Decoded Science published my "Hypatia Taught Conic Sections and Diophantine Equations" this morning (Oct. 17, 2013).

This Weebly blog post features two images that I created for that article about the math used by Hypatia, a Greek philosopher who lived in the early Christian era. She's famous for being the earliest female mathematician, and also for her rather gruesome demise.

As it turns out, I did not use the above image for my Hypatia article.

As I've noted in some other posts, my reason for publishing my home-made images in a blog belonging to me is simply to establish copyright.

Decoded Science has begun a policy of linking each image in their articles to the online source. So I've earned a free link to this page by pre-publishing my image. Sweet.

My apologies for throwing in my image for my next article, too, but I'm simply under a huge deadline for "Interpreting One Report of Statistics on Science Comprehension". My editor wanted a quick analysis of an article based on a Yale professor's report on comparing Tea Party-ers versus folk of other political stripes. Can we draw a conclusion from his data, and how "significant" is that conclusion?

By promoting this article in DeHaan Services, I also ask the question, "Did Anyone Measure Science Comprehension in Canadian Politics?"

(Added Oct. 28, 2013): Another day, another apology for yet another self-made image which someday should grace a Decoded Science article. Sorry to post and run, but sometimes one must make haste.

(Updated Oct. 29, 2013): I should write a separate promotional piece for "Free Will, Determinism and Turing's Halting Problem" since I've already thought of the right writing tip. But just now it's late, "and there are wolves".

I was inspired to write my Hypatia article because of an article about her in a sister online magazine, Decoded Past. (I linked to that other article from my Decoded Science article, so you can read it too).

Today's writing tip is to take your inspiration where you find it.

I've said something similar about keeping your eyes open for topics before. But unless you generate an inexhaustible supply of concepts and ideas on your own, you will need to actively seek and find inspiration from what others write, say or do.

In this particular case, I noticed that the Decoded Past article mentioned Hypatia's math, but didn't say anything about what she actually studied or taught. Since that was right up my alley, I stepped up and delivered.

You can do the same when you find something that interests you and touches near your own writing niche. Find that inspiration, figure out what the first writer missed that you can supply, and "just do it". Just enhance your karma with a link back to your inspiration article; that author deserves it.

Thanks for reading about my process for writing about the math of Hypatia of Alexandria.

For years, I've complained that the old "Road Closed" signs in Toronto do absolutely nothing to promote marathons in Toronto.

My recent DeHaan Services article, "2 Signs of the 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon", shows that the Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2013 should have some decent promotional signs along with the old-fashioned scary postings inspired by a Hallowe'en colour scheme.

Sorry, you absolutely must click the link to see the new and improved sign for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2013.

As a bonus for those in Toronto, my article also notes the date and time, the major road closures, and adds my personal spectators' guide so you can see the runners where determination counts the most.

Today's writing tip suggests you consider how your web site or your writing style promotes itself.

Many marketing gurus claim you need to change the colour scheme or font, from time to time. Slap on some fresh paint to draw your readers' attention. "Ooh, shiny!" is the response to evoke.

On the other hand, your regular readers find your content meaningful or helpful; and they now know how to navigate your site. Don't change everything; at least, not all at once.

For example, I've adopted "bold style plus colour" to highlight "writing tip" in this blog. If I had planned this from the outset, and if I could code it as an XML style, I could change them all to "writing tip" so we could have consistency as well as change. But I'd either have to go back to each article and change the style manually, or leave articles inconsistent where I made the switch. Is that worth it?

My true writing tip is to look for the features that currently detract from your marketing appeal, and then fix those errors. Don't just change something for the sake of marketing. Instead, change the worst feature that works against the appeal your writing should have.

Those ugly old black-on-orange signs in Toronto were intended to scare away drivers; and they do a fine job. The new signs are more informative, and should attract spectators to come cheer the runners in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2013.

What will you change to incite your readers to cheer your next article?

Personally, I think of Canadian Thanksgiving as the start of the busiest season of writing that features holidays in a particular season of the year.

So, although my recent "2013 Thanksgiving Family Activities in Toronto" simply highlights frugal things to do in Toronto, like many previous articles, it does feel like the prelude to Hallowe'en and the winter holidays including Diwali, Christmas and Kwanzaa.

