Writer's Petition: On Using Language for Good

I'm big on old-fashioned government. Writing elected officials. Collecting signatures and carrying thoughtful petitions into city hall. Standing up and speaking my mind (cordially) at board meetings.

I did not sign this online petition, because I really doubt that signatures on it matter much.

I am sharing it here and asking you to consider that presidential hopeful who uses language as a most powerful tool. Not necessarily for good.

A politician angles to get a job through what is essentially a popularity contest. When a politician wins that contest, then he or she is not a prom king or queen, but a LEADER. Those are two distinct job descriptions. In both roles, using language expertly is crucial to the job. Otherwise, there's not a lot of overlap between those two things - politician and leader.

So an iPetition slugged "Writers on Trump" is going around on Facebook. Sign it and share it if you think it could make a difference. More importantly, please, before you vote, think about language and how a leader should communicate. 

< steps off soapbox >

Guest Bloggers on the Top of My List

OK folks. December is here. December, I think, makes us all writers. List writers.

Am I right? The to-do list becomes a little more pressure-laden this time of year. Any way you look at it, December 31 looks like a SERIOUS DEADLINE.

So what's on your list?

I'm a list nut. About this time of year (ok, before Thanksgiving if you must know) I start compiling all of my lists, from grocery lists to gift lists to the ever-more-complicated Christmas (or should we say Holiday?) Card list to the seemingly endless to-do lists, rediscovering that frantic feeling that seems to come, guaranteed! no purchase necessary! with the last month of the year.

But this is about writing, not my neuroses. SO, among my writerly goals this year, somewhere in-between getting 100 followers on Twitter (help?) and reading more fiction (I'm failing miserably; thanks for asking) was getting more guest posts on this blog.

Would you like to offer a post here? Please consider it, or, heck, don't think about it at all! Just raise your hand and jump in before you talk yourself out of it! Drop me a line, tweet, link up with me on LinkedIn, send up a smoke signal even, and tell me what you'd like to write...about writing. Or about writers. Or writers with neuroses. Hey, some guy even wrote a book about lists. (I'm reading it now.) I'm really open to guest blog topics. Try me.

I've been absolutely delighted with the variety of guests who've graced this blog this year, and I think my readers have been happy to have a break from me and my fascination with lists, ellipses, and other neuroses. 

Well, clearly it's time for me to stop typing. And it's time for you to start! Will you be a guest blogger? Please?

Is That the Write Word? Don't Blow It

Surely you've seen the spell-checker poem - and appreciated it because you understood too well the way that lovely tool can save your butt, or can it.

There are infinite variations on the spell-check ditty, and seemingly infinite ways we can mess up our communication. Choosing the almost-right word is one way that may lead to late-night chuckles, courtesy of Mr. Leno's headline bloopers - or, if you're not so lucky, can lead to litigation.

The following appeared in Paula Morrow's latest newsletter to her writing brethren. It was written by her business and life partner, Bob Morrow, and I post it here with permission. (Thanks, Paula and Bob.)

Ordnance is bombs and artillery shells.
The first is dropped, the second shot.
An ordinance is local law
And you're supposed to obey it, like it or not.


-----------------------------

I get uptight when people - especially business people - are sloppy in professional communications. And while my clients really appreciate that, they're also well aware I'm not an artist. Fortunately for the art and craft of children's literature, Paula and Bob offer thorough critiques for first time and experienced authors. For more about their services, visit the website http://paulamorrow.com

Words I Didn't Know

I love a few "new" words sprinkled in a good book... at least, I love them when I recover from my initial feelings of stupidity.

So here they are, the words I had to look up, from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:

fulsome
metier
melange
mien
tractable (I think I learned, and then forgot, that one)
vociferous (ditto this one)

The new (to me) vocabulary words were used perfectly, when each was the absolute right word to use. Writers who do that further communication in general and the art of writing in particular. I am in awe of (and grateful to) Mss. Barrows and Shaffer for producing such a fine book.

Think you can produce writing of a similar ilk? Try - for the month of August, Random House is soliciting entries for its The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Essay Contest. Contestants should describe, in 430 words or less, their favorite book and what it taught them about a particular place and/or time period. Pens at the ready - and good luck!

You Know What Copywriting Is

"It's copywriting," I said, in a like, duh tone of voice.

"Why do they call it copyrighting?"

I was surprised to get this question from a friend and college professor the other night. It took us a brief who's-on-first-like exchange before I realized he'd heard me say copyrighting when I meant copywriting.

