Did you know 2010 marks the 175th anniversary of Mark Twain's birth and the 100th anniversary of his death. True story.
To celebrate, and really to learn more about this American literary icon my friends and I are headed to Hannibal today. It's the birth place of the famed writer and of course they have a whole museum tour set-up for tourists. Not totally my kind of thing, but I've got a couple friends who are big-time into it.
Never read a Mark Twain piece? Try this free short story on Bartleby. Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog
I've read both the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But I have to admit, ashamedly, that I did not know he wrote the Prince and the Pauper until I checked it out of the library last week. Read his bio here and see the complete list of works.
Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
How is a blogger not like a journalist?
Everybody and their mother has a blog these days; and most of these people call themselves journalists. But let's get one thing straight - bloggers and journalists are not the same.
A Blogger is someone who writes targeted content for a specific audience. They may have experience in the industry or just an opinion on the matter. Blogs are free range for opinions to run rampant. When penning a blog there is no necessary writing style or formulas to follow. The facts mentioned don't have to be backed up by reliable sources (although I think they should be.) A blog is a place for conversation and debate. The blogger is the mastermind behind this forum.
A Journalist is someone who usually writes on a specific topic they have a specialty in. They know the facts, the sources, the key players. The articles should be laced with provable facts and written with the hope of conveying truth to the readers. A journalists own personal opinion should not be apparent in the article; it's all about the facts.
The line between these two types of writers are often blurred, which confuses the non-media savy public. When I write for businesses publications I call myself a journalist. I am delivering the facts to a specific market of readers that want to know what is going on. When I publish blog posts I'm a blogger. I fill my paragraphs with my own thoughts and opinions on a certain topic and pose questions for discussion. Bloggers get paid to offer their opinions. Writers get paid to check their opinions at the door.
A Blogger is someone who writes targeted content for a specific audience. They may have experience in the industry or just an opinion on the matter. Blogs are free range for opinions to run rampant. When penning a blog there is no necessary writing style or formulas to follow. The facts mentioned don't have to be backed up by reliable sources (although I think they should be.) A blog is a place for conversation and debate. The blogger is the mastermind behind this forum.
A Journalist is someone who usually writes on a specific topic they have a specialty in. They know the facts, the sources, the key players. The articles should be laced with provable facts and written with the hope of conveying truth to the readers. A journalists own personal opinion should not be apparent in the article; it's all about the facts.
The line between these two types of writers are often blurred, which confuses the non-media savy public. When I write for businesses publications I call myself a journalist. I am delivering the facts to a specific market of readers that want to know what is going on. When I publish blog posts I'm a blogger. I fill my paragraphs with my own thoughts and opinions on a certain topic and pose questions for discussion. Bloggers get paid to offer their opinions. Writers get paid to check their opinions at the door.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Freelance Doesn't Mean Free Work
This morning a fellow LinkedIn Group member sent me an e-mail. He complimented my writing style and said he'd love for me to write the copy for his new fashion-related website. My first thought: 'Hells Yeah!'
With my freelance career I've slowly been trying to make the transition from a strict business writer to a fashion and lifestyle writer. It's no easy task since journalism is usually a niche profession (more on that later this week). But I've been working on my own fashion blog, started blogging for a lifestyle/fashion blog out of Australia, and been doing several one-time articles for various pubs/blogs/sites. So, obviously my initial reaction was 'Finally someone recognizes my writing talent in this area.' Well... that was until I read the next line...
This potential client went on to say that because it was a start-up company they would be unable to compensate me in anyway for my work. Once the business was financially viable they might be able to pay me for future work. *bubble BURST* At this point my sunny, excited disposition swiftly turned into annoyance and anger.
What is it about freelance that makes people think you have the opportunity and desire to work for free? I'm no longer at the start of my career, when I might have tripped over myself to get an opportunity like this, regardless of compensation. I don't need a couple great clips to pad my portfolio. And I'm not naive enough to believe the experience from this writing gig will be more valuable than any monetary compensation.
I'm a professional. I work hard. I write well. And I rely completely on the money I make from writing to pay the bills. You wouldn't walk into the Gap and say to the manager 'give me these Long and Lean jeans for free. It'll be great exposure for your brand and really worth it in the long run.' The manager would kick you out of the store and not entertain your request for even a split second. (incidentally Long and Lean jeans from Gap are some of my all-time fav denim styles)
In this man's defense, I don't think he wrote me with any ill will. He probably honestly thought this would be a great opportunity and something a writing professional would jump at. So, instead of delete his e-mail without a response I wrote him back and kindly explained that I am unable to take non-paying gigs at this point in time. I offered to write if he could come up with some kind of payment in exchange.
