Caracb

"....a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled." -- attributed to Sir Barnett Cocks when he was a clerk in the UK's House of Commons Every time I hear that quote, I always think, "well, at least the ideas are put out of their misery because when it comes to writing, committees aren't murderous cul-de-sacs, they're dangerous freeways littered with the hopelessly mangled -- but still living drafts -- of many a once-effective document." I have yet to... Read Full Story

"....a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled." -- attributed to Sir Barnett Cocks when he was a clerk in the UK's House of Commons Every time I hear that quote, I always think, "well, at least the ideas are put out of their misery because when it comes to writing, committees aren't murderous cul-de-sacs, they're dangerous freeways littered with the hopelessly mangled -- but still living drafts -- of many a once-effective document." I have yet to... Read Full Story

So I was trawling Twitter tonight and came across a link to a post that made me decide to stay up way past my bedtime writing a post. It was from Lisa Hickey riffing on a quote from Hugh MacLeod: “People buy your product because it helps fill in the narrative gaps in their lives." And then she offers stories from her own experience to explain what she means: September 2009 Uh-oh. The convertible I had owned for ten years, 200,000 miles, drops dead in the middle of the highway. With the... Read Full Story

So I was trawling Twitter tonight and came across a link to a post that made me decide to stay up way past my bedtime writing a post. It was from Lisa Hickey riffing on a quote from Hugh MacLeod: “People buy your product because it helps fill in the narrative gaps in their lives." And then she offers stories from her own experience to explain what she means: September 2009 Uh-oh. The convertible I had owned for ten years, 200,000 miles, drops dead in the middle of the highway. With the... Read Full Story

I need some help. I know there are tons of blogs out there on journaling (when did that become a verb? gerund? because I really don't think I like it. "Journaling" sounds like something you have to do to remove a really vile hair clog from the shower drain in the Sigma Nu fraternity house.) But never mind about that now, I'll save that rant for another day. I need some help satisfying my curiosity and I hope to gain some insight into how other people use their journals. What do you write in... Read Full Story

"...description is itself a moral commentary." -- J.D. McClatchy (writing about poet May Swenson) I actually wish I'd written that instead of J.D. McClatchy because it would make the perfect line for My Life in Six Words. Description can be remarkably powerful. Want to know how to tap into that power?                      1. Pay Attention. Yep. That's the not-so-secret secret to persuasive writing: Word choice. Word choice is the foundation for everything. Nuance matters and it can be most... Read Full Story

"All good stories usually start with a question," said one of my writing professors when I was in grad school. It sounds like a throw-away sentence, something said in passing, but it was incredibly helpful to me, both as a magazine writer and marketing writer. I start all of my stories with a list of questions. For more narrative stories, I usually start with questions that interest me. A quick example, I was visiting the Roosevelt Monument in Washington, DC years ago and saw coins... Read Full Story

So I'm re-reading John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez. I read it at least once a year. And for my sins, I do have a rather Steinbeckian world view. Mostly, though I read him because I love his voice. I just can't stand the way he breaks my heart. I've never recovered from the trauma of reading "The Red Pony" in junior high school. What kind of sadist assigns that story to seventh graders anyway? I had nightmares about those buzzards for years. As usual, I digress. The Log has... Read Full Story

So I spent this last weekend helping out at the Space Coast Birding Festival in Florida. I was manning a booth for The Nature Conservancy , answering questions, doing the occasional radio interview, and handing out notecards, posters, membership info, and small stuffed animals (baby sandhill cranes this year). The notecards were beautiful nature images -- a shot of the Pacific Coast near Monterey, a Karner blue butterfly, a polar bear on the ice that made me want to cry every time I looked at... Read Full Story

I know there are thousands -- literally, thousands -- of sites out there with advice on how to attract clients, and jobs, and make money as a freelancer. This isn't about that. This is a post about how to keep your clients once you get them. (Okay, so maybe it's a little about money). I still freelance occasionally, but most of the time these days, I'm the one hiring freelancers and -- just as importantly -- recommending them to my colleagues and friends. That is the thing that most of those... Read Full Story