Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with writing and internet

Know any good blogs by high school or college age females?

Joe Beese — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:14:46 -0800

Know any good blogs by high school or college age females? It's character research for NaNoWriMo. Videos are fine too.

Where can I find the best writing on the internet?

jpg15 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:29:38 -0800

Is there a web site which recommends the best writing on the net on a periodic basis? There are plenty of great blogs and websites out there to read, and no shortage of recommendations. This post, for example, recommends lots of different sites. But I find my own interest in wading through all of it on a feed reader gradually waning. I am wondering if anyone knows of any human-run site which recommends excellent writing.

I am interested in high quality, thoughtful, even controversial writing on any subject. The closest thing to this that I am aware of is Arts & Letters Daily, but a significant number of their posts are book reviews or appeal strictly to very well-read humanities students. I am interested in suggestions which draw from the features and opinions of all of the major US (or English-speaking world!) newspapers, magazines, blogs, and sites.

How to make money off eHow?

spacefire — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:46:32 -0800

Can one make decent money (over $100/month) by writing eHow.com articles? If so, any tips? I just started with eHow.com, wrote five article but so far no earnings. I got some good tips like using (keyword trackers) to find out what people are searching for, also finding articles similar to what you wrote and clicking "I did this".

what are some other successful strategies in getting the best bang for the buck, or rather buck for the bang? I think with minimal research I can write a good article about any gadget or tech/computer related topic, which should definitely be things people are searching for...

New theories of Mimesis (in digital/hypertextual/hypermedial cultures)

0bvious — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:09:48 -0800

I am looking for writings on mimesis in regards new, digital, hypertext and hypermedial technologies and cultures. I am following the redefinition of mimesis. From Plato's disregard of oral culture, through his mimesis of Socrates' dialogues in writing. Following Plato, Aristotle's theory was always a written mimesis, thus the order and processes of representation and mimicry were fundamentally written.

In essence, I am interested in how the artefacts of oral culture differed in their mimesis to written culture, and thus, how our modern move from a written to a digital/hypertextual culture will similarly impact on mimetic embodiment.

(I am also concerned with the terms 'digital' and 'hypertextual' - perhaps they are too narrow. Oral, written cultures and then XXXXX? The terms 'Cybertext' and 'Ergodic' do not seem to cover the ground wide enough.)

I have been reading Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man and Gunter Gebauer's and Christoph Wulf's Mimesis: Culture--Art--Society. I am looking for writings on digital, hypertextual mimesis, and how it differs, how it has altered, the theoretical embodiment of representation in thought, artefacts, language and culture.

Your help, ideas and advice are much appreciated, as always

Journalist/Political Blogging from, and about, Turkey. Censorship issues?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:41:18 -0800

I'm re-locating to Turkey in the upcoming months (due to unrelated circumstances), and whilst there, I intend on starting, and keeping, a regular blog about current events, human rights issues, the EU bid, and such. Photojournalism, where appropriate - and available - will also be included. So, I suppose I have a few questions. (long post, my apologies!) Due to current restrictions on freedom of the press, freedom of speech, Article 301, and others, any attempts at accurate journalism will either be censored, or may result in a less than friendly introduction to the Turkish legal system. However, human rights violations can't simply be ignored. The more they're spoken about, the more they're seen, the more can be done.

So, on to my questions:

1} What level of anonymity, if any, should I attempt? Should I go by a pseudonym? Or just leave out undue personal details and contact info?

2} Internet security. Would something like Hotspot Shield (on my personal laptop) be good, unnecessary, or not enough? Current laptop is running OSX.

3} To circumvent the frequent blocking of blogger.com and wordpress.com domains, I was thinking of using Wordpress, but on my own domain, hosted in either France, or North America. The content may still be blocked on an individual basis, but would my identity be protected?

4} Would it be better to access the internet from my home connection, via laptop, go to an internet cafe and use their connection, and their computer, OR, use my personal laptop in an area with WIFI access, such as a restaurant or hotel? [sidenote: At "home" I will be sharing internet with acquaintances, and will be unable to "reconfigure" anything, or whathave you.]

5} I'm not looking to make money out of this. I will be in the country primarily for other reasons. But I do hope to use this as a chance to gain more exposure, and promote dialogue, on daily Turkish life, whatever that happens to entail. It would be nice, though not entirely necessary, if I was able to add this to my journalistic resume in some way, professionally. Is there a way to do this, while keeping a relatively low profile, and avoiding arrest?

Should I just be submitting articles to small, foreign media outlets instead?

Any advice on how to be an online journo in Turkey, while keeping ones integrity, and still maintaining a minimal level of safety, would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps I'm being overly fearful. I hope I am. I realize Turkey isn't China. I would just rather seek out advice in advance, than regret my naivety. Thanks!

