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Month: July 2023

Writing Better Dialogue

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 27, 2023

Writing Better Dialogue

Better dialogue can elevate any piece. And it can even help to salvage a bad or otherwise forgettable piece of writing. Consider, for example, the works of Aaron Sorkin or Robert Altman. While these are examples from television and film, they should give an idea.

Sorkin is known for excellent dialogue, from such films as The Social Network and TV shows like The West Wing. However, Altman’s fame comes more for overlapping dialogue, from films like Nashville, M*A*S*H, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Word Choice

Consider your characters’ educational levels. A college graduate will, in general, use longer and more complex and subtle words versus a high school dropout. This does not necessarily mean one is smarter than the other, I might add. Hence consider who says prior to instead of before, or automobile rather than car.

Because that will help the reader to define who is speaking if you are more or less consistent with who uses the ten dollar words, and who does not.

Affectations, Accents, and Pet Names

While I don’t want to get into accents again, you should consider regional dialects and regionalisms. A sandwich on a long roll is a grinder in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but it’s a hoagie in Philadelphia, a po’boy in New Orleans, and a sub in New York. So if your characters are from Queens, you’d better have them call it a sub unless they’re messing around or are copying someone from out of town.

Pet name usage can be extremely helpful in writing. When you write a couple, you may find you are writing a ton of dialogue between them. And it can get boring to constantly write he said, she said, so you can usually drop that after the first trade of words. However, you may need to pick that up again after a while if you think the reader will get lost.

And it could be that they can really get lost if your couple is of the same-sex variety. However, if one person calls the other one snookums, and the other doesn’t use pet names or just says darling, then the reader gets a clue when you use those terms. Just be consistent and your readers will thank you.

Takeaways

Listen to people talk whenever you can, and try to read your dialogue aloud. If you can get a friend to help you, even better. Because if your sentence is a tongue twister for you, then it is for your character (and, by extension, your readers as well).

Unless you meant to do that.

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Teasing Your Work

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 25, 2023

Let’s Look at Teasing Your Work

Teasing is a subtle art. It is a lot like a fan dancer’s moves or a shy person’s come-on.

Teasing should feel like a movie trailer because that is exactly what movie trailers do.

Teasers are usually a bit longer than blurbs and are meant to generate excitement. They often end with a question, but they don’t have to. Think of how films are teased if you’re stumped for ideas.

She was spoiled, rich, and beautiful, until the Civil War ended it all.
Scarlett O’Hara has lost nearly everything.
But there’s a rich man who’s interested, and he might even love her.
Can she win Rhett Butler and save her beloved land, Tara?

Revealing Too Much

Don’t get too obvious! You do not do yourself any favors by spoiling your own book. Notice how the above teasing for Gone With The Wind does not go past maybe the middle of the film? And how it never mentions Ashley or Melanie Wilkes, the burning of Atlanta, or Scarlett’s first two husbands?

I deliberately left the teaser off at just about when the first big reel ends. It used to be, in the theater, Gone With The Wind would have an intermission, the film was so long. This teaser ends just about a minute after intermission ends.

In fact, this is at least part of how the actual film was edited. The book gives Scarlett two children before Bonnie—one each from her first two husbands. But Wade and Ella aren’t in the film.

Then again, they aren’t in the book that much, either.

Revealing Too Little

This is another problem. If I just said Scarlett was a wealthy woman living a life of luxury on the brink of the Civil War, that would feel a bit incomplete.

I can go a little further, plus adding Rhett Butler’s name to the teaser brings in the chief male character (he’s kind of a main character, but if I had to choose, the main character would be Scarlett). Marrying Rhett is one of Scarlett O’Hara’s main character drivers, whether it is to secure finances for her family or due to love on her part.

Bringing Rhett into the conversation means the listener or reader gets an even better idea about who Scarlett is, and what motivates her.

So, providing her motivation really cinches it.

The Bare Bones

We have something of a framework here. Of course, none of this is set in concrete. But these elements seem to matter the most.

  1. Mention the main character by name.
  2. Give brief background to orient the reader to time and place.
  3. Introduce the problem/conflict.
  4. Add one driver of the main character’s behavior.
  5. Wrap it up with tying the first, smaller driver to the most important driver of the main character’s behavior.

A Teasing Sample

To wit:

Alice is just plain bored, so she gets to daydreaming. When she sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch, it piques her interest.

