How Can I Be Of Service?

I’ve been reading a lot of listicles lately. I find I just scoot by the article, skimming the “fluff text” to get to the list. It’s very similar to the frustration of looking for a recipe online and having to dig through a person’s life story before they cough up it up.

But, I realized, I’m also writing fluff articles. Technically, there is no point to this at all. Presumably, no one will see it. And that’s good because I’m not saying anything. I mean, if you’ve read this far you know!

So, that made me wonder – what am I selling? Also, what is the proper usage of a hyphen. I always feel like I’m using them wrong.

What Am I Selling?

In my head, when I think about the services I’d like to offer I end up with a few different choices. I somehow know that is not the right answer. I feel that in order to succeed I need to concentrate on one, at least at first.

If that is the case, then I should focus on the one that actually stands to make me a living. That would be writing. It’s flexible. It’s creative. It’s intelligent. I like to think I do it well. I could use an editor – couldn’t we all – but overall good.

So, ok. Writing. At least here, on this site, which has no other purpose than to sell me. We’ll say “writing”.

How To Use A Hyphen! (In case you are curious.)

Firstly, this “-” is not a “hyphen”. That was the first lesson. A hyphen is specifically used to link words. If you call someone a “scruffy-nerfherder type” – that is a “hyphen”.

This “-” is, in fact, a dash. It can be used when other punctuation would be awkward – as if anything I ever do is awkward. They can replace colons if you want to list things like – phone, river, apple.

And, would you believe it, there are different kinds of dashes! No joke! But this is not an article about dashes – although they are very interesting. So, if you want to know the difference between the dashes here you go.