I’m officially declaring war on writer’s block, distractions, and procrastination during the month of July. Maybe it’s just me, but the summer months always seem to drag. Well, at least, they do when I’m working. I feel sluggish and uninspired. I can barely force myself to do the work I have to do to pay the bills, let alone work on fun personal projects.

Image: sxc.hu

I blame the sun. During the summer, there’s nothing better than sitting outside by the pool and sipping Sangria or sweet tea. Hell, I can even stay motivated to work out during the summer because it means that I get to go outside and run.

I’m trying not to fall behind on bills and dip into savings this month, like I always seem to do during the summer…and I hope you’ll all join me in swatting away writer’s block and other distractions. Yes, the sun is shining, but if we help one another, we can have a productive, profitable summer. Here are some of the things I have planned for July:

• Writer Interviews: Writers from around the web have come to Bizzia to offer advice on beating writer’s block and finding inspiration among distractions. I’ll be posted a few every week. Yes, you can still participate! (click here)
• Motivation from Masters: What have famous writers and other personalities said about staying motivated? Learn tricks and tips from the masters.
• Inspiration Clinic: Places to find inspiration and inspiration-themed questions answered.
• Procrastination Posts: If you have to surf the ‘net, at least read about the art of writing. I’ll group together the best posts of the week to help you find awesome advice from great bloggers.

Let’s kick some writer’s block/procrastination tushie this summer!

In elementary school, we learn to say “John and I” all the time. It’s formal. It’s polite. It’s right.

Or is it?

The Grammar Police have a lot to teach you and me. Image: sxc.hu

Actually, using and I when talking about being with another person isn’t always the right choice. It is often instinctual to use and I, since it was drilled into our heads throughout school, but sometimes, the correct term is and me. *Gasp* Yes; it’s true - you can use and me sometimes and be grammatically correct!

But when?

• Use and I when it is the subjects of the sentence. My fellow writers and I hate grammar mistakes.
• Use and me when it is the object of the sentence. Grammar is sometimes difficult for my fellow writers and me.
  

A good way to test yourself? Take out the other person so that you’re just using I or me. For example, if I were to say, “Jane and I are going to the park,” I could take out Jane and say, “I am going to the park.”

Or, if you say, “He game the book to my sister and I,” and you take out my sister, you’re left with, “He gave the book to I.” Wait, that doesn’t sound right! Clearly, it is better to use me in this situation.

You can see other Grammar Police posts by heading to this page.

It’s hard to remember when to use its and when to use it’s. One means it is or it has and the other make it possessive. But which one is which?

The Grammar Police force has its own typo-sniffing dogs. Image: sxc.hu

• It’s should be used to refer to it is or it has. It’s a contraction.
• Its should be used as a possessive form of it. Its lack of apostrophe is important.

How can you remember this? It can be tricky. Here’s how I do it:

It’s (it is or it has) uses an apostrophe. In contractions like don’t and can’t use the apostrophe to replace a letter. The same is true for it’s. If you’re writing the word to mean it is or it has, you’re replacing a letter with an apostrophe. When you’re making it possessive, you’re not replacing any letters.

You can see other Grammar Police posts by heading to this page.

Many people mix up fewer and less. These words are pretty easy to understand, though, once someone actually tells you the rule. Maybe high schools these days aren’t teaching this rule?

The Grammar Police have less patience for mistakes than most people. Image: sxc.hu

• Use fewer when you can count the item.
• Use less when you cannot count the item.

Simple, huh? So, you’d say, “John has fewer toys than Joe.” You’d also say “It rains less in Arizona than in Florida.” Less also applies to emotions and other things you can’t see or touch.

You have fewer shoes, but less happiness. You have fewer pillows, but less sleep.You have fewer watches, but less time.

Easy enough - so use the words correctly!

You can see other Grammar Police posts by heading to this page.

Using numbers in your writing isn’t as hard as you may thing…and there is actually a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to writing with numbers. Let’s go over some basic rules, though:

The Grammar Police wear badges with six points. Image: sxc.hu

• Spell out numbers less than 10.
• Use digits for numbers over nine.
• Be consistent if there are two or more numbers in a sentence and one is over ten.
• Spell out fractions like one-half, using a hyphens.
• Use digits for decimals like 0.19. Add a zero to the front unless the decimal starts with a zero.
• Spell out large round numbers like one million or seven thousand.
• Spell out the number if it starts the sentence. Twenty-three would otherwise be written in digits.

You have a little wiggle room here and there, depending on what you’re writing. For example, many writers use digits in their titles instead of spelling out the word in order to keep the title shorter and more attention-grabbing.

You can see other Grammar Police posts by heading to this page.

By far, one of my biggest pet peeves is a writer who doesn’t understand how to use a semicolon correct. Or, rather, the writer fails to use a semicolon. Most commonly, this is in conjunction with the word however.

Grammar Police: We're fixin' your semicolons and stomping out your "howevers." Image: sxc.hu

I think that most people know that a semicolon can be used in place of a period when the two sentences are highly related. For example:

I work as a freelance writer; most of my work is done from home.

Overusing semicolons doesn’t make you sound smart. My 7th grade English teacher told me that semicolons are like jalapeno peppers. One makes a dish tasty, two make a dish more than most people can stand, and three ruin a dish completely.

