Nathalie Raben from NYC Midnight] Get those ball points ready to roll with NYC Midnight's 2009 Creative Writing Championships . This flash fiction contest invites writers from all regions to compete against one another in a World Cup-style writing race. For each challenge, writers are placed in different heats and assigned a specific genre and object. They then have a specific amount of time to pen their 1,000 word short stories, which will then go before a panel of esteemed judges in the professional writing world. Feedback will be provided for each story, and winners will be ranked challenge by challenge in a point system that mirrors the World Cup. All participants are competing for a chance to win up to $2,000 in cash and prizes. Devising creative contests in nothing new for NYC Midnight, an organization that derives its' name from the all nighters often associated with creative thinking. Registration for the Creative Writing Challenge closes on Wednes

Both need and dare can be used as auxiliary verb and main verb. When used as auxiliary verb, it works just like other modal auxiliaries, such as 'can', 'may', 'will', 'shall', etc. When used as main verb, they are like any other verb, such as 'run', 'go', 'come', 'take', 'work', 'joke', etc. Examples: As auxiliary verb: They needn't walk home, they can catch a bus. How dare you disobey my orders? Need you really take that risk? She dare not make the first move at any cost. I need drive to Joe's immediately. As you have seen, dare and need don't agree with the subject or use 'to' when used as modal auxiliary. It's just like 'can' or 'may': such as, "I may drive to Joe's immediately", "Can you really take that risk?" Used as normal verb: I need to get the attestation before applying. She does dare to do a lot of things. Do you dare

These are two often-mistaken words. Some people believe that there is only one word, forward , which means 'ahead', 'toward the front', etc. They believe the same word is used to denote 'the introductory note' of a poetry or anthology. Some other people believe the word for introductory note is foreward . No, there are two words, foreword and forward . Foreword comes from two words, 'fore' and 'word' (not 'for' and 'ward' or 'fore' and 'ward'), which hence means, a word that comes before other words, an introductory word or a collection of words that form the introduction. That's why the word, foreword means 'introductory note'. Forward has several meanings, but only one of them corresponds to a noun. It's always an adverb, adjective, or a verb, but not a noun (except in football (soccer for Americans)). Here are the meanings: Adjective: ahead, toward the future, at the front, lacking disc

It's literally freezing in there. It's practically freezing in there. It's virtually freezing in there. You may have seen sentences similar to these used every now and then. The words, literally, practically , and virtually , are all used in these instances to convey emphasis to what's being said. For this need for emphasis, literally and virtually were originally used a lot, but somehow practically also found its way to this and is getting popular. But despite this common meaning, each of these words has its specific place in English; let's see it now. 1. Literally: Literally has actually held the meaning, "in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words", as the American Heritage Guide tells. In that sense, we should not be using literally in the sentence above. But it went on to be used as a word for emphasis and stayed so. But actually, literally should not be used when a metaphor is present, as in the above sentence. A way to k

Here are three videos from Google teaching you how to use Google Reader, the most popular online RSS reading system. 1. Getting Started: 2. Reading Feeds: 3. Sharing Feeds:

Artist, pronounced in the same way, can mean "creator or performer of any kind of art form". Another meaning the word is applied to is "a deceitful person". There is a separate word, 'artiste', in existence, which in popular belief is the feminine form of 'artist'. But it is not true. An artiste is either a professional performer or someone wanting to be recognized as having artistic talents. This word is pronounced, 'arteest'. According to Oxford, previously artist was not used for the meaning of 'performer of art'. But now that the word covers both meanings, artiste has almost gone out of use or finds use only in the most formal of occasions.

I ain't going to no school today. She supposed that she ain't his lover anymore. Though Jack insisted, Jill ain't moved the garbage. As evident from these three non-standard sentences, including the double-negative one, 'ain't' is a tried-and-tested short form for pretty much all of the auxiliary verbs, except the modal auxiliaries. 'Ain't' was originally conceived in the 1700s, as a better usage of 'an't', which was the shorter use for 'are not' and 'am not'. These usages underwent their share of criticism over the centuries, for being non-standard and inelegant. But it found profuse usage even among the people of the upper class. The user needn't worry much about grammar rules since 'ain't' can be used for both plural and singular forms. There is nothing wrong in using 'ain't' in fiction dialogs and informal conversation, but stick to the standard auxiliaries in all formal occasions.

