Archives for May 2012

Win Codes for miTypewriter App for the iPad

May 29, 2012 by Noemi 7 Comments

I am sure that I am not alone in feeling nostalgic about the entire experience of putting words on paper (literally) using a typewriter. As a kid, I would alternate between the desire to daintily tap on the keys and the urge to pound away like a crazed writer.

It might be a difficult thing to find real typewriters nowadays, but for those of you who have an iPad, here’s the next best thing: miTypewriter.

This app turns your iPad into something like the typewriters of old, and while you won’t have the tactile experience, the looks and sounds certainly provide an enjoyable trip down memory lane. miTypewriter looks like this.

miTypewriter Interface

You can tweak the settings to suit your fancy.

miTypewriter Settings

And once you have typed out your letter, article, or whatever it is you are working on, you have a few options to choose from as well.

miTypewriter Options

Once you’re done, you can even print out your letter.

miTypewriter Letter

Doesn’t that make you want to have miTypewriter on your iPad?

That’s what we’re here for: to give you the chance to have some play time. Teruaki Onoda of white dev, the guys behind miTypewriter, has been so generous and has given us 10 codes for the app. Yes, 10 codes to give away to writers who miss the clickety clack of typewriters.

You know how this goes…

Step 1: Copy & paste the following, and then tweet it:

I want to win a code for miTypewriter from @FreelanceWJ and @white_dev! Enter here: http://spla.us/JwaBwv #contests

Step 2: Leave us a comment on this page to let us know you tweeted, and paste the link to your tweet in your comment. (Note that our comments are moderated, so your comment may not show up immediately after you click the “Post Comment” button.)

TEN winners will be selected at random from the commenters on or around 10:00 pm EST on Friday, June 1. Winners will be notified via Twitter, after which we’ll send the code through DM. Don’t forget to thank @white_dev if you win!

Important: You can enter the contest once per day between now and the 1st.

A Look at E-Reading Trends

May 28, 2012 by Freelance Writing Jobs Leave a Comment

Here’s an infographic writers will want to take a look at: The Trend of E-Reading, an infographic design by Infographic Labs, illustrates just how e-reading has taken America by storm. Did you know that people who use e-readers read more than those that stick to traditional books? And that they’re more likely to spend money on books?

How to Build a Wildly Profitable Conversion Funnel On Autopilot

May 24, 2012 by Angus Shaw 2 Comments

In an interview with Bryan Eisenberg, leading conversion specialist, he noted businesses spend up to $92 to get someone to their site… and less than one dollar to convert them.

Another shocking statistic:

76% of companies do *not* have any form of conversion optimization… and 48% believe they have zero control over conversion.

I think that is ridiculous.

Conversions are one of the few things you do control. Unlike most marketing efforts – which require third-party sites like Google or Twitter – conversion exists on your site, which puts you in 100% control of your destiny.

But can you improve conversions? Absolutely.

Here’s how… [Read more…]

So You Think You’re a Writer?

May 9, 2012 by Noemi 24 Comments

I have a confession. Sometimes, when I meet people for the first time, and I am asked what I do for a living, I hesitate. I know what I do, but there are moments when I don’t feel like using the word “write” and its derivatives. I still cannot pinpoint the reason, but the next time it happens, I shall certainly think about it again. Has that happened to any of you?

Maybe you find it easy to put on the label “writer”, but whether or not you do, what I’d like to share in today’s Grammar Guide is something about some “signs” that writers exhibit. We’ve been over many of these things in the past, but earlier today, I found myself going through a blog post titled “You Might Be a Writer If…” and did I find myself chuckling!

The writer basically listed down items to complete the statement “You might be a writer if you know:”

how to use there, their and they’re correctly

the difference between its and it’s

when to use peek, peak and pique

the difference between affect and effect

how to use an apostrophe correctly

when to use a hyphen to form a two-word adjective

the difference between loose and lose

when to use roll instead of role

that it is never correct to use “should of” in place of “should have”

Let’s have a little fun and add our own items to the list? Here’s my shortened version, with elements that are not necessarily grammar-related.

You might be a writer if you:

can rattle off a hundred different ways to say the same thing
can’t concentrate during a lecture/presentation/sermon because you keep getting distracted by the speaker’s mistakes
employ non-standard usage, simply because you know the rules, and you feel that you can get away with it
sigh if you see words such as “stuffs” (used as noun)

What’s on your list? Share them with us!

Image via Chapendra

How Travel Can Make You a Better Writer

May 7, 2012 by Angus Shaw 2 Comments

Writing is serious business. I think we can all agree on that. Sure, there are times when the words flow from your mind to your fingers (to the keyboard to the screen) like water effortlessly flowing downstream. However, I am sure that we all have had our fair share of moments when writing feels like pulling out teeth. Without anesthesia.

The good thing is that oftentimes, the experience of writing is somewhere in between those two extremes. While not exactly exciting or glamorous, that middle ground gets the job done.

The danger then is for writers to get stuck in a rut and not go out of our way to become better. That is a very real possibility, and if we do not actively seek ways to improve, we might just stay in that rut for an unnecessarily long period of time.

What to do? Different people will have different approaches, but one thing works for me: traveling.

I have found that travel can help you in more ways than one and that it can actually help you on your way to becoming a better writer. I’d like to share a few things that I have learned from traveling and how it can contribute to becoming a better writer.

Travel helps you step away from routine.

Routine. That’s one of those silent killers. No matter what your field may be, it can be easy to fall into a routine that does not nurture creativity. Writing is no exception. Routine may be comfortable, but it can also lead into becoming a boring, predictable writer.

If you find your writing lacking that spark, maybe it’s time to take a step back and break up your routine. What better way to that than to take a trip somewhere? It doesn’t have to be a long trip. The destination doesn’t have to be the other side of the world.