This current article puts the emphasis on free or frugal activities for the family. It even stretches beyond Toronto and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) with one of the suggestions.

When is Thanksgiving in Canada? It comes in mid-October. Canadian turkeys are eaten a few weeks earli  rather than waiting for November in the USA.

It's easy to find seasonal topics for your articles, when holidays and festivals come thick and fast.

Today's writing tip is to plan out your topics ahead of time. A couple paragraphs ago I added three seasonal holidays to whet your appetite. Simply check your calendar for the next few months. Your readers will be searching for information about those holidays.

With so many special days coming so quickly, it's important to schedule your writing. I've already seen Hallowe'en advertising as well as articles, so others might be ahead of you.

Once we get into early 2014, it may seem that the holidays are less frequent. My advice still holds: check your calendar, and plan to cover your niche. St. Valentine's Day is not the only February event for Americans. People travel for more than just spring break week. Children need activities, and cooks need recipes, for more than Easter Sunday.

With a bit of planning, your well seasoned writing can make good use of holidays all year.

"How to Turn a Business Trip into a Fitness Trip" is a guest article about maintaining your physical fitness while out of town on a business trip.

It's not an area where I have any special expertise, but certainly important for a number of my friends and acquaintances who travel regularly.

This article is in my "DeHaan Fitness..." site.

I also publicized this in my DeHaan Services blog, in "Retain Fitness Despite Business Travel".

This allowed me to put a local spin into the content. The image shows what Google reported for "downtown Toronto gyms" and "downtown Toronto hotels". Any business traveler can use the same technique to map her best choice to combine accommodations with a nearby exercise facility.

At first I planned to comment about guest articles in this writing tip. I'd rather note the value of including local content in your articles.

First, let's be clear that some or all your content can and should be free of "local considerations". People travel all over the world; everyone cares about fitness. No matter what your writing niche may be, it may apply to readers anywhere on this planet.

But there are three reasons to include local content in some of your articles, or in a few places in each article.

1. If you promote your own business, and it's a local business, then target your local audience.
2. Keyword advertising often pays a premium for local phrases. Effectively, I may earn a bonus if my neighbour reads an ad for "hotels in Toronto" rather than for "hotels".
   
3. If you are going to use an example in some location, why not make it a local location?

Let me explain a bit. "DeHaan Services" currently earns almost all its revenue internationally; but I want to grow the local business. Therefore I intentionally make local references to Toronto and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). It's a self promotion tool, even if a given topic does not relate to my business.

Keyword advertising likes "long tail" phrases. You may read a general article about a "blah-blah product". That's a short-tail keyword (or key phrase). The local retailer who commissioned that article will insist on including "blah-blah product in Mytown". That's because people ready to buy the product will search for that "product in Mytown".

Check the double map I produced. Yes, I could have done the same for Manhatten or San Francisco; but I live in Toronto so I made the map for downtown Toronto. It had to be localized; so I made a choice.

So my "local writing tip" is to refer to your local situation when appropriate; even if your main topic is maintaining fitness while traveling.

"My Pick for 2013 Nuit Blanche Toronto" provides my personal choice from among many intriguing art installations that will grace various locations in Toronto early in October.

This DeHaan Services article also points to the official Nuit Blanche Scotiabank web site, since my blog could not possible cover everything that their publicists provided.

I've already hinted at today's writing tip. Can you guess what it is?

It's one answer to the problem, "How do I write a brief article about a huge subject"?

Sometimes you just have to write a series of articles. I've done that in Decoded Science, for example, with a series of three articles on Euclidean geometry. (Start with "Euclid Laid the Foundations of Geometry", and follow the links that should be at the end of each installment).

My Toronto Nuit Blanche 2013 article gave an extremely brief overview, but then dove into exactly one detail. Because the title states that it presents "my pick", that should not disappoint the reader. The article "does what it says on the label" by putting the focus on one detail among many.

So this is actually a double writing tip. Sometimes deal with a large topic by zooming into one detail; but the title must make clear that you will deliver only that detail.

Thanks for reading about the upcoming Nuit Blanche Scotiabank in Tor

Commemorate! presents a contemporary conundrum in a play about the effects of the War of 1812 on modern people as well as those who lived through almost three years of warfare in North America.

