Angela Crocker

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Next trip: National Mompreneurs Conference

02.24.2016 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Headshots of Elaine Tan Comeau, Wendy Armbruster-Bell, Jacqueline De'Ath, Angela Crocker and Constance Zacharias
Vancouver Mompreneur panelists at the Microsoft Canada event Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs

As I’ve said before, I LOVE conferences.  Taking two or three days to focus on professional development is a great way to hone your business communications. Conference attendees learn new things, share ideas, meet new people and reconnect with familiar folks. They also get to practice their elevator pitch, explore potential partnerships and fine tune the smooth moves needed to elegantly exchange business cards.

My next conference is the 2016 National Mompreneurs™ Conference in Toronto.  Together with fellow west coast attendees Elaine Tan Comeau of Easy Daysies and Maria Freeman of Little Jots, I’ll be connecting with some of the brightest and most-successful female entrepreneurs in Canada.  I’m looking forward to meeting keynote speakers Debbie Travis, Erica Ehm and Natalie MacNeil.  I’m also keen to connect with Mompreneurs™ Canada CEO Maria Locker and the leading women of the 15 chapters from across Canada. With three notable keynote speakers and two-days of events and workshops, I’m sure I will be inspired, enriched and energized.

As always, I think its important to prepare to make the most of each conference. There’s no point in wasting time and money going to an event without some careful forethought.  My two part article How to Prepare for a Conference, is a handy reference. Check out part one on my website and then head over to Social Media Camp to read the rest.  (By the way, I’ll be speaking at Social Media Camp 2016. Its been five years since my last presentation at Social Media Camp, one of my all-time favourite conferences. I’ll debut my new talk The Digital Cleanse.)

Categories // Events Tags // Conferences, Debbie Travis, Easy Daysies, Erica Ehm, Little Jots, Maria Locker, Mompreneurs, Natalie MacNeil, Social Media Camp

Resources for Writers

11.17.2015 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Angela Crocker
Angela Crocker

Writer. Author. Editor. No matter your title in the world of words, there is a continuous search for inspiration and a lifelong dedication to professional development. With my Resources for Writers series, I intend to share some of my favourite tools, references and activities. These things fuel my own writing. I trust that other writers will find this series inspiring and encouraging as they sit to put pen to paper or fingers on keyboard.

Truth be told, I struggled to declare myself a writer, even though I’m a published author and a communications professional who has written thousands of pages of press releases, grant applications, reports and articles. My self-perception started to change in May 2014 when I attended Ann Douglas’ inspiring How To Be a Happy Writer workshop in Vancouver. My fellow participants were insistent. “You ARE a writer, Angela.” and somehow, by the end of day, my thinking began to shift. Now, when people ask what I do professionally, I tell them with pride that I am a writer.

Most of the time.

I’m my own work in progress.

When I combine my background in marketing, performing arts, teaching and books with my writing experiences and the transition to declaring myself a writer, I came to realize just how much of sharing thoughts through words is a personal journey. Sure, anyone can take a course in grammar or essay structure or research techniques but those who choose to be writers are passionate about words in unique and personalized ways.

As I started writing this series, it suddenly occurred to me that I inadvertently skipped the market research step. Chalk it up to enthusiasm! A quick Google search for “resources for writers” returned thousands of results.

The top result comes from the admirable and lauded Margaret Atwood offering sound advice that made me laugh out loud. There is a also a wonderful crowd-sourced list of resources on Lifehacker from 2013.  The Writers Union of Canada looks at the topic more broadly including links to organizations of interest to writers, funding agencies, advice on publishing plus much more.  Writers will also find a multitude of resources available at the cost of providing an email address or simply for sale along the lines of the offerings from Writers’ Digest and from the wonderfully personable Joanna Penn on The Creative Penn.

Now, I will add my voice and quirky perspective on resources for writers. Please, let me know how my eclectic, personal collection of resources has been helpful to you. And I’m interested to know what your go-to resources are. You can leave a comment here or on any post in the series that catches your attention or email me.

Write on!

Categories // Resources for Writers Tags // #R4W, #ResourcesforWriters, #WriteOn, Ann Douglas, Authors, Margaret Atwood, professional development, Resources for Writers, writers

Don’t Write Said, Use Synonyms Instead

10.15.2015 by Angela Crocker // Leave a Comment

Think back. Do you remember a high school teacher or university professor whose lessons stuck with you? One of my most influential teachers was Mrs. Carol Murray. She taught me both English and Journalism classes in Grades 11 and 12. She was kind, thoughtful, encouraging and didn’t let us get away with anything. Much to my Mum’s delight, Mrs. Murray assigned Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice as winter break reading and was the catalyst to my lifelong love affair with the novels of Austen, the Brontës, Dickens and their contemporaries.

