Elite City, Dubai

I've done a fair bit of real estate writing over the past couple of years. One of my most recent clients is one of the more interesting ones that I've ever had. Elite City in Dubai develops luxury towers and sells apartments. I've ghostwritten a few posts for them in the past month. Here they are!

Recent Recommended Reads

I've mentioned before that I love to read. Recently, I've read some really excellent books. The stories range from sci-fi to mystery to weird to coming-of-age.

The Fold by Peter Clines
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
The River of Kings by Taylor Brown
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

If you're looking for a good read, I recommend any of these. Happy reading!

Traveling With Monkeys featured article

One of my newest clients, Traveling With Monkeys recently featured one of my articles on their site. Check it out!

Jonas C's new bio

Jonas C., a Malaysian born, Australian-based photographer recently hired me to rewrite his bio. Check it out!

What are My Favorite Books?

I write for a living, but I read for pleasure. For me, books are more than a way to pass the time. They let me make the most of my time. Books are more than an escape from the real world. They help me make sense of the real world.

I always have at least one book to read. If not, I feel lost, like I don't know what to do with myself.

Right now I'm reading several books: The Runner by Patrick Lee, Earth by David Brin and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (re-reading). I also just finished The False House, the second book in James Stoddard's trilogy and plan to start the third book, Evenmere, soon. Plus I read the Bible almost everyday.

As a lifelong reader, I have no idea how many books I've read in my entire life. While most of them are forgotten, there are some that stick with me. They revisit me from time to time. They haunt me, in good ways. They are the standards by which I judge all other books and stories. These are the ones I call favorites.

Some are books from my childhood. Over the years I've realized that not all of them are great. For example, I read A Wrinkle In Time when I was 9 or 10. After re-reading it a couple of years ago, I really didn't enjoy it as much. It was good, but not as good as I remember. However, as a child, it captivated me entirely, which is the whole point of a good story.

At any rate, below are some of my favorite books of all time (in no particular order). Know that I will add to this list as other books comes to mind, so whatever list you're reading is the latest.

• The Dark Tower (entire series) - Stephen King
• The Stand - Stephen King
• It - Stephen King
• Interview With a Vampire - Anne Rice
• The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice
• Tale of the Boy Thief - Anne Rice
• Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
• The Scar - China Mieville
• The Sparrow - Marie Doria Russell
• Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
• 2001 - Arthur C. Clarke
• Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke (quite possibly the most perfect sci-fi book ever written)
• Justice and Her Brothers (series) - Virginia Hamilton
• Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
• The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
• Stiletto - Daniel O'Malley
• Night Watch (entire series) - Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Green Future of Tycho - William Sleator
• Interstellar Pig - William Sleator
• House of Stairs - William Sleator
• Foundation (series) - Isaac Asimov
• Dune - Frank Herbert
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
• Blackout/ All Clear - Connie Willis
• Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
• The Firm - John Grisham
• Harry Potter (series) - J.K. Rowling
• The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenger
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
• Flood - Stephen Baxter
• Ark - Stephen Baxter
• Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

Those are some of my faves. What are some of yours?

One Step to Becoming a Better Writer

Want to become a better writer? Joe Bunting offers one piece of really fantastic advice. Read his post here - http://thewritepractice.com/become-a-better-writer/

A Truly Fantastic Guide to Screenplay Writing (and story structure)

I came across this really helpful slideshow which distills storytelling down to its basic elements. While it focuses mainly on writing a screenplay, the info is applicable to any type of storytelling. Great resource!

Stay Active! (echewing the passive voice)

We’ve previously looked at advice from William Strunk Jr.’s Elements of Style. In this post, we review Section 10 in which he advises writers to Use the active voice.

More Direct, More Vigorous
Strunk’s first reason to write actively is that, “The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive.” Compare the following:

    I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.

   My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.

The first sentence is much better and more direct while the second which is less direct, less bold, and less concise. Removing "by me" makes the second sentence more concise -

    My first visit to Boston will always be remembered,

- but the action is less defined. Is the writer, some person undisclosed or the world remembering this visit? It isn’t clear.

Lively and Emphatic Writing
According to Strunk, “The habitual use of the active voice makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative principally concerned with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a verb in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as ‘there is’, or ‘could be heard’.”

    There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.

    Dead leaves covered the ground.

    The sound of a guitar somewhere in the house could be heard.