I think that the important thing is that you give yourself a break, and stop doing what you do day in and day out. It does wonders for your writing afterward!

Travel can make you miss writing.

I love to write. I can write all day and night if I am really into the project. There comes a point, however, when I just feel that I could throw up from all that writing. Maybe routine has something to do with it as well, but whatever the reason, there are times when I want a break.

Again, that’s where a nice trip comes into the picture. The last trip I went on, I totally set aside writing. Believe it or not, I made a conscious choice NOT to work. I have to admit that after the initial adjustment of not working, I thoroughly enjoyed not doing any writing for work for the duration of the trip. Toward the end of the trip, though, I already had that undeniable feeling that I was missing writing. The trip had given me fresh zeal for my work!

Travel can give you new experiences and inspiration.

This might very well be one of the most practical things traveling can do for writers. When you visit a new place, whether it is in the same country or not, you will have new experiences. You will deal with strangers and even make new friends. If you are visiting a totally different culture, you will have even broader experiences.

These experiences can help you become a better writer in many ways. You might get a fresh perspective on life. For example, if you go to a less developed country, you will definitely see how differently people live, and how many of them are happy in spite of their economic standing.

Additionally, encounters with beauty always become sources of inspiration for writers. ((The same can be said of “ugly”, by the way.)) Not that you cannot find beauty in your backyard if you look for it. It’s just that when you are on a trip, your mind seems to be more receptive to those encounters. The result? Sources of inspiration that can get you a long, long way.

How about you? What have you learned from your travels that can be applied to writing?

AUTHOR BIO
Paul is a freelance writer who has spent the last two years discovering Asia. Next on his list of countries is Thailand, where he will learn Thai in Bangkok at the Language Express School.

Image via Mikey Bean

Get an Electronic Copy of “Corridor” by Robin Parrish for FREE!

May 2, 2012 by Noemi 6 Comments

I believe that writers need to continue to improve themselves, and one way of doing that is to read, read, and read some more. When it comes to reading, I can read practically anything (except fashion magazines, maybe), but I do love a good fiction book. And speaking of fiction, did you know that we have a published fiction writer in our team at Splashpress Media?

Robin Parrish is a journalist, blogger, and author. He contributes to our sister sites ForeverGeek and Apple Gazette. He has been so kind as to offer an electronic copy of his latest novel, Corridor, to you guys.

Corridor is an action novel that keeps you at the edge of your seat. Here’s an idea of the story.

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO RUN.

On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Troy Goggin finds himself inexplicably transported to an impossibly huge, miles-long structure called the Corridor. But what is the Corridor, and why was he brought to it?

It’s a place of mystery, wonder, and heart-stopping danger. It will test him and push him both mentally and physically. His only companion is the girl whose voice he hears inside his head, explaining the rules he must follow if he hopes to escape.

But there is much more to this extraordinary place than Troy could ever imagine. The Corridor’s true purpose — the biggest mystery of all — is revealed only to those who make it to the end.

You can read excellent reviews of the book at Good Reads. I have started reading Corridor, and I find it riveting. I can tell you this for sure: you just might not want to start it if you do not have time to finish the book!

So who wants a copy? Here’s how to join.

Step 1: Copy & paste the following, and then tweet it:

I want to win a copy of Corridor by @robinparrish from @freelancewj! Enter here: http://spla.us/KpID0k #contests

ONE winner will be selected at random from the commenters on or around 10:00 pm EST on Thursday, May 3. Winners will be notified via Twitter, after which you can send us your email so Robin can give you the book. Don’t forget to thank @robinparrish if you win!

Important: You can enter the contest once per day between now and the 3rd.

Happy tweeting, and good luck!

The Grammar of Happiness

May 1, 2012 by Noemi 3 Comments

It’s not what you might think it is, and this might not be the usual fare for the Grammar Guide. However, I do think that I am not wrong in assuming that our readers are interested in language more than the average person. Sure, we may write in English most of the time (if not all the time), but there is beauty in all languages. The study of language is something that I find very interesting.

I do not know if you have heard of Daniel Everett, an American missionary turned linguist. He started out as a missionary to the Pirahã tribe in the forests of the Amazon. As it turned out, his life changed more than he expected it to.

During his sojourn in the Amazonian forests, he not only discovered a culture totally different from what he was used to, but he also found himself delving into the intricacies of language. He even reached the point where he challenged the pillar of linguistics, Noam Chomsky himself.

Everett’s premise: there is no genetic foundation for all human language. Everett claims that in the Pirahã language, there is no such thing as “recursion”. I am no linguist, so I have to admit that I had to look this up, but to make it simple, recursion is the concept that in any human language, we can embed sentences/clauses within sentences. Wikipedia has a brief but clear explanation. ((Wikipedia on Recursion))

For example, two simple sentences—”Dorothy met the Wicked Witch of the West in Munchkin Land” and “The Wicked Witch’s sister was killed in Munchkin Land”—can be embedded in a third sentence, “Dorothy liquidated the Wicked Witch with a pail of water,” to obtain a recursive sentence: “Dorothy, who met the Wicked Witch of the West in Munchkin Land where her sister was killed, liquidated her with a pail of water.”

This, according to Chomsky, is an essential element of any language. And here comes the maverick Everett challenging what has been (practically) universally accepted.

Everett’s work has been made into a film, which is going to be shown on the Smithsonian Channel on the 12th of May. I do not know about you, but I am looking forward to seeing this film. I may or may not agree with what I will be seeing, but I believe it should be required watching for anyone who is even remotely interested in the workings of language. Here’s a sneak peek.

http://youtu.be/sjA1eoCHjfU