Instead of compiling a list of this week’s must-reads, I tripped and fell. Seriously. This is not a dog-ate-my-homework post.
After a networking meeting today, I went to the restroom–and forgot there was a huge step down as I was exiting. Horribly embarrassing, but at least everyone else had already left the building. Now I’m all about RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for not one but two ankles.
With that, I leave with you a Fresh Yarn “mash up” — two different essays about Lucille Ball. Very appropriate for this occaision.
p.s. I’d also be willing to bet that Fresh Yarn editor Hilary Carlip is a “Glee” fan.
This blog post is brought to you by the writing prompt just like in the movies.
I don’t usually use writing prompts, but I signed up to receive them daily this month, just to see if it fueled writing ideas. Apparently, it has. When I read today’s prompt, I couldn’t help but think about the stereotype of writers.
In movies, writers are often portrayed as rebellious, hard drinking, reclusive, obsessive, eccentric and even mad. The copywriters in films tend to be fast-talking, sales-oriented and quick with the pitch. Although copywriting pays my bills—and I enjoy it—I find myself relating more to the stereotype of the writer.
When I was in my early teens, I was at a dinner with extended family to celebrate the birthday of my grandmother’s sister “Aunt G.” I loved Aunt G’s humor and envied her ability to talk a thousand miles a minute. As she read the birthday card I’d written just for her, she called down the table in her thick Cajun accent.
“Girl,” she said. “You might be quiet, but put a pen in your hand, and you’re mighty.”
Or it was something like that.
I do love interacting with people, but I find that I tend to be quiet in a group of people. While I admire people who see a group of 50 and are energized by the thought of meeting every single one of them, I scour the crowd for someone who looks interesting—and approachable.
Which means I’ll learn that person’s story and make a good connection, but that’s probably the only connection I’ll make. Of course, one person can make a difference: they could connect you to a new client, offer a key piece of advice or become a great friend. But, if I attend one networking event each month, that’s not going to get me very far!
Last month, I revised my bio and portfolio, sharing the progress and results with you. This month, I’m researching different local networking groups and opportunities. And I’m going to going attend them, which means you’ll be reading my experiences and the tips I learn along the way. Since the majority of my copywriting clients are in Seattle or on the West Coast, I’ve just started to learn more about the local Denver business community.
This writer is going to try to channel that outgoing, social copywriter. You know, just like in the movies.
Your turn. Do you find it’s harder to network in-person than online? Do you have any networking tips to share with your fellow writers and readers? What’s your favorite way to connect with new people? Please share in the comment below.
Although I had a fledgling draft of this week’s Cognitive Connection, I scrapped it to share the links that have captured my attention since the news of J.D. Salinger’s passing on January 28, 2010, at the age of 91.
Salinger captured my attention and disenchanted teenage spirit when I, like most people, read Catcher in the Rye in high school. I still re-read it every few years.
- AP (via a note on Facebook) Not quite a chance encounter: The day I saw J.D. Salinger
- NPR Meeting J.D. Salinger — Courtesy Of A Rainstorm
- Rolling Stone Searching for J.D. Salinger: A Writer’s New Hampshire Quest
- The Globe and Mail Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger dies
- The New York Times, Books, J. D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91
- The New Yorker Postscript: Archives of Salinger’s Stories
“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddamn cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.” — J.D. Salinger
Have you read any interesting articles about Salinger since—or even before—his passing? Please share in the comments below.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a 50/50 post, so as a reminder: This blog piece needs your input, that’s why it’s labeled a “50/50 post.” It relies on your experience, opinions and sharing. Consider it a close cousin to an open thread.
After publishing tips for writing a bio, I have finally posted my new one and renamed the page from About to Bio. My biggest goal in the revision was to focus on what I can do for customers—and keep it injected with personality. I trust you’ll let me know how I did.
My second update project is my portfolio. While I intend to keep a few favorite pieces posted, I have newer work that I want to highlight. I have a pretty solid grasp of how I am going to refresh my portfolio page and give it some pop. But I’m also still exploring ideas.
So that brings to me this. What makes a great online portfolio for writers? I’m personally focusing on my copywriting portfolio, but this question is open to everyone.
Here are a few traits I’ve found on effective copywriting portfolios:
- Samples back up the writer’s claims of what he/ she describes as skills or specialties.
- Examples make an impression. Whether it’s a stellar paragraph or a stunning headline, pieces that make the cut in a portfolio need to be memorable.
- Although words are his/her talent, some of the best writing portfolios I’ve seen incorporate graphic elements (e.g., webpage screen shots, magazine covers).
Okay, this is where we start sharing.