I took the opportunity to write a promotional article, "Theatre of the Beat to Commemorate War of 1812 in Stouffville", after arranging for them to rehearse at TUMC (Toronto United Mennonite Church). That's where I snapped this photo and briefly interviewed the cast. (You have to read that main article for details on when and where this one-night performance fits into the Stouffville Peace Festival. Hint: Stouffville is north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Written and performed by Theatre of the Beat, a young Canadian drama troupe, Commemorate! also invites audience members to intervene in the lives of some of the characters. How would you deal with an obstructive civic official when making the case that a civil commemoration ceremony will ignore many points of view?

I've known three of the above actors, and performed with them before they formed Theatre of the Beat. My article admits that I have a bias.

Let me admit that the word "Commemorate" in both titles, "Theatre of the Beat to Commemorate War of 1812 in Stouffville" and "Commemorate a Win-Win Drama and Writing Topic", is a bit of a pun.

The play's title is Commemorate!, with the exclamation mark. Yes, it does refer to marking and remembering the War of 1812.

However, neither Theatre of the Beat nor myself, in either article, really is commemorating that war (or a drama). It would have been more honest to put that word Commemorate! inside quotation marks in my articles' titles.

Nonetheless, I think it's a pun that readers may notice and appreciate; or disregard without harm.

This rehearsal provided a win-win situation for myself and for Theatre of the Beat.

Theatre of the Beat needed a free rehearsal space on short notice. (Normally my own congregation, the Danforth Mennonite Church in Toronto, hosts them when the building would otherwise be empty. Another event kept them out on this occasion).

My DeHaan Services blog can always use a specific writing topic about free or frugal events in Toronto or in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Articles are even better when they include interviews or original photographs.

Because I used my contacts and volunteered to handle building security, Theatre of the Beat received a free rehearsal venue. Because Theatre of the Beat gave up some of their valuable time after that rehearsal, I received material for an article. That's a win-win situation!

My writing tip is that you should make every promotional article a win-win situation. Events that you publicize benefit from that publicity; you benefit by adding to your collection of articles.

Even informational or critical articles, written mainly to benefit your readers, may also help you achieve a larger audience.

If your only goal in writing is to gain readers (and convert them to clicks on advertising), you will eventually alienate the audience you need for your own success.

Instead, give your readers something of value. Be generous but honest to your interview subjects. Seek out win-win scenarios; others will then seek out your articles.

Today was the first time the "Weekend to End Women's Cancers" walk went through my neighbourhood in Toronto. I went out into nearby Little India on Lower Gerrard to take a few photographs. Then I wrote up my experience in "One View of the 2013 March to End Womens Cancers".

In the above photo, note the white arrow on a pink circle; that's their signpost.

Who am I to resist the call of the camera? On Sept. 7, 2013, this was the scene outside the Gerard-Ashdale library.

I also took a couple pictures of one sign signalling the walkers to turn.

Both of the "sign" images are pretty similar.

Here's the last photograph I took this morning. Now I realize that I could not hold the camera steady in the overhead position, but didn't know it until seeing the larger image on my computer.

I've written about keeping alert for writing opportunities in previous writing tips, but nearly missed this one. What was my first mistake this time? Not doing any research into the 2013 Women's Cancer March.

My usual approach is to cover annual Toronto events before they occur, so people can participate or watch. However, the more preparation or expense is involved, the less I'm inclined to write a report.

The March to End Women's Cancers is a very worthy cause, but it takes a lot of preparation. Not only do you need to be able to walk 30Km a day for two days straight, you also need to raise $2000 for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. The time-frame is much longer than "you have a few weeks to pre-order advance discount CNE tickets online".

So I decided not to publicize the 2013 Cancer March. Even though I learned, yesterday, that the route would include my Little India and Eastern Beach neighbourhoods, I'd already discounted this opportunity to write an article.

My writing tip is to recognize and seize topics that fit anywhere near your niche.

Learn more at the official 2013 March to End Women's Cancers web site.

An enjoyable annual festival in Toronto is the  Beach Celtic Festival. My latest DeHaan Services article, "The 2013 Beach Celtic Festival in Toronto", publicizes this free event.

I'd written about this festival in previous years. In fact, my choice to write about annual events in Toronto is a mixed blessing and curse.

The blessing is that people find my old articles every year, whether or not they've been updated. That makes my site busier than it would be otherwise, and that's a good thing. Of course, one problem is that the information is outdated.

