Laura’s Blog

In Memory of Barbara Curtis and Ethel Herr

There are days when the world should stop spinning on its axis. Today is one of those days for me.

I learned that two writing colleagues and friends – Ethel Herr and Barbara Curtis – passed away Tuesday, October 30. Ethel succumbed to a long battle with cancer, and Barbara is thought to have had a stroke. Both women played a significant encouraging role in my life, and I want to pause and honor them today.

5 Surprising Tax Deductions for Bloggers

This is a guest post by Evan Fischer. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.

Working bloggers tend to fall into one of just a few categories.

• There are those who started a blog for fun as a way to explore and share their passion for a topic, only to discover that blogs can be monetized (a proposition which quickly led them to download AdSense and start the money-making process).

• And there are bloggers that started as writers and ended up getting hired on by a company to pen their on-site blog.

• Finally, there are freelance writers who peddle their wares to a variety of blogs, writing on a diverse array of topics.
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How Not to Write a Layoff Notice: Starbucks Case Study

I have a particularly busy week ahead and everyone in my family (me included) is coming down with a cold. Not a good combo. So I’m falling back on a blogger’s trick: I’m re-running a post from three years ago. (Yes, it’s okay to do that from time to time, as long as the topic […]

Blog Headline Writing Techniques: 4 Lessons Learned from ‘The Costco Connection’

Even the Big Guys struggle to write enticing headlines. The cover story of July’s issue of The Costco Connection focuses on “unconventional” Costco members. In his letter from the editor, David W. Fuller writes: “…We tried to boil down to a few words the concept of our cover story. In a full sentence, here is […]

How to Use Attribution Tags When Writing Dialog

Yesterday, I challenged you to figure out what’s wrong with the way an author used attribution tags in her novel. Now, let’s talk about where you should put attribution tags (said so-and-so) and how to punctuate them. (Note: this information comes in handy when you’re writing blog posts that tell a story or re-create a […]

Take the Attribution Tag Challenge

As I was skimming through a Young Adult adventure novel, I couldn’t help but notice the author’s use of attribution tags (said so-and-so). Here’s a sample, excerpted from five pages of dialog between the narrator (“I”) and her new friend, whom I’ll call “Sara.” I spelled each attribution tag exactly as the author did. I’ve […]

An Outside-the-Box Method of Brainstorming Ideas for Blog Posts

Here’s a creative writing exercise that may spark ideas for future blog posts. Combine two movies you’d never associate with one another into one new blockbuster. Examples: Iron Music Man A combo of The Music Man (1962) and Iron Man (2008) A billionaire genius, Professor Harold Stark, invents an indestructible suit of armor made from […]

Jargon Drives Me Crazy

The owner of a car lot narrated the following radio ad:

“…These cars are heavily incentivized…”

Incentivized?

I’ve heard of “offering incentives.”

But incentivized? I had to check it out. Sure enough, it’s in the dictionary, and it means “to give incentives to.” Another form of the verb is incentivizing (what a mouthful!).

I stand corrected. Incentivized really is a word. But is it the appropriate word to use when advertising cars — or anything, for that matter?

I hate it when people use big, impressive-sounding words when small ones will do.

Repurposing Blog Posts Reaps Dividends

I have Google Alerts set up for my name and my business name (you should, too, if you don’t already). Whenever something is published online that includes the words, “Laura Christianson” or “Blogging Bistro,” I receive an e-mail with a link to the article. I received an alert that a monthly column I wrote for […]

Direct Mail Piece Stinks Up My Mailbox

Here’s a whopping bad example of putrid prose from a direct mail piece I received. The following sentence is an amendment to a Custodial Account Agreement for my retirement fund: The Custodian shall vote all shares that are held in the Participant’s custodial Account on the applicable record date for which proper instructions have not […]