“Shoveling sand” is a 20-page zine that collects my favorite writing advice from several writers. I grouped quotes by themes including “keep a notebook,” “don’t worry about being popular,” and “get the first draft down.”
This zine measures 5.25 inches high x 4 inches wide. The cover is printed in full color on white cardstock. The interior pages are printed in black and white on 24 lb. white paper. Designed and laid out in Canva.
Lots of writing advice goes along the lines of “write for your reader” or “know your audience.” That’s the guideline for how to frame your writing, what voice to use, and what level of detail to include.
But what happens if you’re writing for a general audience–not a specific group?
Then how do you frame your writing?
One of my college professors gave advice that I still use: Assume your reader is intelligent but ignorant.
Write with the mindset that the reader doesn’t know your specific topic, but they’re smart and can understand what you’re writing. Then it doesn’t matter what knowledge or experience they have. You’re giving them what they need to follow along.
That’s more useful to me than writing for a specific audience.
Every so often I come across a blog post about the advantages of writing in plain text. And I think, Yeah! I should try that.
And then I might do it once or twice, and that’s it. Well, I’m trying again. I wrote this in plain text, actually! And Markdown! So there’s that.
The blog post that brought it up this time for me is this one by Derek Sivers.
Here’s a summary of why he likes working in plain text files:
Of course I went down a rabbit hole after I read Derek’s post, because that’s the sort of thing I do. Here are some more links about plain text files:
I mentioned Markdown, which is a lightweight coding language to add formatting to plain text. If you know what HTML tags look like, Markdown is a similar concept but with simpler syntax. Here’s a Markdown guide from Zapier.
I’m taking an online course about building a daily creative writing habit. The instructor introduced us to the Dream Delivery Service, a project by Mathias Svalina. Every day he writes dreams and delivers them to subscribers for a month at a time.
In class, we spent a few minutes writing a dream. It was both difficult and fun. I liked the exercise, so I wrote another dream, below. Enjoy.
You turn the page and keep reading. Your eyes skip down, skimming. You catch yourself and go back to the top of the page. You keep reading and you feel your focus skipping, just like your eyes were.
You know why. You can’t get into the story. The protagonist is written well. A young woman full of joy but not able to find a true partner in the love story. Too much will they?…won’t they?…and you’re not enjoying it.
You stand up and walk across the library. As you pass huge windows in the entrance, you notice it’s night time. You can’t see the moon through the windows but the stars are bright and shimmering. You keep walking, past the bank of computers, turn the corner, and walk up to the card catalog. The drawers are stacked so high, taller than you, but that’s okay. The ones you need are right in front of your hands.
You open a small drawer and find a series of tacos inside. All hard shell, placed in a row. The smell of warm chicken and beef fills the air.
You pick up a taco and start eating it, right there in front of the card catalog. With each bite, a book title pops into your head.
A biography.
A sci-fi novel.
A travel guide.
A series of plays.
You finish eating the first taco and pick up the second one. Again, each bite makes a book title flash in your mind. You concentrate harder as you chew, enjoying the taco, the way hearty flavors dance with bright citrus tangs. As you focus, you also see catalog numbers in your mind. The location along with each book title.
Still hungry, you pick up the third taco, taking careful bites so you don’t make a mess. Now you’re used to it: bite, book title, catalog number. A gentle nudge, a flash of words. You notice you aren’t remembering the titles. You see them too briefly. But that’s okay – you’re just browsing.
Done with the third taco and feeling content, you decide you’re done looking for something else to read. You close the card catalog drawer.
You walk back through the lobby and this time you notice blurry shadows on the floor.
The library is emptying and you walk out behind another patron. As you step outside, you notice a chill in the air that gently kisses your cheek.
You turn to walk home and just off the sidewalk, at the base of a tree, you see a book leaning against the trunk. You pick up the book and its weight feels perfect in your hands. You read the cover and this is it – this is the story you were looking for.
One thing I love about the internet is connecting with people all over the world. But as everyone knows, there is SO MUCH online. A lot of noise. And it can be difficult to filter through that noise when you want to reach people who share your hobbies and interests.
Add social media algorithms that determine what you see and when, and connecting becomes even more difficult.
I want a direct connection, and newsletters are the way to do that. So I’m starting one on Substack.
Every month I’ll send an update about my zines and creative projects I’m working on. I like sharing interesting things I find through other people, so some of that will go into the newsletter, too. I’ll end with a question or prompt…something we can talk about in the comments.
If you’re interested in my work, I hope you’ll subscribe. (It’s free.)