Category «Mistakes»

Competition guidelines? Pah! (Mistake #64)

I’ve just administered a modest little online competition on behalf of one of my clients. It was not a writing competition or related to the publishing business in any way; it was a simple prize giveaway for subscribers of a newsletter. Three things were asked of entrants: 1. To answer a simple question. 2. To …

Writing-related Googling (Part I) (Mistake #63)

Because if you indulge in it, and one of the results takes you to the writing blog of a tutor who favours reading his Google Analytics stats ahead of addressing his looming deadlines, you run the risk of your search term being appropriated, occasionally for lightly comic purposes, and presented to readers in Writing-related Googling …

Republicanism, sportophobia (Mistake #62)

Too many of us are going to be, at this time of year, distracted by Christmas – presents, parties – and then later by New Year – resolutions, more parties – but what you really need to be thinking about over the coming weeks is article ideas for 2012. And what 2012 is going to …

New magazines only (Mistake #61)

A very quick post which I hope you’ll forgive – though it does at least suitably reflect the urgency of today’s advice: drop everything at once and go buy a copy of Woman’s Weekly’s special centenary collector’s edition – if you can still find one. Not because it’s a nice investment for your grandchildren, not …

Agreeing (Mistake #60)

I’m suddenly feeling a bit ambivalent towards … agreement, I guess, is the only word for it, although it doesn’t feel quite right. Agreeness? Agreeance? I see a lot of letters – ie letters to editors, for letters pages – which make a point of agreeing. “I agreed with your article on extreme knitting, and …

Not reading (Part II) (Mistake #59)

“No time to read, no tools to write” commented Lorraine Mace, 34 errors and almost 12 months ago, the last time I addressed this subject at Mistake No. 25. Succinct and accurate, I’d say. Perhaps I’m revisiting this too soon – particularly in light of my last post which also concerned reading, albeit how you …

One phenomena too many (Mistake #58)

As regular followers will know, I’m all for branching out of your writing comfort zone and researching subjects you know little or nothing about. I probably best make this point in an early post – Mistake No. 12. Years and years ago – late nineties, I think – I wrote an article about electronic voice …

What gives you the right to write about that? (Mistake #57)

I was asked this when my book on coeliac disease (or gluten intolerance) came out, by a potential reader who had the condition. She seemed offended, almost, that someone who wasn’t a coeliac sufferer, or a nutritionist, or a gastroenterologist, or a doctor or medic of any kind, and not even, say, a caterer with …

You’re reading the MWMB Blog (Mistake #56)

“Get that up on that mistakes blog of yours this second!” retorted a friend when I used the expression ‘PIN number’ in an email in passing. It took me a few moments to work it out. A PIN is, of course, a Personal Identification Number, and so is a ‘number’ by definition. You don’t need …

There’s a best way (Mistake #55)

A freelance journalist colleague of mine, Janet Murray, is offering an apprenticeship to a young person with an interest in the business. She has today written about it in the Guardian, and you can find out more here. Most of the comments and tweets I’ve seen about this initiative – the first of its kind, …