Random Quote of the Day

Terry Pratchett's #2 advice for young writers.

"Let grammar, spelling and punctuation enter your life. Yes, publishers have people who will do this sort of thing—and they are called authors."

(From a promotional e-mail advertising the (re?)publication of Pratchett's Johnny and the Bomb.)

On the D-List

Thanks to slwhitman for pointing this out in her recent post. Kineda.com recently posted a quiz (linked there) to tell if you are an A-List blogger... or somewhat lower. It should come as no surprise to me, with the big gaps that I take in writing here, that I'm in the lowest rung.

So what can one do to improve one's status? Several very helpful folks have posted their advice (the links for which I also completely and shamelessly stole from slwhitman--after all, she's a C-List blogger, and I'm a lowly D-Lister, so I don't think she'll mind). Here are the basics as recommended by the Agent Obscura and Mother Reader:

1) Write a lot.
Corollary: Write stuff people want to read.

2) Write like yourself. Be true to your writing voice. If you've got a topic about which you're an expert, write about that.

3) Be part of the community. Post comments on other people's blogs.
Corollary: Don't get offended by comments people post on yours.

4) Promote your own blog. Do this through RSS feeds and other techno-savvy methods, as well as just by telling your friends about your blog, putting the link in your e-mail signature, and etc.

They give other really good bits of advice, so I'd recommend reading both articles, but those are the ones that struck me as things I might actually be able to accomplish. Sometimes I wonder how people manage to not only keep up with blogs, but books published in their industry, e-newsletters from publishers and periodicals, and all their own writing work. I remember shanna_s saying she spends mornings reading all her industry news, which I tried for about a week before failing miserably at keeping that schedule.

One of these days, I'll figure out a method that works for me! In the meantime, I'll start aiming toward the C-List and see how far I can get.