Writing, My Way

(Picture Credit - Writing by Macmyth)

Want to know me as a writer? You’ve come to the right place…

Let’s start with a surprise. When I was 7 an elderly teacher called Miss Hall sat me in front of my new Junior School class and asked me to read to her. The first word on the page was “Who” and I didn’t know it. I couldn’t recognise any other words, so was classed as a non-reader.

Yet only a year or two later my School Report for “Composition” (of the non-musical kind) described me as a “colourful”, “imaginative” (story) writer. So God only knows what had been going on at that school. Being a timid, withdrawn child I suppose I was rather difficult to assess.

I recall at about 6 being bought some black “World of Wonder” Encyclopaedias and being especially enraptured by articles about our Solar System. Remember arguing with some teacher around then about the various phases of the moon! As you do at 6!!! Must have been able to read then…

When I was in Year 10 (then the “4^th year”) a Mr. Mawhinny described me as “gifted” at English. Yet Terry Dennison, my 6^th form history teacher (and also an Olympic swimming coach) found my writing full of ambiguity amongst other faults.

So just how good was I? Or am I? If it matters…  

Well, I do believe I am blessed with a gift for English and specifically Writing. Whether I use this talent to its full potential is quite another question. Indeed the old parable about the “Talents” springs to mind: I think I buried mine!

I confess now: I never read enough. As with life in general, stamina has never been my strong point. I am a sprint-merchant who will cut any corner available to me.

Ironically when I do read I sometimes come across some truly inspiring pieces. I vividly recall being blown away by Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” at college. At Junior school I included “giant mushrooms” in one of my stories as I’d read Jules Verne’s book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”.

On the other hand my history essays were poor, simply because I hadn’t read enough history books. You simply have to read in order to acquire the vocabulary and phraseology. I always read more science fiction and poetry, therefore I wrote better science fiction… Look, I have a great imagination (bordering on insanity) yet even I can’t conjure new words and phrases out of thin air to suit every occasion.

As Boxer would say, I must try harder. A better Work Ethic is required.

By the way, I am very poor at skim-reading. I almost always read with my “inner voice”. The down side of this is that “War and Peace” would not be my ideal read. However, the up side is that the way I read helps me appreciate the musicality of verse and poetry. I can also “hear” a good yarn or dramatic speech. To put it simply, I have a good ear for writing.

So what I have to offer is flair, imagination, vision and suchlike mostly. I’m not a great researcher so I much prefer writing poetry and fiction. Sadly the internet seems to revolve around facts and information. In my view the web lacks soul.

So I must soldier on. I know I will not always get the Views. People want information. I’m giving out poetry and stories. But I write what I write. I write endless journals because I don’t reckon my thoughts are “solid” until they are written or typed. Usually typed these days.

That word “soul”. Yes that’s what it’s all about: pumping soul into the internet. To be fair I do get Views and Comments for my poems on “VoicesNet” and “Hello Poetry”. Some of my blogs view well on “Triond” etc. and on my Google “Blogger” Blog. My “Beat the Bullies” Blog has had over 27,000 Views on Triond. My poems make readers think and even “dance”.

As I’ve said before, I am therefore I Write.

My advice to budding writers: don’t bother seeking out lots of advice or doing loads of soul-searching. Don’t keep your work locked away, endlessly editing until it is “perfect.” Just read what you can. Then get on with it, type it, and get it out there. You can always do revisions and edits later, when you are ready.

Paul Butters

PS - 7\6\14 Update - "Bullies" on Triond has had 29,376 Views now!

12\6 - 30,118 Views for "Bullies"!

What's this SEO Business All About?

(Picture Credit - psuca)

I have been posting my writings on the Internet for about ten years. Of course, I like to get as many Views as possible. Reading around, this magic term SEO keeps cropping up…

A few years back I joined the writing website “Suite 101”. Each time I posted there I was given an “editor” who acted as my mentor. One of the things they stressed was “using good SEO” to attract views. They also had some “advice” pages explaining all about SEO.

SEO is “Search Engine Optimisation”: the thinking being that readers “find” things on Google etc. through using “Keywords” and specific questions, therefore the writer needs to use such keywords etc. in their titles.

Quite simply, if you use “Beckham” in your title and text then you will attract David Beckham fans. Simples.

However, the more advanced SEO advice gets rather involved. They talk of the right “percentages” of keywords to use in your text. Too many keywords is described as “stuffing”. Too few keywords will just not do.

They also talk of narrowing things down with some detail. That means having long convoluted titles like, “How to find David Beckham tee-shirts in the London area”. 

If I’ve got any of this wrong well that’s understandable: I just can’t get my head round it all.

Getting back to Suite 101: I got pathetic Views there and now they have closed down blaming “Google Panda” for it. (Google Panda is where Google took steps a few years back to curb all this SEO business).

Whenever I deliberately try to use keywords I fall flat on my face. My latest blog here “Facebook for Me” has had few views. Yet I thought Facebook supposed to be popular!

I once stuffed a blog with lots of “desirable” words and again turned up with next to nothing.

By far my most successful blog, posted on Triond, was, “Beat the Bullies with Assertiveness Plus.” That blog has had nearly 27,000 Views since November 2012, and over 1800 Views this very month. Somehow bullying and assertiveness hits a chord with American readers.

Recently my blog “Freedom, Not Correctness, in Poetry” has scored a respectable 525 Views. And I thought people found poetry boring! Ironically my actual poems attract very few views on Triond.

