Or Not
Another thought that occasionally plagues my mind is how much time our visitors want to spend at E3ink. The most common advice I find for fledgling website writers is “content is king!” or my version of “post early, post often”. It’s a world where news is delivered in 5-minute segments, where advertisements take up more time and space than anything else and they are designed to attract attention in the shortest time possible. Quick, clean, simple and easy to understand are the bywords that approach the status of bylaws.
You’ve probably noticed that I break those laws on a frequent basis.
Style
I love words. It seems redundant for an author to say (write) out loud, but it’s true. I enjoy reading them, writing them, and looking up new ones when I need them. One of my early English teachers held to the tenet that there is always a single word that encapsulates precisely what a writer needs in any given situation. Writing final papers for her was very interesting. I do try to follow her advice, but I still find myself using plenty of words when I write. Therefore, one of the challenges I undertook for my first book was to keep it in the 55,000 word range. It forced me to go back to review and reevaluate the words I used and rewrite and remove the ones that didn’t push things forward. I think it made for a better story, especially for the genre. On the website, though, the content seem to lengthen. In fact, sometimes I’m sure my posts feel downright musing (or amusing, but that’s a different issue).
I’ve decided that’s part of my style.
Every author has to find their voice. Mine apparently is backed by a good set of lungs. I believe that content is king, but my kind of content runs long in comparison to much of what I see posted on websites. I think about that every time I write a post for you, the E3ink readers. I’ll intersperse shorter, “sound-byte” entries amongst the longer, but if you’re here on an author’s blog, then I feel you came for the words.
And I likely naturally tend to ramble. That’s why you will (very) frequently see the dreaded “— read more —” line so often on the posts with DDW at the bottom.
The Journey
What I present through these posts is my journey as a new author. I hope it resonates with, or at least interests, our readers. Everyone has a story to tell, if not several! Getting it down on paper, so to speak, may not be easy or straightforward, but it’s possible and well worth the effort from my point of view. My stories, whether shorts, novels, or posts, are going to employ plenty of words.
That’s my style.
The time you decide to spend reading here at E3ink is greatly appreciated and is never taken for granted. Feel free to visit early and visit often. We’ll keep the place stocked with words for you.