    Somewhere in the house a guitar hummed sleepily.

Taking Away a Verb’s Function
In the following examples, the noun expresses the entire action. The verb then has no other job except to complete the sentence.

    A survey of this region was made in 1900.

    This region was surveyed in 1900.

A Passive Dependent on Another Passive
Strunk warns against making one passive verb dependent on another passive verb:

    Gold was not allowed to be exported.

    It was forbidden to export gold (The export of gold was prohibited).
 
Before the correction, the word that is related to the second passive verb is the subject of the first.

Don’t Abandon it Completely
However, Strunk does not advise writers to eliminate the passive voice completely. Using it is convenient and sometimes necessary, as these examples show:

    The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed to-day.

    Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration.

The first sentence focuses on the dramatists of the Restoration while the second focuses on the tastes of modern readers. In these examples the subject of the sentence determines which voice is used.

Keep it Active
Taking Strunk’s advice, we should always try to use the active voice over the passive voice whenever possible.

Focus on the Unit (one paragraph per topic)

We’ve already reviewed a couple of pieces of advice from William Strunk Jr.’s Elements of Style, Section 13: Omit needless words and Section 12: Use definite, specific, concrete language.

This month we explore Section 8 of Elements, where Strunk Jr. advises writers to Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.

When exploring a subject, it is helpful to subdivide it into topics. Each of these topics should be a unique paragraph. Sometimes, these subdivisions can be divided further. The root of the idea is that each paragraph should contain one topic or idea. When that topic or subtopic has been explored, a new paragraph begins.

As Strunk says, “Ordinarily...a subject requires subdivision into topics, each of which should be made the subject of a paragraph...to aid the reader. The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to him [or her] that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached.”

Strunk gives two additional rules:

• Single Sentences - As a rule, single sentences should not be paragraphs. Exceptions can be made for transition sentences or in writing such as, “textbooks, guidebooks, and other works in which many topics are treated briefly.”
• Dialogue - When writing dialogue, each ‘spoken’ part should form its own paragraph and new paragraphs begin with each new speaker, even if there is only one word.

As you write, keep this idea in mind and try to limit each paragraph to a topic or some subdivision of topic. Happy writing!

Thoughts on Becoming a Freelancer

'Power of Words' photo by Antonio Litterio; Wikimedia

I've been writing and getting paid for it for over 5 years. At first it was part time. But after doing it for a few years, I landed a full time gig with a local real estate agency where I manage content and social media.

Recently, I cut back from my day job because I've got lots of freelance work to do again, bringing me full circle. My hope is to eventually work myself out of my day job.

When I was still ramping up a couple of years ago, I wrote the following post on HubPages entitled My journey to freelancing. In it, I offer advice for someone who's thinking about trying their hand at freelancing or who may have started, but is feeling discouraged.

"I started writing for money about two and a half years ago. At the time I was a stay-at-home dad with one child in kindergarten and another in preschool. But I also had time on my hands. I have known since I was young that I am a decent writer, so I wondered if I could get paid to do it." READ MORE.

Perfection or Progress?

Throes of Creation by By Leonid Pasternak

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” — Ernest Hemingway

I don’t believe the phrase, ‘Practice makes perfect.’ My wife has a more accurate phrase that rings truer of my 41 years of observation and experience: “Practice makes progress.”

I don’t know if she made it up or heard it somewhere else, but I like it. The idea is to do something to the best of your ability, consistently, over and over and over. By doing this, you get better.

Write Every Day
Ray Bradbury encourages writers to, “write every day of your life.” He also adds that a writer should be a habitual reader as well. As a writer, you must write and write and write and write. And then write some more. By repetition, as long as we don’t repeat the same mistakes, we improve. I might write something that’s awful or something that I hate, but at least I am engaged in the writing process.

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” —Lawrence Block

Never Perfection BUT Always Progress
No article, story or book will ever be 100% perfect. After my writing gets published, I always re-read it. Every time, I see things I could have done differently. That’s not to say that what I write is riddled with mistakes. But there are always tweaks to be made - better word choices, fewer adverbs or saying things more concisely.

As is the case with anything you do, improvement is incremental. There are no shortcuts. Sometimes it comes easily. Sometimes I fight and claw for it. But every time I write, I improve. Even as I make mistakes (and recognize them as such), I get better. Even if I write badly, at least I’m writing and hopefully improving.