She follows the rabbit when she hears it talk, and ends up in Wonderland. But Wonderland is odd, exasperating, and often downright confusing.

Can Alice get out of Wonderland with her sanity intact?

Here’s a Second Teasing Sample

Kansas is dreary and nothing ever seems to happen there. It’s a tough place for Dorothy, a girl with big dreams. When a twister drops her, her little dog, and her house into the land of Oz, things seem to be looking up.

But Oz has perils for both Dorothy and her dog, Toto. And Dorothy realizes she misses Kansas and her family after all.

Can Dorothy and Toto get back to Kansas and the people they love?

Practical Teasing Practice

Can you write a teaser for a classic work? Try it in the Comments section, and let’s see how you do!

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Bechdel Test in Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 18, 2023

A Look at the Bechdel Test

You may have heard the term—Bechdel test—but what the heck is it?

What is the Bechdel test?

The Bechdel test is best defined by the Bechdel site:

… sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. The test was popularized by Alison Bechdel‘s comic Dykes to Watch Out For, in a 1985 strip called The Rule. For a nice video introduction to the subject please check out The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies on feministfrequency.com.

Okay, But What Does it Really Mean?

Films have shortchanged women for decades. How so? It’s less in the area of leads versus supporting and bit players.

If a female main character is hurt, and the female doctor character treating her has a nametag, and they discuss the main character’s injuries, voila! The film passes the Bechdel test. Make that throwaway character male, and the opportunity is lost.

The test is not necessary for cinema, and it is certainly not necessary for prose. However, it’s still a helpful gauge.

Societal Changes That Can Help

When casting directors only look at men for a doctor character, a film loses an opportunity to pass. And when writers only think of male characters for a lawyer role, a book loses an opportunity to pass. Or when a playwright decides the murderer can only be male, guess what happens?

This is not to say that every single one of these characters must be female. But consider this.

A Fer-Instance

Let’s take two aspiring actors, Kate and Dave. They each try out for a minor character, a dog walker. But the casting director insists the character must be male, even when there’s no good reason to have this requirement. The dog walker isn’t a love interest. They’re just a minor, bit part. But with the requirement, Dave gets the part.

He also gets a SAG card, and becomes part of the union. The union helps him find more work, and for better conditions and pay. He rises through the ranks, getting juicier roles with more dialog. Over the years, his name moves up in screen credits. And he becomes familiar to casting directors. They may even ask for him when casting an everyman.

Dave also makes friends in the industry. They don’t just make it easier to get jobs. They also make it easier to deal with a rejection, because they’ve been there, done that.

He’s not going to be a lead actor. But he will get more and better parts, and can become a character actor. He might even be the answer to a trivia question—remember that guy who played the dog walker in ___?

The Other Side of the Coin

Remember Kate? She didn’t get the part. So, she gets a job waiting tables, like so many aspiring actors before her have done. She makes okay money but will always have to have a roommate to be able to afford to live anywhere near LA. Her pals aren’t in the industry. They’re the waitstaff and maybe some of the patrons of the café where she works.

It’s hard, exhausting work, and she often doesn’t have the time or the energy to go on auditions. With an unpredictable schedule, she loses out on some opportunities because she has to work. So, she looks for better work. But since food service is all she knows how to really do, her job search stays in that industry.

Over the years, she takes better jobs in more upscale restaurants. And she even switches from waitress to hostess, which is a little less exhausting. But only a little.

Kate still has less time to audition, and to rehearse—and to maintain her looks and her figure. Her auditions are big cattle calls, and the older she gets (yes, Hollywood sexism is alive and well), the smaller her chances of success become.  But she makes it a few times, and eventually gets her SAG card.

But she’s lost about 5, maybe even 10 years versus Dave. Acting isn’t her job; it’s a side gig. But for Dave, it’s pretty much all he does.

Flip the Script

Of course, one part for one actress isn’t going to change the industry one way or another. And it doesn’t explain how and why the industry is the way it is. But multiply this by hundreds if not thousands of roles. If things don’t change, Kate will run into this problem throughout her career, such as it is. There will be casting calls she’ll never bother with, because of this level of exclusion.

Or, they just plain will not be worth it, particularly if she has to lose a day’s pay just to try out for a role where there are no guarantees that she would get it.

Dave, on the other hand, experiences none of this.

