Writers on Writing: Ward Just

Ward Just wrote, "Ward Just: Sitting Down a Novelist, Getting Up a Playwright" in a manner that was much akin to a stream of consciousness style. This article was very appealing to me as it is reflective of how I think as in where one topic morphs into the next in a free flowing format.

Mr. Just also uses several analogies to describe his writing process. For example, he explains how a poorly played golf game can be similar to a writer who is struggling to find the right sentence to close a paragraph (Just, 200) and goes on to describe his theater experience in a foreign language and how it inspired him to write the play, which eventually allowed him to morph from a novelist into a playwright, even if it was only one play, he did it. He wrote a play that was acted out on a stage with a paying audience.

I agree with Mr. Just where he says, "I have never thought writing novels was hard work. Hard work was commercial fishing out of New Bedford or Gloucester or driving a 16-wheel truck." To me, writing comes easy whereas heavy, physical labor does not. I can use words to tell a story, describe a process, or explain business requirements. Words are powerful.

Throughout a recent communications course, the importance of fact verification and relying on the Journalists Code of Ethics to ensure that communication is appropriate. Neither of these practices would be relevant in most fictional works, such as the novels that Mr. Just write. He writes directly from the mind and the heart and I find this to be similar to my writing method. Get the words on the paper, see where they go, and then go back and do the editing to ensure that the message is clear for the intended audience.

All in all, Mr. Just and I are aligned in how we choose to write. I am confident that if Mr. Just were to write non-fiction, he would not be very likely to check his facts or verify his sources based on his attitude towards living as an expatriate in a foreign country, where he opted to fill in the blanks of the language that he didn't understand instead of immersing himself in the learning new language. On this point, we are very different as I would be likely to ensure my words are accurate before publishing and I would be unlikely to make things up as I go if I were writing nonfiction, however I do enjoy people watching and making up stories about the people that I see.

I think it's important to remember that everyone will adjust their writing practices based on their experiences, the audience, and the type of media being created.


REFERENCE:
Just, Ward. (June 5, 2000). Ward Just: Sitting Down a Novelist, Getting Up a Playwright. The New York Times on the Web, Writers on Writing. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/060500just-writing.html

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

We all know that a picture can be worth far more than words when trying to convey a message.  Sometimes other media types are even more important in sending a messages. For example, kids are crazy about making loom bands bracelets which are made from weaving small rubber bands together. If instructions were only in written language, it would be far more difficult to learn new techniques than it is by watching a YouTube instructional video such as this one:

If someone were to explain this technique without any media to show how to make this, it would be rather difficult; however by watching the video, almost anyone, with the right supplies, can learn how to make a bracelet like the one shown in the video.

Other great examples of how multimedia enhances messaging are food blogs. A good quality food blog will enhance recipes with either photos or videos of ingredients and/or cooking techniques techniques. One food blogger that incorporates multimedia is thepioneerwoman.com/‎. The writer, Ree, has a food blog where she uses photos to show her recipes in a step-by-step manner as well as a television show where she demonstrates her cooking techniques.  Another aspect of using multimedia with food are restaurant reviews.  These reviews will generally include photos of the restaurant and the food that is being critiqued to give the reader a feel for the presentation. Yelp.com (or the mobile app, Yelp!) allows users to post their own reviews along with photos, which can be incredibly helpful when browsing for new restaurants to try as one would have a preview of what to expect. Now if only there were a way to share scents and smells via the internet. Someday!

Multimedia can enhance messaging in a shopping experience.  A customer can view items of interest in different colors and varying levels of detail, including zooming and spinning to see the item from different angles.  On Timberland.com, a customer has the ability to customize many components of their boots. Without the ability to show the customer exactly what their custom creation would look like, it would be difficult at best to sell such an item at a high price point as the final product would be left up to the customer's imagination and the item that they receive might look very different than what they expected it to look like. This configurator tool is key in ensuring customer satisfaction for this type of product.

Without multimedia, the world would be a very bland, black and white place as multimedia is key to bringing a message to life. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth even more.