With my freelance career I've slowly been trying to make the transition from a strict business writer to a fashion and lifestyle writer. It's no easy task since journalism is usually a niche profession (more on that later this week). But I've been working on my own fashion blog, started blogging for a lifestyle/fashion blog out of Australia, and been doing several one-time articles for various pubs/blogs/sites. So, obviously my initial reaction was 'Finally someone recognizes my writing talent in this area.' Well... that was until I read the next line...
This potential client went on to say that because it was a start-up company they would be unable to compensate me in anyway for my work. Once the business was financially viable they might be able to pay me for future work. *bubble BURST* At this point my sunny, excited disposition swiftly turned into annoyance and anger.
What is it about freelance that makes people think you have the opportunity and desire to work for free? I'm no longer at the start of my career, when I might have tripped over myself to get an opportunity like this, regardless of compensation. I don't need a couple great clips to pad my portfolio. And I'm not naive enough to believe the experience from this writing gig will be more valuable than any monetary compensation.
I'm a professional. I work hard. I write well. And I rely completely on the money I make from writing to pay the bills. You wouldn't walk into the Gap and say to the manager 'give me these Long and Lean jeans for free. It'll be great exposure for your brand and really worth it in the long run.' The manager would kick you out of the store and not entertain your request for even a split second. (incidentally Long and Lean jeans from Gap are some of my all-time fav denim styles)
In this man's defense, I don't think he wrote me with any ill will. He probably honestly thought this would be a great opportunity and something a writing professional would jump at. So, instead of delete his e-mail without a response I wrote him back and kindly explained that I am unable to take non-paying gigs at this point in time. I offered to write if he could come up with some kind of payment in exchange.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
What the Best Writing Teachers Do, How We Freelancers Can Improve From Their Teaching Tools
This afternoon I read an article published on Poynter Online titled "What the Best Writing Teachers Do, How Students Can Learn From Them." The points on what the best teachers do got me thinking about freelancers. We are often, our own teacher in the business. There aren't many bosses overlooking our work ethic, our start times, our lunch breaks. We don't have anyone holding us to daily quotas other than our own get-up-and-go. So without these teachers to learn from, how can we become better writers too?
Using the points from the article as a launching pad, here are my thoughts:
Using the points from the article as a launching pad, here are my thoughts:
- Encourage students to write every day... For a writer, a day not spent penning words is one we aren't working on our craft. And the more we write, the better we become.
- Teach writing as a process... Writing is always a process. Don't be discouraged when there are days when writing a paragraph feels like counting all the grains of sand in the world. Sure, it's tedious at times. But that doesn't mean the words aren't there.
- Confer with student writers throughout the process... Take advantage of opportunities to meet with other writers, especially other freelancers. This doesn't have to be face-to-face, even just creating a relationship via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and e-mail can be beneficial.
- Connect reading and writing... You're a better writer the more you read. And to really stretch yourself try reading things that aren't in your specific niche. Reading things out of the ordinary can broaden horizons and increase vocabulary.
- Offer appropriate praise and encouragement -- as well as correction... Take corrections like a pro. Instead of letting them get you down, or fuming over an editors changes take the opportunity to learn from it. Even if the change is off-the-wall-crazy there is still something you can take away from the experience.
- Give opportunities for revision... For writers - the better wording would be: Give yourself time for revisions. How many times have we penned something under deadline, handed it in and then thought of a way to improve the sentence structure or paragraph flow? Give yourself time. (although I've yet to meet a journalist who doesn't claim to EXCEL under pressure)
- Believe that all students, not just the "stars" can improve their writing... A personal story on this... in junior high I had to take one of those PSAT prep tests and at the time I had just started writing little stories about my family and friends. When the results came home, my parents wouldn't let me see them. They said it wasn't important. Four years later I found out they kept the scores from me because the area I scored the worst in was writing. It became my best score on all the tests in high school. Writing is inborn and learned.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Purdue Student: What I Learned in School about Writing
Written by Kristen Johnson
On May 15th, I graduated from Purdue University with a Liberal Arts degree in Professional Writing. While in school, I worked at our newspaper, the Purdue Exponent for two years, in addition to other journalism internships and my onslaught of writing courses. In hopes that I had gathered a plethora of useful writing knowledge, Katie asked me to compile some things I learned over my college career. Here’s what I came up with:
• First, break the rules. Forget everything you learned in your high school English classes. Those old Elements of Writing books? Toss them. Writing is much more than simple sentence structures. Think outside of the box! Make non-existing words exist, use fragments when constructive, and be dangerously edgy when the risk is affordable.
