blogs

When the trolls try to drag those you love under the bridge.

beccakinla blogger, blogging, blogs, family, tznius, tzniut Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment
knight fights troll

“Take that, you nasty troll! Maybe you’ll think twice before saying mean things about my sister again!”

I hate trolls.

Not the fictional kind. The internet kind. I’ve blogged about it before.

But now, my sister has published her first piece on Tablet. And the very first comment she got was from a troll. A mean, nasty one who called her names.

If getting mean-spirited comments from random strangers is bad, having your sister get them is worse. I’m irate! I’m disgusted.

I have commented.

Fair readers: go read my sister’s essay — and say something nice in the comments. (Even if it means you have to learn how to use Discus.)

K?

Better Writing vs Better Sales: What makes a better writer?

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Today’s post from The Write Practice got me thinking. In it, Joe Bunting suggests that we worry too much about sales, and even about how good our writing is.

I love these two lines:

Does the fact that more people have read Twilight than have read [any book by] Mark Twain mean Stephenie Meyer is a better writer?

More important for us, does the fact that we are all less known than E.L. James (as far as I know) mean our stories aren’t as good?

metal chain

Your writing can be the chain that binds people together.

Bunting suggests we think “Connection” (with readers) over “Competition” (with other writers).

What Bunting says really appealed to me. Of all the kinds of feedback I get from my stories and articles, the ones that mean the most are the ones where people tell me that they identified with some aspect of what I’d written–particularly if the person is really different from me. This the kind of thing that bonds together humanity. Bunting would call this kind of connection literary success.

I’d call it something else: a measuring stick to use if you want to judge your writing’s moral quotient: will this writing bind people together, or will it tear them apart with strife? In that sense, “Good Writing” has a quality beyond the writer’s style or storytelling ability. It’s “Good” in the moral sense, as well.

What do you think?

Lights to the Nations: Two Jewish thinkers release their books for the secular–even non-Jewish–audience

beccakinla blogs, book, books, chareidi, frum, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, literacy, literature, matisyahu, message, reading, recommended reading, tafkid, Torah, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Wow.

That’s pretty much all I could say. I read an amazing blog post by Ann Koffsky this morning (thanks Ann for sending me the link!) where she interviews the unforgettable writer Gila Manolson. The interview is chock full of advice to writers, advice to parents, and other neat stuff. But the biggest revelation to me is that Manolson has created a website to promote her upcoming book–her first book for a non-Jewish audience.

Manolson is not alone. Continue reading →

The Writing for Pay-Writing for Blog Balance

beccakinla advice, authors, blogger, blogging, blogs, writer, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been neglecting my blog. I’m not being delinquent; I’m just being practical. Thank G-d, I’ve been doing a lot of writing in the last couple weeks, writing that is both fun and paying (my favorite combination). G-d willing, I’ll be publishing a short 5-part serial in Binyan in the next few weeks, as well as a few other exciting projects that have been time-consuming.

It’s true that blogging is not independent of my work–I maintain my site largely to create an audience for my writing, promote it when published, and help others overcome some of the professional hurdles I’ve come across (sometimes stumbling along the way). However, writing a decent post that I don’t mind having my name attached to takes time. Lately, for good reasons, I’ve felt my time has to be spent elsewhere. But posting regularly is key to maintaining a good blog.

How do the readers out there strike the right balance between blogging and other professional activities?

On Writing About Writing: a guest post by Miriam Hendeles, author of Mazel Tov, It’s a Bubby!

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Mazel Tov! It's a Bubby!

Miriam’s Book!

Today’s guest post is from my partner in crime writing, Miriam Hendeles.

What do writers write about? We write about our lives and our families. Some of us write about our struggles and triumphs. Others write about philosophies and opinions; hope and dreams.

We tell stories, and conduct interviews; we compose lists and craft essays.

We even write about “Writing.” Now what is there to tell, conduct, compose and craft about Writing?

So much. We can write about the writing process, solutions to writer’s block, publishing opportunities, strategies for success, online writing techniques, SEO, PLR and myriad other acronyms. Bloggers and gurus craft advice to the masses on how to become the most polished, pithy, and popular Writer. You see, many writers choose to write about Writing, because if we write about Writing, we know we are guaranteed an audience, comprised of the following loyal and faithful readers:

Writers. Wannabe writers. Bloggers. Publishers. Agents. Editors.

But when we do not write about Writing? Then who is our audience?

Random Interested Persons of Non-Writing topic.

For example, Continue reading →

Try this wacky avatar hack!

beccakinla advice, art, art project, authors, blogger, blogging, blogs Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

As part of a course I’m taking through Carol Tice’s amazing website Make a Living Writing, I received the following homework assignment: put an avatar up on Gravatar to pop up whenever I comment on blogs, etc. Now, I could use a photo, but that would just be no fun, so I decided to create my own Gravatar.

avatar

Me, in black and white and nothing on my head to cover my hair. For shame!

I started off by googling “free avatar tools” and discovered a lot of nifty links to different programs to help you make your avatar. The best site I found was Digibody. The results of a picture created with their Avatar-Maker tools look much nicer and more professional than those created with other programs, I found.

However, that left me with a small problem. Or rather three:

  1. The pic was black and white. I thought color might be more eye-catching and engaging.
  2. I don’t leave my house without a hat or headscarf on my head. There was no way to put a hat or headscarf on the picture using Digibody’s tools.
  3. I don’t leave my bed without my glasses. (2 a.m. trips to the bathroom don’t count.) No one would recognize me without some glasses on my face.

Here’s what I did:

becca avatar with color

Thanks to Microsoft Paint, I added my headscarf, glasses, and a touch of color.

  1. I saved the image to as a jpeg onto my computer.
  2. Then I pulled it up in Microsoft Paint (how I wish I had Adobe InDesign or something fancier, but alas, no) and started sprucing up my avatar.

This is my DIY avatar. It’s recognizably me.

What do you think of the end product? I’d love some reviews in the comments.