Tag: writing

Maybe Fitzgerald was wrong?

I’m excited about getting back into writing for the sheer fun of it. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Black notebook with caption, "A new chapter begins"

“There are no second acts in American life,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Maybe he was wrong. More likely, I’ve misinterpreted the meaning of that assertion, as have many others, apparently.

Anyway, in hopes of a fresh start in 2024 as I conclude a nearly 33-year career in higher education, I plan to commit more time to my first love: writing. And here’s where I’ll do it, right here on this blog I abandoned nearly six years ago.

This post marks the beginning of this second act, one devoted to writing for the fun of it.

Continue reading “Maybe Fitzgerald was wrong?”

Friday Five: not that you asked, but…

The Internet is full of unsolicited advice. Some of it is even useful. Here are five bits of counsel that may interest you:

  1. For writers: Five easy steps to editing your own work, by Anna Goldsmith of The Hired Pens, guest blogging at CopyBlogger.
  2. For marketers struggling with ROI of social media: Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent offers some ideas about measurement as part of a marketing meme making the rounds.
  3. For communicators, marketers, history buffs and closet socialists: FutureLab offers a lesson in mass communications with Soviet Propaganda – The Art of Mass Persuasion. Posted by Ilya Vedrashko on Thursday, the 90th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, it features Vedrashko’s slide show of images that “showcase some of the tools and techniques used by the Soviet AgitProp (agitation and propaganda) as well as other governments, democratic and otherwise, and how some of the imagery was borrowed by brand marketers.” Makes you wonder who really won the cold war.
  4. For web designers and managers: Sam Jackson’s take on why college and university web sites don’t make the grade.
  5. For alumni relations folks: Andy Shaindlin (alumni futures) introduces a new Facebook group just for you.

Bonus link: discovered later but for everyone — be they writers, editors, designers, marketers, bosses, bureaucrats, teachers, students … anyone and everyone: 10 Simple, Sure-fire Ways to Make Today Your Best Day Ever. Just gloss over the metaphysical portions if you like (although I recommend reading the whole thing). If you don’t read it today, read it before you go to work on Monday.

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Now playing: The New Pornographers – Adventures In Solitude
via FoxyTunes