Growing into my very geeky job

When this blog first started I'd *just* been accepted into a University course in Creative writing and Criminology. I dropped the 'criminology' part, and focussed, instead, on Psychology for the five 'spare slots' that I had. That was just under two years ago - and last year, around this time, I finally worked out what I wanted to do when I graduated.
It's been a long path this year - because soon after I researched and discovered the fun that is my new carreer (and it's FUN with several invisible exclamation points after :D) I was quite badly injured - something I haven't - really - recovered from. But this week I finally, perfectly, married my love of writing with my love of psychology and crime, in a not unexpected (for me) way. And I'm hoping over the next couple of months that I can share it with you guys and other writers.

And that's why I'm so geeked out right now. I can do this - and I can teach it, and write about it, and talk about it passionately. It's growing, with my interest, and it's just about boundless.
And that's where I am. Training to be a forensic linguist 'by day', via a degree in Creative Writing and Psychology, and a postgrad diploma, and working on this 'by night'. I'll get to geek about it properly very soon, but until then I'm just delighted to get to take a run at it. Till then it's kinda hush hush, cause the platform is probably a 'one off' and I want to be fully ready to do it. But yay!

How's your summer looking?

Mama has her contract (kinda)!

I'm sorry I've been missing lately - it's been mad around here with end of year work for Uni, a photog shoot that just wouldn't line up with everyone that wanted to be there (and I can't post my part in it because it's 'ghostcamera' work - a bit like ghostwriting, just I loaned body pieces (my back specifically, because of my biohazard tattoo) and other fun stuff.

BUT - got my grades back this week and found out I got 3 B's and 2 D's (where the 2 D's are appealable because you can see where I was coping with my head injury (badly), or at least explainable), giving me a high 2:2 (C) for the year overall. Worse than 1st year, but in 1st year, I didn't have memory problems and serious trauma based writers 'block'.

And then, the week before we went off for the year, I wrote a book proposal, based on some of the stuff I'm studying right now (linguistics, forensics and some other stuff) and discovered I'd hit onto a great idea.
This morning I got my partial request back - with a note saying that they would want to see the rest once they'd evaluated this part unless my query didn't live up to the reality.
Contract for me!
And I'm back to blog. So...how have you been?

Copywriting v. Journalism and Ethical Considerations

A question about ethics came up recently on a Yahoo list for copywriters. Heather thought my answer might be helpful to others with similar questions, so here it is.

The situation: A business hires a freelance writer to write a profile of their company, and asks the writer to submit it to a magazine.

The question: Is it ethical?

It depends. There's copywriting, and there's journalism. Writers who do both are ethically and morally obligated to know which hat they're wearing.

1. If you're writing a company profile for the company, you do the best job possible for that client. Writing a promotional piece *as if* it is objective reporting is doing a service to your client (the company, not a magazine publisher). The whole point of an advertorial is to get people to read it, so it shouldn't look like an ad.

2. If you are a journalist working for a publication, you will never take payment from the subject(s) of the articles. That would be a conflict of interest and a HUGE ethical no-no. Now, if the editor wanted to run that company profile, knowing what it is and who you're working for, that's up to her. (They do it with press releases all the time.) As long as you don't misrepresent it as objective reporting. And if you REALLY want it to be nice and clear, the client should submit the profile to the magazine. Then there's no question.

Writers have the ethical obligation to clearly be working for either the client or the publication - NEVER both. There may be more to it than that (i.e., should you ever write a reported piece that includes a company you once wrote advertorials for?), but in the context of what we've been discussing, that's the basic difference.

Questions? Comments? Objections? Let me know. We should all strive to maintain a spotless reputation, in my opinion, not only for the good of our careers but just because we're great people.