• …but never forget the basics. Ever. As a college senior in a 400-level writing class, my professor spent for first week assigning grammar exercises. Why? Because you can only be a rebel when you know what rules you’re breaking. No matter how long you’ve been writing, it’s still irresponsible to make spelling a mistake and it’s still inexcusable to be ambiguous when specifics are desperately needed.
• Writing is like any sport. Practice truly makes perfect. Write, write, write…write!! Take any opportunity to write for any publishing venue, whether it be minimally paying, nonpaying, or your own personal blog. Any chance to have an outsider’s opinion is a great chance to grow as a writer.
• Your mother has been preaching the truth - reading in invaluable. This lesson is one I’ve had to learn the hard way, growing up with only a strong fascination with the Harry Potter series. Beyond the wizarding community and my school assignments, it practically took a knife fight to get my mind focused on anything else bounded by a cover. Once college hit, I felt the burn. My overall knowledge of the world, let alone my vocabulary, poorly suffered. If you struggle to find intriguing material, use the internet! No matter what you’re interests include, I guarantee there is a blog and/or site devoted to your curiosities.
• Master the internet, or at least research its limitless opportunities. Create a website and/or blog and update frequently. Learn the fundamentals of web design, even if it’s just a basic understanding of the how’s, what’s and why’s. For my non-tech savvy brethren, there are countless sites that offer shortcuts for these respected skills, such as web coding and photo editing. (Check out her site.)
• Network. Network like it’s the air you breathe. Network with everyone in your life, both those you know in-person and those available online. Knowledge and mastery of social media has become a must-have skill for journalists. In a social networking class, my professor explained that every person should have at least 2-3 social sites they manage daily. An overall understanding of all the popular social medias will only assist in your career; MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, YouTube…if the names of any of these sites are unfamiliar, you’re behind.
• The editing process of any piece is half the battle. After you edit something, edit it again. And again, and again. No piece is ever perfect.
• Try to find a way to say what you want to say with less words, in order to get your point across more clearly and faster, as in: Tighten your language.
• You can never prepare all the right questions prior to an interview, no matter how much research you do, (and research is always expected and required). A good reporter enters an interview with ideas of where to lead his/her questions, but listens to the source for the perfect angle to lead the discussion and therefore the article. While interviewing, the article should be slowly unfolding in your head. Focus on the interview, but remember you’re not simply getting to know someone – you’re writing a piece that needs to have a central message.
• This world is full of writers, but it’s lacking great writers. You’re going to fail, time and time again. You’re going to get torn apart, and people are going to tell you you’ll never make it. The greats learn and keep writing. The regulars never adapt, or retire all together. If writing is your passion, you have to keep fighting and be prepared for people who think you don’t have “it.”
(Kristen Johnson is a recent college graduate. Her expertise, so far, is the music industry. She can write a killer CD review and bio piece on upcoming artists. Since I encouraged her to pursue writing when she consulted me about it, I thought it would be interesting to see what she got out of school. (In 5 years we should do a follow-up and find out what she really learned.)
On May 15th, I graduated from Purdue University with a Liberal Arts degree in Professional Writing. While in school, I worked at our newspaper, the Purdue Exponent for two years, in addition to other journalism internships and my onslaught of writing courses. In hopes that I had gathered a plethora of useful writing knowledge, Katie asked me to compile some things I learned over my college career. Here’s what I came up with:
• First, break the rules. Forget everything you learned in your high school English classes. Those old Elements of Writing books? Toss them. Writing is much more than simple sentence structures. Think outside of the box! Make non-existing words exist, use fragments when constructive, and be dangerously edgy when the risk is affordable.
• …but never forget the basics. Ever. As a college senior in a 400-level writing class, my professor spent for first week assigning grammar exercises. Why? Because you can only be a rebel when you know what rules you’re breaking. No matter how long you’ve been writing, it’s still irresponsible to make spelling a mistake and it’s still inexcusable to be ambiguous when specifics are desperately needed.
• Writing is like any sport. Practice truly makes perfect. Write, write, write…write!! Take any opportunity to write for any publishing venue, whether it be minimally paying, nonpaying, or your own personal blog. Any chance to have an outsider’s opinion is a great chance to grow as a writer.
• Your mother has been preaching the truth - reading in invaluable. This lesson is one I’ve had to learn the hard way, growing up with only a strong fascination with the Harry Potter series. Beyond the wizarding community and my school assignments, it practically took a knife fight to get my mind focused on anything else bounded by a cover. Once college hit, I felt the burn. My overall knowledge of the world, let alone my vocabulary, poorly suffered. If you struggle to find intriguing material, use the internet! No matter what you’re interests include, I guarantee there is a blog and/or site devoted to your curiosities.