Kate doesn’t have to get every single part out there. But once the gender requirement is nixed, a door opens for her. Just like Dave, she can get a SAG card. Getting it earlier means she has more chances to make money and to make an impression. And, because Hollywood ageism is also a thing, she has more chances to succeed during what are likely to be her peak earning years.

Even if she still waits tables and treats acting as a hobby or a side gig, she’ll have more opportunities, and can potentially make enough to stop needing a roommate—or fund her eventual retirement.

Now, let’s look at my own efforts herein.

Walking the Walk

Consider the following. These are bits of my prose. These are the points where my first three NaNoWriMo novels passed. First off is a sentence from Untrustworthy, and it is the first dialogue that anyone says. It is in the first chapter, page 1.

“Good morning, Ixalla,” Tathrelle said.

And the second one is from The Obolonk Murders. It is in the first chapter, page 3. Selkhet (who is a female robot) is speaking to the main character, Peri Martin.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Selkhet.

Finally, the third is from The Enigman Cave. It is in the first chapter, page 3. The speaker is the main character, Mariana Shapiro.

“Yeah, Astrid? Can you patch me through to Jazzie and Trixie?”

The Point of the Bechdel Test

I don’t pretend to always write stellar prose. Yet all three of these works pass the test. And all they do so within chapter one. Rather than making the reader dig, I lay it all out quickly.

For other writers, though, it may be more difficult. Lewis Carroll takes longer to bring Alice together with someone named. And even then, the name is ‘The Red Queen’. But does that count? Beyond the name question, does it count because Alice is a child and therefore probably would not be talking about men?

And what happens if the piece is about lesbians? If they discuss the objects of their affections, does it count? Or… not?

The Bar is Set Low

Talk about setting a low bar! The two women don’t need to be strong. They do not need to be intelligent. A film or book can pass the test if two named women discuss crocheting. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

However, my point is, passing the test doesn’t automatically turn anyone smart. Or kick ass. Or anything else. Instead, it just means two named female characters spoke, however briefly. And their subject, however briefly, was not a man.

Hell, they could even be two slaves discussing the quality of their chains.

But hey, it’s something. And it’s necessary. Good lord, is it ever. Because the last thing we need in the indie writing community is people writing about “Girl 4”.

But when two named female prisoners discuss the food in the prison, the work passes. Still, it’s not exactly feminism-friendly.

Return to Prose

Let’s go back to my three examples. The speakers in Untrustworthy are married to each other. The ones in The Obolonk Murders and The Enigman Cave are colleagues. While Selkhet is subordinate to Peri, and Astrid is to Mariana, they are still addressed respectfully. Especially relevant, the interactions are professional ones.

However, Mariana is more informal than Selkhet. But that is the way I write Marnie (Mariana).

Do the interactions have to be meaningful? Not really. Ixalla and Tathrelle could be beating each other for all the reader knows. At least, given the one sentence, above. Maybe Peri smashes Selkhet to bits right after the above statement. Maybe Mariana fires Astrid.

So the test doesn’t ‘fix’ any of that. It doesn’t guarantee heroic characters. It just guarantees names and the power of speech. And they, at least one time, don’t talk about a man.

More Issues with the Bechdel Test

The test is imperfect. It’s very hard to pass it when writing historical fiction. Of course female characters in the past could have names. They could speak of something other than men. But the time and place will dictate something else.

In the 1860s and 1880s (for example), men drive most of the action outside the home. That’s not sexism; it’s reality. Still, since Scarlett O’Hara and Prissy discuss Melanie Hamilton Wilkes’s baby, then yes, Gone With the Wind passes. So it’s not impossible. It’s just tougher.

With The Real Hub of the Universe, Ceilidh and Frances sometimes discuss work or the like. When the action shifts to Ireland, Ceilidh and her mother, Mary, talk about finances. So, it can be done. It helps when the women are relatives or they room together.

Contrast this with Time Addicts. Josie‘s boss, Carmen, is female. So we’re already part-way there.  When they discuss time travel or universe changes, the story passes. Making the main antagonist female helps with this as well.

Takeaways

Creating well-realized female characters means naming them. It means having them speak. And it also means giving them more than one subject. It means giving them something, anything to do.

After all, when was the last time you thought a male character should only be discussing relationships? When was the last time you thought he shouldn’t have a name (unless the character is truly minor, seen for a paragraph or two and no more)?

And when was the last time you thought it was okay—barring any specific all-distaff settings like sororities or women’s colleges—to not see more than one of them in a piece?

