Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with writer

What would I do without you guys, really?

Bageena — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:31:30 -0800

My friends and I are starting an artist collective in Phoenix, Arizona and we desperately need help thinking of a name. Can you help? Short explanation; I myself am an artist with, you know, the paper and the pencil and occasionally, some ink or acrylic or something. I have three friends that are photographers, another friend who's a painter, two friends who are musicians, and a few others who might also join. What we've decided we'd like to do is start a community blog where we all write individually what we're doing to try and break into the mainstream or just get our work seen. The main site will show all of our posts, broken down by individual members, along with a sort of swarm cloud that shows how often each artist works with the others.
Anyways, we've got a ton of great ideas already and we're excited to get a move on it, but we're stuck at what seems to be the first effing step! We need a name for our little community. We don't have a lot in common except that we all work normal 9-5 jobs outside of our passions for our individual work, we are all artists of one sort or another, and we all live in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm trying to think of names that are reminiscent of the desert or of Phoenix. I sort of like the idea of something ancient and awesome sounding. Really though, we're open to anything. I'd list the links to our websites so you could actually see our styles and who we 'are', so to speak, but I think that'd be a little too self-linky for me. So yeah - if your really that curious, you can look in my bio and I think there's a link there to my personal work.
So yes, I leave it once again to the most clever people I know to help me hop a hurdle in my life. Thanks Mefites!

Writer meets arthritis

grumblebee — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:18:40 -0800

Mac voice-recognition software for a writer with arthritis. My father's arthritis is making it more and more difficult for him to type. This is hard for him, because he's been a writer for decades (over 25 books and countless articles). He is considering switching to voice-recognition software.

Here are some things to note:

- He is originally from England but has lived in the US since the 1950s. He is a very clear speaker, but his accent is a mix of British (cockney originally) and American.

- He owns a Mac.

- He is not highly computer literate, but he lives in a university town and could find people to help him set things up if necessary. He probably will have trouble if the voice-recognition software itself is overly complicated to use.

I am looking for any advice and experiences with this. What is the state of the art these days? What's available for the Mac? What is the experience like for people who are heavy users?

This sounds really familiar...

amicamentis — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:56:56 -0800

How do authors ensure that they aren't copying older stories? Is there a process that authors go through when fleshing out (fictional) works? Is this the publisher's responsibility? Do they ask around?

I would imagine that an author would want to know as soon as possible whether or not the plot of his story resembled a film or book already published. And while he or she may know of many works, it's impossible to be familiar with all of them.

For example, if a writer says "I know! I'll write a book about a nerdy journalist who goes back to high school and gets a second chance at love!". Hopefully they have a friend that says, "Dude, that was Never Been Kissed. Try again". But what if they don't? Does this happen often? Is there some sort of "plot database" in existence?

I'm not referring to deliberate parody or spoofs on classic works, more of a general and unintentional similarity.

Propitious places to move to & unusual living situations for having 3 or 4 days a week free to work on personal project

cotesdurhone — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:39:38 -0800

I'm working on a project that requires at least 3 or 4 full days attention each week. What are some places in the US or world I could move to, &/or unusual living situations, that would give me a good chance of doing this? Other considerations:

• Part-time job terminating Jan 1, and definitely want to move elsewhere (currently live in Boston)
• Have $5000 savings. Will probably also be able to continue receiving unemployment (about $1,000 month) if I move out of state (but not country, obviously)

• Age 30. US Citizen.
• Languages: English, Russian
• Skills: Writing and editing, visual art, Russian translation (but no graduate-level degrees to show this)
• BA from Liberal Arts college + semester (2 terms) at Oxford

Any and all reasonable options considered.

• Preferred urban environment: vibrant arts scene, inspiring architecture, not overrun with college students or sports fanatics, ethnically and age-ally diverse
• 'Ideal' destinations: Montreal, France
• Hypothetical order of preference: 1. Montreal & France (tie) 2. EU, Scandinavia, & Turkey 3. Eastern Europe 4. USA & Canada 5. South America 6. Asia 7. Australia/New Zealand 8. other

• Preferred rural environment: the more (interesting) people around, the better

• "unusual living situations" = housesitting - caretaking - living in some cabin - (earnest) meditative community - collective farm - kibbutz - teaching abroad - or anything else

• If it's helpful to know— the project is of a literary nature (a novel and other writings)

Finally, what are the very best resources (books, websites, magazines, etc) that might be of help?

