Professional Writing 2: One Bird at a Time

At the risk of cutting my nose off to spite my face, as the old saying goes, I have to say I've felt uninspired to write a blog entry about anything in Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer, which is required reading in my Professional Writing seminar. Frannie may be a brilliant writer herself (I've never read anything of hers other than this book), but she ain't doing a great job of inspiring me or giving me much insight about writing. Her book is replete with examples from great literature about how to write character, dialogue, voice, etc., but her "mockingbird" just doesn't sing for me. I think the point of her book is that if we take cues from reading the "masters," our own writing will benefit. I would just like to suggest that it doesn't take an entire book to point that out. But maybe I'm just being cynical and difficult.

That said, I believe what "inspires" one person may do nothing for someone else, and this must be what is going in my relationship with Francine. I personally prefer Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Not only is it full of good anecdotes about the "writing life," but it also is a great read: humorous, humble, and honest. I like her ideas about starting "small" and how to turn writing frustrations into writing epiphanies. The metaphor captured in the title of her book is a reference to the fact that writing is a process that, to extend the metaphor even further, can really leave one's feathers in a ruffle. She tells one anecdote from her childhood about her 10-year-old brother who'd had a month to write a report on birds. On the day before it was due, he was panicked because he had not written a single word and writing the report seemed like an impossible task. Lamott writes, "my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.' " That is a small example of how Lamott does such an incredible job of making what she has to say about writing feel as though she is talking to each of her readers on a personal level, as though she is sitting there next me saying, "Bird by bird, Christi. Just take it bird by bird." That sentiment is also a fine way to approach life as well, I think.

I very highly encourage checking out this interview with Lamott at this link below. You'll get a sense of her self-deprecating humor, struggles, and insight into what it means to be a writer. Click here to link http://bigthink.com/ideas/19807 to the interview with Lamott, or see my September 2 entry for embedded video.

Keeping a Roof Over One's Head

I remain hopeful about the future for writers in the 21st-century marketplace. While it is true that circulation for magazines, newspapers, and other traditionally printed publications are on the decline, new opportunities for writers in the electronic arena are growing. Web-based written, streaming, and downloadable content is needed for an array of electronic media, and these prospects are not just limited to the internet. Writers will be needed to produce mobile and/or wireless applications, video games, and marketing copy for increasingly e-savvy consumers. In addition, it is very likely that as future computerized and digitized technologies evolve, developers will need writers to produce technical and creative content for these new and innovative avenues of media distribution. However, edgey, sophisticated multimedia delivery paradigms will also force a demand for writers with multiple skills. Writers will need to have not only a concise, engaging command of language, but also an understanding of various technical design tools as well.

The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS.gov) seems to confirm that a shift in writers' and editors' roles is taking place in the current job market. As is the case with most industries in the current "Great Recession," news, entertainment, and technology firms have increasingly demanded a higher rate of employee productivity in the workplace. This means many employees take on more responsibility with less compensation than in years past. According to the New Hour's 2004 report on America's future job market, higher productivity expectations may also increase the number of jobs employers try to migrate to computerization. Unless a job requires genuine "face time" with other humans, the need for certain positions may become expendable. Luckily, most writers possess critical and analytical talents for communicating complex information that simply cannot be programmed into a computer-generated commodity. However, the fields of publishing and writing have always been rather competitive, and the BLS projects that competition will be particularly stiff in the coming years as "organizations move their publication focus from a print to an online presence and as the publishing industry continues to contract." The U.S. Labor Department suggests that "writers and editors who have adapted to the new media and are comfortable writing for and working with a variety of electronic and digital tools will have an advantage in finding new work."

The consumption of the e-book format is also on the rise, and the market more has become more user-friendly and affordable for writers who wish to self-publish their work. However, being published does not necessarily provide the assurance that a sole living can be made as a writer. The BLS reports that the average income for writers is between $36,000 and $60,000 a year, depending on the industry and organization for which the writer works. Yet, as an old journalism professor of mine used to tell all of his students, "you'll probably never get rich writing, but if you write well, you've got a better shot of at least keeping a roof over your head."

[artwork: "Tech Thoughts" blog at http://billmullins.wordpress.com]

No More Excuses

Summer is over—at least as far as the school year is concerned because it's still a thousand degrees outside everyday—and I've started back to classes this week. The good news is that I did get a position as a Graduate Research Assistant, but could have applied to be a TA (teaching assistant) instead. There's always next year, possibly. I will be working with Dr. Rice on the English Department's communications projects (i.e., newsletter, etc.), and I always enjoy working with him. He's extremely busy though, so I may end up working with others more than him.

