Aug 22, 2022
Tips and tricks for blogging on City Cost
I usually compose in Google Docs which has a word and character count to keep me concise. Besides that, I sometimes use https://thewordcounter.com/ to keep me around the word limit so I don't get carried away. The Hemmingway app - https://hemingwayapp.com/ has been helpful when I write sentences that are too convoluted. It flags adverbs, passive voice, and sentences that are hard to read. Have you got some clever tips?
Best Answer
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on Sep 12
Another thing I tend to do frequently that I didn't mention in my original post was checking the news for content to write about. Sometimes I struggle to think of ideas for the blog prompts, particularly for recurring themes like working in Japan or family life in Japan, and sometimes news articles related to those topics help light a spark!
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on Aug 22
The Hemingway app sounds useful! I'm not the most grammatically correct writer and I have a habit of long sentences, so it will probably help tighten up the way I write. I've used Grammarly before, but the paid version offers more services than the free version and I don't really want to pay for the service. Like you, I use a word counter (https://wordcounter.net/) to help keep me on track with word counts. Sometimes when I haven't had an appropriate photo for an article topic I've written about, I've used Canva to design free blog graphics/header images. It's a great app and the free version is perfect for what I need it for. Also like you, I typically compose my articles in Google Docs. In the past I'd made the mistake of not doing that, and sometimes had my work disappear if there was an error submitting it. Learned my lesson!
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on Aug 23
@genkidesu Thanks for the word counter link! It's got a cleaner interface than the one I've been using.
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on Aug 23
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on Jan 15
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on Apr 20
@JapanRamen It would be great if the site had an auto-save functionality, but yes, the same happened to me before several times!
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on Apr 20
@genkidesu I do this, too. Kyodo News has news digests with links to stories. I also check the categories for stories that relate to topics that may be of interest to our readers - travel, features, and podcasts.
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on Apr 20
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on Sep 14
@TonetoEdo https://imageresizer.com/ is my go-to for doing that! I've never had any issues with that site!
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on Sep 14
@genkidesu You can see I'm also leaning on Lunapic, a photo editor website that's easy to use and has many effects and editors. https://www5.lunapic.com/editor/
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on Sep 15
@TonetoEdo So glad to have a good lineup of free resources! It's a big help for blogging/editing.
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on Oct 13
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on Dec 9
@TonetoEdo I don't think there is a way to do it, unfortunately, at least not that I can see anywhere on our side of things. I think maybe the admins could perhaps retrieve it, but it probably all depends on how the back end of this site is set up.
13 Answers