Smelly

bunny hugger — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:57:23 -0800

I'm looking for the name of a writer who writes about perfumes in a really beautiful way. I guess she is a perfume critic. All I can really remember about her is that writes about them in an unconventional way (describing memories, comparing them to things really unrelated to scents, etc.) and maybe for a newspaper or magazine. Anyone got an idea?

Perhaps a chair coated with glue?

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:09:03 -0800

With NaNoWriMo looming ever nearer, I would like to hear your best tips, tricks, habits, and techniques for staying chained to the keyboard. Realizing that the point is to get 50,000 words written, I've jettisoned all illusions of producing quality, publishable prose. My only goal is to finish without having to copypaste "All work and no play makes BOP a dull boy" five thousand times. I have a (rather vague) outline, I have some preliminary character sketches, and I have every expectation that the first ten thousand words will flow fairly quickly. But. I suck at follow-through. I have the attention span of the common housefly. So, writers: how do I stick with it, fight through discouragment and ennui, and produce 50,000 reasonably coherent words?

Note: I'm not looking for tips like "prepare moar" or "work your plan". I'm looking for how to stay motivated when the fun stuff stops and the hard work begins.

Updating my portfolio website and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more.

mintchip — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:04:23 -0800

Updating my online portfolio and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more. I would like to update my online writing portfolio, which is currently a blog hosted by Blogger. Each post is a thumbnail image along with some introductory copy. The thumbnails link to large jpg images
stored on Flikr. I want to spend a minimum of time updating my site, and I need to be able to make updates with ease. I have old versions of Photoshop and Dreamweaver at my disposal. Can you help me with these questions?

1. Navigation: On Blogger, new posts appear in date order rather than being organized by category. I am not happy with this navigation limitation. Is there any way around this without creating a whole new website independent of Blogger? I have been thinking about purchasing a domain name and then using an HTML template, but it would be easier if I didn’t have to do this. If I do need to move to a different site format, what would you recommend for a simple template and/or host?

2. Photo storage: My thumbnail images, which Blogger creates, link to Flikr photos. However, the type in these larger images isn't fully readable until the user clicks a second time (after clicking on the thumbnail), to enlarge the image to full size. I’m afraid some readers won’t do this. Is there a good solution to this? Where should I store my photos (if not on Flikr)?

3. Photo size and format: What are standard image sizes? If I abandon the blog format and create a new HTML site, how should I go about creating all of the JPGs I will need (full size, thumbnail)? What is the standard size for full size images and thumbnails and what do you recommend for a naming convention? Would PDF format be preferable? If so, what software should I use to create my PDFs, are there any standards to these, and where can I store them?

4. Should I allow people to download my writing samples, either as JPG or PDFs?

Improve your writing by imitating the greats.

ekpyrotic — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:10:41 -0800

Improve your writing by imitating the greats. I am a middling writer. I have won college writing awards. I once published two pieces in a national newspaper.

I am eager to learn. At night I often find myself scanning http://delicious.com/search?p=writing. The result is frequently the same, either (i) the articles are old, or (ii) the content is old news, Use the active voice, Delete unnecessary words, or other Shrunkian globules of wisdom.

I have read that there comes a time when you should turn to the masters: Hemingway, Nabokov, Chekov, Kafka. Read them; distill their lessons; imitate them.

How do I do that? Are there specific exercises?

Total Crud Face Universe and Galaxy

Juliet Banana — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:13:39 -0800

I am obsessed with artist&writer Lynda Barry, and don't believe she has any peer or equal in the world of comics. Prove me wrong; who else would I love? I like how the art is appealing but from a totally different planet than the enviable mechanical precision of, say, Chris Ware.

