Web and Blog Publishing Tips

I'm often astounded that Writers' Circles and even some publishers and e-zines often have pretty awful websites and blogs. So do some authors.

I'll be writing some guidelines soon (it's the day job, I'm not a know-all) but key pointers are:

Fonts and Text

• Use a web friendly font, such as Verdana, Arial or Trebuchet.
• Times New Roman looks old-fashioned and unprofessional.
• 'Fancy' fonts may not be recognised if visitors don't have that font installed on their PCs/laptops
• Fancy fonts, particularly italicised or handwriting styles are hard to read. People won't bother.
• Grey text is OK - if you're a designer - but it's hard to read. Surely you want your content to be accessible to everyone? Then keep it clean - black on a white or pale background is best; dark colours on a white or pale background is OK. Coloured text on a coloured background hurts, though white on black is favoured by some dyslexics.

Content

• Reading web content is very different to reading printed material. People scan web pages, seeking out headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists and keywords. If your page or blog is one long block of text, your visitors' eyes and concentration will tire quickly, so break it up.
• A joy of the web is that it is, or should be accessible to people with blindness and visual impairments (as well as other disabilities). Think about the font size you use. Think about the colours (see above) and colour-contrast.
• As writers, you are likely to attract visually impaired people who may be using screen-reading software such as JAWS or Browsealoud. So make sure your text is readable; avoid writing in italics, don't use ampersands and use plenty of subheaders on web pages - the software will read these out first before reading your text.
• Keep web pages short. Use short, punchy sentences. (I'm not talking about when you post your writing or poetry, but about information pages concerning you or your writing group, and maybe the services and benefits offered by your group).
• Use plain English

I'll be back with more soon...

Lily's Friday Prediction - on a Sunday

OK, so it's late. Bite me. I confess that last Friday I was too busy on hols in France where the WiFi was poor and the wine was cheap (actually, it was bloody expensive) to run the Friday prediction. Plus the fact that the great tome that has become my method of bibliomancy was at home by my bed - and I didn't feel another book would do. See - I'm already superstitious and precious about it.

So this latest prediction is on a Sunday - June 6th. Three great pieces of flash appeared for the last one, so it would be excellent to see more this time (or even the recounting of some spooky coincidence related to the words - it's not happened yet).

The three words, and unusually they include two doubles are:

• Barn Owl
• Ohio
• Single Malt

Get your noir, horrid and thrilling gnashers round that one. Over to you...

Lily's Friday Prediction - 28 May 2010

This week's words are rather boring I'm afraid, so perhaps a bigger challenge. Will the three words mean something to you? Let me know by commenting below or adding some flash fiction - 100 words max - using all three words.

If you can make something chilling and gruesome out of these, then all the better!

• Gated
• Commercial
• Presentation

For info on how the Friday prediction came about read this.

I'll see you...

This morning I walked my daughter to school. Taking the same route on the way back, I saw a playing card face down on the pavement that wasn't there before. It was a grubby thing. I wouldn't normally touch a piece of filth lying in the street and I did walk past.

I couldn't stop thinking about it. It had to have been put there for me. It could change everything. It would be the six of diamonds.

I retraced the 200 yards, crossing the main road in exactly the same place as a moment before. Marching towards the card with its traditional blue and white design that lay there still - waiting for me - I made sure there was no-one else around. I bent down to pick it up.

I held my breath. I took it between my fingers. I turned it over.

It was the nine of spades.

New* Lily's Friday Prediction

The Childs family have been doing a bit of bibliomancy over the last few weeks, for fun. The three of us each close our eyes, let the pages of our humongous dictionary fall open within our splayed fingers, then we point. Between us we end up with three words which have so far included such goodies as scallop, ampoule, Lagoda, reedy, caltrop and... my favourite - omniscient.

The idea was to see if we could make a prediction. If nothing happened (and so far, it hasn't) then at the very least we've ended up with some pretty good titles for novels - The Omniscient Scallop of Lagoda, for example.

Today, however, our three words were a little more menacing:

• Danger
• Ramshackle
• Georgian

Is some dilapidated historic construction going to collapse? Are Russians in fear of the rickety?

From now on, I'm going to post our three words every Friday. Open your mind, look for 'coincidence', feel the vibes, man - if you find the prediction has come true, post your comments here. Or if you'd rather add a little flash fiction (100 words max), then that's OK. Best to state if it's fiction though please!!

Made to Order

‘What’s your name?’

The woman shivered at the question, barely able to contain her excitement.

’Maggie. Mrs Margaret Droit’.

The man nodded, his expression serious as he made notes.

‘Friday then Mrs Droit. Your curtains will be prepared and ready.’

Maggie hesitated.

‘Don’t you deliver?’

Solomon Pincett looked at the woman standing before him. The pale blue of her sensible suit a stark contrast to the slapped red of her cheeks. She must be twenty-five maybe. She looked fifty. What a waste. He had no sympathy and charged an extra five percent for the inconvenience.


Maggie was ready. The room was ready. She paced up and down, staring at the phone, daring it to ring and for someone to tell her they weren’t coming. At 3pm precisely Pincett’s van trundled up the driveway.


He wasn’t pleased.

‘Are you telling me you want me to hang them too?’

‘If I recall, Pincett, I made that quite clear.’

Solomon draped the heavy fibres until they fell in perfect folds, ruched in waves. When he left, with a few shillings for his trouble, Maggie locked all the doors and windows. She unplugged the phone and stood at the window. She stroked her purchase, sheets of cream tripe hung in thick curtains, trembling at her touch. She fell on them, dug her fingers into the honeycomb, rammed her tongue into the cold lace. She sucked.

Maggie wrapped herself in the swathes of offal, relishing the cold embrace. Blanketed in congealed innards she lay down to wait. Oliver would be home from the city in a few hours. She was pregnant, he’d be so proud. He’d ignore her cravings.

Fox and Goldfrapp

No horror. No apologies. The tales are stirring - fizzing even - in my head.

But in the meantime I'm having a nostalgic afternoon and reminiscing about the amazing Noosha Fox's 'Only You Can' from 1975. It was one of the first singles I bought (as a young child of course). I loved her eccentricity and 30s glamour and clothing. Completely adore gorgeously talented Alison Goldfrapp these days, who is surely influenced by Noosha?