Welcome, writer fam, to the latest edition of our Newsication. (Newsication? What the hell is that? I hear you ask. Check out Issue #002)
We are currently working on a new logo, as the quality of the current one just doesn’t seem to be holding up. We will put a few new designs up, for the community to vote on, in the next issue. Or, if you think we should just get the current one fixed, let us know in the comments.
What is this about a theme song? Well, recently, JD stumbled across a post about a movie on, “Weird Al” Yankovic. (2022). Reminding him about the classic song, Word Crimes. Here are the lyrics, though. We think this should be our official unofficial theme song. What do you think?
Everybody shut up, woo!
Everyone listen up!
Hey, hey, hey, uh
Hey, hey, hey
If you can't write in the proper way
If you don't know how to conjugate
Maybe you flunked that class
And maybe now you find
That people mock you online
Okay, now here's the deal
I'll try to educate ya
Gonna familiarize
You with the nomenclature
You'll learn the definitions
Of nouns and prepositions
Literacy's your mission
And that's why I think it's a
Good time
To learn some grammar
Now, did I stammer
Work on that grammar
You should know when
It's "less" or it's "fewer"
Like people who were
Never raised in a sewer
I hate these word crimes
Like “I could care less”
That means you do care
At least a little
Don't be a moron
You'd better slow down
And use the right pronoun
Show the world you're no clown
Everybody wise up!
Say you got an "I", "T"
Followed by an apostrophe, "s"
Now what does that mean?
You would not use "it's" in this case
As a possessive
It's a contraction
What's a contraction?
Well, it's the shortening of a word or a group of words
By the omission of a sound or letter
Okay, now here's some notes
Syntax you're always mangling
No "x" in "espresso"
Your participle's danglin'
But I don't want your drama
If you really wanna
Leave out that Oxford comma
Just keep in mind
That "be", "see", "are", "you"
Are words, not letters
Get it together
Use your spellchecker
You should never
Write words using numbers
Unless you're seven
Or your name is Prince
I hate these word crimes
You really need a
Full-time proofreader
You dumb mouth-breather
Well, you should hire
Some cunning linguist
To help you distinguish
What is proper English
One thing I ask of you
Time to learn your homophones is past due
Learn to diagram a sentence too
Always say "to whom"
Don't ever say "to who"
And listen up when I tell you this
I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis
You finished second grade
I hope you can tell
If you're doing good or doing well
About better figure out the difference
Irony is not coincidence
And I thought that you'd gotten it through your skull
What's figurative and what's literal
Oh but, just now, you said
You literally couldn't get out of bed
That really makes me want to literally
Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head
I read your e-mail
It's quite apparent
Your grammar's errant
You're incoherent
Saw your blog post
It's really fantastic
That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!)
'Cause you write like a spastic
I hate these Word Crimes
Your prose is dopey
Think you should only
Write in emoji
Oh, you're a lost cause
Go back to pre-school
Get out of the gene pool
Try your best to not drool
Never mind I give up
Really now I give up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Go away!
We’d now like to open up a serious conversation with the community. Artificial Intelligence. We would love to hear your opinions on it. Would also like to take the opportunity to let you know JD’s article, which is in today’s issue, also got picked up for publication in the Medium publication AI Monks.
We are also on Medium, Substack and Zirkels. We’ve enabled chat and notes on Substack. Whatever platform you read this on, if you have a question, a suggestion, or some feedback. Please do reach out. Or in the WritersWithoutWalls communities below.
We currently have two communities for you to choose from.
Writers Without Walls on Entre – All are welcome. This is a safe place for writers to learn about Web3 from other writers that have been there. There will be resources, guides, courses and many experienced Web3 people to bounce questions off before you even decide if you want to explore Web3.
Writer Without Walls on NAS.io – This is our Web3 community, whatever level you are at with exploring Web3, you are welcome. There will also be resources, guides, and courses available.
From David’s Desk.
Nashville Rock n Roll Half Marathon
Good afternoon everyone!
It’s been a while. I apologize for that.
This year has been amazing so far, but I think I bit off too much in terms of content creation and side projects. As such, I inevitably burnt out and just needed a break.
I’m slowly trying to build my habits back in and figure out exactly what I want to do.
While I continue making short videos, my true passion for content creation is still writing.
For me, it’s more enjoyable than listening to my own voice or trying to understand video editing software or Tik Tok. But…I will continue learning those things, too, as they are valuable skills to know.
All that to say, I have really wanted to write some posts about running.