Her work represents how my youth actually was; instead of a bland suburban innocence that doesn't really exist, she depicts the bloody skinned knees and lack of parental supervision and messy school assignments and gnawing anxiety and fear and destructive crushes and cruel teachers and wild neighborhood dogs and bittersweet memories of childhood.

Reading her work is having the feeling "I had no idea anyone else felt like that!" over and over. She manages to be nostalgic without kitschiness or saccarine sugar overload.

The closest I've found is Rebecca Kraatz's House of Sugar. I know I'm totally slacking by not having read any Ariel Schrag. Your suggestions don't have to be female, or even comic book artists, if you feel the feeling fits.

I know bonus questions are frowned upon, but how many Ask theads about Lynda Barry can I possibly start? I want to know how many more Lynda Barry books I need to buy before I have a reasonably complete collection of all the Marlys-Maybonne-Freddy-Arna-Arnold stories. I currently own Down the Street, It's So Magic, The Freddy Stories, and The Best of Marlys (which collects a lot of the strips, but not all). I still need My Perfect Life, Come Over Come Over, and The Fun House, I know. Do any of her other books contain Marlys-Maybonne-Freddy-Arna-Arnold stories?

How to professionally manage freelance writing about my industry?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:30:26 -0800

How do I successfully do freelance writing (my night job) about my industry (my day job)? I work in a high-tech industry that is a small, close-knit, incestuous community. As a result, I know most of the key players in it, including CEOs, startup founders, etc. I myself work for a high-profile startup. I'm incredibly passionate about this industry and it's been something I've been psyched about since I was in high school.

Along the way someone happened to notice I was good at writing, so I started being paid to blog about my industry. This worked out fine, and I was completely open about it with my employer, who just wanted any company-related material to be run past our PR folks before I posted it. Then I was asked to write for a somewhat related print magazine. Recently I've been asked to write for an industry analyst report.

This is all very cool, and I've discovered I really love the writing. It's also been a real success for me professionally, where others in the industry will recognize my (somewhat odd) name from the writing I do, and a new professional relationship starts from there. But what was early on an easy agreement with my employer has become occasionally awkward with my entire professional network. Now I'm being asked to speculate about a new company started by an entrepreneur I'm on a first-name, familiar basis with, or to interview a friend whose research project is press-worthy, or to put a writing colleague in touch with a higher-up at my company.

I know the basics -- I have told editors I will not write about my own company or its immediate competitors, and I know where there are lines not to cross when a friend has talked with me off-the-record, over drinks, about their new company or project, but the information is still considered business confidential. If I do need to talk to someone as a writer, I usually start the email/conversation by mentioning that I'm now wearing my "reporter hat". However, I'm starting to see where things could get more difficult to navigate in the near future.

So what I'm looking for is advice on how to manage friendly professional contacts when they're sometimes journalistic contacts. Alternatively, I'm interested in better ways to communicate boundaries to my editors, and how to identify those boundaries in the first place without compromising my usefulness. What are the best practices here?

Becoming a writer during my gap "year"

jeatsy — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:38:38 -0800

I have savings and, soon, no work. I want to do something interesting, write about it, and publish - ideally to kick-start a writing career. How should I go about these 3 things? I am a talented writer but have let my skills lie pretty much dormant since high school. Recently I took a fortnight's holiday and, having forgotten to take a camera with me, decided once home to write an account of my travels. It ended up many times longer than I had expected, I adored writing it, and all those who've read it seemed to really enjoy it. Hive mind: I'm hooked. I think I want to be a writer.

This desire coincides with the last few months of a research degree in computer science, about which I have become completely ambivalent and after which I have no plans other than to avoid programming for a living. (To the programmers out there: A great way to make a living. But not for me.) I have a lot of pent-up wanderlust, a desire to do something interesting in some interesting corner/s of the world, and a reasonable stash of savings with which to fund myself. I guess what I want is a worthwhile gap year, plus or minus a few months. And I want to be a writer.

