The definition of ‘cannot’ is: can not. Yet, the way you write it is a style issue, and it is one word: cannot, meaning can not.

How’s that for quirky English?

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it is what’s considered an acceptable usage style. If you go by the major style guidebooks–MLA, APA, Gregg, Chicago, etc–you will see that they all recommend using ‘cannot’, the one-word version of ‘can not’.

I frequently see writers use ‘can not’, but ‘cannot’ is the more proper style usage. Be sure when you’re editing and writing to use the one word version.

That said, I do sometimes, on the internet in my very informal blogs, use ‘can NOT’ when I am seeking to emphasize a point on the ‘not’ part of the phrase. This is rare, and again, I only do it on very informal blogs when writing online, because, as I’ve told you in another blog post, NEVER use all caps for emphasis in professional writing.

So – Can Not vs. Cannot – hands down, ‘cannot’ wins!

Keep writing and happy editing!

Love and stuff,
Michy

Last year, I put up some Christmas articles at the last minute, so they really didn’t do all that well. I was hoping they would pick up some page views this year, so I figured I’d give them some help by getting a link out there to them back to the articles.

You guys who have been with AC for more than a year should be looking at this too… for just a few minutes worth of time, you can ‘refresh’ last year or even the year before’s Christmas content. All you need to do is drop the links on a blog or two, since blogs are generally indexed at least once per day, and often more than that, slap them up on a Squidoo lens, or wherever you usually post your content… the search engine spiders will find your links, look at your older articles, and they can actually bump up in the search returns. It’s sort of a way to ‘refresh’ your older content.

Refreshing takes a lot less time than writing a new article, and it does pay off in more ways than one, including helping to get your average page views per article up, by increasing views on older articles.

If any of you want to leave some comments or read my last year’s content, I surely wouldn’t mind! Here they are:

Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas
Christmas day is just around the corner, and you’re checking your list, checking it twice, and realized you forgot someone especially nice. Now what?
View more »

First Christmas Together Gift Ideas for Her
Buying gifts for family and friends is hard enough when gift cards and specialty baskets are acceptable, but what do you buy for the romantic or love interest in your life, when your relationship is still new and this is your first Christmas together?
View more »

Unique and Inexpensive Homemade Christmas Tree Decorations
Decorating for the holidays doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Not only can you save money by making homemade Christmas tree decorations, but you can start a new family tradition, have fun, and ensure your holiday decorations are unique!
View more »

Tips to Stop Overeating This Holiday Season
Overeating is frequently one of the top complaints about the holiday season. This article can help you enjoy all your favorite meals during Christmas without overeating!
View more »

………….

If you have Christmas articles FROM LAST YEAR, feel free to leave a live link to them in the comments. This year’s Christmas articles, you can promote fresh, so please don’t leave them here on the blog this time – let’s refresh some of last year’s. Also, on a different domain for an additional linkback, consider going to this thread on my writers forum and and leave the links to your last year’s or this year’s Christmas articles in that one thread. The forum is indexed multiple times per day, so your link will get picked up by Google and other search engines pretty quickly, and hopefully you’ll get some traffic coming to your older Christmas articles from last year or the year before.

Now, if you don’t have Christmas articles for upfront pay already in the queue for review, if you don’t hurry, you’ll lose the maximum page views. By the end of this week, Christmas articles for upfront pay will likely be too old to get major page views from this year. You’d have to put them up display only. So my recommendation is to finish up all your Christmas content you plan to submit for upfront payment ASAP and get it all submitted before the end of this week.

After this week, it’s time to start focusing on two things: end of year, the New Year.

Right behind that, we have Super Bowl and Black History Month – both of which you’ll want to start writing about within the first week or so of the New Year.

Remember, being a writer for content sites and blogs means keeping one step ahead. While everyone else is celebrating Thanksgiving, you will be writing about Valentine’s Day. Just the way it is.

Keep writing!

Love and stuff,
Michy

I find it interesting, in my search for agents, I stumbled upon a large publishing house that accepts science fiction and fantasy novels without being agented.

I was surprised.

Of course, my novel that I am looking to submit to an agent is not a fantasy or a science fiction novel, so it doesn’t do me any good for this novel I just finished, but the new novel I’m working on is in the fantasy genre.

I laughed to myself thinking that it’s highly possible if I finish this book I’m working on writing now and submit it to this publisher, I might end up with this book published before the one I’m seeking an agent for!

Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

Nah, not going to happen. First, I made the decision that I don’t want to become famous for fantasy writing. I do hope my fantasy books are good, but they aren’t my main desire or dream for my writing, so I don’t want those to be my first major-published books.

Secondly, it’s egotistical of my to automatically assume this well-known publisher would even want my fantasy book anyway! Though… I do think they are going to be a big hit!

Anyhooo, just some agent and publisher rambling here.

I was very impressed and surprised and excited to realize there are major publishers out there who do still take unagented submissions.

The publishing world isn’t all that intimidating, after all, is it? Really?

Love and stuff,
Michy

Early this morning, the series finale for the series Roseanne played on Nick-at-Nite. I will admit to having loved that show so many years ago. For those who have never seen it or don’t remember it, I won’t go into details, but what I want to remind you of is the fact that Roseanne, on the show, was a writer – sorta. Back when the kids were little, Dan built her a ‘writing room’ in the basement, complete with bookshelves to put her manuscripts on, a typewriting, legal pads, pencils and an electric pencil sharpener even.

And then, her life goes on.

The last show of the season, she reveals that the entire ‘show’, her life, had not be ‘real’ but rather had been her ‘memoirs’, so to speak, her life, but she rewrote it the way she wished it had been.

Well, back 20 some odd years ago, when I first watched the last episode, I liked it (though I know many hated it), but watching it again last night, now that I actually am a writer too, and coaching other writers to follow their dreams, the final monologue of that show really struck a chord with me. I think it will to some of you writers who read me too. So instead of drifting back to sleep for a few more hours, I decided to get up, search for the monologue text online and share the important parts of it with you.

If you are a writer or have dreams of being a writer one day, please continue reading this post.

Michy’s excerpts from Roseanne’s final monologue:

“Everyone wonders where creative people get their inspiration. Actually, I’ve found it’s all around you.”

And it is. Everything in my life inspires me to write. I can drive down the street and see a cat run across the road and up a tree and there’s an idea for a poem running through my head. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come out of a shower to jot something down, some idea I had while in there. My friends, my family, everyone I’ve ever met – they inspire me to write.

“A lot of times nerds are really artists who just listen to the beat of a different drum… “

The reason I left this part in is because, in this life, this world, I’ve never felt ‘normal’. So whether you’re a nerd or a geek or a dork or your fat or thin or tall or short or smart or struggle or rich or poor or happy or sad or healthy or disabled or straight or gay or black or white or purple or blue… if you feel as though you are ‘different’ in some way, maybe, just maybe, you’re an artist.

Use your differences to your advantage. You have them for a reason. Write about them!

“So in my writing, I did what any good mother would do. I fixed it… “

I find this line poignant. Think about it. If you were to write your child’s story, anything, to give them the perfect life, wouldn’t you do it?

“My writing’s really what got me through the last year [sic]… “

My writing is the only thing that has gotten me through my entire life, but especially during the darkest, hardest times, my writing saw me through. Without it, I don’t even want to think about where I would be now.

“In choosing life, I realized that my dreams of being a writer wouldn’t just come true; I had to do the work.”

If I can give one piece of advice to someone who has some dreams of being a writer, this quote is it. Writing is glorious, wonderful, beautiful, amazing, life-changing, and the best thing that ever happened to me… but it’s work. It’s hard work. And if you want to be a writer in any way other than in name, such as making a living as a writer, getting a book published or signing that big contract or getting that big freelancing gig – whatever your writing dreams are – you have to be willing to do the work.

“And as I wrote about my life, I relived it, and whatever I didn’t like, I rearranged.”

Oh, I have so done this. Write about it, but make it the way it never was, the way it should have been, could have been. Writers can control the universe… at least, the one within the confines of the pages of their book and in their minds.

“I made a commitment to finish my story even if I had to write in the basement in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep.”

I said in yesterday’s post how I wrote, sometimes late into the night, early in the morning, right through dinner… my eyes burned, my back ached, my feet swelled and I was drained, but I wrote.. constantly.

Are you willing to put that type of dedication into your dreams?

Can you make the decision, today, right now, in your own heart, to finish your story, no matter what?

And finally:

“But the more I wrote, the more I understood myself and why I had made the choices I made, and that was the real jackpot.

• I learned that dreams don’t work without action;
• I learned that no one could stop me but me.
• I learned that love is stronger than hate.