________________________________________

I'm certain you're going to be wondering if I have a background in this at all; if I have any idea what I'm doing... I know it certainly doesn't seem like it from re-reading this. Well, I have a background in broadcast media, ENG camera work, docu editing, television script writing, and freelance photography. I have also traveled rather extensively. The general field of work is not new to me. Political/journo human rights blogging, however, is a new endeavor.

*Throwaway email: journoblogger at yahoo.FR*

I find the nature of this technique Quite Intriguing.

Rhaomi — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:37:34 -0800

What's the deal with Sarcastic Caps? You know The Kind I Mean. Connoisseurs of snark will be long familiar with this Little Trick: capitalizing Certain Words in a sentence in order to express what I guess you would call Sarcastic Importance. (NO, NOT LIKE THIS -- THIS MEANS INTERNET SHOUTING AND MOTORMOUTHINESS.) What I'm talking about is Much More Subtle than that.

I see it All The Time on snarkfests like Wonkette, and have been partial to it myself. It seems to only "work" on short phrases instead of single words For Some Reason.

So, where does this Ubiquitous Technique come from? Does it have a name? And why is it so good at conveying sarcasm?

The best guess I could make is that it's based on the Seemingly Random capitalizations found in Distinguished Documents like the Declaration of Independence (previously), but I don't see how that gets transferred to Sarcastic Internet Writing. Alas, the topic is Sadly Un-Googleable.

Anybody got any ideas?

Help me fuel my Starbucks addiction through freelancing!

adverb — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:41:32 -0800

What are some good sites to find short-term freelance writing/Internet gigs? Similar to this post, I'm looking for some temp work that will bring in a little supplemental income. I've been using Mechanical Turk for a few weeks, and have made some nice pocket change, but I'd like something a bit more substantive (and, of course, better paying).

A lot of the freelance boards seem to focus on more full-time/daytime contract work, which won't work for me. I have a full-time job and would like something to work on during the evenings and weekends.

An ideal situation would be a site where I could view some projects, bid/accept them, and work a few hours/days to finish a product for $25-$50. My background is in writing and editing, but any type of broad IT-related jobs (IA, usability, blogging) would also be good.

Bluetooth Automatic Syncing Between Laptops

0bvious — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:35:59 -0800

Syncing between laptops: How can I easily and automatically sync files and documents between two laptops using Bluetooth? Ideally I want to load up one machine in the vicinity of the other and have all my recent data (documents/data/RSS feeds etc.) syncronised with NO hassle. Any good apps out there? I already have a not-very-portable WinXP laptop, with bluetooth. I am also awaiting arrival of a new ASUS EEE PC. I will probably end up installing Windows XP on it, but might opt to stick with Linux.

The internal Bluetooth was a key component of my purchase.

I am interested in using the Asus as a portable addition to my writing and reading routines. I'd love to load it up and have all my recent file changes synced on both machines without me doing anything. Just like the way iTunes syncs my iPod, but with Bluetooth as a sweet bonus.

I would also LOVE for all recent RSS feeds to be downloaded in FULL and sent to the Asus, ready for me to read on the train.

Any hints would sure be grand

I want to write for interesting online magazines

0bvious — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:16:42 -0800

I am looking for online magazines to submit art/literature/experimental/fun articles to. I think 'The Believer' magazine is a good example of the type I crave. UK based would be best, but not completely necessary. Any ideas?

Where can I apply for online writing jobs?

lgyre — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:51:25 -0800

I know there are paying content writing jobs on the internet because I've done some commissioned articles for eHow.com and I've applied to about.com. I'd love to find more sites like these to apply to, but it's tough, because searching for "online writing jobs" generally yields a bunch of spammy pyramid schemes and so on. I would prefer part-time jobs, then freelance, then full time, but really I would consider any paid writing jobs, especially if they're not too incredibly competitive -- I'm a competent content writer and I have a few published clips, but that's about it.

I'll check out anything, but I'm most interested in anything that anyone can recommend from firsthand experience.

Organise my writing

Drexen — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:39:39 -0800

Help me keep my keep my short stories organised, with a view to putting them on a web-page. I have a habit of writing 'short stories' when I have some free moments - they can be anything from a few sentences to a few pages long. Sometimes I write them straight into Notepad, sometimes in an email to myself, sometimes in an online journal. I've gone through and collected most of them into one big .txt file with the format:

############ Title

Storytext in paragraphs

Paragraphs..

############ Title of next story

.. and so on. The titles use the same number of hashes each time.

The whole textfile is about 100 kb, ~17,000 words, 40 'pieces' averaging 425 words each. Now I'd like to put them all on a personal website. So I have two questions for y'all:

(1) How should I store/organise them?

It'd be nice if I could do things like mark up and edit titles and text, add taglines and pictures (and tags?), generate an index of the stories, add new stories to the collection etc.. without having to do a lot of copy-pasting within a big text-file. Is it sensible to move them into an Excel spreadsheet, or something like it, to make them easier to organise and export? If so, is there a way to do this automatically?