Blog Critique: Pintester

One of my all time favorite blogs is Pintester.com, written by Sonja Foust.

Sonja finds ideas on Pinterest and tests them. Hence the name "pin" + "tester".  Pinterest is on online equivalent to pulling pages from a magazine that might have recipes, fashion, craft ideas, etcetera. and saving them to try later. Sonja finds pins that are generally highly re-pinned (saved by many), tries them out, and blogs about them. Not many are overly successful; most are usually failures.  She uses ordinary, sometimes profane - well maybe often profane, language along with photos to describe how she was able to recreate the pin with her own results, which are usually genuinely hilarious.

Sonja does an excellent job at identifying her audience and writing in such a manner that would appeal to that audience. When Pinterest was very new, she realized that it was a fantastic tool, but at the same time people see a lot of ideas there that simply do have the same results when attempted by an amateur. She is endeared to her audience, because she is not afraid to poke humor at herself and isn't shy about potty humor. Let's face it, no matter how old and mature we become, potty humor is still pretty funny. She portrays herself as an ordinary person without any special skills trying out these pins that we are all pinning, but generally do not find the time to execute. She saves everyone else the hassle, by showing us that even if we had the time to try these pins, it really wouldn't be worth it anyhow.  If there is a pin that goes well for her, then we know that ANYONE can succeed with that particular recipe, project, or nail polish idea.

Pintester.com mixes both written media and video. I think this makes her blog a bit more interesting as the videos give a deeper appreciation of who she as a person and really brings her to life as an online personality. Some of her best blogs are the "Cock-nails" videos, which combine a cocktail recipe and a nail polish technique. The drinking generally has a negative effect on the nail polishing, but funny nonetheless.

Sonja, the Pin Tester, really nails it when it comes to form, function, and substances. She keeps her blog on topic. All posts are related to testing pins. She engages her readers and encourages comments on her posts, which makes her even more "real" by adding the element of interaction with her readers. The function of her blog is very helpful to learn which pins to avoid as they simply will not end well. The substance of her writing is excellent in consideration of her audience. The comedy is well written and not forced, which makes reading her blog so enjoyable.

Now, if only I had more time to read Pintester.com...

The Loss of a Penn State Legend; Joe Paterno Dies at Age 85

Joe Paterno, a Penn State Football coaching legend also known as "JoePa" has passed away today, January 22, 2012, at age 85 due to complications relating to cancer that he had been diagnosed with in November 2011.

Mr. Paterno was a driving force behind the Penn State football team as the head coach of the team from 1966 until 2011. JoePa let the team through more than thirty Bowl games winning eighteen of them and holds an NCAA record for the most showings at Bowl games with a total of thirty seven throughout his career.

JoePa was well known for his philanthropic contributions where he and his wife donated over $4 million dollars back to the university for which he worked, Penn State. He was also instrumental in raising over $13 million dollars for an expansion to the University library which was subsequently named, "Paterno Library".

With all of the work that JoePa did with Penn State, he was a larger than life legend within the Penn State community and will be sorely missed.  Rest in peace, JoePa.


Reference:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Paterno



Facebook:
A Legend is Lost. JoePa Dies Jan 22, 2012. <insert link to press release>

Social Media Tools

So many social tools, so little time!  One of the most important concepts to know about social media tools is understanding that each tool serves a different purpose and should be used to reach certain audiences based on the tool's capabilities. Here are my short explanations of some of the most popular:

Twitter - short, quick comments that are topic specific
Instagram - share your life in photos here
Blogging - ramble on endlessly & often on a specific topic
Facebook - share your life here or your business or play some games with friends virtually
Pinterest - digital scrapbook

I will focus on Twitter, Blogging, and Pinterest in an attempt to showcase some examples of how to use these three social media platforms in an effective and engaging manner that will encourage information sharing.

