Fun With Photoshop

You may recall a blog post I submitted earlier this year, titled “Change the Channel.” In it I discussed the importance of channeling your creativity into a medium that isn’t writing. Simple enough. After some deliberation, I feel it’s time for another round of off-the-wall Photoshopped images.

Please keep in mind that these mocked-up images are playful takes on the originals. It’s all about having fun during your down time, right?

How a Little Fiction Can Help You in Your Real Life

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received this response when speaking about my favorite novels to nonfiction-lovers. While it’s true that Sherlock Holmes may not really be around to solve crimes and Hogwarts might not actually exist, that doesn’t make the worlds in which they exist any less relevant to us real folk.

Writing Tips From Tip-Top Writers

Demand writers often ask me to recommend books they can use to hone their composition skills. I invariably suggest these five, each of which I read annually:

Spotlight on Demand with Reina Glenn

Let’s get the basics nailed down first. Who are you and what do you do here? *Bonus points if you write in third-person!  

Challenge accepted…

Reina Glenn is the Associate Editor working in the Studio. She has a degree in English from UCLA, and is consequently a certified bookworm. She (not so sarcastically) calls herself a grandma, because she loves to bake and falls asleep far earlier than is acceptable for her age. Fun facts: she spent most of her adolescence onstage dancing and singing, she has a cat named Big Red, and she can beat box.

Take a Breather

Over the weekend, I was fortunate to pay a visit to one of my favorite spots in Southern California: The Huntington.

Located in Pasadena, The Huntington boasts an expansive library and eye-catching art collection, as well as a variety of botanical gardens. It’s the latter to which I am most drawn. I can spend all day strolling through The Huntington’s sprawling, 120-acre specialty gardens.

There’s something about recharging in nature that really fuels my creativity as a writer. Whether it’s hiking on a nearby trail or biking down the beach, taking the time to unwind outdoors rejuvenates the mind and body, which does great things for writer’s block.

For a dose of inspiration, here are some photos I snapped at The Huntington:

Writing About Tech to a Beginner’s Perspective

One of the trickiest parts about writing tech articles is figuring out the best way to explain beginner-level tasks, for which we can’t assume the reader is familiar with proper terms and seemingly obvious steps. In trying to work around that problem, I’ve found that the best solution is often to approach the task from a completely different angle.

Coping with Rejection as a Writer

I wanted to discuss that which we all (editors and writers alike) dread: a rejection. As a writer myself, I completely understand how disappointing and mojo-disrupting a rejection is. From the editor perspective, I can also tell you it’s not something anyone wants to do. But rejections happen sometimes, despite good efforts on the part of both the writer and the editor.

So, how do you get back in the saddle after a rejection? I certainly don’t have all the answers, of course, but will share a couple of thoughts that I hope might be helpful.

Your Most Frequently Asked Freestyle Questions, Answered!

There’s no such thing as a “stupid” question around here! With the new Content Creation Tool in full swing, it’s inevitable to run into a host of questions. As the community specialist and over-seer of the forums, I have gathered some of the most common questions I’ve received here in this blog.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Question: How do I get back to the Work Desk?

Answer: Click on the Demand Media Studios logo in the upper left-hand corner. Be sure to save your work first!

Tech Steps Forward, One Step Back

After my grandfather passed away in 2006, my grandmother — who had very little computer knowledge — needed to learn for the first time how to send email, browse the Web and save the photos that friends and relatives regularly sent her way.

As the “tech guy” in the family, she naturally leaned on me for training. But she taught me something important, too, as I helped her find her way. Her experiences in trying to master Windows XP and a DSL modem and a finicky inkjet printer helped me understand that the best coaching comes not just in answering the present question, but in framing it such that it also covers the next, unasked, question.

Do Slack Off

The Demand Media Studios office can be a hectic place. The day to day operations of keeping the Studio running require a boatload of hard work and teamwork. It involves a cast of characters that can range into the dozens who can be spread out across multiple departments. Needless to say, communication is important if we want to keep this operation running smoothly.