How not to spend your Sunday

That was fun!

I’ve just spent the last 18 hours of my life learning more about malware removal than I ever wanted to know.

No, I’m not clueless.  We have a pretty good anti-virus set up, and I know what sort of pages and files to avoid, and yet this nasty – and difficult to remove - operator still managed to find a way in.

Alarmingly, it took a total of seven different processes/programs, several of which were lengthy and needed to be repeated in sequence a number of times, to finally flush out the offenders.  This consumed a large portion of what would otherwise have been productive writing time.

Take home messages for writers:

·       Keep your anti-nasties software and operating systems updated.

·       Back up your work to a remote location ** Make sure you do this even if you ignore everything else in this post **.

·       Get a good spyware tool to use alongside your regular virus checker.  Increasingly malware is using innocuous looking cookies as its way in.

·       Take action when your browser first starts running slowly (in hindsight, I should’ve investigated more carefully a couple of days ago when I noticed how clunky it was getting).

·       Remain calm and use the task manager to close the browser when an “attack” begins.  This can reduce the scale of file corruption.

·       Always have several punchy antivirus programs at your disposal.  Sometimes one just ain’t enough.

Fortunately, everyone else on the planet hates malware just as much I do, so there were some good how-to guides and free software available.  The only other things I needed were moral fortitude and a violet crumble.

It has been a warning to be more vigilant.  This time it was just an annoyance, but it has reminded me how close the threat of loss of data always lurks.

The secret ingredient in blogging

There is something that has been playing on my mind lately. Surprisingly(!), it's about blogging.

There are a lot of 'how-to' blog pointers out there. The vast majority of these are based on marketing fundamentals.  They are the same rules that govern the production of commercial copy: advertising.

Think of your market. Select a handful of key words with maximum appeal to this market. Keep it simple, short, sweet. Write always with your target in mind. Tweet. Throw in some controversy. Not enough to get yourself sued, but enough to create a storm of response through the blogosphere.  

This is not a bad thing, and no doubt it has raised the calibre of many commercially-driven blog enterprises. But I would like to speak also in defence of self-expression.

For every successful blog who has followed these - yes, copy-writing - rules, there are plenty of others who have just gone right ahead and done their own thaing and succeeded. 

Irish gumbo has been steadily serving up bowlfuls of his own special wistful and wry observations, unabated since 2008. (I love that blog. And I want the recipe). 

Last year, Lori at RRSAHM broke all the rules when she blogged her way blindly through the unthinkable implosion of her life. She is still pulling shards out of her wounds, and her blog allows her to slowly examine and arrange them into small patterns of meaning and moments of grace.  Something powerful is unfolding there that defies the laws of blogging. 

And in the same year the all-time most hilarious (and full of whimsy) story was told in all its passive aggressive glory by The Bloggess, who was just as surprised as Victor when success rang the doorbell. 

So what's the secret ingredient?

Each of these blogs demonstrates that there is something other than a set of formulaic rules behind good writing.  They are each imbued (or in the case of The Bloggess, saturated) with the personality of the writers themselves.

How do I get it?

Learn from the successful.  But also know that success is not the product of a formula. It requires something unique and intangible that only you can provide. Write what you mean to. Be genuine. Keep it real. Put a piece of yourself into it. You - and only you - are your writing's secret ingredient. Learn to savour your own unique style by having fun with it, and then arrange everything else to bring that special intensity to the fore. 

That is the place where your writing will succeed.

On being judged

This blog about writing has, it seems, veered more into writing about blogging.  

This is the result of the juxtaposition of the blogging workshop I attended earlier this week, and the Best Australian Blogs Competition 2012, in which DD is a nominee in the words and writing category.  So let's just call April blogging month, and trust that when the excitement dies down, Destination: denouement will resume a more writerly tone. 

In the meantime, I’ve been glued to my site analytics, trying to divine whether our distinguished competition judge(s) have passed through, but I am no wiser.  So, if you are reading this and you’re a judge, welcome!  Take a seat, make yourself comfortable.  Please take a moment to enjoy the Denouement ambiance.  Would you like a cup of tea? 

Old woman pouring tea, unknown artist...
by Black Country Museums @ Flickr

It is a strange feeling to know that your personal work is being assessed, critiqued, scored.  But as writers, this is an essential part of our métier.  Eventually someone will be reading what we have written, and deciding if it’s good or not.  Feedback is an important tool to improve our writing, and there are a number of ways to get it. 

Probably the least useful is to launch your untested work directly at its intended publisher in the hope of an encouraging reply.  Asking your proud mum/spouse/infatuated friend may not be very helpful either, unless these people have a literary bent and an uncanny degree of objectivity.  Instead it is better to find someone with experience or a shared interest in writing.  A writers’ group or feedback circle can be one way to find such people, even if this is online.

Receiving feedback in a group situation can be challenging, especially when you have sweated over several revisions of a piece.  It’s good to remember that many people will have many different opinions, and they can’t all be right.  You’re not required to agree with all of them, but do consider their merit.  Be thoughtful.  But also be pragmatic.  Not everyone will be prepared to push themselves into the space where they can understand what it is you were trying to do, especially if it’s different to what they are used to.  Feedback is just a tool.  You can pick it up, and you can also put it down when it’s no longer useful to you. 