And most important, I learned that God does exist. He and/or She is right inside you, underneath the pain, the sorrow, and the shame.”

So, make your jokes about Roseanne, the series, the woman… but this monologue… to me… is powerful stuff.

And this is why I write. This is how I feel. It was my thoughts, inside my head, on a television show from over 20 years ago, a show I watched, but it meant nothing to me until 5am this morning.

She ended it this: I think I’ll be a lot better now that this book is done…

I know that feeling, first hand.

Do you?

Think about it. How will you feel when you’re book is done?

Love and stuff,
Michy
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This was, by far, the most difficult short story contest to judge that we have had yet. The entries this time were absolutely fantastic. The judges and I discussed the finalists until we thought we would go crazy.

Interestingly enough, the first place winner was selected as first place by three of the four judges and was selected as second place by one of the judges, and after I read it, I have to agree with their decision.

When we judge short stories, there are two things that usually knock the stories out of the running, even when the writing is really mechanically sound. Those two things are: 1) the story didn’t tell a full, complete story and 2) the ending left the reader flat.

For the first one, we had this happen with a few of the entries this time. They were well-written entries, the story was compelling in the beginning, but then we were left with a sense of, “Uhm, what was the point of that?” One of the stories, we all agreed, was very well written, it was cute, but we couldn’t figure out what the ‘story’ was. It was more like it was a scene from a story, but not a full story itself. Keep that in mind. Stories for this contest need a beginning, a middle and a solid ending, and they need a point.

We don’t want you to just relay a scene or something that happened; we want you to tell us a full, complete story that leaves us satisfied.

The winner of this contest did just that and had pretty solid mechanics and formatting too. It was a worthy entry and I’m proud to announce it as the winner. When I went to look up who wrote it, I was even prouder.

But I’m getting ahead of myself….

Let’s start with our honorable mentions.

All honorable mentions will receive html code to proudly display their honorable mention status on any website they choose. They will all also receive one free copy of the anthology when it goes to print, in addition to their free copy they receive just for entering.

Honorable Mention #1:

Eric Patterson, a new member of our little forum here, wrote (I think) three really strong entries into this contest, especially for a newbie to the board. He obviously has been writing before he came to the board and he definitely has a spark. I liked his story about the twins, but then, anyone who knows me on a personal level knows I’m a bit biased about twins. I liked the story about the little girl too. The judges scored him right up there and he was so close to having one of his place third that it came down to a near argument amongst the judges.

Eric, you are definitely worthy of an honorable mention, and something tells me that you are going to be a fierce competitor in future contests. Your writing mechanics are sound and your stories are full and completely and you did have some interesting uses of the theme. If there is room in the anthology after I’ve compiled all the winners, one of yours just might be offered a contract.

Most Creative Use of Theme

Laurie Darroch-Meekis has really begun to come into her own. Her writing for the contests just gets better with every entry. I think what I like the most about Laurie’s entry this time around was the use of the theme. It was absolutely clever. We have a theme of fire and ice and she uses red hot fire peppers and Popsicles. How clever is that? The only problem with this entry was that it didn’t feel like a full story to the judges, but more like a scene. However, all the judges and myself included, absolutely loved the clever use of the theme, so Laurie definitely is worthy of an honorable mention for the best use of the theme!

Honorable Mention #2:

This place belongs to newcomer Andi Caldwell. Both of her entries were excellent stories and with just a little bit of work on mechanics, this new fiction writer is going to come into her own. I hope she enters future contests, because both of her entries were strong and one came within two points of placing in this contest. Watch out for this one. She’s going to be tough competition next year; I can feel it.

Honorable Mention #3:

This one belongs to George Kramer. I like George’s stories. I like his creativeness and there’s a little bit of wit behind the stories too, some ‘hidden humor’ there. He had more than one entry in the contests, and I’ll tell you right now, mechanics are hurting him more than anything, because the stories all are pretty good stories. George, you did a fine job this time around.

Lastly, let me mention Tanya Katerina Noegel. While she hasn’t placed this time and the judges didn’t select her for an honorable mention, I want to personally say something about her writing here. It’s the last contest of the year, so I’m taking some liberties to sort of ‘remember’ here, Tanya is a fine writer. She has good mechanics, her stories are sound, her writing is good. one of her stories from a past contest is in the offer pile to make an offer for publication to her, after we’ve compiled the stories that won, if there’s room in the book for it.