There is quite a bit of confusion among readers about the words, 'born' and 'borne', both past participle form of 'bear'. Let me clarify in this post. To mean 'to give birth to a child', we associate the term, 'bear'. But this word has a lot of other meanings, such as 'tolerate', 'to carry something', 'to support something or somebody', 'produce something', etc. These examples will show you the use: She thought she could bear her boyfriend's child. His class couldn't bear his lousy lectures anymore. My apple trees bear the best of apples in the entire state. The word 'bear' has two past participle forms, associated with 'to give birth' meaning. They are 'born' and 'borne'. These two should be associated with two different meanings as below. 1. Use 'born' if you are talking about the child, in a passive sense. My father was born in the middle of the last cen

When was the last time you climbed a fifty story building and looked at your street from the very top? When was the last time you sat inside your well closed home, alone? When was the last time you crossed the street? Have you been frightened by any of these experiences? There are fears everywhere, and so the medical community has interesting terms to refer to each. There are fear of loneliness, fear for great heights, fear for darkness, and fears you may think far more ridiculous, such as the fear for naked bodies and sex. In this article, let's delve into some of the technical terms for these fears. The fear terms are suffixed by phobia , which is the Greek term for 'fear'. Acrophobia—Fear for great heights Aerophobia—Fear of air drafts, flying, and some airborne substances Agateophobia—Fear of insanity Agyrophobia—Fear of crossing streets Ailurophobia—Irrational persistent fear of cats Algophobia—Fear of pain Apiphobia—Fear of bees Arachnophobia—Fear of spider

Despite their difference in meanings, albumen and albumin are two words still used wrongly by many people. Let's clarify this confusion in this post. The word historically used to refer to the white part of the egg is albumen. This arises from a Latin word, albus , which means 'white'. In Latin, you will also find the word albûmen to mean 'egg white', with a pronunciation mark on top of 'u', which is called a macron diacritic . The word albumin is an entirely English word, which has no connection to Latin word above (at least directly). It refers to a water-soluble protein found in many plant and animal tissues, including and prominently in the egg white or albumen. That's how it gets its name. The suffix, 'in' is used to indicate that the protein is a neutral chemical compound.

Once you start into creative writing and novel publishing, you may have to send many many typescripts to various publishers or literary agents. You need to track these submissions somehow. Keeping a list, spreadsheet, or a notepad of submissions will soon tire you out. Here is a better way. A software program, made just for this task: Sonar Submission Tracker . The important thing to note is this software is completely free. May it be short stories, novels, or novellas, or even articles to article directories or freelancing websites, Sonar can track their progress pretty well. Here is a screenshot of Sonar: Using this program, creating list of submissions and tracking their details is pretty easy. Go ahead and download the app free. If you like it, try more applications from Spacejock, which are all free, and give a tiny donation to the website. You can read my other review about Spacejock writing software, yWriter here .

In the Western calendar, we have three distinct forms for talking about epochs, AD, BC, and CE. All three are used with reference to the time of Jesus. BC is the time before Jesus was born, and hence expands to "before Christ". While "before Christ" is pretty meaningful, many expanded AD naturally as "After Death". But this isn't true. AD stands actually for a Latin phrase, "anno Domini", which translates as "in the year of the Lord". About one and a half millennia ago, a Romanian priest and scholar, St. Dionysius Exiguus caused this convention. One more thing you need to notice is AD is usually prefixed to the year, while BC is suffixed, as in: AD 500, and 43 BC. In BC epoch, the years are decreasing, so 54 BC comes before 3 BC. It decreases to 1 BC, and then starts the AD epoch, with AD 1. Another convention to talk about the current epoch, called the Common Era, CE, was started by atheistic scholars and writers who felt

"Oh! My fiancée is so cute!" shouted the woman. Now, if you know correct English and you read this sentence, you will think that the woman is a lesbian. There's no possible explanation for having a fiancée, who is a betrothed woman . The word for an engaged man is fiancé, without that 'e' at the end. So the first sentence should be, "Oh! My fiancé is so cute!" Fiancé: Betrothed man Fiancée: Betrothed woman Both these words are pronounced, 'fee on say'. The plural forms are simply 'fiancés' and 'fiancées'. Don't forget the acute diacritic sign above the letter, 'e'. Etymology These words originate from the French verb, 'fiancer', which means 'to become engaged'. So, you see, both these words originate from the French language, in which they are still strongly in use.