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.

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.”)

We are now known as Absolute Bite!

Click the banner below to check out our new look!

APRIL FOOL’S!

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

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*

In honor of this glorious day I’d like to introduce you to the recipients of the 2008 SPOGG Awards. (SPOGG stands for The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, started by Martha Brockenbrough.)

So, without further ado… direct from the National Grammar Day website:

The 2008 SPOGG Awards

March 4 is National Grammar Day, and as part of our festivities, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar is handing out SPOGG Awards to the U.S. city and to the U.S. celebrity with the worst grammar.

The City with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to Columbia, South Carolina, where spelling is monumentally bad—at least in one particular cemetery. SPOGG member Chris Cole sent in the winning photo, which won by a substantial margin.

The mayor of Columbia, Bob Coble, had no comment. Read more…

The Celebrity with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to President George W. Bush, who does not realize the plural of “child” is “children,” not “childrens.”

He beat Paris Hilton, who produced T-shirts that say “THATS HOT” without the apostrophe, and Courtney Love, who generates so many errors per inch of text on her blog that even the best instruments known to grammar scientists have failed to record them all. (See the contestants in their full glory.)

SPOGG thanks its members for their submissions and votes. SPOGG would also like to note that this contest is completely unscientific, and that the SPOGG Awards have a cash value of less than 1/20th of a cent.

Till next year…

Don’t forget to visit the following sites:
Martha’s site
Martha’s blog
The SPOGG site
The SPOGG blog
The National Grammar Day website

Today, March 3, 2009 (3/3/09), is Square Root Day. (If you’ve been out of school for a while, three is the square root of nine.)

In the words of CNET News:

Tuesday is Square Root Day, a rare holiday that occurs when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year. Numerically, March 3, 2009, can be expressed as 3/3/09, or mathematically as √9 = 3, or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9.

Square Root Day occurs only nine times in each century, and on the same dates each time. The last one occurred on a Groundhog Day, February 2, 2004 (2/2/04), and the next will occur in seven years on April 4, 2016 (4/4/16). The last square root day of this century will occur on September 9, 2081 (9/9/81).

Redwood City teacher, Ron Gordon, told the AP about a contest he started in honor of Square Root Day, in which the winner receives $339.

How can you celebrate? Some people take root vegetables and cut them into squares. Or you can prepare food in the shape of the square root symbol.

According to Scientific American:

Because of the nature of perfect squares, the wait time between square root days increases by two years each time as the century unfolds—five years separated the previous square root day from today’s, seven years will pass before the next square root day in 2016, and nine years will elapse before the following one in 2025. But after the final square root of this century, September 9, 2081 (9/9/81), there will be a slightly prolonged layover before the 22nd century starts its own run of square root days on January 1, 2101 (1/1/01).

The complete list of dates is as follows:
1/1/01
2/2/04
3/3/09
4/4/16
5/5/25
6/6/36
7/7/49
8/8/64
9/9/81

Sources:
Scientific American
CNET News
Associated Press
Wikipedia

Stay tuned for tomorrow, March 4, when we celebrate National Grammar Day!

Better late than never, right?

This week has been Freelance Writers Appreciation Week 2009. So, even though today is Friday, it’s not too late. Have you appreciated a freelance writer this week? If you’re a freelance writer, have you been appreciated this week?

It’s not too late. Freelance Writers Appreciation Week lasts a couple more days, and hey, Valentine’s Day even falls within this special week. Couldn’t have planned that any better. Chocolate, anyone?

So, how did YOU celebrate this week? What do you most appreciate about being a freelance writer?

By the way, here’s a little link love in honor of the weekend of Freelance Writers Appreciation Week:

Kristen King at Inkthinker posted this great list of the Top 100 Books for Freelance Writers. She’s even got them organized into categories. Check it out!

Where to begin? I’ve been through a lot in the last year; 2008 was a doozy.

My father died of a heart attack in January (2008), and I had a miscarriage, losing our first baby in June (right around Father’s Day weekend, at that!). I mentioned about my dad here, but I don’t think I ever mentioned that I was pregnant, let alone that I had a miscarriage.

I just didn’t know what to say. I haven’t known what to say for many months now.

I have so much inside that needs to be written, needs to be healed. This blog needs to be a safe place I can come to, a sanctuary, rather than a place I avoid because I wrongly compare myself with other writers and what they have to offer. I can’t compete with some of the knowledge that some other bloggers share, but I hope that I can inspire.

Which brings me to a revelation about a new meaning to Mrs. Write Right, Word Therapist. Not only do I enjoy engaging in word therapy like rescuing excess apostrophes, saving commas from being spliced, and repairing injured & abused words, but word therapy can also convey a therapeutic meaning. I’ve been involved in counseling before, and I know how talking and writing through things can be therapeutic. So, this blog has a new purpose involving word therapy — using writing to heal.

As I test the waters of social networking once again, I look forward to reconnecting with my writer friends as well as meeting some new folks.

I’ve already gotten back into Twitter and I’ve been overwhelmed with “welcome backs,” so apparently I wasn’t forgotten.

I culled through my RSS feed reader. I’m left with, for the most part, blogs I really care about, though probably still more than I need to be subscribed to, but hopefully I’ll feel less overwhelmed trying to keep up with everyone.

For now I probably won’t be blogging articles about the freelancing life, as many of my writer colleagues are doing. That’s one of the things that gets me overwhelmed with unrealistic expectations about what I “need” to offer my readers.

Rather, I am reembarking on finding where I fit as a writer-editor, since I haven’t really written creatively in a quite a while, and it’s something I need to allow myself the freedom to reengage in. I’m planning to head in a more inspirational direction, rather than monetizing, how-tos, etc. Those are wonderful topics, but they’re just not what I do. I’m focusing on words and writing as therapy. As of course there will be some punctuation and grammar topics along the way — I love those!

Let’s face it: I love to write. I love to write creatively. And if you’re here reading this, you probably do, too. We all need a little inspiration along the way, and I hope we can share some with each other.

You might also notice that the blog template itself is going through some changes. I’m not sure if I’ve found one I’ll stick with yet, but with the new look of my website, I felt I needed something new.

As we go forth, I hope to inspire and be inspired. Welcome back to Mrs. Write Right, Word Therapist!

Cheers,
Julia

http://www.temlynwriting.com