Most importantly, criticism is only ever about the work that you've done, and not about you. Take a deep breath and separate the two.  This can be hard when you're just getting started.  That is when feedback can be most fraught but also most beneficial.  So be bold, and invite the challenge.  Treat it like the learning experience that it’s meant to be.  I don’t know if I'll ever discover the truth of exactly how Destination: denoument has fared in the Best Australian Blogs Competition (oh yeah, unless it WINS), but the rigour of being judged has done me some good, regardless.

Blogging workshop - notes

The big day arrived, and I headed out to the South Australian Writers’ Centre for the Just what is blogging? workshop.  It was an interesting and well-structured evening that provided a number of blogging resources to bring home.  And it stimulated some critical reflection about Destination: denouement.  It turns out there are a number of blogging principles that I have been very nonchalantly ignoring since its inception.  (More on that another time).

Much of the two-hour workshop was aimed at people with much less blogging experience than myself.  However there were some pointers worth attending to:

·    Regularity - prunes aren’t just for nannas*.  Readers will lose interest if you don’t turn up up regularly.

·    Scheduling - use the scheduling function in your platform to release posts at a time that works for you and your readers.  Louise posts on a Thursday and then has the weekend as social-media engagement time. 

·    Use your key words in a targeted way – The language in your URL, post titles, first paragraphs all counts. (Uh oh. Multiple infractions by Destination: denouement).

·    Social media is your friend - (I really need to get across the twittosphere).

·    Content, content, content.

This last point was not explicitly stated, but it coalesced in my impressionable brain as the most important idea of the night.  Louise, Jane and Sarah all talked about how they started their blogs and attracted readers, and it was obvious from their stories that content is everything. It’s what attracts a readership and causes it to flourish.  Each of them has a readily visible niche to write to.  Each of them understands exactly what it is they are giving to their audience.  And crucially, they know what value it has to their readers.

*Nanna Jean was an enthusiastic advocate of the power of the prune.

Cake: the ultimate metaphor

There's a certain amount of healthy egotism involved in being a successful author/artist/pastry chef. Not only do you need to believe in what you produce, your belief needs to shine through your craft in such a way that it is visible to other people.  It's an essential element in attracting an audience.      


strawberry cake by Kanko* @ Flickr



Look around. There are thousands of writers out there. Some of them write well, some of them badly, but they all believe they're providing something that is worth someone else's time to consume. We can't all be the next bestselling author, can we? Even if you baked the tastiest cake ever, if every other person at the morning tea has also baked a wonderful cake there's a chance yours might never get eaten. So how does a cake get chosen?  It might be a very ordinary cake that happens to have magnificent icing, or it might be baked by someone whose cake was memorable last time, or maybe everyone saw a similar cake on TV so they think this one will taste good too. The choice of cake is as individual as the people who are choosing it.  So too with writing.

So how does that choice happen?  How do I, as a writer, elevate my craft to the extent that it rolls deliciously off the page and straight onto my intended audience's tongue?

And does it really matter whether I sit here typing away and never make the moves to earn the readership?  Does it matter if I ensconce myself in a long and happy but solitary writing life? If all the work I've ever done slides quietly with me into the grave? 



Yes, it does. It matters to me. And the reason it does - besides a pathetic desire to rise above the ordinary - is because writing, for me, is about connection.  It's not about the cake in and of itself, but about the mysterious transaction that occurs when I invest my time and energy to create something of beauty, something that will nourish another person. And equally, it's about receiving that same gift from others. When I sit quietly, listening to a fellow writer read her work, I'm receiving something precious and true, that has spilled from the very essence of who they are.



This is true of all the great works that we have read - whether they were books, poems, essays, blog posts, letters, published or private. The connection allows us to perceive and honour the great truths and gifts of our lives, whether that is self-knowledge, healing, or simply the power of telling our stories and having them heard. It is so valuable that it is worth reaching through my inadequacies to embrace the necessary self-belief.  And to keep writing.  And sharing my cake.

What is it that motivates you to keep writing and sharing?



Shameless plea - Best Australian Blog

In my ongoing quest to not come last in the Sydney Writers' Centre Best Australian Blogs Competition 2012, I would like to advise that voting in the PEOPLE’S CHOICE round is officially open.

PEOPLE – this means YOU.

CHOICE – you have one. It’s obvious.  Pick Destination: denouement.

It’s easy. Click on the VOTE FOR ME NOW button which will take you to the Voting Page.  Put a tick in the box next to Destination: denouement about 4/5ths of the way down the first page.

You can select as many blogs as you like, but you can only submit the form ONCE – so make sure Destination: denouement is clicked if you want to include a vote for me.

You can also ask all your friends/family/random strangers to do the same, using the share buttons at the bottom of this post, or the Twitter hashtag #bestblogs2012.

  

Apparently there are 940 eager hopefuls in this round.  This means there is lots of fresh and fabulous blogging going on, so even if you don’t vote for me, take a look at the list because it’s a great way to discover some new blogs to love forever.