If any of those are a problem for you, then you know what the Bechdel test is really about. And you know your work should easily pass it without having to tie itself in knots.

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Writing a Query Letter

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 13, 2023

A Look at Writing a Query Letter

Now that you want to get your work published, it’s time to write a query letter!

It’s understandable to be a bit anxious about this. Practice will help a lot, not just with writing better queries, but also with your nervousness. Understand that many famous authors received several rejections before a publisher took a chance on them. So keep on plugging and try not to get discouraged.

Query Letter Basics

First things first: always do what the publisher says you should do. Seriously. Queries are cover letters accompanying your submissions to a publisher or agent. They can vary in length, but Job One is always to do what the recipient wants. That is, if the recipient wants it as an attachment, send an attachment.

If they want it in the body of the email or sent via snail mail or faxed, then do that. Double-spaced? Do it. Times New Roman font? Why, that’s suddenly your favorite font, too!

The last thing you want to do is annoy the recipient of your letter. So follow directions to the letter. Unsure of an instruction? How about asking on Twitter? Do not let your manuscript get a rejection under a technicality.

Rather than giving you an example, it’s probably best to link to a successful modern query letter. Now imagine your work, with a showcase like that. Change the genre if necessary, the character names, etc., and you’ve got the bare bones of a query letter.

Suggestion: check several successful query letters, particularly those which are fairly recent and are in your genre. If they are the queries which your actual target admires, then so much the better.

Some Advice and a Little Hope for the Future

Keep plugging. Queries are a rite of passage for every author. At least, for every writer who wants to be published. They will get easier as you keep on doing them.

Rejection is also a rite of passage. They are not fun, and no one should ever pretend that they are. Sticking close to requirements and staying in the correct genre lane (i.e. if you write romance, query a romance publisher or agent, not one that specializes in horror) will help.

Keep on trucking. And if you need to take a break from it, then do so. No one is holding a gun to your head (at least, I sure as hell hope they aren’t). Publishers, agents, and querying will be there tomorrow, I swear.

You can do it!

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Website Plans

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 6, 2023

Do You Have Any Website Plans?

Even if your site is a few (or several!) years old, it’s never too late to make some website plans.

When I was first getting around to creating my own website, I had no real direction or ideas. I just knew: hey, you need a website!

And so, Adventures in Career Changing was born.

But I have found that my site suffers from a lack of basic strategic planning. And so, here I am, to help you out and have you learn from my mistakes.

Because God knows I’ve made enough of them for both of us.

Templates and Advice

Dang, I wish this stuff was around when I was first tinkering around.

GoDaddy provides a very good framework for a website. But it is also rather basic. Although that makes sense. After all, GoDaddy exists for pretty much any type of website building. Novice or pro, GoDaddy wants to serve them all. Hence the planning info is sparse and generic.

It also (and I know this from personal experience) does not help if you are unsure about your site’s purpose, or it just plain changes. Since I didn’t want to start over from scratch, Adventures has changed with me.

But here are some ideas of my own. Take them or leave them, as always.

My Ideas of Website Plans and the Like

It may be hard to initially decide what you want a website to be about. Or maybe someone told you, “You’ve gotta have a website.”

So, if things are that vague, go contrary, and try to figure out what you don’t want your site to be about.

Because for me, that has stuck. One thing I have never wanted this site to be was/is purely a storefront. Now, I wouldn’t mind selling a bit through here. But this isn’t the website for the Stop ‘N Shop.

Personally, I am perfectly happy selling (or at least trying to…) through bigger sites like Amazon or Smashwords. Let them have the headaches of collecting sales tax and dealing with disgruntled customers and returns.

Separating Blogs from Sales

But then there’s the other side of the things, the pure blog site. Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This site has been just like that, and often for years at a stretch. This was particularly the case when I was in grad school.

But one thing about hosting, whether it’s via GoDaddy or elsewhere, is that it’s kind of expensive. If you don’t want to do anything but post, owning your own domain is likely to be overkill.

Why not just use Medium or Substack (although you can build a readership through them) or Tumblr? Or maybe just post at a forum or talk on Facebook?

Unless you’re writing stuff that’s controversial or likely to be yanked by a moderator (think NSFW stuff), you. Don’t. Have. To. Own. Your. Own. Domain.

At least, not to start.

A Happy Mixture of Website Plans

I like having both, and I feel there’s plenty of space in here for both. For any sites which publish thought leadership, that is exactly how they’re put together.

Well, now that that’s settled, what’s next?

Getting Into the Trees and Away From the Forest

Make a few decisions to start with. And do yourself an enormous favor from the beginning! Operate under the assumption that you will have less time, energy, money, and creativity, than you think you will.

This means that you should sit down from the very beginning and write out a bare bones skeleton covering whatever the heck it is that you want to write about.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say that your blog/site are going to be about dog training. Stake out your real estate, and decide where the fence is around your property. That is, decide if, say, food is outside of scope, but collars aren’t.

Whatever it is, make some choices. And don’t worry if you’re shutting yourself out! Keep a note about those extras and set that note aside for the time being. Why? Because limits can help to spur creativity and knock out writer’s block. But don’t throw that stuff out entirely. You may want it later.

Hence for our dog training blog, we might grab some old-fashioned paper and write down some ideas.

  1. Breeds
  2. Ages
  3. Rescues
  4. Strays
  5. Dogs with disabilities
  6. Collar types
  7. Leashes
  8. Kids and dogs
  9. Dogs and cats
  10. The two- or three-dog household
  11. Apartment living
  12. Legislation

Twelve ideas is great to start out! Now, let’s divvy them up. And keep in mind that an idea can come under more than one topic.

What the Dog is Like

The following ideas fit this category well:

  1. Breeds
  2. Ages
  3. Rescues
  4. Strays
  5. Dogs with disabilities

The Household

These ideas fit into this category:

  1. Kids and dogs
  2. Dogs and cats
  3. The two- or three-dog household
  4. Apartment living

Apparel/Training Tools

Here, the ideas that fit best are:

  1. Collar types
  2. Leashes

Dealing With Non-Owners

That is, dealing with people who might not love your fluffy hound as much as you do. Here, the ideas that fit are:

  1. Kids and dogs
  2. Dogs and cats
  3. Apartment living
  4. Legislation

This doesn’t mean the other ideas can’t fit. But on the surface, these work the best. So, out of our initial twelve ideas, we actually have fifteen ideas, in four separate sections. Sections are helpful because they add coherence to a site. You can make a series out of them.

For example, your series for apparel and training tools might look something like this.

  1. Prong collars—are they cruel?
  2. The best collars when you’re on a budget
  3. Are retractable leashes safe? An expert’s opinion
  4. How to get your puppy to walk on a leash
  5. Getting your children used to walking the dog on a leash
  6. Leash laws—an opinion
  7. Halloween costumes? Good idea, or not?
  8. Canine style: from bandannas to booties

These posts are divisible into collars, leashes, and clothing. The Halloween costume post is obviously great for late October.

Make Your Chief Website Plans to Capture and Grind Your Topics Into the Dust

Essentially what you want to do is, take your ideas and run with them forever. Run them into the ground, even. Now, while no one wants to ready a post on getting a four-year-old child to walk a dog on a leash and then a post about a five-year-old doing the same thing, there’s no reason why you can’t make those divisions a bit wider.

Maybe something on teenagers and dogs and responsibility, or teaching your preschooler how to properly walk your dog.

From our initial twelve ideas, we now have over twice that amount. And I’ve only really gone down one alley, the one with kids and dogs and leashes. Much like running a maze, run these alleys down. And, once you’ve finally hit a brick wall, turn around and run down the next alley.

Brainstorm and Brainstorm, and then Brainstorm Some More

Let’s say you take a trip into your local city or town, and you see someone carrying around a small dog in a purse. Aha! There’s a new idea, how to get a dog to enjoy being carried around in a purse. That might lead you to ideas about crate training or dog beds, too.

You’ve got a phone, right? So send yourself your ideas or use the notes app. If you’re driving, then of course either pull over or use voice recognition.

Ideas are everywhere. You just have to be looking for them, and then documenting them.

Make a Schedule

How often do you want to post? Or, rather, how often do you think you will want to post when you’re tired and burned out, and a few years have gone by?

Seven days a week is superfluous and really impossible to keep up with unless you have an army of helpers at the ready. So, aim for more like one to three times per week or so.

This blog, for example, is now down to Tuesdays and Thursdays only. I like this schedule as it’s easy to follow and remember.

Get Ahead

Remember what I said about not having time or energy or mental bandwidth? Getting ahead helps with that tremendously. When you have the time and the creativity and the will, go for it. There is no need whatsoever to stop after you have written one post. Maybe you have the time to write two—or five, even.

