Holy #%$@!

It started to get very dark this afternoon, far before nightfall. Thinking there must be a pop-up thunderstorm on the way, I checked the local radar maps online. Um, no, it isn't a pop-up thunderstorm- it's a pop-up hurricane. Working on back-to-back Elance projects all day, I had no idea that during the night an entire hurricane had formed and then hit the coast. It's the fastest forming hurricane on record and is now an hour or two away. Very, very surreal.

The Copyscape Miracle

I think Copyscape is an amazing site and a concept that is revolutionizing the way people write for the web. Instead of clients worrying that something they are buying might be stolen, either whole or in part, they can check it quickly via Copyscape. Try to wrap your mind round it- it checks billions of websites and lets you know where in the world anything you have ever written can be found duplicated.

I love that clients can use it to make sure my items are original. The miracle of Copyscape means that clients will know immediately if anything was copied. It gives clients confidence and lets writers know if their work has been stolen.

Case in point: here is an article that I wrote for How to Do Things: http://www.howtodothings.com/hobbies/a4439-how-to-write-an-editorial.html

Here it is reproduced by someone else who put their name on it: http://climatechallenge.org/wiki-sources/media-guide/op-eds

If you will notice, the thief is far from crafty- the date that I wrote it and the date that he stole it are clearly visible. I wrote it three months before he says he did. Not too smart. Why do people even do this? Surely they are aware of the miracle that is Copyscape. And if they aren't, they are about to find out.

The Comma in Hiding

There was an interesting editorial in Newsweek about a month ago about the comma and its usage. Ok, most people wouldn't find it quite so interesting, but I thought it was fascinating that someone else felt the same way I do about the comma. No one seems interested in the poor little dear these days. The comma separates ideas from each other during the course of the sentence, and I think it's one of the most useful pieces of punctuation.

Reading a lot of web writing as I do, I see so many pieces that don't contain a single comma. The sentences are supposed to be shorter and less complex in web writing, hence the need to plow through each sentence as quickly as possible with nowhere to rest. No pausing. No time to pause.

When editing other people's work, I also find that the comma is misused often, and more often it's completely absent. I believe that as people get more accustomed to reading web writing, they begin writing that way instead of the way it is most often written in books. And that's fine, as long as they are able to tell the difference between the two. The short, get-to-the-point style that so many want online is probably the best way to quickly get across non-fiction such as instructional materials, and it's probably best for articles formatted with several steps for the reader to follow.

But is it really best for medical articles? Editorials? Essays? I don't think it is, though I maybe in the minority. I believe those who are seeking to read more complex material will likely be insulted by simple syntax that questions the intelligence of the reader. So, I'll keep my long sentences where I think they will be appreciated, and I will chop them into little pieces for the places where they won't be. But someday, I intend to write the most fantastically long sentences just because I can- think Virginia Woolf's two-page sentences from Mrs. Dalloway. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Writing for the Web

Even after a year and a half, sometimes I am still struck by the differences between news and web content writing. I remember in one of my early journalism classes a professor was commenting with absolute glee about the leads in the NYT. They were so complex, the words so entwined together that you never noticed that the whole first paragraph was one sentence. It was all put together so skillfully that it never seemed too long or disjointed. And I agreed.

I spent the next few years striving for that level of intricacy, trying to weave thoughts and ideas together seamlessly into the whole without any part of it becoming awkward. And then I became a web writer. The pieces that people are looking to purchase online are made up of short, choppy sentences with only one main idea. Many times as I proof my web articles I have to cut my sentences in half to make them more suited to web writing. And that's fine- you have to write to the market, setting your own skills to the task at hand. I would like to find clients who are more interested in the way a work is crafted than how many keywords are in it. I have been fortunate enough to find that kind of work here and there, scattered across the web like spiders scurrying into the corners. I continue to chase down those spiders, asking them if I might be allowed to spin a web for them that will be to their liking.

Writing Schedules

As far as writing schedules go- can you really make one? Writing is a business, yes, but there is a large creative element, even in web content writing. Can you then set a schedule for it? Yes. I do it every day. If I have a week to do a project, and I know how many hours it will take me, I have to schedule for working on it that many hours during that week. I hear from so many writers who say they have to contemplate writing for a few hours before actually doing so. I don't get it. Would you contemplate doing accounting before doing it? Would you think for a few hours about using your nursing skills? So why do so many writers think you have to do that to write creatively?

When I was a reporter we had to write the best articles possible, keeping in mind accuracy, creativity and AP style. And it was all done at the speed of light. Sometimes you had less than an hour to gather information and write an article about it. I once had a paper held from the press so that I could wait for a phone call that would give me some vital information about the front page. Imagine if I got the information and then took a few hours to think about writing the article. I couldn't have- that's just not a part of professional writing. You have to see the story as soon as you see the title or subject, and then have it forming in your mind as you go. I learned to write professionally this way, and that's still how I operate. It doesn't mean that what I write isn't creative. I actually think it's the other way around. If you are a creative person, you don't need hours for creativity to come to you.

Technorati

http://technorati.com/posts/tag/beakerwriter

I am trying to get the hang of this blog thing, and apparently running to Technorati is the first step. So there it is, my grand profile. It consists of a link and a one-line bio. Woo hoo!

The Folly of Samples

There's one thing that irritates me a lot about web content writing. Ok, there are several things, but let's start out with one for now. It seems a little strange for so many potential clients to want a sample that exactly relates to their subject. Like, even if I don't have an article sample about vacationing in Sarajevo, that doesn't mean that I can't write one.

If someone is a reasonably talented writer, they can write about just about anything. My samples are samples of my writing style and ability. They are not a sample of my precise knowledge on any subject. And even if I do have a sample about a certain topic, it's a sample that I wrote on one aspect of the topic. If it doesn't have the exact information someone is looking for in a sample, that doesn't mean that I don't know more about the topic. It simply means that every article is different and every perspective is different. There is no legitimate reason for writing samples about every possible topic and using them to simply regurgitate every piece of information you can find. That's crap, not writing.

If someone can write, then they can write. Period. Another thing some potential clients do is to look at your samples, see that they look fine, and then ask you to write another sample about their topic. Um, no. My samples are there to show my ability- not as a proposal to do free work. I hope my samples show that I can do my job.