(2) How should I present them?

On one single webpage, or with individual pages? I draw and make collages and things, so some of the stories already have pictures illustrating them and I'd like to do that for more of them too, but I'm not sure of the best way to keep the images in a way that links them to the appropriate stories. Should I try and sort the stories into categories, by length, or just alphabetically by title? Should I add tags to them? Let people rate stories and sort them by popularity? If so, I'd like to do these things as automatically as possible, including generating a sensible index to keep track of/link to them - but how?

I'm using Windows XP and have a copy of Dreamweaver, and Nvu - I have more experience with the former. I have a basic handle on most aspects of simple web-design, but I'm far from an expert and don't really have any experience with things like CGI scripts (though I could give them a go).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

My characters are running away with my novel!

sperose — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:54:30 -0800

Please help me find something to organize this monstrosity of a novel. Oh yes, there is definitely So I've been doing this Nanowrimo thing for 2 years. This will be year 3. I have a crazy cast of characters, and no actual plot line (aside from a very general idea) to speak of. What I am looking for is some type of free (preferable)/student discounted/super cheap software or internet thingy that will help me track what my characters are doing/what I want them to do. Sort of like putting notecards on a posterboard with lines going horizontally from each of the characters.

Basically, I would like to/need to have some sense of continuity in this novel that started out as a drunken joke. Plus, I'm starting to confuse myself when re-reading it.

Thanks, Mefi.

ps: Windows XP. I dig Word.

Is there a site to connect journalists with sources?

jbickers — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:02:26 -0800

I'm thinking about building an online networking site for journalists seeking quotes from people in remote places, but want to make sure such a thing doesn't already exist. What I'm thinking of is a basic forum that allows journalists in one state to connect with people in other states when they need to interview someone about a topic germane to where the other person is - say, if I'm writing a story about a particular store in New Hampshire and I want to get a quote from someone who has shopped there.

Journalists always have a need for such sources, and I see no reason why those sources couldn't be other writers - so this would in effect be a "quote-swapping" service, matchmaking, as it were.

Does such a thing already exist? And if not, if I build it, will they come?

Writers block: web burnout?

trbrts — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 13:25:19 -0800

I used to consider myself a decent writer. It was one of those things that I did well. Over the last few years though I can hardly seem to link two cohesive sentences together. Those last few years also seem to coincide with my entrance into working on the web. Does anyone have any tips for learning how to write again? I think that I just got burned out on writing. I was an English major in college. When I first started working on the web, I worked for a washed out online auction company, writing product descriptions. In my current position, I have to write a fair amount - new content, board member newsletters, emails to our members, etc... And I just can't seem to make it interesting. There is no reason that it can't be. I work in an industry I enjoy and I'm preforming well. But, when I go to write, I kind of just lock up until I finally spit out some boring crap.
Any ideas to help me overcome this and enjoy writing again?

Help me understand why people write blogs and journals.

daver — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:07:45 -0800

Why do people write blogs and/or journals? Is it a fad? When will it end? Non-rhetorical, more inside. I’m wondering about why journal writers, bloggers, diarists, and autobiographicians, do it. What are your personal reasons? Why do you think people do it in general? Do you see “blogging” as the latest and most logical extension of a long tradition of writing about/for oneself, or as the latest techno-evaporative craze? If so, when will it dry up?

I’ll go first.
Autobiographical reasons first and foremost. I believe whatever we think of our past today is colored heavily by ‘the now’ -- much better to have some indication of what you were actually thinking about at that time. Plus, I’m curious about my parent’s lives, and hope my kid will be equally curious and I’ll be able to deliver the goods when the time comes (probably through insta-telepathy link).

Secondarily: keep in touch w/ family (mostly) and friends.

3rd: I fantasize that secretly all y’all are visiting my site, somehow bypassing my logging software, and marveling at the depth and variety of my life, and how one can capture it quite so fully by only posting once every 23 days and exclusively taking photos of my 2 year old. Please, don’t burst my bubble.

I suspect the major reasons people blog are similar, probably with a bigger emphasis on item 3 above. Also:

As a means of publishing writing (or other works) to the wider-world for political or other ends.
To be part of a social group
To share new web finds
As the only means of expression that ‘lives on the web’ (No tattoo will get you noticed online unless you publish it)
To ‘get it off their chest’ (particularly diary/journal)
To make sense of it all (as above)
To combat loneliness

I actually think Blogging is an extension of self-writing, and will persist, although I suspect the term blogging will disappear along with most of the tools we know now in the next 5 years or so.

Recommend some good daily blogs.

anastasiav — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 10:46:55 -0800

Who is on your A-list? I'm looking for something new to read -- what are your favorite, visit-every-day-for-sure blogs?