So my logic is, let's go somewhere interesting, do something interesting, and write about it - ideally in order to kick-start a fruitful and enjoyable writing career, but in the worst case to have fun and to develop as a person and as a writer. That's about as specific as I get at the moment...

My question to the hive mind is: how should I go about (a) choosing what I'll do, and (b) writing about it, both with a view to getting published? Should I get talking to publishers right away? Do I approach them with an idea, or do they have ideas that they want people like (hopefully) me to work on - or a mixture of both? What kind of publishing format should I be targeting? Am I mad to even want to write for a living, in the age of blogs and tweets ten a penny?

I should add that the other genre of writing that particularly appeals to me, once I have satisfied my biting wanderlust, is popular science; and I'm 25 and based in the UK.

What should my freelance writer resume look like if I'm actually an engineer?

olinerd — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:02:12 -0800

What's the best way to change my engineering resume into one more appropriate for a freelance writer? I'm an engineer and have a wonderful job doing engineeringy things. On the side, though, I've started doing freelance writing for blogs and magazines -- mostly in technology, related to my day job, but I have some opportunities to branch out.

But now rather than word-of-mouth references, I have to actually submit a resume as a writer. How do I make a good one? On an engineering resume I'd list my relevant skills (engineering design software, machine tools, etc) but I'm not sure what the analog is for writing.

My biggest concern right now is that the list of stuff I *do* have (education, info on the writing I already do) is too short -- I'm used to a good resume filling a page. Advice please!

Where can I make money online?

ptsampras14 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:03:01 -0800

Where, oh where, can I make money online? I have a great computer expertise! Help! Where can I make money online? I have excellent computer expertise (not programing) but am quick to learn anything with a computer.
I am also a good writer, and am good at helping others with computers. I am not opposed to doing mundane tasks such as moderating web boards, or customer service..
I have tried online surveys with Pinecone Research but I have made $18 in two months and I am looking for something more,

Mystery Famous Female Writer Photo

missjenny — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:10:41 -0800

Please Help Me Find This Random Famous-Writer-At-Her-Desk Photo It's a black-and-white photo. A table with a typewriter on it is on the right side of the picture. She's facing the camera and she looks like she's having a good time. I can't remember who the writer is. I wanted to say Harper Lee, but I can't find a picture of her that looks quite as sassy and lovely as this one did. Fairly certain it's an American writer.

Who are the best feature writers out there?

reenum — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:21:10 -0800

Who are the best magazine and newspaper feature writers, past and present? I've been on a magazine and newspaper kick lately. I've gotten tons of articles by Michael Lewis, William Langewiesche and Jack Hitt. For sports, I love Gary Smith. I also like to read the in-depth articles put out by ProPublica.

Could you suggest others who write deep, delving pieces about a subject? The subject itself doesn't matter; I care more that the writer have the ability to engage a reader and explain a situation or subject in an interesting way.

Thanks!

Basic styling questions Open Office Writer

Meatbomb — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:04:41 -0800

n00b Open Office Writer: 2 questions 1. Page styles, they are driving me insane. I have a long doc. The first page is "first page" style, after that are "default" styles. I want, after a number of default pages, to set up a few landscaped pages. I am starting to cry, every time I try to do it, the god damned thing wants to go up and convert my first page. HOW DO I GET A NEW PAGE TO TAKE A NEW STYLE WITHOUT IT FUCKING ABOUT WITH PREVIOUS PAGES????

2. I would like to define text styles once, and have them become the defaults for subsequent documents. How do I tell writer that the default style of heading one, on any new document, should be 14pt centered Arial, just for example? Or that the default for any bullet list, on any new doc, should be checkmarks?

Please help me? Please? I am going for a walk now, before I throw my expensive laptop out the window in frustration. AAAAAARGH!!! I WANT TO KILL SOMETHING BY BEATING IT TO A PULP WITH A HEAVY STICK!!!

My office colleagues thank you in advance.

Tell me about writing for the commercial web!