Mrs. Murray, like me, found grammar lessons to be a necessary evil and worked with us to do a grammar intensive once each semester. While we both understood the importance of grammar, months long discussions didn’t inspire either of us. Those two weeks were a “swallow the frog” moment for sure!

One of the lessons I most remember is Mrs. Murray’s ban on the word “said”. Said. Say. Says. Saying. All were verboten. Characters in our stories and people in our articles never “said” anything. Instead, we had to use more descriptive synonyms.

At some point in those classes, I started a list of alternatives in the margins of my notebooks. Some came from examples in our text books, others from articles or novels I read. I’ve continually added to that list and here, for the first time, I’ve typed them all out in one master list. A Resource for Writers I hope other writers will find useful over and over again.

What “not said” words would you add?

  • accused
  • acknowledged
  • added
  • admitted
  • admonished
  • advocated
  • affirmed
  • agreed
  • alleged
  • announced
  • answered
  • apologized
  • approved
  • argued
  • asked
  • assented
  • asserted
  • assumed
  • assured
  • avowed
  • began
  • begged
  • belittled
  • blurted
  • boasted
  • bragged
  • broke in
  • cautioned
  • challenged
  • charged
  • chided
  • chuckled
  • cited
  • claimed
  • commented
  • complained
  • conceded
  • concluded
  • concurred
  • confessed
  • confided
  • confirmed
  • contended
  • contested
  • continued
  • contradicted
  • contributed
  • countered
  • cried
  • criticized
  • cursed
  • debated
  • declared
  • decreed
  • defended
  • delivered
  • demanded
  • denied
  • denounced
  • directed
  • disclosed
  • discussed
  • divulged
  • elaborated
  • emphasized
  • enumerated
  • estimated
  • exclaimed
  • explained
  • exploded
  • expressed
  • faltered
  • frowned
  • fumed
  • gasped
  • giggled
  • gloated
  • groaned
  • guessed
  • hastened to add
  • hastened to say
  • held
  • hinted
  • implied
  • implored
  • indicated
  • inquired
  • insinuated
  • insisted
  • instructed
  • interjected
  • interrupted
  • intimated
  • jeered
  • jested
  • joked
  • lamented
  • laughed
  • maintained
  • mentioned
  • mumbled
  • murmured
  • mused
  • muttered
  • narrated
  • noted
  • objected
  • observed
  • offered
  • ordered
  • persisted
  • persuaded
  • piped up
  • pleaded
  • pledged
  • pointed out
  • posited
  • postulated
  • praised
  • predicted
  • presumed
  • proceeded
  • promised
  • pronounced
  • prophesized
  • proposed
  • protested
  • proved
  • queried
  • questioned
  • quibbled
  • quipped
  • quoted
  • ranted
  • reaffirmed
  • reassured
  • recalled
  • recited
  • recommended
  • recounted
  • reiterated
  • rejoiced
  • rejoined
  • related
  • remarked
  • remembered
  • reminded
  • repeated
  • replied
  • reported
  • reprimanded
  • requested
  • responded
  • restated
  • retorted
  • resumed
  • revealed
  • said (Remember Mrs. Murray’s rule!)
  • scoffeed
  • scolded
  • shouted
  • shrugged
  • sighed
  • smiled
  • snapped
  • sneered
  • speculated
  • stammered
  • stated
  • stipulated
  • stressed
  • suggested
  • swore
  • teased
  • testified
  • thought
  • threatened
  • told
  • urged
  • uttered
  • ventured
  • volunteered
  • vowed
  • warned
  • wavered
  • went on
  • wept
  • whispered
  • yelled

Write on!

Categories // Resources for Writers Tags // #R4W, #ResourcesforWriters, #WriteOn, alternatives, Angela Crocker, Grammar, Mrs. Carol Murray, Said, Synonyms

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Voice: 604.727.6974
By Mail:
225 - 255 Newport Drive,
Port Moody, BC V3H 5H1

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About Angela

Angela Crocker helps businesses communicate. She’s a writer, a teacher and an information organizer. Trained as both a business writer and a technical writer, Angela draws on her twenty years of business experience in marketing, fundraising, entrepreneurship, leadership and teaching. A published author, Angela’s currently celebrating her latest book, The Content Planner. On a personal level, Angela collects Star Wars novels, adores choral music and doodles with fine art supplies. Learn more…

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