OK, I admit, I had to force the alliteration.
Success! Almost. I have less than one scene to rewrite, and I will be done with editing the first draft! I’m a little concerned that this will be a difficult scene to get right, since there is so much dialogue. It’s basically a huge explanation. Still, perfection is not the goal for now. Just having the mess from the first draft cleaned up will be a huge improvement. For my next endeavor, I shall learn how to write a book well. Or, at least, better than I can now.
I have a copy of The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner. So far I have only read parts of it, yet I find it enthralling. I cannot recall another non-fiction book that can so wholly engross me. It speaks of things relevant to my passion via an experienced writer and teacher of writers, and is written so well it leads by example. When I open it, I do not want to put it down. There are also exercises within. I have not had a writing class beyond those needed for the general education requirements, and I am really looking forward to what comes out of following this small volume like a textbook.
When I read last month’s post just now, which I often do in preparation for writing the next one, I saw that my website still has the first home page I put, nearly a year ago. Perhaps I shall have two projects, writing technique and website improvement. Having options to switch between should help keep things fresh. I need to figure out what I want my website to be. I know plenty of things I do NOT want!
When I navigate the internet, I encounter features or layouts that are memorable for the wrong reasons. I get so annoyed by pop-ups — and not the ads. An algorithm guesses, by your mouse movement I believe, that you are about to navigate away from the page, and, so it does not lose your attention, pops up an offer right then to sign up for a newsletter or a free giveaway or something. No. Give me your website, and don’t change it on me after I have started using it. That is the nuisance which bothers me most often.
Another one is so many ads that you can hardly see between them. I recently read an article that had two to four sentences between each block of ads. Really? The ads took longer to scroll past than the words. I had trouble finding the next paragraph more than once.
And yesterday, I visited a beautiful website for a local shop. It was pretty, on a large and simple scale, mobile friendly, and had a nice gallery. A surprisingly large gallery, with nicely tiled photos of the inside of the small store. Perhaps so you could browse without going? It had the phone number, and it had directions to get there. That was pretty much the only information I could find, and all on the front page – the only page. I suppose it is essentially a business card. Now that I think about it again, what else does a small shop need?
Looking at it that way, I remove that third situation from my list of complaints. A business needs an online presence now. I expected one, and I easily found it. It was visually pleasing. It had the basic information. Since they are not an online business, they have no need to keep a fancy website, and very little to put on one. I would be far more irritated with a website that had more information, but was out of date.
Whoops. Mine is out of date.