Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips I learn that I need to learn more words. Over the holiday season I spent time with relatives in Louisiana. One evening, some of the relatives were playing a word game: Bananagrams. It seems this is a famous game, especially on Facebook or something. I had never played the game and wasn’t […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Smashwords, and other ePublishing outlets, have become the place to go. My income from Smashwords short stories is in the same order of magnitude as engineering management books from traditional publishers. In early 2011, I put a few dozen short stories on Smashwords. I wrote those stories in 2008. I have written […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some tips from William Zinsser that have helped me as a writer. These tips come from his book, “Writing About Your Life.” Here are some tips from William Zinsser about writing. They come from: Writing About Your Life Marlowe and Company, 1979, ISBN 1-56924-468-5 These tips are for writing memoirs, but I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This iPad continues to improve. Is it Apple or everyone else? I am still using the iPad version 1. This thing continues to improve. For example, I am writing this blog post from the iPad. When it was new (how long ago was that?), I couldn’t write blog posts from the iPad. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I prove to myself that I can write 1,000 words a day with one hour writing per day. I’ve been conducting a writing experiment. I wanted to learn if I could write at a pace that would produce 300,000 words in a year. This pace means 50 weeks, of the 52 in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Several years ago, I saw a sign proclaiming “Cubicle Suite” outside an office door. Cubicles are cubicles – yuck. A suite is some place really nice. The two works next to one another are nonsensical. What other words can we place next to one another and make no sense? How about: Short […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I’ve sold a few short stories on Smashwords. I’m thrilled. Back in February 2011, I declared that I was posting my short stories on Smashwords. To date, I have sold about $65 worth of stories. I am pleasantly surprised. The key to selling as many stories as I have is the Smashwords Premium […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sloppy handwriting costs MONEY! I was happy when I moved from 6th grade to 7th grade. The reason was simple – there would be no more penmanship classes. I would get all A s in school and no more C s. Penmanship was, anyways, a made up subject so that girls could […]

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By Dwayne Phillips A source of story ideas is the words of other writers. Anything written by anyone will do. Just copy their words until your own start to flow. I’ve started writing short stories again. They are good writing practice, and what’s more, I like writing short stories. In 2008, I wrote a short […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here is a technique to express a story (short story or full novel) in one sentence (or two). It is from Dwight V. Swain. I have been reviewing some of the books on writing that I have read in the past decade. Good books are like that – you can review them […]

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