Author: Judy L Mohr

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What is a Platform?

The whole concept of building a following can be overwhelming at times, and there really isn't much solid advice out there. However, a writer's platform is not the complicated concept that many turn it into.

A writer's platform is NOT marketing, promotion, or publicity. It's not just a website or social media — for that matter, it's not just your books. A writer's platform is everything that you do to connect with readers.

It's your local writers' group that you attend once a month, or more frequently, as the case may be. It's those conferences and book festivals that you save your pennies for so you can afford the registration. It's your participation in special events that have nothing to do with writing and your books.

Yes, a writer's platform includes your books, website, and social media. And yes, this online component in today's market is important, but it's not everything.

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Cooking with Commas

There are many things that can (and will) drive an editor batty. Punctuation just happens to among them. There is much confusion about punctuation. Often writers get them confused. Hell, even editors get muddled at times.

Today, I wanted to address the importance of the comma.

I will grant you that there is a significant amount of debate over the usage of commas, particularly the Oxford comma or serial comma (whether we should or shouldn't use it). It probably doesn't help that the Oxford comma has won a legal court case.

However, many editors will agree that commas seem to be disappearing from text, partly because of the increasing usage of smartphones and social media. This, folks, is not a good thing. I will grant you that when writing a hurried tweet, the comma can consume precious character counts. However, one little comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. It can mean the difference between being a cannibal or a time traveller.

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Aspiring Writer: The Sequel

In a post last year, I spoke about the term aspiring writer and how it's a term that I dislike. Back then, I had this wonderful circular argument about how if you write, then you are a writer — no aspiring about it. Regardless, I still see an insane number of people who insist on calling themselves aspiring writers.

Back when that original post first came out, someone had commented on one of my Facebook discussion groups that the term writer referred to a person who was paid to write.

To be fair, the term applies to people who want to make a career out of writing. Writer is a professional term.

You have no idea how much my skin crawls at this concept. Clearly, my arguments using the definitions in Merrian-Webster were insufficient to get my point across. Perhaps the Oxford English Dictionary might sway the ideas. So here goes.

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Smartphone

When Did Touch Become Non-tactile?

Random thoughts seem to hit me at the oddest of times, and the other morning was no different.

My husband's alarm decided that it wasn't doing a good enough job in getting my husband's attention, so it decided to wake me up instead. Yes, this inanimate object has decision-making skills. Curse you, Siri. So, there I was groaning internally, barely able to function because I went to bed way too late, wondering when the hell my husband was going to turn off his alarm.

After a good solid minute of the disgusting attempt at serenade music—perhaps it was less, but I couldn't tell—I rolled over to give him a good shove, only to discover that he wasn't there. He must have been in the shower or in the lounge having his breakfast, but wherever he was, he left his rude phone on the bedside table.

Grunting with effort, I dragged myself across the bed and grabbed his phone, expecting to see the same type of thing that my phone does when an alarm goes off—swipe circles. Nope. It turns out that iPhones don't work the same way Androids do. So, I activated the screen and touched the off button.

Then it hit me. When did touch become non-tactile?

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Be a Good Reader of the Pre-published

There is a mantra among many writers: to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader. Many have taken this to mean that you need to read widely, reading every published book you can get your hands on. Some insist that you need to read at least a book a week while others spout that it’s one a month. However, is all that reading of the published works really doing your writing any good? Let me explain.

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