Miko — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:04:26 -0800

What do I need to know about writing for the web? I'm talking to some people who run a wonderful, small, independent web-development and design firm. They have had great success doing websites for regional and national companies and local businesses, updating image as they go with fresh design and new messaging. They do everything from toy stores and book stores to hospitals, advocacy groups, professional service firms, etc. Their business is increasing rapidly and they will probably be asking me to do some writing for them soon, on contract. They've seen my writing, which at this point is a very occasional moonlighting activity for me, in local newspapers (features, reviews) and magazines (food writing for the city mag). So they're confident I can put words together and deliver clean copy on a deadline.

However, I feel like there are some real specifics about writing for commercial web sites that I could stand to learn, and having some guiding principles going in would be really helpful.

So I'm asking a very, very open-ended question: what would you tell someone who has written for print, on mostly arts and culture topics, and for professional reasons (grant applications and museum labels and training manuals) about writing for the web on contract for a client who is trying to convey a specific image and message?

What jargon will I hear? What basic questions would I, as a content writer, need to ask at the beginning of a project?

What web resources would you direct a content writer to?

What is the range of fees for this service? How should I start the negotiations? I honestly have no idea what to offer here - print pays by the publication, usually a flat fee in a fee structure giving a range of compensation for type of article and word count. With web projects, do writers charge by the hour? By word count? By type of feature? By package? I have absolutely no idea what to ask. Of course I'm sure the range goes from 'peanuts/free' to 'sky high for the best companies,' but this company is doing very well and growing, they intend to pay, and I am a professional writer looking at this as an income source, not a hobby. So I would love some examples of fees and fee structures that web writers use for different situations and different levels. What are the industry standards?

What other advice do you have that I don't know enough to ask yet?

Thanks a lot. Writing/developing websites could be a really wonderful skill to add to my career bag-of-tricks, so I'm eager to be successful at it.

Are there successful multi-genre authors?

wackybrit — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:31:28 -0800

Are there any reasonably well-known (or even famous) writers who are truly multi-genre? It's very easy to find authors whose writing is predominantly in a single genre - horror (King, Koontz), fantasy (Tolkien, Rowling), crime (Crumley, Christie), romance, and the like. But are there any famous (or at least semi-known) authors who jump between genres regularly?

Variety doesn't seem to be a remarkable attribute in musicians (Sting, for example), but while I can think of writers who straddle or work with two distinct genres (Ballard, Dahl), I cannot think of any who have produced significant works in, say, all of horror, crime, romance, and sci-fi - and I would like to look into the works of any who have.

I Want To Have Some Fun

CollectiveMind — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:30:21 -0800

Beyond being a freelance writer and a professional practitioner of public affairs, my base nature, I realize, is that of a data researcher, collector and organizer. I love rooms of disorganized files. I love digging for obscure information. I love sorting and organizing data into usable rows, columns and graphs that other people can benefit from. For me, it's pleasure because it's power. These kinds of things I enjoy; sorting, collecting and finding, would drive other people, screaming, into beehives. The problem is, I'm at a point in my life where I want to pursue a business that combines my passion for words and my passion for information - not exactly the same. Considering the current economic times, is there anything I can promote myself as that will actually attract a market? Or should I continue to putter along doing each of them, but unconnected and in their own contexts?

Help me create a portfolio, quick!

micketymoc — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:40:08 -0800

I'm a writer, and I have a job interview on Tuesday afternoon. While I have my work lying around in folders on my PC (some video, some print, some flash, some radio), I haven't organized them in any meaningful, presentable way. How can I organize my work quickly into a decent portfolio that I can burn onto a CD as a leave-behind? Difficulty level - no Flash ability whatsoever, conversant with HTML.

I want to put words in the mouths of politicians

orange swan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:11:24 -0800

I would like to start working as a speech or letter writer for a political/government office. What advice do you have for me on how to best go about this? In terms of existing qualifications and experience, I have a B.A. in English, a community college diploma in publishing, a handful of college certificates (one in desktop publishing, the others in unrelated things), and I've spent my entire career so far (14.5 years) working as an editor in various publishing companies in Toronto. I have a book review website with something like 40 book reviews on it to offer a sample of my writing skills. My level of competency in the French language... eh bien, c'est juste triste. I'm not very open to relocation.