My best poem for Views has been “Mirror, Mirror” on my Google “Blogger” Blog (7,148 Views). Again I cannot explain this. Maybe it’s something to do with “Snow White” films or with the image of a mirror I used. It went viral for a few months then stopped. I posted a further poem “Mirror” which bombed.

As I type, “Bullies” has had 45 Views already today and I still don’t know why! No comments for ages mind you, just constant Views.

The answer to all this? I really do not know.

Paul Butters

PS (27\5) let's see if This link works -  http://writinghood.com/online-writing/writing-my-way/

Yay! A Triond link worked today at last ^^^^^^^^^^^^!!!

Okay so let's try a link that will NOT work on earlier posts here -

http://authspot.com/poetry/fear-175/

Yay Again! ^^^^ This one works too, if after 2 attempts or more. So THIS post works better than previous ones - no "403 Forbidden".

Oh and last week I made sure that my blog posts have blue or other backgrounds instead of stark white.

Facebook for Me

(Picture Credit - Wiki)

Most of my writing is in the form of poetry and blogs. However, I most frequently "write" directly on the Web. I usually access the Internet on my laptop. Don’t have a Smartphone or whatever. First I check my emails. Then I go onto Facebook: apparently the largest social-networking site in the world.

I access the Internet anything from 2 to 8 times per day. Mainly I spend time on “Facebook”. It is my “Home” on the web. Home Sweet Home.

Recall being on Bebo at one time, but nothing came of that. In fact that site has vanished. Same with MySpace, though that site soldiers on. Am on Twitter too but very few of my real life friends are on that and I cannot find much of interest.

Of course, from about 2010 onwards I spent most of my time on the Triond Forum, where I could “chat” endlessly, but that closed down a few years back.

Apparently I have 128 “Friends” on Facebook which is quite modest, especially compared with the youngsters. On Triond I currently have 780 “Fans”. Some of my Facebook friends are relatives and others are people I know from my childhood, from work and from table tennis. Others are writers I have met on the Internet, including Triond. There is a Facebook Page called “The Triond Forum Gang” which I keep tabs on.

Tonight on Facebook I made a simple open comment: on a UK TV quiz called “Pointless” I was very surprised at their “poll” results on who recognised pictures of certain “Lionels”. Lionel Blair (an old dancer) polled 87%, Lionel Jefferies (actor) 30% and the great footballer (“soccer”) Messi was recognised by only 27%!!! A female friend of mine replied by sharing a funny piece in which football on the media was replaced by “architecture”. In other words, football might interest me but not necessarily the general public. Nice bit of banter there.

Like Triond, of course, Facebook has a Private Messaging or “Chat” system. This is particularly useful to get round out-of-date or faulty emails etc. In fact I use Facebook Chat before trying an email now.

Another good feature on Facebook is that you can “Like” certain “Pages” and receive regular updates from them on your “Main Wall”. So I get updates from my favourite football clubs, from my local newspaper, astronomy pages and so forth. There are Pages like “Beautiful Planet Earth”, “Love Emotion” (now sadly gone), “Dog Lovers” etc. which provide stunning images and touching stories. I can Share all these with my friends too.

Also, if I wish, I can write “Notes”, take photos, make videos and share them all with my friends or the public. As I write this, my table tennis friends have just shared a BBC story about a lad who has no arms but plays using his mouth. I admitted I play with my mouth too, which caused some more banter.

On Facebook there are quite a few Pages where you can post your poems, e.g. “Poetry Zone”. There are also MANY “games” available like “Candy Crush Saga” but I avoid these like the proverbial.

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is by no means perfect. Our UK TV presenter Jeremy Kyle HATES Facebook because people can have horrible arguments on it (then they appear on his show to sort things out). Any social-networking system requires its participants to behave well.

I have chosen my Facebook friends quite carefully and they happen to be a friendly bunch.  

Another gripe is that now and then Facebook try to improve things by introducing new pages, features etc. to cause confusion. But I guess most websites are guilty of this. 

Some of my older real-life friends won’t use Facebook or anything else on the web, which is a shame. I’m happy with Facebook, until such time as something better comes along.

Paul Butters

"Beat the Bullies Unbeatable!"

(Picture Credit - Great Barrier Reef by Travelstar)

Am typing this live, so fingers crossed. Have just seen that my "Beat the Bullies" piece on Triond has now had 25,800 Views. By my humble standards that is viral. In the last month my "Beyond Jane" articles have grossed 2229 Views, most of them from "Bullies".

When I first went on Triond most of my Views came from the UK, with the USA a respectable second. Now, however, my Triond View share by nation is: USA 85%, Turkey (!) 4, France 3, UK 3, Spain 2, Germany 2 and Romania (!) 2. Bullies has taken over the whole scene.

I still don't know why this is. Bullying might be a big issue in the USA. The word "Assertiveness" might be drawing readers too. Any block Viewing going on? Does the anti-bullying image I used have something to do with it? Who knows.

Not had many comments however. Then again "Disqus" might not appeal for commenting now.

On the other hand I have stopped putting poems or stories on Triond. My articles or blogs draw plenty of views but my poetry and fiction get very little response. I now post poetry etc. on Voicesnet first. "ScribeSlice" is a useful new site for me too. PoetFreak, Booksie etc. are okay too. At least you get comments on these.

Am waiting for Authonomy (Harper Collins Books) to do a revamp and get rid of that 10,000 word-minimum rule. Sorry Harpers but I'm no marathon man, only a sprinter. Over and Out.

PS 24\5\14 - Bullies has 27,327 Views now - heading for 30,000.