Oscars and Writers

OK, I'll admit it, I plan to watch (at least some of) tonight's Oscar presentations. I hate celebrity gossip, in spite of the fact that there's a lot of money in it for writers. (One of the many times a conscience can get in the way of a good paycheck!)

One of my favorite movies (from years ago) was overlooked by the academy and the vast majority of the general population, I'm sorry to say:  Stranger than Fiction is a story about a story, a work-in-progress by a writer (Emma Thompson), and her (unbeknownst to her) real-life main character, Will Ferrell. Will she kill him off in the end? Major spoiler alert: No. But how she writes around her planned ending after she falls in love with her main character - in real life, 'cus she hated him until she met him - makes for a truly entertaining story. Um, film. Well, both.

It's a movie you don't have to be a writer to love, but I haven't met a writer that doesn't love it. :)

But back to tonight's Oscars. Don't you think some of the actors could do their careers a favor by paying a writer to pen a charming acceptance speech... and then follow it? The good news for our profession: those who don't certainly help support the PR industry.

And for that, I'd like to thank the Academy.

Deadlines

The only deadlines you're allowed to miss are the ones you impose on yourself. Sigh. That's an attempt at an eloquent excuse - I've let myself slide on updating my website. Blog posts are easier to manage.

What to look for in the (coming soon) new, improved site: a special rate for employee newsletters in 2010! Know anyone who can benefit from sending a uniform message to all his (or her) employees? Know a business that desperately needs to get all its workers on the same page? Send 'em my way!

An Evergreen FYI

A succinct and well-written article on publishing jargon can be found amongst Media Bistro's many helpful pages, here. It both defines and exemplifies the term evergreen. Kind of like this post :)

Fiction Habit: Critiquing what isn't there

I'm fortunate to be a member of a very talented online critique group. What I've learned from the group over the years could fill a book. But cursed as I am, a copywriter with a fiction-writing habit, I won't have time to write that book for many years. *sigh* Anyway....

One of the many invaluable things a critique group can do is point out what isn't in a manuscript that should be. More than those nagging questions (what happened to the donkey on page 7?)  I'm talking about things like missing elements. Believability. Conflict. An arc. A resolution. If you write without an outline (as I believe most fiction writers do) it is possible to write a story without a very important ingredient. It might look good, but there's a missing ingredient. Think chocolate cake without sugar. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you know?

On the other hand, a critique group can also consider what you've (perhaps purposely) omitted and give you an honest assessment regarding its relative necessity. As a story sweeps the reader along, a lot of little details can and should be left out. What kind of shoes the main character is wearing, what he had for breakfast, and whether or not he crossed at the light or brazenly jaywalked. 

If you, the writer, have glossed over a detail that needs clarification, however, it's the crit group's responsibility to call you on it. (You need to explain how the donkey got from Milwaukee to Martinique.)

And yes, it will sting. That's when you say "thank you," and put the manuscript in a drawer, figuratively or literally, for 24 hours. (Of course I recommend you save it to your external hard drive; don't get me started on back-up issues.)  Then, get your red pen, and get the donkey home. 

Structural check on my glass house

I'm planning to upgrade my website, so I've been reading some other writers' sites pretty closely - close enough to catch some embarrassing typos.

I hope they are typos. I've seen sloppy punctuation (missing periods, double periods) "it's" where "its" was needed, and other errors a 5th grade teacher would circle with her red pen. Yes, you understood correctly - all these amateur errors appear on the sites of professional freelance writers.

I was dumbfounded, dismayed, and working on righteous indignation (doesn't ANYONE proofread their own work these days?!) when I realized... errors on their sites probably meant I should stop picking up rocks and check for cracks in my own glass house.

If you see anything off, let me know, OK? (Please knock gently before throwing stones.)

I'd also like to remind those writers (and everyone else) that I'm available to proofread your website. I just might ask that you return the favor - editing your own stuff is especially difficult!

3-minute inspiration

Writers, NPR is doing you a tremendous favor. All you have to do is come up with a 600-word (or shorter) story, inspired by the picture provided here. Too lazy to enter? You can tickle your muse by reading recent winners and the judges' comments on why those particular stories rose to the top.

Twitter works in DC

This smart use of Twitter gets the message across.