Now, let’s get to the winners.

In third place, we have:

Entry #622, Healing Scars, by Jo Brielyn (man, I had to hunt for that pen name, girl!)

This story was good. It was tender, touching, moving – sad but with a happy ending too – the ONLY reason this story didn’t place higher is that the judges felt the ended cheated us just a little bit in that it didn’t come to a ‘conclusion’ but more just ‘ended.’ Congratulations, Penny!

In second place, allow me to announce:

Entry #7789, Love Burns, by Lucinda Gunnin

What a twisted story, so sad, and yet, so believable. This story could easily be expanded to a novel or even a made-for-TV movie, it was that compelling. Two of the judges said they would have liked a less ‘sure’ ending. For example, what if she was buying the gun to kill herself instead of them, ending it only with the line, “Do you understand now why I need the gun?” and then adding the part about daddy being right. It would have left it open to wonder – was she killing them or herself?

But that was totally a matter of opinion, and just as the story is, it was still a very strong contender with an excellent beginning, middle and ending that did not leave the reader flat. Excellent job and congratulations to Cindy!

And now…

The final winner of the 2008 Accentuate Writers Short Story Anthology Contest, in first place, by a nearly unanimous decision is:

With some minor mechanical issues, that a really good proofread would have and should have fixed (shame on you Lindsay!), this story was STILL easily the best ‘story’ of the contest. It just goes to show, a superb story can make up for some mechanical errors. What a touching and beautiful story and a nice way to use the theme in a very unobstrusive manner – very good use of the theme, good story with a beginning, middle and very solid ending that brought everything back around full-circle.

This story had it all, except a title. Of course, the judges and I have been calling it Winter and Blaze, but we’ll work with Lindsay to get a title she’s happy with before we compile it for print.

As the first place winner, Lindsay will be the final author to get her name on
th
e front cover of this particular anthology. Congratulations Lindsay!

And congratulations to all of you who entered this contest! We will begin compiling all the winners together and figuring page counts, so please don’t give up hope – we will likely be making offers to some of the other entries if we have room, so all hope hasn’t been lost if you didn’t get included but entered.

If you didn’t enter or place this year, don’t give up! We have a poetry contest going on right now, and you can find it here. Also, over the weekend, we are working on the rules and the announcement for the first quarter anthology for next year, 2009, and we already have the themes ready to go! It’s going to be an exciting contest next year! Those of you who follow this blog will get first look at the themes for next year’s first book!

Congratulations to everyone who stepped out and took the chance! You are all winners! Everyone who entered will get their names listed in the book too – but more on that later.

Again, congratulations!

Now, I guess I should post this and put everyone out of their misery.

I love you guys!

Love and stuff,
Michy
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Well, my forum members have been waiting, no so patiently tonight, for me to announce the finalist. I have to apologize for the late announcement, but I pretty much blew off the entire day to – sleep – yes, sleep.

Darned meds.

But I’m here now, and we’ve sat around the IM conference tonight and we’ve narrowed the finalists down to 8… yes, EIGHT finalists.

We’ve also determined the honorable mentions, for the final announcements, but those won’t be until later this week.

Oh, later this week? Yes, the winners and honorable mentions will be announced on Friday.

For now, here are our finalists for the very last short story anthology contest for Accentuate Writers for 2008.

drum roll please……..

In no particular order:

7789 – Lucinda Gunnin

0078 – Eric Patterson

622 – Penny Molinario

692 – Susan Sosbe

703 – Lindsay Maddox

772 – Tanya Katerina Noegel

3008 – Andi Caldwell

9990 – Daniel Thrasher

Yes, I know I told the judges to limit it to seven finalists, but they are as stubborn as I am, and we ended up with 8.

I will come back and fill in the names in a little bit, but you should know your own number. If you want to cross reference, here’s the semi-finalists announcement.

Congratulations to everyone who made it this far and to those moving on.

The winners will be announced on this blog on FRIDAY of this week. Yes, you read that right – Friday.

Good luck to the lucky eight!

ETA: Names have been added! Links coming soon!

Love and stuff,
Michy
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Yesterday, a lot of AC content producers received an email that they were added to the pool of writers who will be considered for partner calls.

I’ve written for partner calls in the past, and have found them to be easy, fun, and interesting.

