I’m always a bit stymied
when it comes to titles for my blog posts. A title should be intriguing, but
also informative. As a reader, I resent a title that suggests I’m going to get
a joke about a chicken but it turns out to be a political screed, as in “Why
did the chicken cross the road?” but it’s really about some congresswoman who
was not courageous enough, in the eye of the one writing the title, to stick to
her position.
So I try to intrigue with
a title, but also inform the reader what to expect.
That is easier if I try to
write well ALL the time, not just when I’m doing something BIG in writing. I
pay attention to the titles of emails, not just blogs or articles or books. I
don’t just hit the reply button and go with the re: thing. It’s just an email title,
yes, but I try to give it intrigue and information. I pay attention to the
emails themselves, too. I use good grammar and a full vocabulary. Why? Because
if I am sloppy in “little” writing, I’ll get sloppy in BIG writing.
Paderewski, the great
pianist, said that if he failed to practice one day, he knew it. If he failed
to practice for two days, the critics knew it. If he failed to practice for
three days, everyone knew it.
It is important to write as
well as we can EVERY time we write, regardless of the occasion or the form.
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2016.
Author
guru Kristen Lamb says that author blogs are counter-productive, that a blog
must be “high concept.” I have no idea what that means, but just forget about
JUST WORDS being an author blog and consider it ‘high concept.”
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
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