• Master the internet, or at least research its limitless opportunities. Create a website and/or blog and update frequently. Learn the fundamentals of web design, even if it’s just a basic understanding of the how’s, what’s and why’s. For my non-tech savvy brethren, there are countless sites that offer shortcuts for these respected skills, such as web coding and photo editing. (Check out her site.)
• Network. Network like it’s the air you breathe. Network with everyone in your life, both those you know in-person and those available online. Knowledge and mastery of social media has become a must-have skill for journalists. In a social networking class, my professor explained that every person should have at least 2-3 social sites they manage daily. An overall understanding of all the popular social medias will only assist in your career; MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, YouTube…if the names of any of these sites are unfamiliar, you’re behind.
• The editing process of any piece is half the battle. After you edit something, edit it again. And again, and again. No piece is ever perfect.
• Try to find a way to say what you want to say with less words, in order to get your point across more clearly and faster, as in: Tighten your language.
• You can never prepare all the right questions prior to an interview, no matter how much research you do, (and research is always expected and required). A good reporter enters an interview with ideas of where to lead his/her questions, but listens to the source for the perfect angle to lead the discussion and therefore the article. While interviewing, the article should be slowly unfolding in your head. Focus on the interview, but remember you’re not simply getting to know someone – you’re writing a piece that needs to have a central message.
• This world is full of writers, but it’s lacking great writers. You’re going to fail, time and time again. You’re going to get torn apart, and people are going to tell you you’ll never make it. The greats learn and keep writing. The regulars never adapt, or retire all together. If writing is your passion, you have to keep fighting and be prepared for people who think you don’t have “it.”
(Kristen Johnson is a recent college graduate. Her expertise, so far, is the music industry. She can write a killer CD review and bio piece on upcoming artists. Since I encouraged her to pursue writing when she consulted me about it, I thought it would be interesting to see what she got out of school. (In 5 years we should do a follow-up and find out what she really learned.)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Lies, More Lies and the Freelancers Who Tell Them
This is not a post... This is a rant...
Earlier today I was contacted by a PR rep that I have been dealing with for some time now. She's got great connections, perfect for the publication. She gets the message, the theme, the types of people we look to profile and most importantly she is prompt and easy to work with. Almost two months ago she pitched a new artist and I immediately assigned the story out to a freelancer who had been basically begging for better stories, more exposure, etc...
Probably three weeks ago this PR rep contacted me and asked where we stood with arranging the interview. I thought the interview had already taken place since the freelancer told me she had the appointment set-up for the beginning of the week. Not wanting to interfere I asked the PR rep to refer to the writer directly about the interview time. (I tend to over-manage so I was trying to step back a little.) A week went by. I didn't hear anything.
I contacted the writer and asked when the article would be in, since we were now two weeks past deadline. She said I'd have it by Friday. But guess what... Friday came and went without an article appearing in my inbox. Then yesterday I got an e-mail from this great PR rep asking what the deal was with the interview and why it still hadn't happened. Um... WHAT???!!!!
Obviously, I've pulled the article from the writer, reassigned it to a new trustworthy, deadline-focused, polite freelancer and had to beg forgiveness to the PR rep, her firm and of course her client.
This whole scenario just goes right along with my earlier post about Freelancers Flaking Out. Sure, we're not all like this. In fact the large majority of freelancers are hard working, focused, non-flightly workaholics. But for those few who are just cruising through you're giving the rest of us a bad name!
Earlier today I was contacted by a PR rep that I have been dealing with for some time now. She's got great connections, perfect for the publication. She gets the message, the theme, the types of people we look to profile and most importantly she is prompt and easy to work with. Almost two months ago she pitched a new artist and I immediately assigned the story out to a freelancer who had been basically begging for better stories, more exposure, etc...
Probably three weeks ago this PR rep contacted me and asked where we stood with arranging the interview. I thought the interview had already taken place since the freelancer told me she had the appointment set-up for the beginning of the week. Not wanting to interfere I asked the PR rep to refer to the writer directly about the interview time. (I tend to over-manage so I was trying to step back a little.) A week went by. I didn't hear anything.
I contacted the writer and asked when the article would be in, since we were now two weeks past deadline. She said I'd have it by Friday. But guess what... Friday came and went without an article appearing in my inbox. Then yesterday I got an e-mail from this great PR rep asking what the deal was with the interview and why it still hadn't happened. Um... WHAT???!!!!
Obviously, I've pulled the article from the writer, reassigned it to a new trustworthy, deadline-focused, polite freelancer and had to beg forgiveness to the PR rep, her firm and of course her client.
This whole scenario just goes right along with my earlier post about Freelancers Flaking Out. Sure, we're not all like this. In fact the large majority of freelancers are hard working, focused, non-flightly workaholics. But for those few who are just cruising through you're giving the rest of us a bad name!
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