What’s a fourth element of effective writers’ portfolios? Should we include images or stick with words? Does a list of links turn you off? If a portfolio is more than a year old, do you question what the writer has done lately? What inspired your portfolio? Please share in the comments.
Between watching Conan O’Brien host his last “Tonight Show” and seeing the oh-so-relevant movie “Up in the Air,” the idea of dream jobs—as well as the dream of publishing—kept me very preoccupied this week.
When the issues between Conan, Jay Leno and NBC first broke, I wasn’t watching either TV host. In fact, I agreed with a woman on Twitter who posted, “Having a hard time getting worked up about which white guy and his all-male writing staff gets ‘Tonight Show’ timeslot.” Then, somehow, I caught a snippet of Conan sharing that hosting the “Tonight Show” was his “dream job” and I unexpectedly found myself relating to his heartbreak (even though he doesn’t have a single woman on his writing staff).
When I was a young journalism student in high school, the only real-person examples of writers I had were my mother’s father, who banged out poetry and prose in his spare time; my journalism teacher and the editor of the local paper, who barely made enough money to support his family in our little Texas town.
So being paid to write seemed like a fantasy, not something I would ever actually achieve. And, for a while, I pursued everything but a writing career. Instead, I managed a small business in Seattle and then became a recruiter for several years. I enjoyed the work—and gave it my all—but it was just work.
Then a family member—an older, wiser cousin with whom I shared a birthday and a sense of humor—gave me a kick in the you-know-what. “I’m sure the college kids love you,” she said, referring to my then-current job in college relations for that big Seattle coffee company. “But what are you doing? What are you doing with your writing, with all that creative energy you’ve always had?”
What was I doing? She was right and I couldn’t argue. After embarking on a journey to figure out exactly what I wanted to do—and how I could do it—I landed my “dream job.” I was going to be paid to write and edit newsletters. My feet didn’t touch the ground for months.
And when they finally did touch the ground, they landed with a heavy thud. Office politics and a corporate re-alignment quickly turned my beloved job into a stressful situation. All sense of joy was gone. Although I kept reminding myself that I was being paid to work with words, I found myself looking for other opportunities and let myself be recruited into another department. I was still being paid to write and I enjoyed the work, but again I struggled with office politics and several departmental re-organizations.
When I decided to launch my freelance writing business a.k.a writer and be my own boss, I accomplished a huge goal—and achieved a dream that was years in the making. But it lacked the giddiness of that first “dream job.” There were too many realities—marketing myself, securing projects, and balancing finances—to let my feet leave the ground. However, it didn’t stop me from doing a little dance whenever I landed a new client.
Do I consider myself jaded? No. Do I still believe in dream jobs? I don’t think so. But I absolutely believe in setting goals and reaching for your dreams.
One of my current goals/dreams is publishing a book. It’s easy to see authors with multiple books on sale at my favorite bookstore and imagine what that would feel like. Wouldn’t it be glorious to be paid for writing the stories stewing in my imagination?
But then, it’s not that easy, either. Many of today’s authors, even those with multiple published titles, have to be entrepreneurs as well. They are building relationships with readers on Facebook and Twitter, pitching articles to editors and teaching classes. In his recent essay The D.I.Y. Book Tour, Stephen Elliot (who’s published seven books) chronicled his experiences with giving readings in the homes of his readers. Being an author today is much more than you and a laptop.
Betsy Lerner put it in perfect perspective for me with her blog post this morning: “publishing a book doesn’t change your life so much as creates opportunity. Then it’s up to you.”
That sums up my approach to landing the dream client and/or project as well as achieving my goals. I’m glad it’s up to me to make the most of the opportunities.
What about you? Do you have—or long for—a particular dream job, project or goal? Have you achieved a goal only to realize it wasn’t what you thought it would be? Are you living your dreams now? Please share in the comments.
Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76283671@N00/ / CC BY 2.0
This question is directed at the writers here: do your friends and family call you nosey? Mine do—and always have. Even as a child, my favorite one-word question was “why?” and I liked to eavesdrop on conversations. I always wanted to know the story and what happened behind the story. Sometimes, when I’m watching movie or reading a great article, I want to know how the director got that shot or how the writer secured that tidbit of information.
While I know when to keep it in check, there’s no question that I am endlessly curious. One reason I love writing is because I’m always learning something!
With that, I give you my reading picks for the week, most of which focus on the story behind the story.
- Paige Bowers Publishing and Sole Meuniere Paige shares her personal story of a Dave Eggers reading, where he said that story still matters and if you have a good one, the rest should take care of itself. Paige’s post is a fantastic answer to my piece on Mary Karr saying an author’s voice is key to being published.