So here we go!
Read the full article here.
From JD’s Desk
Revolutionizing Writing: Using AI to Enhance Your Writing.
How AI Can Take Your Creative Process to the Next Level
Are you a writer struggling to bring your stories to life? Do you often find yourself stuck with a lack of ideas or unable to create relatable characters? Fear not, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to help! In this blog post, we’ll delve into the ways AI can elevate your writing from average to exceptional by assisting in character development and storyline creation. Whether you’re a planner or a pantser, AI has something for everyone who wants to take their writing to new heights. We will also look into the possible pitfalls of using AI and how we can balance the use of AI for writing enhancement.
AI’s Role in Developing Realistic Characters
Creating realistic, relatable characters can be a daunting task for any writer. But with AI, you can craft characters that are more human than ever before. By analyzing real-life behaviour patterns, psychology, and personality traits, AI can help you create characters that are flawed and relatable. Say goodbye to one-dimensional heroes and villains! With AI, you can take your character development to the next level and create truly unforgettable characters. There are many tools available to writers to assist in character development, both traditional and AI-based tools. Such as Trello, Campfire Pro, Persona and ChatGPT, to name a few. The trick with AI tools is to become adept at prompt engineering. When you don’t get the desired output, you need to work on your prompts.
AI’s Impact on Crafting Compelling Storylines
Read the full article here.
This issue’s guest writer is — Kit Campoy
Kit Campoy is a former retail leader turned freelance writer based in Southern California. She covers Retail, Leadership, Web3, and more.
Revolutionize Your Content Game with This One Simple Trick
Kit Campoy
The secret is in your comments
“The truth is, most people wouldn’t last a week on a retail floor.”
That was the opening line I wrote on a LinkedIn post that went viral. The post was about the abundance of talent in retail leadership that often goes unnoticed.
Lucky for me, I had a link to my newsletter in the post, so that edition of the newsletter went viral too. My newsletter is called The Voice of the Frontline and it mirrors what I do on LinkedIn. It’s the unfiltered version.
The most interesting aspect of this is all the comments. Read your comments — all of them. There’s so much great stuff in there. I’ve already written two articles from that one post. This one makes number three.
That post is approaching 500K views. It’s still getting shared, and I have more comments every day. (You can view the post here.)
This comment showed up today.
“But what’s the future of retail managers?
Most companies are restructuring to remove positions, meaning managers are even further away from their teams, less influence and definitely negative effects for both managers and teams.”
Whew, I could talk about this for hours.
Here’s the thing, I probably will.
The following article you read from me could be all about this.
“You can’t go viral if you don’t hit publish.”Virality is not crucial to writing online and finding your audience. It’s great when it happens, but you never can tell when lightning will strike.
The most important thing is showing up consistently and hitting publish. You can’t go viral if you don’t hit publish. The next most important aspect is to read the comments and interact.
This corner of the internet is social. Be social. Your readers will give you fantastic ideas for future content.
I responded to the comment above and will continue to write more about that topic.
Go niche — really niche — when you can.
It’s a great idea to write about whatever you fancy. It gets your brain working in new ways. However, when I go granular about retail leadership, the community loses their minds.
I spent twenty years running retail teams, so I write content like an insider — because I am one.
What do you know better than anyone else? What comes so naturally that you don’t think when you do it anymore? Write about that.
A guy on Tik Tok talks about all the stuff you can do around your house with WD40. That’s like 99% of his content. Guess what? It works! I watch it, and I’ll never use most of his tips.
“Post, read comments, respond, and repeat.”
You don’t need a viral post to get some good comments. Post regularly, and you’ll accumulate some outstanding ones.
One comment could inspire three Medium articles, two Twitter posts, or four LinkedIn posts. You know where I’m going with this. Monitor your comments and pay attention to where they lead you.
People comment on what catches their eye or what they want to know more about. That, my friend, is where you want your content to go.
When you follow those leads, your content is more likely to go viral because you’re tuning into the social zeitgeist. You dig?
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Benefits to blogging, podcasting or creating videos on Zirkels.
Tony chats about this -> Watch it here Watch out for the Demogorgon!
Or, if you prefer, you can read the article by Dennis. Click on the image.
Back Issues
What is Writers Without Walls?
#001 — With Guest Writer Meiko S. Patton
#002 — With Guest Writer CD Damitio
#003 — With Guest Writer Phillip Matheson
#004 — With Guest Writer Bryan M. Powell
#005 — With Guest Writer Randhir Hebbar
