Recently in General Writing Category

Agh - few things annoy my linguistic sensibilities more than random capitalisation. Sure, misplaced apostrophes are probably a greater grammatical blot on the language landscape, but the capitalisation of words is more irritating because of its intentional nature.

I'm currently editing and rewriting the copy on a massive IT website and still come across examples of nail-on-blackboard level irritation.

Inspiration has been represented by the light bulb for decades. Why a light bulb? It's a pretty abstract way to describe an idea. Do we really switch on ideas? Do our imaginations stumble around in the dark until that 'eureka' moment when our brains flick a switch?

Writers are a solitary breed. We hide in dimly lit rooms, our features cast into dramatic relief by the flickering monitor light as we continually tap tap tap our RSI addled fingers against besymboled (is that a word? It is now!) squares of plastic. This is where we live, undisturbed (if we're lucky), only rising and engaging with the wider world to make a sandwich...

As writers, we often obsess about words: grammar, usage, style, and more. As marketers, we often obsess about the production: the printing stock, the design, the colours, the medium. But none of these things are important if we don't have a strong story at the centre.

It's here! And now with added arrows! The June edition of the Top Fifty Blogs on Writing in Australia is live and ready for you to enjoy, argue with, marvel at and link to.

There are a few new blogs on the list. Some are very new with only a couple of posts - great to see some fresh bloggers taking a hand so give them encouragement.