The confusion I see with semicolons usually stems from words like however, therefore, and indeed. These words are more formally known as conjunctive adverbs when used to connect two clauses. Here’s how I see however used incorrectly all the time:

Many people love writing, however, they don’t always know grammar rules.

It can be confusing, since this is correct:

Many writers, however, don’t know grammar rules.

See the difference? In the first sentence, however is used between two clauses that could stand alone as sentences. You could write, “Many people love writing. However, they don’t always know grammar rules.” You can’t do that in the second sentence. In this case, the however breaks up a single sentence, probably relating it to whatever sentence came before.

In other words, the first sentence should use a semicolon like this:

Many people love writing; however, they don’t always know grammar rules.

A good rule of thumb? Whenever you use a comma with a conjunctive adverb, ask yourself if you could use a period and make two sentences. If the answer is yes, you should be using a semicolon instead!

You can see other Grammar Police posts by heading to this page.

I’m not known for my excellent grammar and spelling. Actually, more often than not, I just type too fast for my own good - and while I’m excellent at proofreading others’ work, I find it extremely difficult to spot my own mistakes. My problem isn’t, in general, not knowing the rules, but that doesn’t really matter. As a writer, mistakes can be fatal to a relationship with your clients, whether you knew the rule or not.

Image: sxc.hu

What drives me nuts, though, is the fact that many freelancers out there don’t seem to know the rules at all.

We all make mistakes, but some blogs and websites get hard to read because the writer makes the same glaring mistake over and over again. When you constantly use “there” instead of “their” or “they’re,” you start to lose my respect a little. A typo or isolated error? I can overlook that, but some mistakes I cannot.

So, over the next few days, I’m going to go over some basic grammar rules that every freelancer should know.

Call me the grammar police if you will, but if I teach just one person one rule, I’ll be happy and the Internet will be a better place for everyone.

Oh, and if you have a grammar question that you want answered, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll try my best to cover it.

I’ll list the posts here as they go live!

• However and Semicolons
• Lay versus Lie
• Numbers
• Fewer and Less

Every so often, all writers will find a glimmer of success among the daily grind. Yesterday, one of the blogs where I write was picked up on a social networking site, which made my traffic soar from about 500 hits a day to nearly 2000 hits. Today, that traffic is still going strong. At 4:00 PM EST, I’m already at around 1300 hits.

Image: sxc.hu

When you have moments of success like this, it is important to enjoy it. Some writers just smile and go on with their work, but these are the gems of your career - the “pat on the back” that a boss would give you at a 9-to-5 job. You don’t have to buy a new car to celebrate! I took a half-day in order to celebrate my success. Others things I’ve done in the past when I succeeded at something involving my writing:

• Treating myself to Dairy Queen or Rita’s Italian Ice (yum!)
• Purchasing a book I’ve been wanting to read
• Going to the movies
• Making my favorite foods for dinner

It doesn’t have to cost much to reward yourself, and you don’t have to take time off from work if you can’t afford it. The basic idea is to just admit to yourself that you’ve done a good job. After all, if you are anything like me, you always think your writing could be better. I’m never 100% happy with anything, and I’m my own worst critic.

The bottom line? Don’t forget to reward yourself for success in the freelancing world. It goes a long way in avoiding burnout.

Michael Jackson. Sigh. He was this crazed soul that had such a tragic life and even sadder death. I feel like a part of our culture, as a country, has died with him. He’s left a lot behind, though, and I just wanted to share with you three Michael Jackson quotes that you can apply to your life as a writer:

“I’m never pleased with anything, I’m a perfectionist, it’s part of who I am.”

You should always, always, always be improving as a writer. When you write something, read it. Fix it. Read it again and again. When you give something to your client as “done,” it needs to be as perfect as possible.

Image: Newscom

“Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s the gospel.”

Your sources may not always be valid. Do your research; check and double-check every fact. Yes, it takes more time, but if you publish information that is incorrect, you’re part of the problem.

“You try be as original as you can be without thinking about statistics, just you go form [sic] the soul and from the heart.”

Money matters. Traffic matters. But you know what? Writing something from the soul is much better. When you have great content, the rest will fall in place.

I also wanted to share my favorite MJ quote with you all (even if it doesn’t really apply to writing). I’m sure many of you have heard it, but it’s pretty spot on about how I feel about life:

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”

If you write online, you likely read information from tons of websites. I don’t know about you, but I’m quite the surfer at times, both for work and pleasure. And I leave comments - but that’s something that many people don’t do.

Comments are not always the best way to promote your own blog or other writing. Once, I did a blogging experiment where I commented on 100 different times on others’ blogs, using my own URL in the comment form. I didn’t say anything spammy or promoting my own work - I just left good comments on blogs that related to my topic area.What I found was that less than 15% of those bloggers and their readers checked out my website. I was actually pretty disappointed about those results.

So if not for traffic, why should you leave comments?

Think of your comments as a “tip.” Of course, it is better to actually leave a tip for the writer if they have a donation button and you have the means, but a comment tells the writer that you appreciate their work. Even when you leave a negative comment, it shows that you’ve read the post and found it interesting enough to say something.

I think I’m lucky here to have many regular readers who leave comments. I want to encourage you all to do the same on other blogs. If you’re a “regular,” say thank you by commenting! Trust me; bloggers like to know when someone’s reading their work, and no matter what the stats say, comments are a real indicaton of quality traffic. So, don’t forget to comment!

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