- Speaking of Mary Karr, I just had to slip in this Paris Review interview with Karr on the Art of Memoir.
- Both timely and insightful, Michelle Rafter’s The story behind the story: how media outlets are covering the Haiti earthquake is a must-read. She provides a behind the scenes view on how reporters for several outlets are covering events in Haiti. You can also read NPR’s the story behind the story of NPR’s Haiti coverage, which Michelle highlights on her blog.
- On the lighter side is Betsy Lerner’s Let’s Not Do Lunch on the “strange publishing phenomenon which I call phantom lunch or faux lunch.” I especially love her inside perspective on being a literary agent, authors and the publishing industry.
- In a follow up to last week’s Mini Cooper Ad Fires on All Cylinders, Paul Williams goes behind the scenes with the creative team to get the story on how this compelling campaign came to be. Don’t miss Marketing Profs Daily Fix Exclusive Story Behind the Mini Cooper Christmas Box Ads.
Your turn. What story or behind-the-story piece did you read this week that you’d like to share here?
On the corkboard directly in front of my desk—visible every time I look up—is a quote from Mary Karr. She was writing about the late memoirist Frank McCourt and stated, “A memoir voice is the diamond in a sack of glass.”
Karr, a memoirist and poet who’s written The Liar’s Club, Cherry and the recent Lit, is one of my literary heroes. When I attended her reading at Denver’s Tattered Cover in November, she was also emphatic that memoir is about voice and, if you have an original voice, you will get published.
In contrast, I caught several comments on Twitter last Friday. According to a recent WSJ article, the slush pile is dead. Several agents I follow on Twitter declared just the opposite, with agent Janet Reid posting this rebuttal on her blog: “What I mean by the phrase ‘slush works’ is that sending a good query with good pages will get you the attention of an agent. You don’t need anything more than that if you write compelling fiction.”
While I have to admit that I felt a twinge of skepticism when I heard Karr’s comment about your voice being the key to publishing, I don’t want to believe that the slush pile is dead. Call me Pollyanna, but I want to know that talented, hard-working writers without big literary connections can secure an agent and be published.
Maybe that’s why I follow so many agents on Twitter and read so many of their blogs. These agents are offering insight and tips to aspiring authors. On January 14, several agents let readers peek behind the curtain with #agentsday, with agents posting their tasks as they went about a “typical” workday. This LA Times article is a great resource for more about #agentsday, as well as a links to several participating agents. One correction: the article states that popular blogging agent Nathan Bransford did not participate; he did once he overcame computer issues.
Okay, what’s my point with all of this? My dream is to publish a memoir. It’s not something I discuss much and very few people know that I’ve been working on it. But I’ve been chipping away at it for a while and have even taken several writing class that made enormous differences. Then the economy tanked, so I decided I would focus on writing the book, rather than selling it. One of my goals this year is to get serious movement with this and write a full draft. I went the route of developing a proposal and earning a few rejections.
So that’s me being really person. And I want to believe that Karr is right.
What about you? What keeps you motivated and positive when headlines are screaming the demise of publishing? Is there an author, friend, mentor or teacher who keeps you going? Please share your experiences in the comments below.
Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/austinevan/ / CC BY 2.0
If this week is any indication, 2010 is on fire with compelling content. (I’m a believer in “content is king.”) The articles and blog posts listed here are only a tiny percentage of the great pieces I read this week.
- Bookends, LLC – A Literary Agency A Query on Queries. Agent Jessica Faust ponders whether “agent blogs and web sites have made things more complicated rather than simpler.” Which explains why she answers this seemingly no-brainer question.
- Entrepreneur Magazine Freelancing? Think Like a Business Owner by Michelle Goodman. One of my freelancing gurus offers solid tips for growing your income and managing projects.
- Marketing Profs Daily Mini Cooper Ad Fires on All Cylinders. Paul Williams discusses how this Mini Cooper campaigns hits all the right advertising notes: it’s attention getting; has a clear, memorable message; is brand appropriate; is locally/audience relevant and is remarkable. Although the campaign is image-heavy, Paul’s post is a perfect reminder of what’s required to pen compelling copy.
- Social Media Examiner 13 Ideas to Inspire Your Blog Content Blogger Denise Wakeman offers tips for busting what I like to call the “blog fog.”
Two great Q&As with authors this week:
- Motherlogue: Q&A with Jennie Shortridge [author of the novel When She Flew]
- UrbanMuse: 5 Qs with Melissa Hart, Author of Gringa [a memoir]
Your turn. What did you read this week that you’d like to share here?
