From the lack of recent posts, you might conclude that I’m not doing much writing lately. You’d be wrong. It’s OK, we all make mistakes. I forgive you.

So I’m not cranking out thousands of words a day (I’m lucky if I get an hour a day to spend at it), but I am actually working. On projects. How about them italics? I rewrote a scene of a short story this morning, I have a feel-good family piece in the edit queue after that one’s done, and somewhere in there I’ll be getting back to the novel.

For awhile, I was waking up in the morning thinking “I have to do these writing prompts first thing so I can get warmed up.” And doing the prompts. And nothing else.

Before the writing prompts, it was “I have to write another blog post so I can attract legions of loyal fans who hang on my every word.”

Those things are all well and good, of course, but I have to write before I can justify writing about writing.

Oh, and I also have a special assignment for tonight. I should have more news about that within the week. Don’t touch that dial.

While you’re waiting — go follow copyhacker on Twitter, and send in some fugly web copy!

I’ve decided to reboot an old venture.

A couple of years ago, I started a site called Copyhacker with the intent of exposing awful web copy. (I posted it here as well, and I still have the badge in my sidebar.) It didn’t go far — perhaps because I emailed each target I found, and then decided that was a really annoying sales tactic.

The idea stuck with me, though, and today the Copyhacker is back. No silly sales tactics, just a place to post crappy copy and practice on it with my red pen. If you have a suggestion, email hackme at copyhacker dot com. Better yet, follow copyhacker on Twitter, and @reply with potential targets. Because who hasn’t seen garbage like this on a site somewhere?

Once again, many thanks to Bryan for the terrific styling and WordPress hackery.

Ford Motor Sells Land Rover, Jaguar to India’s Tata
(from Bloomberg)

An icon of British imperialism, sold by one former British colony to another.

(I’m a former owner of both brands, and the son of a Ford devotee — so this is sad news to me.)

The current wave of artists from the U.K., including KT Tunstall, James Blunt, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, is setting new standards across a multitude of musical genres, that you simply must catch.

(I took a photo for maximum effect, but it was too blurry to use.)

Once upon a time I did a Oneword every day. I’ve fallen out of that practice (not to mention the practice of posting in general), but I’ve replaced it with something just as cool: Twitter. If you’ve never seen Twitter, its premise is to get you to answer the question “What are you doing right now?” It accepts SMS messages, so responses must be kept to 140 characters or less.

On the surface it sounds like a time-waster, and certainly it has that potential. But there’s a lot for a writer to love about the concept. That 140-character constraint is magical. It’s challenging and fun to attempt to write something interesting about myself in such a small space — something that might catch a random reader’s eye. Follow the minutiae of my daily life at http://twitter.com/gravelpup. Sign yourself up if you’re up for the challenge.

(This post was written on my iPhone on its last 10% of battery charge. A constraint of a different sort.)

I swore I would quit writing “I’m a big slacker” posts. I haven’t posted in seven months, so I guess I’ve stuck to that pledge.

There have been a few changes around here. I have a new daughter and a new job. My already-scarce free time has vanished. Yes, I still want to write. More than I want to fly, or play Ultimate, or ski, or any of those other hobbies that come and go. I’m not going to try to make a career of it, though. I’d rather do this out of desire than obligation.

When I was a kid, I wanted a career in music. I mentioned this to a teacher, and he took me aside and told me that I could always enjoy playing or singing, without the pressure of having to make a living out of it. I’m sure that was his way of saying I didn’t have the talent, but that’s ok. I have a feeling I’d enjoy music less if it were my job.

So you won’t be reading much here about writing for profit from now on. I’d rather write because, and when, I want to — about whatever I want to write about. You might see more technology-related material. I don’t have the urge to write anything too technical, so there won’t be much code if any. I’m most motivated to write when it’s an escape from the day job. I want to make myself do more creative writing, and that may be easier if I’m not trying to build a copywriter’s portfolio.

You’ll probably catch a whiff of sour grapes in these words, but that’s ok too. I could try to edit it out, but this post has been sitting on my desktop unfinished for over a month and sticking out its tongue at me.

I think for awhile I was making this a blog about writing, which was a mistake. It shouldn’t be about writing, or Ruby, or culture, or gadgets, or my kids, or anything. From now on, it’s a blog for writing.

Thanks for reading. That is all.

I sent my comatose 4th-generation iPod to iPodResQ for $29. The fee buys you overnight shipping and a diagnosis. They called the next day, and quoted me $130 to repair it (turns out the battery and logic board were toast). No thanks — I’ve since commandeered my wife’s seldom-used Nano. So I turned down the repair.

“Would you like us to buy it from you for $38?”

Hmm… I make nine bucks, I don’t have another dead gadget lying around pegging my guilt-meter, I don’t feel like I wasted $30 on a diagnosis, and they get to refurb and sell my iPod (certainly for a bit more than $9). What’s not to like?

That scheme is just plain genius.

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered this past year, it’s that writers spend at least as much time avoiding their art as they spend practicing it. I don’t know why that’s more true of writers than of actors or painters or musicians, but there it is.

If you’re as guilty as the rest of us, Jeffrey Yamaguchi of 52 Projects has some simple remedies. His tips include joining a writing group, entering contests, and carrying a journal around with you at all times (I’ve got this part down; I guess the next logical step would be writing in it).

It really boils down to “just do it”, but doesn’t everything?

(Thanks, Lifehacker! More good tips in the comments of both articles.)

At last someone care’s. Seth Godin note’s that the humble apostrophe is more significant than it’s size indicate’s. Its an easy way for you’re reader’s to know that your too uneducated or too careless to get you’re grammar (or is it syntax?) correct.

This morning Bryan pointed out Copyblogger for my reading pleasure.

The site looks fantastic, and the copy is readable and relevant. With apologies to Randy Jackson, it’s a little pitchy (salespitchy in this case), with comic-book-ad post titles like How to Get 53% More Readers for Every Blog Post You Write. I do read Angela Booth from time to time, though, and she’s at least as guilty of this.

I have yet to dig into Copyblogger’s back catalog, but I’m looking forward to it.

I’d like to try making a living at copywriting myself, but I have grander and smaller ambitions for this blog; SRC is about the intersection of me and writing — with no qualifiers attached. Or maybe it’s the intersection of me and you and writing. Whatever.

Regardless, the Copyblogger feed is worth subscribing to if you’re at all interested in scoring more readers — and who isn’t?