But a bigger curse is that it becomes difficult to write new titles for the same events. I ran into that difficulty last month, if memory serves. The "best" title I could devise was almost identical to one written a year or two before.

One failsafe strategy is to include the date somewhere in the title for annual events.

Yet your loyal readers will notice that you've written a series of "The #### Annual Event Returns" articles.

I've begun to practice "safe titles", by searching my site for the topic in previous articles. Then I take pains to tweak the new title so I don't repeat myself.

A month ago I used "celebrate" and "celebrating" in back-to-back titles. Last week's "Three Free Labour Day Weekend Events in Toronto for 2013" repeated the use of "Labour Day" and "Weekend"; I'd written two articles with those words in 2012. So it's not just the full title; sometimes there is a pattern of words.

Whether you write about recurring events, or some other subject with a temptation to repeat specific topics, my writing tip is to create a procedure that forces you to review previous titles and enables you to make new creative choices for that vital section of your article.

While the "Beach Celtic Festival" is a major part of the title, the rest is sufficiently different that I shouldn't be accused of plagiarizing my own title. Stay creative in your writing!

One of my favourite annual Toronto events of late summer is Buskerfest. It was also one of the first street festivals that I wrote about.

In fact, I followed it the following year with an article explaining the choice between Buskerfest Toronto and an Ashkenaz festival (which returns to Harbourfront in August 2014, thanks for asking).

So why add "How to Find the 2013 Toronto Buskerfest" this year? My biggest motivation was that they changed the venue; and I'd explained how to get to Buskerfest Toronto in the previous articles.

While I care that people may go to the wrong location because they read my old article this year, what also matters is my reputation for accuracy.

Let me publicize one other article promoting three annual Toronto events in this same time period.

"Richard III, Afro Caribbean or Chinatown in Toronto for 2013" covers a 2013 production by Shakespeare in the Ruff, plus the Afro Caribbean Festival in Scarborough and the annual Chinatown Festival in Toronto.

While these annual summer events have stayed in their traditional locations, I still provide street intersection and public transit advice. Some readers may be tourists. Even a Toronto native might not be familiar with locations such as Withrow Park; or realize which Chinatown hosts this particular festival.

Actually, this writing tip is against being repetitive; but I have to confess to making this mistake.

Specifically, the title of my 2011 article, "How to Find Toronto Buskerfest 2011", is far too similar to my 2013 article. It's especially glaring when one article links to the other.

So do better than I did this time, when you revisit a topic. Take the time to ensure you are not plagiarizing your own title or opening line. It might be the best in the world; but change something so your readers won't think you're in a rut.

My second writing tip is to revisit old articles if you realize they have become outdated. Check what I did in the earlier article(s): I explicitly say that the Buskerfest Toronto location changed in 2013. I also give a link to my recent article.

It's always possible that people will find the older article. In fact, if you can write about "evergreen" topics, you get readers over the long term.

But when important details change, you should at least advise your readers to check a more up-to-date source; perhaps your new article!

Thanks for reading about Buskerfest Toronto 2013.

The CNE in Toronto surprised me this year by the online discount ticket offers.

Oh, did you think this is about being frugal with your ex-spouse? Sorry, that would be some other blog. I wrote about "the Ex", a Toronto abbreviation for "Exhibition".

My DeHaan Services site often previews cheap or free annual events in Toronto. "Enjoy the CNE on the Cheap in 2013" differs because the Canadian National Exhibition advertises heavily and it is not cheap.

But then I found some excellent discount ticket offers. I also knew some other tricks already. So that was enough material for my article.

By the way, the "Princes' Gates" serve as the eastern entrance to the CNE grounds; and

My favourite writing tip is simply to keep your eyes open to new topics.

Here's my new slant on this tip.

Everything started with noticing that the CNE offers online admission tickets. A bit of idle curiosity led me to wonder whether there was a discount. It was not easy to find "how much is it worth" and "how do I qualify".

That's when I realized that there was enough valuable material for an article. If it took me "that long" to answer the question, my readers would find it helpful to read my synopsis before doing their own research.

Your articles might not involve comparison shopping (as this CNE article did); but if you can save readers time and effort related to a topic, they should reward you by reading your next articles.

Thanks for reading about visiting the Ex on the cheap.