TWITTER -- tweet, tweet, tweet. Have something to say?  Tweet it!  So many uses for this tool. Want to follow someone famous or have a specific interest in a certain topic? Twitter is the place to be. One of my favorite uses for Twitter is to follow news outlets. Two great examples of news outlets to follow on Twitter are Huffington Post and GMA (Good Morning America).  Each of these agencies will post a short blurb with a mini link to a full article. Using Twitter, one can quickly browse through the current events and only click on the links when they are seeking additional information.  Twitter allows users to quickly see lots of little snippets, which is ideal for today's busy lifestyles, because let's face it, who really has time to read the newspaper everyday when they can see the headlines quickly and efficiently in this format?

BLOGGING -- have a topic of interest that you would like to write about? Say maybe an upcoming life event or something that you are currently enduring?  Are you good at photography or saving money?  Why not blog about it and share your knowledge?  If you get really good at blogging and establish a group of followers, then add some advertisements and make money on your blog. My all time favorite blogger is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.  I read her blog and recipes when she was newly into blogging. Her blog was "discovered" and now she has her own cooking show. This is a great example of you never know where your blog could take you.  Ree's original blog consisted of random daily, here's what's going on in my life posts along with photography tutorials, and recipes that included many photos.  Over the years, Ree's blog has become more and more robust and more professional to the point where it is very likely that she has a staff to assist in keeping up with all of the content.  Let's face it, who has time to manage a family, work on a ranch, host a television cooking show, publish cookbooks, AND write a very robust, photo heavy blog?  Through her blog, Ree has managed to build herself into a brand, much like the early days of Martha Stewart. Not bad, for a rancher's wife that started out with nothing but a computer and a camera!

PINTEREST -- Oh Pinterest, what a love / hate relationship we have... so many crafts, projects, tips, ideas... but then we are so busy pinning that we don't have the time to do the crafts, projects, tips, and ideas!  My absolute favorite Pinner on Pinterest is the Pintester (also known as writer, Sonja Foust). She might be a little crass, but oh so funny!  True to her screenname, "Pin Tester", Sonja maintains a blog where she shares details of her Pinterest projects, crafts, recipes, etc. Oh my. The Pintester brings Pinterest to life like no one else can -- or maybe we all can, because the truth is, in so many cases, that original pin was posted by someone that knew what they were doing instead of an amateur like the rest of us. Sonja, the Pintester, also incorporates the use of YouTube, another social media outlet, in her Pin Testing with her classic, Cock-Nails videos where she tests a cocktail and a manicure idea at the same time. You can only imagine how this goes. If you haven't heard of her or seen or blog, it's definitely worth a look for a good laugh.

Now that you have the jist of those three platforms, I would encourage you to take a look and see what one suits your fancy. No hard and fast rules, but I will admit one of my pet peeves is when one media outlet is used for a purpose that is better suited for another. For example, that person on Facebook who gives sporting event updates every fifteen minutes. Hey, I have an idea, go and TWEET about that! OR the person who shares every recipe that comes their way on Facebook. OH, I have an idea for you, why don't you PIN that recipe on PINTEREST! I recently realized that I am an offender as well as I enjoy posting photos on Facebook to share with friends and family. Once I realized that there was a more appropriate space for that on Instagram, I started sharing there with only select photos being shared across to Facebook as well.

One day, we will all get the hang of social media, but until then, there will be the tweets and recipes on Facebook and once we all figure it out, there will be a new platform and everything will change. Again. Fun times with technology and media tools!

Consider the Source

Today, I read an article entitled, "All Is Fair in Love and Twitter" where a New York Times writer chronicles the creation of Twitter.  My first reaction to the article was, "how does the author know so much about the details of what went on between the founders of the Twitter site?"  To answer this question, I referred to "Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources" and followed the steps to determine the source of this information and analyze the credibility of the author.

A Google search was necessary to learn more about the author, Nick Bilton, in order to determine the his credibility based what types of articles he has written previously. Mr. Bilton is a regular contributor to the New York Times and therefore, I would tend to believe that he would be a fairly credible resource on the topics that he writes about as it would unlikely that he could maintain a long-term relationship with the New York Times if he were not credible.

