Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Just use those other words. “In other words…,” spoken by someone frustrated with their attempts to write or speak. “What I’m trying to say is…,” also spoken by someone frustrated with their attempts to write or speak. There is something about communicating in either the written or spoken word. After fumbling, grumbling, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips As much as we “have a better idea” and want to revise, sometimes the first version is the best. The first draft. The bane of writers of fiction and non-fiction. Let’s fix it. Okay. That’s the first version. Let’s revise as we become “smarter.” Are we always becoming smarter? Sometimes not. The […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Working with text and changing file formats just got a lot easier. This little essay was written to be posted in a WordPress blog. I have been doing this blog writing bit for a few years and have over 1,800 posts. Seems like a lot, but a couple of posts a week […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Another rant about writing that makes no sense (to me). This system uses three times less (memory, weight, time, space, effort, and whatever) than that system. I understand what it means to use three times more weight (15 pounds instead of 5 pounds), but what does it mean to use three times […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a penalty paid for late changes. It is not just money, it is often in the loss of people. Ideas spawn ideas. That is the nature of ideas and people. Write something, paint something, sing something, create something so that we can gather and think and create more. There comes […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Let’s revise that one more time. Okay, but will it be better or just different? Revisions. Edits. That is what writers do. Many prescribe to the notion that the first draft is practically nothing. The real work of the writer begins when the revising and editing begin. And how many revisions finish […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is best to go back to the old practice of putting everything on a wall so we can see the entire thing. We used to do this. We would print a document and tape the entire thing to a wall. We would walk along the wall and glance back and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Let us begin anew. Why not? By some arbitrary counting of days, a.k.a., a calendar, today is the first day of the new year 2026. I suppose that is a good thing for us. Hence, some of us have the new year’s resolutions wherein we resolve to do something. I resolve to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips “Just as soon as I build my writer’s cottage, I will write and write and write,” said no one who was actually writing and writing and writing. I am going to write and write and write. But first, I need to: I put the last bullet in the list just for fun. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes you concede or yield to another person’s experience in a situation. Folks seem to hate that. “You have more experience with this type of thing or this type of situation. I yield to your judgement here.” Seems like that is pretty reasonable and wise. Folks seem to hate it. What is […]

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