Copywriting is what's on the back of cereal boxes and book jackets and all over the Greenpeace website. It's advertising, PR, puff, and when done right, it's persuasive stuff.

Sadly, it's also a much more lucrative calling than journalism. (Don't get me started.) Anyway, I bring this up because there's a rather nice review of positioning (a very important concept copywriters better understand) here.

What Are Words For?

Missing Persons asked the question, What Are Words For? in the early 80s, and it seems we're still asking. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The answer is, words are for human communication.

I hope you'll forgive me when the question "is content still king??" makes me roll my eyes and spew sarcastic sound bites. Such as, well, you only need content...if you want to communicate.

Full disclosure: I'm a writer who just laid off from a company (Viacom) that recently hired a half-dozen (more) SEO/Social Media Marketing gurus.

Sour grapes? No!

We need SEO that works. We don't live to search, we live to find. And what we're looking for - in a gazillion different forms - is content. Ergo, good SEO is pointless without good content.

Content, of course, can be a picture, a game, a form, a joke, King Lear or step-by-step instructions on hotwiring a car.

I think we've heard the "reading is dead" argument enough over the centuries (Plato?) to realize it's not. I think content is still king as long as SEO marketing firm Best Rank (and others) say it is. True, content has taken a hit in accounting. But even as stately old newspapers are disappearing others are starting to ask the right questions, like: what about distribution? and how can the print product add value to the web product? Aha! Now we're getting somewhere!

(But where? It's hard to say. Just keep reading.)

Bye Bye Blogs, So Long to Standards?

Today I read that blogs are passe, dead, a waste of time. When the question is, how can I get readers? apparently, the answer is Twitter. Hm.

I can digg (in fact, I really Digg it!) but I'm not ready to tweet.

Assuming there's some momentum and truth (or real worth) to back up the tweeting on Twitter, and Digg lasts longer than most of my web-crushes, then (you know what's coming) what does it mean for writers? and for writing?

I'm not sure, beyond the fact that it's acceptable to start a sentence like the one above with a lowercase "a."
- - - - - - - - - -

I believe writers are really, really important in any civilized society. Seriously. And not just the legal specialists who write the plethora of contracts, disclaimers, and warranties.

But it's been a long day.
- - - - - - - - - -

I spent part of it on a conference call with about a dozen eager writers who were, I was led to believe, all ready to jump at the chance to write for the website of a "major brand" in the medical space for ... ready? $70 per article. The articles should take about two hours to complete, we were told. (I suspect more like five.) Writers on the project are instructed to conduct one interview and use it to create 5+ articles on a given topic. And/or to source quotes from the host website - with attribution to the folks previously quoted on the host website.

Is anyone besides me nauseous at this point?

If we, the professional writers, are to repurpose and essentially regurgitate the same material, the same quotes, over and over and (I really HATE this part) reuse OTHER writers' material (even from "approved" websites - in this case, a partner site, but one with separate ownership and a separate staff of writers) how long will it be before what we read has no meaning?

Not very long, my friends; webspeed is roughly equivalent to the speed of light.

And the ugly twist in the wild-web-world is that while we can crank out "new" material with a few keystrokes and cut-and-paste commands, it's damn near impossible to to determine the relative age, or accuracy, of anything we read.

What if I repurpose a quote from a doc who was an expert in his field last year but who recently was indicted for having sex with his patients, prescribing drugs based on kickbacks, fiddling with research results to further his career at the big-name clinic?

I won't know and readers won't know, if I didn't do the interviews firsthand.

So for $70 you can get a pithy article on pinkeye, and say "goodbye" to journalistic standards.

That's a very costly mistake.

I'll admit that news of the death of the blog may be grossly exaggerated, and not at all related to the demise of journalism, however, there's a lesson to be learned in both.

I think it's this: While you don't always get what you pay for, even more often, when the price tag is low so is the quality.

In the case of the $70 medical article, you, dear reader, don't know if you're getting the story straight from the horse's mouth, even if the horse is quoted and the website looks like a thoroughbred.

Caveat emptor, dear readers. Writers, good luck. And fact-checkers, raise your rates. I hope you'll soon be in great demand.

Who Writes This Guy's Stuff?

The guy, Barack Obama, has brilliant writers. BRILLIANT. The script of Obama's 30-minute infomercial was impressive, tight, effective, near-perfect in content, style, and of course, delivery.

Whether you look at life through red- or blue-tinted glasses, there's no denying it: this guy has an awesome team of writers.