by Ryan Lanz

I love the show Survivor. I know, I know. It’s a guilty pleasure.

I’m a bit of a junkie for the show. I’ve probably seen 90% of the episodes since it started 57 years ago (ish). May Jeff Probst never retire. I was wondering to myself why I love the show so much. Sure, the scenery is beautiful, and the challenges are fun to watch. But plenty of shows have that sort of thing. Then it hit me: the conflict. Survivor is rife with conflict. People are selected from different walks of life and put together as strangers in a high stress environment. Shenanigans ensue.

Hello to all the story Empire readers. I hope everyone had a good Memorial day weekend. For those of us not on vacation, it’s been back to work and with that in mind I thought I would provide a few writing-tips to get the most out of your dictation.

One of the main reasons to begin using the dictation as a writing tool is because of workload. In my case, my new job reduced my ability to accomplish enough writing so dictation became necessary. Otherwise, you may find that your writing demands have increased and you simply must accomplish more in the available time. Here are some ways to transition to dictation that I found helpful.

Follow a Script

When I began using Dragon several months ago, I quickly realized there was more to dictation than simply speaking words into a microphone. Without some preparation, I tended to have numerous…

Hold on a sec, I got some thoughts about your memoir

You open your email, and O frabjous day! A publisher has come calling! They’ve seen your work in a literary magazine and wonder if you have a chapbook, or would like to be in their anthology.  Or you didn’t win a contest, but your work “shows merit” and “deserves to be published.” Maybe you wanted a faster process than querying agents, or figured your work better suited a small press, so you cast out to a few publishers, and one has bitten.

You read a little further. This publishing house “considers work for both traditional and hybrid publishing.” If your book is seen as better suited to a hybrid deal—perhaps due to “the difficulty in placing the books of new or untried authors, as well as the general increased competition in publishing today”—the publisher feels “that it may…

As many of you know, in my day job I work as a web developer. Most of my skills I’ve picked up in the past 25 years of web design, from Internet marketing to social media, have proven useful once I started writing. One of them was logo design: I’ve helped a number of clients with their logos; something that is often a slow, arduous process.

Well, no more! I was recently approached by a company called DesignEvo to test-drive their online logo designer and I was amazed. Within seconds, I designed my first logo. Thay have a gazillion templates and graphics to choose from, making the process as painless as you can possibly imagine. Best of all, they store your logos for you so you can edit them in the future, should you (or a client) decide on, say, a new color.

So, are you interested in a…

Digital Social Me – Do I Have Choice?

Social Identity: ‘The recognition of one’s potential and qualities as an individual, especially in relation to social context:

Caring can become the defining characteristic of women’s self-identity.’

Other forms of social identity are how one is recognized in the sporting world, whether as a player or a spectator. How one is accepted by their peers, such as school, family, work, religion, cults, sports, hobbies etc. Even how one is amongst others that simply share their place on the planet. Social identity is how one is perceived by others, and even more importantly how one is perceived by ‘themselves’ in their social circle. ‘Socialization’ enables us to fit into social groups and make adjustments to new situations’ Poole, M & Germov.

The Digital Self
Then there is the ‘Digital Identity’ Deborah Lupton states, ‘Accessing our news, music, television, films via digital platforms and…

A book review — your opinion about a book based on evidence from it. We’ve seen them on Amazon and Goodreads. We may have even read a few… but are we writing them, too?

Wait? Writing a book review? I can’t do that. I don’t know how to do that… Please don’t ask me! Please!

But you can! I promise. (If you want to, that is…) All you need is a little bit of time and a book… I’ll take you through the “Why,” the “What,” and the “How” of writing a review.

Why should I?

Before we get into the how, let’s discuss the why. Why should I write a book review? Why does it matter if I write a review? Why do authors care about reviews? Why do readers care about reviews?

I’ll let a few authors tell you the answers to these questions!

• Book reviews bring in…

Good morning writers, I hope you’ve had a great week.

My week has been quite a drag and full of ups and downs. Good days and bad days. It got me thinking about how to stay motivated, how do you keep writing when life is busy and complicated and you are tired and stressed.

It can be really hard to stick to your story, especially as it can feel like it’s taking a lifetime to finish your drafts and edits. So, I thought I’d share some of the ways I keep myself motivated, in the hope it will help other writers when they’re struggling.

1. Look back on how far you’ve come
Writing is a long process that requires a great deal of patience and dedication. When you feel unmotivated take some time to look back at how far you’ve already come. You can do this by re-reading what you’ve…