Rejection versus perfectionism

Image by tanakawho via Flickr

I got an interesting email this morning - normally, after posting (like I did the other morning), I'd wait a couple of days, but this one just couldn't wait.
I was talking about rejections yesterday, and I wasn't entirely clear or accurate. Most of the pieces I'm currently having rejected are later accepted by magazines further down my submission chain.
But there are just some places I CANNOT get into - the elusive areas of fiction writing that would really make a huge difference to my morale, my goals and possibly my writing career.
Where does the email fit into this?
Well, yesterday I got a rather sniping email asking if I realised I was making 'smelling mistakes' (I'm assuming they meant spelling ;)) and that no American author should make the mistakes I do.
Well, for a start, I'm British, not American. We use the Queen's English instead of American English. Both are perfectly valid language variations in my opinion - and there's no reason to say American English is derivative, because both languages, in my opinion have evolved since splitting paths. I'd probably have etymological students up in arms right about now, but to be honest, for me, it’s splitting hairs. And if you prefer the look of color without the U, that's great! I can't write that though without my brain screaming 'WRONG!'
Secondly, I'm mildly dyslexic. I also rush when I'm writing blogs, because, to me they are very 'immediate'. I have spelling and punctuation problems, but I don't rely on Word to check them, and that's something I'm trying to teach myself to get over. Most of my favourite bloggers make the same mistakes as me ;). Its not an excuse though, so I'm trying to fix that.
Blog posts, for me though, aren't the same as the writing I'm sending to my editors. Both are equally important to me, for different reasons, but I *really* don't view what I'm saying on blogs as the same as what I'm sending to editors. The immediacy issue aside, I also feel that no matter how you cut it, blogs are less formal - they don't require nearly as much editing, and while that can lead to sloppy writing, it's more likely that the poster is just in a hurry. Again though, that's not an excuse for making spelling and grammar mistakes (my most common one is 'it's' and forgetting the apostrophe ;))
I am however making a few changes.
I'm going to 'slow down' - I'm going to write posts in Word and hopefully, I'll see a pattern in what mistakes I make - which will tighten up my writing, and feed my perfectionist streak.
And yes, I know, it sounds odd saying I'm a professional writer that makes all these mistakes – so I’m going to start removing them, just to make sure that I’m presenting exactly that. Though my blog posts and my fiction writing are two completely separate things, there’s absolutely no reason for me to handle them differently.

What do you think?

The writing diet

Heather asked us this week about our favorite type of writing, after Carolyn asked what we'd write even if we weren't paid.
I'm going to approach thing slightly differently, because I would (and DO) write whatever takes me because its food for my soul. I can't NOT write. It hurts my head if I don't.
But my writing 'diet' has differences to other people.

I write full time for my university course. I am in Uni for 10 hours a week, and all ten hours plus the eight hours per class of private study that I do is my major commitment. On top of that I do a couple of hours, per book, every two days, and I have five books on the go. In that hour, I add between 500 and 15000 words - depending on how complicated the scene that I'm writing is and how involved I get.
I also blog - five blogs, five posts per week, per blog, plus I update my personal blog irregularly.

I like my writing diet - I might not always get three 'meals a day' but I love the writing - and reading I do in association with the work that I'm up to that specific day. And its a varied diet - as varied as the things I've been working on - one day I'm writing 20 articles on blogging - the next I'm world building - creating worlds and weaving personalities.
To answer the question though...
My favorite type of writing is the one that lets me put the right words on a page. Whether that's poetry, prose, copywriting or programming. And don't get me wrong - being paid for it is NICE. I like being able to hand money to my partner and contribute to the house, but affecting people, and sharing the things that I'm trying to help people understand is more important - giving back what I've had support in learning is priceless.
On the subject of that though, I now have a contract - my first novel in my (sort of) pen name (Kai Viola ) is coming out in 2009. I'll explain why its a 'sort of pen name' and more about it later next week, and can share the blurb and finalised descriptions 'etc' if anyone is interested.

Teleclass from Marcia Yudkin - How to get those first clients

I thought some readers of MNABC might be interested in this. Reposted with permission from Marcia Yudkin:

How do you get your commercial freelance writing practice off the ground?

I would like to invite members of this group to a FREE one-hour teleclass in which I share the six methods of getting first clients that have been successfully used by copywriters, marketing consultants and publicity specialists whom I have worked with.

Three of the six methods I'll be discussing cost nothing at all, and the other three methods cost a modest amount to implement.

Here are the details:

Monday, February 18 at 4 p.m. Eastern time(3 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Mountain, 1 p.m. Pacific time)

To join the call, go to the following link and look for the yellow-border box, which contains the signup form:

http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm

You'll then receive the call-in information by return email.

My previous call for Wellfed Writers produced testimonials like these:

"Marcia Yudkin is a great teacher and mentor. I have
learned more from her than from anyone else in the
marketing business." - Charles Brown, Dallas, TX

"Very informative. Great call!" - Carolyn Erickson,
Wichita, KS

"This session has value for anyone trying to market their
services to other businesses in the B2B arena." - Mark
Bohrer, Saratoga, CA

Can't make the call? I'll be recording it, and you can pre-order the CD for just $10, with free shipping anywhere in the world.

There will be ample time for questions and answers during the call.

With all best wishes,
Marcia Yudkin
Copywriting Mentor
http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm