Creative Content Guy
Search engine optimisation is the answer to everything. If you can nail the SEO you’ll be at the top of the rankings and success will follow. Well, kinda. SEO is only half the story. The real key to success is customer retention. To achieve this, articles need to engage readers emotionally. They need to be … Continue reading Digital Content Strategies – the importance of quality
A particularly useful feature in Scrivener is the snapshots function. Before making changes to a document press CMD-5 and – you guessed it – the program will take a snapshot of that file, making an appropriate camera shutter sound in the process. If desired you can name your snapshots to remind you why they were … Continue reading Scrivener tip – compare & roll back snapshots (Mac)
If you’re in scriptwriting mode in Scrivener and want to add some text that isn’t part of the script – perhaps some notes or thoughts about the direction the story could take – you might want to switch from scriptwriting to standard mode, so that whatever you type isn’t formatted as dialogue or technical directions, … Continue reading Scrivener tip (Mac) – switching text modes
There’s a lot of advice on the internet about how to achieve a “frictionless workflow”, the seamless passage of ideas and text along a productivity chain that increases speed, maximises output and enables you to do more, quicker. I’d argue, however, that a little bit of friction is a good thing, and that speed is … Continue reading Mechanical Heat – friction in workflows
My time on Writing West Midlands’ writer development programme The short story Saturday 9th April saw the final official gathering of the 2015/2016 cohort on Writing West Midlands’ Room 204 writer development programme. Having been fortunate enough to take part this year I thought I’d share my experience. The short version is this: as a … Continue reading Room 204
Around 12 months ago I registered my Structure novels for PLR (Public Lending Right – the royalty writers receive as a result of their work being borrowed from libraries). Since then I’ve earned ÂŁ6.97. I can’t help but wish I’d done this in 2004 when The Affinity Trap was first published, and then for the … Continue reading Public Lending Right
I’ve been a fan of the BBC’s radio drama for a long time, but my enthusiasm has grown hugely in recent years. The output is diverse, and its quality outstanding. At the time of writing Radio 4 is broadcasting Dangerous Visions – a series of adaptations of classic science fiction works, including Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man from Brian … Continue reading FX: a blog in which I enthuse about BBC radio drama
I was shocked and saddened to read of Iain Banks’ ill health when the news was made public recently. It was Banks’ Culture novels that set me writing SF as an adult. Although I’d had an interest in SF throughout my life, in the early nineties I was writing and reading lightweight mainstream stuff. This … Continue reading Iain (M) Banks – A Gift to the Culture
Martin Sketchley 