Welcome to the official author's blog for Pico Triano. From this site you can find links to most of my online writing. The menu below will bring you to some of my more popular work and allow you to navigate the site. In the sidebar you will find feeds listing the latest articles on all my websites. Relax take you time and enjoy your visit.

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Grammar Nazis: My Thoughts


A reviewer on one of the sites I submit writing to recently wrote something that kind of boggles my mind. This person noticed a punctuation error in the first sentence in a piece I had just posted and stated that they would normally stop reading at that point, dismissing the entire thing. They praised the rest of the article. I'm not saying grammar and punctuation are not important but to reject something on the first perceived technical error that has no bearing on the content for me is a little over the top. I thanked the reviewer and corrected the error, but I still can't quite get this out of my mind.

If you are a grammar nazi, I like to think of you as a useful friend. I'm a storyteller first and a writer second. I deal in ideas, motives, plots and sometimes grammar and punctuation take a backseat. I need you guys to help me deal with my obvious weaknesses as a writer. If I'm dismissed on the first minor error, we haven't done each other any good at all.

I'm going to take this a bit further. I've been a member of writing.com for quite a number of years now. I have friends there that can write grammatically flawless rough drafts punctuated to perfection. When it comes to writing fiction, though, many of them struggle to create living breathing characters. The writing is often dead and boring. My daughter who is also a member of that site has noticed the same thing. Between us, we have written over 1400 reviews on that site alone.

The point is that we need each other. We creative types need help from those know the nuts and bolts of the language. Please don't look on me as some kind of lesser species because I struggle to correctly use commas. Keep reading and maybe you can learn something.

Friday 2 October 2015

Doing Work in the Background



My spare time is spent right now doing background work to make my freelance writing efforts succeed in the long term.

I am studying to become a better copywriter. Some of my efforts show definite improvement. In a little over two weeks I wrote two articles on Hubpages. Both of those articles have been written with improving visibility of my writing in mind. The first one surpassed my all time Hubpages article view count in just over two weeks without social media promotion or even back links from my blogs. I'm impressed with the results. I'm hoping the second one follows the same pattern although I have begun promoting it. Links for both these articles are at the bottom of this post. If the subject matter is of interest to my readers, by all means click through and have a look.

I am also building files to help me work faster and more efficiently. I am uploading links for title swipe files, article templates and more. One of my biggest short comings as a freelancer is that I take way too long to write an article. If I am going to earn decent income from this, I need to produce material at a faster rate. I can do it. I think I can earn a side income that will stabilize our family finances from my writing. This should give me enough financial wiggle room to get my woodturning rolling as well.

For my readers. You should begin hearing more from me over the next month and beyond.
                                                        
http://picotriano.hubpages.com/hub/forum_content_writing

How to Become an Effective Paid Forum Content Writer

This article outlines my methodology for creating and making a side income as a forum content writer.


http://picotriano.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Get-the-Most-Out-of-Self-study-Courses


How to Get the Most Out of Self-study Courses

Basic overview of how to succeed with self-study programs. Written as a test of what I've learned so far and to see how much difference it makes in regards to view count.