The Google search brought up Mr. Bilton's upcoming book release on Amazon, "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal", which is the book on which the article is based. The book is due to be released on November 5th. The description eludes to fact the Mr. Bilton had access to a great deal of resources to confirm the story that he is telling about Twitter, but without he book having been released yet, it was impossible to find the details of where the information originated.  More concrete information regarding the sources for this article would have been helpful in determining the accuracy of the content.

One bit of information about the author, Mr. Bilton, on his Amazon bio states, "Bilton's columns and articles for The New York Times have led to investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice and Congress."  This would lead one to believe that his reporting is in fact very relevant and highly respected. His articles clearly include information that is important rather than simply telling a story for the reader's enjoyment or leisure.

This article is a great example of how impactful unrestricted web publishing through mass media could be as there are situations in "All Is Fair in Love and Twitter" that would definitely damage relationships if they were in fact untrue.  For example, the article describes how Jack Dorsey wants to oust his colleague, Noah Glass, but goes about this in a manner that comes across as extremely underhanded and backstabbing.  I would hope that if this were in fact true, that both parties were well aware of this prior to this article and book being released.  It is incredibly important that news journals maintain a high level of credibility in order to be successful, as readers would not likely continue to choose that particular source for their news if the news reporting agency were consistently allowing reporters to provide articles without any sort of substantiation.

In summary, I find that the article in question is likely factual, however the lack of clearly cited sources does cause the reader to be unclear if it is indeed a true account rather than a fictional story. Based on the author's background and history, I would tend to believe the article to be a true account of how Twitter began.

How do you know what you know?

How DO you know what YOU know?  This is a very profound question, because how can we be sure that we know is real or correct?  Do we take the time to verify every bit of information to determine if it is indeed true?  As we grow and learn, we gather information and we learn the ability to determine what is true versus false. As children, we might be teased or be fibbed to for entertainment. What would happen if we never learned to differentiate this from facts?

Have you ever heard of Snipe Hunting? If you haven't heard of Snipe Hunting, the storyteller builds up the interest by describing the animal to be mystical or magical -- perhaps like a type of furry animal akin to a raccoon.  The hunting goes like this, one person is told to stand in the forest with a bag ready to capture the Snipe, while the other hunter (storyteller) goes to find the Snipe and plans to chase it into the bag. Reality is that the storyteller leaves the naive Snipe Hunter in the forest holding the bag, while they head home holding their belly as they laugh about tricking the other to stand in the woods and wonders how long they will really stand there holding the bag before giving up as there is no such thing as a Snipe.

How many kids are told these tales or even taken into the woods to hunt for the mysterious Snipe?  After this sort of trickery, one might become more suspicious of what others are telling them. They might take more time to consider if what they are being told is in fact true.

Snipe hunting might be showing my age as we don't see many posts on Facebook that mention Snipe hunting, but how many of us post a little fib on April 1st to celebrate April Fool's Day?  <sheepishly raising hand here> I do, I do! This past April, I posted that I'd accepted a position in Hong Kong with my current employer and would be relocating my family to Asia. I could not believe how many people believed what I'd written. I received congratulations on my new position for MONTHS. Even my own mother was sure that I was moving to the other side of the globe. This goes to show just how much people believe what they read on social media. 

Now what did I learn on Social Media today?  I learned that many people were extremely unimpressed with the New England Patriots performance and many other people were thrilled with the Pittsburgh Pirates performance.  By reading these posts, I never needed to check the scores. It was easy to deduce that the Patriots lost the game against Cincinnati and the Pirates won their game, without having to verify this information as fact. This is making a determination of fact or fiction based on the opinions or comments of the masses. When several people post about the same topic, I am apt to believe it to be true -- especially when it comes to sports as it is a black and white topic -- either the team won or lost.  

My Facebook news feed is heavily skewed to New England and western Pennsylvania, so I can usually rely on social media for the outcomes of sporting events in Boston or Pittsburgh.  Now, if I need to know about St. Louis or Miami, I would have to seek out that information as it would not be readily available to me.

Now to answer the question, how do I know what I know to be true? Either I believe the masses or I verify or confirm the facts. For some topics, no verification is need, such as local sports, for other topics it is necessary. If it's April 1st, believe nothing. Verify everything.