Quickly, here are some "highlights" from my extremely exciting (not) summer:

• My car broke down twice, costing me about $1300 in repairs. Hey, what do you expect of a 9-year-old car? So, I can't really complain, although my bank account sure did.

• The kids and I built a deck in the backyard in order to put up one of those metal frame pools for the them. It wasn't really that hard to build, but since we were working in temperatures that were in the near vicinity of hell, it seemed like slave labor. However, the deck turned out really well; I'm proud of what we did. Even little Quinn helped drive the screws.

• We were able to go to the lake several times with Wayne and Steve (Cameron's BBBS big brothers). I was able to convince Quinn to try "tubing" when we went. She's not much of an outdoorsy adventurer, but I was very proud of her when she decided to give it a go. I think she even enjoyed it. Cameron also learned how to go tubing and had a blast, although Wayne told me Cameron was petrified at first. He hates roller coasters, so I think he thought of tubing as though it would be a roller coaster on water but without the lap bar. We all managed to survive Wayne's manic boat driving.
  

• My parents actually called about seeing the kids this summer in late May. It had been two years since they had seen them. They went down to Florida for two weeks to stay with them. Miracle of miracles—my parents actually drove up to Atlanta to get them. My only irritation about their two night sprint up and back was that they didn't even bother coming out to the house. Instead, they spent the night with their friends, Betty and Herb, and I took the kids over to their house the next morning.
  
  During the time the kids were gone, I got absolutely nothing accomplished at home and went into a deep funk because of the situation with my car. I laid on my bed and mindlessly destroyed brain cells by watching television all day and night. I stocked up on Stouffer's Lean Cuisines and devolved into eating microwavable, pre-packaged, factory-manufactured bricks of frozen food. On top of that, the summer temperatures began firing up into the realm of Hades while they were gone, and it became unbearable to work in my shadeless front yard where I was halfway finished building a new stone patio.

• Cameron and I cleared out a large portion of the wooded area of our property. The canopy is mostly hardwood growth, but the understory is overgrown with barren muscadine vines and demonicly evil greenbriar vines that can cut like barbed wire. We must have clipped or pulled up literally hundreds of sweetgum seedlings. Those trees are as prolific as rabbits and as hardy as kudzu—you just can't kill the damn things.
  
  During our clean up we discovered places where our wildlife residents had nestled themselves. The three rabbits we often saw in our yard—and destroying my liriope—had made their den under the knarly roots of a large, rotting poplar tree that fell a few years ago; we discovered an enormous black rat snake had taken up residence in an old and very deep hole that our dog Rumor dug about 3 years ago; and we found a good number of mockingbird nests in the tangles of greenbriars. They were all abandoned but still cradled wafer-thin remnants of brown- and cream-colored speckled eggshells. Oh yeah, and then there was the lovely dog tick that decided to make a home in Cameron's forearm.
  

• Earlier, I referenced the stone patio out front, which still remains unfinished. However, I'm pleased with the way it was progressing before construction came to a halt because of the summer heat. I look forward to finishing it up and hope it turns out well when I finish it up this fall.

• The kids and I started collecting anthropomorphic vegetable and fruit salt and pepper figurines. We had fun scouting them out on eBay, etsy.com, and Ruby Lane. Our favorites have become the 50s-era Japanese Py/Miyao shakers; they are just adorable. I got a little off the trail of salt and pepper when I became smitten with the anthropomorphic Lefton cocktail and jelly pots, so I started collecting them as well. My bank account has also begun to complain about buying all these collectibles too.

As usual, the dogs' coats became enmeshed in matted ropes this summer, and I am still in the process of shaving them all down. Every spring I promise myself I am going to cut them down before the summer "coat blow" begins. Yet when the time comes to sheer them, they have developed these wonderfully chocolate caramel-colored, velvety curls over the winter months, and I can't bear to cut it all off. I dupe myself into thinking that if I constantly keep them in the house during the hot months, the heat won't decimate their lovely, plush coats. Unfortunately, I seem to forget what a delusional joke that is, and I end up with three dogs that look like they've been knitted up and bound inside some bristly, ill-fitting, angry hirsute at the end of the summer. *Sigh*

As the school year gears up, I know things will start to fast track again, which is why I tried to get some structured organization into my life over the summer. We'll see how long that lasts. I did decide to be nice to myself though. I dropped two of the four classes for which I had registered back in Spring semester. I came to the realization that the stress of carrying twelve hours of graduate-level coursework and fulfilling my obligations as a GRA would probably whip my tenuous nerve-endings into a puddle of quivering custard. I think I did the right thing by dropping back to six hours: one English course and one Linguistics course.

Interestingly, in my English course we are actually required to establish and write a personal blog. Now there will be no excuses for not posting entries.