I just wanted to pop in quickly and say congrats to all who were selected for partner call writing!

Good for you!

For the rest of you who haven’t been considered yet or who are new and don’t know what partner calls are yet:

A partner call is a C4C (the box on your My Account page), where calls for content are list, but the call is not intended to be published on AC, but rather on a partner site. These partner sites work with AC to find matched writers who can write content for their website. Sometimes you’ll get a byline and sometimes you won’t, so be sure to read them carefully.

Another thing to look for is whether or not AC is going to target just you or more than one person. If it’s just you, then as long as you do a good job, you’ll get paid. If it’s not just you, you might better snag that one quickly before someone else does.

Big important note: be sure to submit them on time. I’ve been in and out of the hospital/doctor’s recently, and because of this, I turned in two targeted partner calls late by about 6 hours, and I haven’t received a single targeted partner call since. I’ve written twice to ask why, but have no received a response. I can only assume it’s because I was late. Don’t make this mistake.

A few people have asked whether or not AC will email you when you get a targeted call. My experience has been that when you individually are targeted, Partner Admin will email you and let you know it’s there. But there’s also targeted calls sent to groups of CPs or for things that aren’t partner calls. To ensure you get notified of those in a timely manner and don’t have to check you account every five minutes, do this:

1. Log in and go to My Account

2. On the left-hide side, there’s a link for “Email Preferences”. Click that.

3. Once there, check the ones about C4Cs:

AC Calls for Content™ Alert
Receive an email every time an Associated Content call is targeted to you.

Partner Calls for Content™ Alert
Receive an email every time a call from an Associated Content partner is targeted to you.

4. Click “update”, and you’re good to go.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts for the day. Again, congrats to all who were picked to write for partner sites.

Love and stuff,
Michy

How’s everyone doing on NaNoWriMo? I’ll admit, I haven’t done nearly as much as I had hoped. My story last year was so compelling to me, and the first part of it was almost like writing straight from my heart, that it just flowed so well for me. This story I’m writing this year is a fantasy novel. Fantasy readers and science fiction readers are some of the hardest readers to write for. They are very active readers, as a whole, and they are quick to spot inconsistencies.

So, I’ve been meticulous in this story, Firestorm, that I’m writing. I wish that were the excuse for why I’m so far behind on NaNoWriMo this year, but it’s not.

I still think I have a chance to catch up; I do. No, really, I do.

Then again, I might just be living in my own fantasy book when I say that. Generally speaking, you have to actually WRITE to finish a novel, you know? Well, I haven’t been writing.

It’s not writer’s block. It’s not that I can’t write, since I’m doing some blogs and I’m playing around with some other stuff. I’m just not writing in the book.

I’m not bored by it. I find the book interesting. I’m really curious to see what happens next.

Then it hits me… *I* have to write what happens next. Oh. Well. In that case….

…and I’m off to other things.

This is strange for me, since usually I’m writing all the freaking time.

Now, if it weren’t for NaNoWriMo, I’d probably just switch to another one of my works in progress, work on it for awhile, and then come back to the first one.

I think I’ve finally figured out that I really hate writing deadlines. I work fantastic under pressure. I mean, contact me and tell me you need an article by tomorrow morning, and I’ll pop out one of the best articles you’ve ever read. Tell me you need it two weeks from next Friday, and I’ll flounder until Thursday night. I mean, I might do some research, and save or bookmark a few things. I might make notes. Maybe. But the bulk of the writing will be done at crunch time.

I wonder why I’m like that? Maybe I need the stress. There’s really no stress in my life most of the time, so maybe I miss it some. After working in advocacy and criminal justice for so long, which is a really high-stress job, to sitting in my PJs with my feet up in the recliner doing what I love… well, no stress.

I didn’t want to take a job with About.com or Suite101 because both of those places require a minimum number of articles per week/month/etc. That somehow seems too much like a job for me. I love being contracted to write an article, but have turned down offers to be a staff writer. I have enjoyed contract freelance editing, but have turned down offers to be an EIC for a publisher.

I like working to my own schedule, when I want, how I want. But some people can’t do that. If left completely to their own devices, some people will not make money. Some people need the structure of the deadline, the assignment and someone to ‘report’ to.

What type of writer are you? Do you like deadlines? Do you need the structure and schedule?

Do you prefer to work on your own timetable and submit only when you feel like writing? Can you stay focused enough to keep the money coming in if you’re not being assigned ‘jobs’?

