March forth on March 4 to celebrate National Grammar Day! How have you celebrated this glorious day?

This year Mignon Fogarty, affectionately known as Grammar Girl, has gracefully taken on the role as the host for National Grammar Day. National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG).

Both ladies are authors, as well; Fogarty has authored Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (not dirty in the least!) and The Grammar Devotional, and Brockenbrough has authored Things That Make Us (Sic): The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar Takes on Madison Avenue, Hollywood, the White House, and the World.

We’ve already accomplished one of our goals for the day:

National Grammar Day has been a trending topic at Twitter all day.

GO GRAMMAR!

Check out the great new look of the National Grammar Day Web site, containing loads of entertaining features, including grammar myths, a songwriting hall of shame, funny typos, grammar noir, cartoons, fun with grammar scenarios, free teaching materials, even an e-card for your loved ones — and who can forget this amusing music video (view it below) of the new theme song, “March Forth.” Get it? March 4th? (Check out my informal poll below the video — I’d love to hear your thoughts.)

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! — Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl)

And so I ask you, dear readers, 1) what are your favorite things about grammar or punctuation, and 2) what are your pet peeves?

Mine? Well, I love the interrobang as a punctuation mark, and I dislike most chat speak. One specific pet peeve, though: the spelling “kewl” for “cool.” I mean, both are four letters, and take the same amount of time to type. “Cool” may even be quicker since the two O’s are side by side. Besides, every time I see “kewl” I hear it in Valley girl-speak in my head, i.e., “kyule.”

Mrs. Write Right, Word Therapist is proud to be a founding partner of National Grammar Day.

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So, I was just logging in to my blog to plan some posts and get back to posting here again, and I saw that a writer-friend had just posted a comment today! What impeccable timing, and what’s that old adage about, “Things happen for a reason”? Haha!

So, yes, I’m back. I’ve said it time and again, that I feel like I need to keep up with the Jones’ of the writing & blogging world, but I just can’t, so I’m not even going to try anymore. I’m not meant to write daily articles about the freelance writing life, at least not right now — but I can share inspiring tidbits. Freelance writing is only one of my jobs, anyway; I also edit, moderate online communities, and manage social media. I also blog about other subjects, including musical theatre.

I don’t always feel like I “fit in” with other freelance writers, as well as mommy bloggers (since I had a miscarriage in June 2008, and am struggling with some fertility issues). But that’s okay!

Lately I’ve been stumbling upon some great links, videos, quotes, and articles, though — and I want to share that greatness with you. And who knows what else I might share along the way? You never know!

So, as my About page now reads:

When I first started this blog it was for me to write about writing, editing, etc. After I gained a following I felt compelled to “keep up with the Jones’” (i.e., other freelance writers) and try to write informative articles about freelance writing. I’ve since discovered that just isn’t me, my heart isn’t in it. In my opinion, there are more than enough blogs that feature articles about the freelancing life. So, I’ve decided to just be me, and make this blog a smorgasbord of interesting things I discover and want to share, whether they be links to other freelance writing blogs, or videos that pertain somehow, or relevant articles in the news. Along the way I’ll share my creative thoughts (when they occur). I hope you’ll join me in this journey.

(And I apparently like to say, “So.”)

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Check out the changes at Absolute Write, the best writing forum in the world.

We are now known as Absolute Bite!

Click the banner below to check out our new look!

APRIL FOOL’S!

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Okay, so I fibbed.

I happened upon the Flexibility theme and decided to try it out.

It’s got a whole lotta ways to customize in its own panel inside Wordpress. (I widened the whole thing, both the post section and the sidebars.)

It’s got a great support forum.

It looks uber-professional, even in the demo (but not quite on my site). I love the top and bottom feature areas, but don’t have any use for them at the moment, perhaps in the future.

I’m still playing around with the theme itself, customizing colors and such, but I think it’s the theme I’ll be sticking with for a while. I still love Vigilance, but the thin sidebars were a bit too thin, and I had to move things around in such a way that I didn’t really like. Maybe someday I’ll go back to that, though, because I really did love the look of it.

In other news, I’ve got a neat new gig that I’ll be announcing soon, hopefully within the next few days to a week. I’m excited!

~Julia

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I can’t quite explain why I’ve been so sparse with posting. It could be because I’m working to stay updated with Musical Reviewer and Writers Remember, or busy with my new community moderator gig at MyCycle. (At least I’m keeping up with something(s), even if it’s not my own blog!)

It could be a combination of the above and my miscarriage and the death of my father.

Or it could be that I wasn’t feeling inspired by my blog’s theme.

(I think that was more the problem.)**

The Problem: Uninspired by Blog’s Look

Even before I got back into posting in January/February, I avoided my blog like the plague because I had fallen out of love with its look. I wasn’t inspired to come and share my writing thoughts; the old theme no longer held a “Welcome” sign for me.

If you only knew the hours I’ve put in trying to find the perfect theme — it’d be obvious I’m not completely neglecting this blog.

I’ve also been helping a friend design his website, and I think that’s what got me so restless about the look of my own blog. I’ve been experimenting with code, trying my hand at a little bit of web design, utilizing Wordpress as a CMS (content management system), of course.

The Solution: Loving One’s Theme

Amazingly, I’ve discovered how important it is to have a theme or template that you LOVE. This can truly help you to feel more at home at your blog, and help to inspire you.

Let’s face it — if you don’t feel comfortable in a certain location, you’re not going to easily express yourself. Well, it’s kind of the same thing when it comes to blogging. A blog is your own personal space. Who wants to write where they don’t even feel comfortable?

So, it’s taken me some time to find the right theme for me, but I am finally in love. I haven’t felt this way about a theme for this blog since a few years ago, when I discovered the Apple theme for Wordpress. At the time, it matched the colors on my website: deep red and light green.

Now that my website features a lime-ish green, I felt my blog needed a change. I didn’t even mean to make it green, but I just wanted a professional-looking theme, something that looks like a theme that one of the big probloggers would use. When I first got a peek at Vigilance by Jestro, I knew it was what I was looking for in a Wordpress theme.

I especially love the “Announcement” box feature on the main page, above the newest entry!

EDIT: I’m also test-driving Flexibility and Grid Focus. I’ll probably switch back and forth over the next few days to see which fits me better.

The one quirk about Vigilance that bothers me is how the green border/background color sticks around for an extra moment while the site loads, so it appears that the green is the background of the entire site. It doesn’t do that on other sites that use the theme, with other various colors. Or maybe it’s just on my computer. It may drive me crazy enough to change the border to a cream color. White is just too… white.

** Of course, it could also have something to do with being a perfectionist, editing and rewriting posts to get the just right before posting them. Sometimes you (or I) just need to click “Publish.” Yeah, I’m preaching to the choir.

Still, I’m quite happy with my blog’s new look. *grin*

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