Talk to yourself before your readers

Now that I’m writing in public again, I’m reminded of a simple trick I learned while working with professional writers: read whatever you write out loud. Your ears are much better than your eyes when it comes to finding problems with flow and poor sentence construction.

Personally, I like to write a few paragraphs and then edit them as I read aloud. Another take, one which my friend Jeffrey uses, is to type as you talk. Both accomplish the same goal: creating a post that is easier for your visitor to understand.

At first, this technique will feel a little strange and unnatural since most computer use is non-verbal. But keep talking, because you’ll quickly find it a valuable tool while writing. And thanks to Bluetooth headsets, having a conversation with yourself no longer has the social stigma it once had :-)

Hello world!

That chilly day in hell is finally here. I’ve started a weblog.

For those of you wondering who the hell I am, here is a long story of what’s led up to this crowning achievement.

(The more technically adept amongst you will realize that the real crowning achievement is bending WordPress and its templating system to my will. But normal people, like my Mom, won’t understand that so I went with the entertaining story instead. If you’re a glutton for punishment, try the résumé, too.)

You’ll notice that there are no comments or trackbacks on the site. I don’t have time to spend on comment SPAM and following discussion threads so I’m leaving them disabled for now. Hopefully this strategy will give me more time for new content.

The big question, of course, is what am I going to write about? Stay tuned, we’re all going to find out.