Remember what I said about a series of posts? If you have a few in the kitty, you can make choices about how a series can go.

Your Website Plans Should ALWAYS Include SEO/Keyword Research

I have written about SEO before, so I will not get too deep into it right now. But suffice it to say, if you are considering writing about, say, German Shepherds, do some keyword research. The best phrase might be German shepherd dog rather than just German shepherd.

Set Up Metrics as Soon as You Can

Use Google, whatever they are calling their analytical tools these days (GA Four? I don’t know). Claim your site and decide on what your goals are. Your goal might be a certain number of readers or a certain amount of time on page. Or it might be a number of pages visited in a session.

If you’re selling stuff, then one of your goals should be centered around sales, of course.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat With Your Website Plans

If you find that you get the most engagement with posts about chihuahuas, then write about them more often. If your opinion posts are less likely to lead to sales, write fewer of them, and spread them out, away from each other more.

Also, keep testing, over and over again. Maybe your post on Halloween costumes ends up being a massive hit. Well, Halloween only comes once a year. But there’s no reason why you can’t write about canine costumes for holidays like Christmas or Purim. Approach it from other angles if you can, so post an interview with a costume maker if you can.

Like I said, follow every idea to oblivion. And if you finally really do run out of ideas, update and rerun your older posts. Also, revisit those ideas you set aside as being out of scope. Maybe it’s time to extend your fence and put them in scope.

And finally, have fun with your website plans.

Woof!

Website plans show you how to blog for years if not forever!

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Website Planning

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 4, 2023

What’s This About Website Planning, Anyway?

It would have been helpful if I had done some website planning, eh?

I suppose I should have planned my site better or maybe not just gone in and barreled my way in just to see what I could do.

I don’t think that’s truly awful as I have some ambitions but they feel very possible and within reach. And I look at my notes and I see – yes, I need to fix and put up Google Search. I need to play with keywords some more. I need to do … a lot.

SEO

And SEO! Oh my gosh. There’s a boatload to learn there and I’m still busy reading the books. I can’t recall who said that Time is Nature’s Way of making it so that not everything happens all at once. And I can live with that as an idea. It shouldn’t all happen in one shot. It should flow and develop.

Patience, a virtue. And sometimes an elusive one. But one thing is for certain — once a year elapsed, suddenly, I had a Google Page Rank of 3. Was that by design? Well, yes. But the science and art of getting a Google Page Rank of anything over zero is so obscure and unknown as to be akin to deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Now, I get that it’s all proprietary, e. g. intellectual property, etc., but c’mon! It gets silly after a while. Jigger this, don’t jigger that. Say this in some particular, special, magical fashion, and not in another.

Don’t Spam!

Don’t spam. Well, yeah, that makes sense. But people think of as proto-spam isn’t always. And what’s seen as non-spam, I suspect, sometimes is. I do recognize that Google is attempting to make rules to cover as many scenarios as possible.

And they wish to check out what people like I do by using computer algorithms rather than actual humans, in order to be somewhat timely when it comes to investigating websites.

But! It remains frustrating and, in my opinion, unnecessarily mysterious. A clue, s’il vous plait, and by that I mean a real one, by someone who is there and really, truly knows. The rest, it seems, are speculating, with varying degrees of accuracy and results.

I swear that figuring out how to get a good or at least decent Page Rank is harder than translating the Upanishads.

Strategy

Plus I’m developing my strategy. It will, I am sure, change. But I already have ways to promote what I’m doing. This is not quite like cliff-jumping because I had experience in promoting my Examiner articles (I was the Boston Extreme Weight Loss Examiner back in the day). Oh, look, some promotion!

Hindsight is 20/20 and Then Some AKA I Should Have Done Some Website Planning!

When I first started this site and this blog I had no idea about things. In fact, I didn’t know if I would continue with it.

But now, I can see that a lack of some basic website planning is a bit problematic. Currently, I am fixing a LOT of stuff.

Would I have less to fix if I had planned better? At this point, I don’t honestly know.

This is why I want to help others plan.

Hell, because if you can’t set a good example, you can always be a cautionary tale.

The Current Times and Website Planning

I looked back on this post, and on my site, and it’s hard to say what sort of shape planning could have possibly taken back in the day. So, I am going to update this with another post. Hold tight.

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