Of course the answer is likely to be "bone up on current affairs and apply already" but perhaps there is more I could do to better my chances and/or one of you works at Queen's Park and has an insider perspective. (I have a friend who's spent her career working in various ministries of the Ontario government and I've asked her to ask her contacts for advice.)

Hive mind, please let your sweet, honeyed words of wisdom flow.

How can I make a real career out of this mess?

micketymoc — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:10:49 -0800

Help me make sense of my career. Advertising copywriter, now working in marketing agency as a creative whatsit, also an About.com guide on the side. I want to do more stuff like the latter, want to dump the former. What should I be doing to get there? I’m passionate about the Internet in general, online community-building in particular. I love the work I’m doing for About, and I’d like to spend more time doing stuff that relates to it more (traveling around Asia, writing, creating online content).

At the same time, I’m going to be a dad in a few weeks, and I’d like to know that I’m pursuing a long-term career. How can I get from where I am now (writer, some marketing and PR experience, managing an About site) to a fruitful profession (something about blogging, SEO, online communities, beyond that I have no clue)?

I’d like to know a) what kind of career I can build from this haphazard CV, and b) what I can do to get there. Thanks in advance for your help!

Who wrote that?

miles1972 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:22:50 -0800

What was that New Yorker short story? Plot details as I remember... It was published within the last year or so.

About a guy who was bringing his current girlfriend to the vacation home of a family that he used to be closer to. They had 3 daughters, he was involved with a couple of them, he fell out of favour with the family, they started to pity him...

[spoiler]

In the current time, he gets caught with the current girl in the house.

I really liked it, so I'm looking for more writing by this author, and I can't remember their name, nor find the right things to get Google to cough it up.

Crafting RSS for Google Reader

thebreaks — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:36:58 -0800

How can I make aesthetically pleasing RSS feeds for the readers of my Web site, specifically so that my feed will keep the formatting like a lot of sites do in Google Reader? I use Mambo 4.6.2 as my CMS and I've edited the Syndicate component to keep the HTML code in the RSS. When the RSS 2.0 link is clicked, the resulting feed shows the perfectly formatted RSS. Yet when I import it into Google Reader, all the text returns to its run-together state that made me edit the Syndicate component in the first place.

What I would like would be to have rich RSS displays for my reader similar to what I see in my Google Reader feeds from sites like Wired and Io9. I've looked into other modules for Mambo, but most RSS modules are for readers while my focus is on RSS feed creation.

Thanks in advance.

Should I send them the manuscript?

arnicae — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:08:48 -0800

An agent is interested in my book but says that they only have an "optional" contract- authors can sign it or not, given their preference. Should I give them my book? Last fall I sold a piece to one of NPR's national programs and got some follow-up interest. I did a few tv and radio interviews and got a few calls from book agents, interested in knowing if I wanted to write a book. I liked one of them- she was friendly and supportive and alright with me having other priorities on my time. She works for a small, recently founded literary house and sent me books similar to my proposed book whose sale they had managed.

She has been very supportive as I've written the book and has already critiqued (helpfully) the first half. I recently finished the book and they said that they're going to an international book fair this week and think they can sell the ms- they've got momentum from several recent sales.

I asked about a contract and they sent me a form letter via email that hadn't been personalized for me- in the header it said [author name and address] and the salutation read: Dear [author]:

It is intended to be signed by *me* should I choose- nowhere in it is the literary agent supposed to sign, and it deals with my responsibilities to the agency- if they sell the book, they get 15%.

Still, I don't have anything with *their* signature with their responsibilities to me, and I have to admit, I'm a little concerned about intellectual property and such. I'm not sure if I'm worried about nothing, but as a long-time writer with my first opportunity to become an author, I'm a little anxious.

Am I worried about nothing? Is this typical? And is there anyway to safeguard my book? I've heard of printing it out and mailing it to myself and storing it sealed, but I've also heard that that is total bunk.

Any advice from authors or literary agents out there? If it matters, I'm in California, the agency is in New York.