Before you really jump into freelancing or even book contracts, these things are important things to consider.

So, anyone care to share your preference?

Love and stuff,
Michy
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While I see shifts in this trend recently, with more books being written in first person than ever before, the majority of fiction books are written in third person, past tense. The reason for this is because it’s an easy style to write in where omniscient POV or multiple POVs (points of view) can be used, giving the writer more flexibility while allowing the reader to ‘see’ more in the story.

After all, if you write first person, you can only write it from the POV of that one person.

Now, when writing in past tense, there are a few words that you need to be careful of that can cause you to slip into present tense without realizing you’ve done it. The obvious slips, like using ‘is’ instead of ‘was’ or using the ‘s’ version of a verb instead of the ‘ed’ version (grins instead of grinned, talks instead of talked, etc), are easy to find and edit.

These words I’m talking about are words that you might not realize are present tense.

For example, ‘now’ is present tense. You can’t do ‘now’ in past tense.

“here”

Think about this… in the descriptive text, the writer cannot say here and still have it in past tense, third person and use ‘here’.

Here pretty much insinuates ‘now’.

Example: The cave was dark and damp, here on the side of the cliff.

See, when I say ‘here’ it means ‘where I am currently’. If I’m writing in past tense, something cannot be where I am currently and be in the past tense at the same time. Additionally, ‘here’ would be author intrusion of a sort if the writer is writing in third person with a limited point of view. After all, the ‘here’ insinuates ‘with someone’, typically the person ‘speaking’, but in the descriptive text of third person, there either is this ‘unseen writer’ who is NOT a narrator. Thus, ‘here’ doesn’t work in third person, past tense.

Rewrite: The cave was dark and damp, there on the side of the cliff.

The only way that ‘here’ would work is in the dialogue, if you are writing the manuscript in past tense, third person.

As for the word ‘now’, it should really make sense why ‘now’ cannot be used in past tense.

These are two that I’ve run across recently in editing I’ve been doing. Can you think of other words that might inherently be past or present tense all by themselves?

Keep writing!

Love and stuff,
Michy

I’ve had a few rough days, emotionally speaking, and so I’ve been in sort of a bad mood, and I try not to post when I’m in a really bad mood, because I say things I don’t really feel. It was nothing major. I’m usually pretty positive and upbeat about things, but every rare once in awhile, I’ll get in a funk. So if you’re wondering why I haven’t updated the last couple of days, that’s why. Sowwy!

I’m in a much better mood now. Got to spend some time with a very special friend of mine, went out to have sushi – I’ve found it’s nearly impossible to be in a bad mood while eating sushi. Of course, a little (read: a lot) of sake wine doesn’t hurt either.

But as far as bad moods go, I’ve found when I’m in a bad mood, my writing usually suffers from it too.

Well, except for poetry. When I’m really powerfully feeling emotion–anger, frustration, sadness–and especially when it’s overwhelming feeling, I write some of my best poetry. When I’m happy and life goes along great, poetry is usually not something I put energy into, but my other writing seems to flourish.

Anyway, I’m babbling a bit, but I was thinking about what someone on the forum said the other day about people who don’t have to write for a living being lucky. I read it and I get where she was coming from. Her point of view is that when you take what you love and make it your job, it’s no longer what you love. She said she has to schedule herself a day off from writing.

I was thinking to myself… a day without writing? I think I’d rather go a day without eating, breathing or sleeping. Okay, so maybe I do sometimes go a day without writing anything down on paper or the computer, but always in my head, I am writing. It’s rare though that I miss a day of writing.

But my mood does affect how I write, what I write, and how good what I write really is.

How many of you write based on how you feel? At least, I guess, fiction writing…. maybe nonfiction too. I mean, when I read something that really pisses me off, sometimes it sets me off to writing a passionate opinion piece. Sometimes I’ll read something that makes me laugh or makes me sad and I’ll blog about it.

How much do your moods affect your writing? I think emotion and mood has an effect on writing more than just about any other kind of job. I mean, when I worked in accounting, being in a bad mood or being sad really didn’t affect my ability to crunch numbers all that much. Yet, being in a bad mood can really set the tone in my writing big time.

Anyway, just some observations about mood and writing and how closely the two seem to be tied at times. Your thoughts?

Love and stuff,
Michy
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