Category Archives for Articles
Bad Habits for Writers That Are Actually Good
January is the time of year for breaking old, bad habits and forming new, better ones. You may have decided that this year you want to write more or be more creative, and maybe even have gone so far as to identify habits that you think have been holding you back.
What if I told you that list of bad habits is about to get a whole lot shorter?
Take a Risk and Do the Project that Scares You
Doing the thing that scared me most career-wise — taking on a project that I wasn’t 100 percent sure about — led me to where I am today: writing, editing, and working with awesome people.
When you’re a professional writer, people assume that if words are involved with their project, you can handle it. I had previously done copywriting for two issues of a literary magazine and taught and tutored writing for over four years. Between all of my previous experience, I felt confident enough with the fundamentals of copywriting to start working full-time with clients.
My very first “gig” was revising copy for a company that needed help with editing customer-facing product descriptions to make them sound snappier, more alive. Easy-peasy. But that same day, the project manager handed me another project: I had to come up with a brilliant tagline for a business-to-business (B2B) advertisement, with a deadline of that same day. My first thought: What the hell is a B2B ad?
Well, that was something I had to learn — and fast.
The State of Reading in 2018: Digital Fatigue’s Effects on Content Creation
Creating effective content that engages your audience is key in this day and age where people consume so much information digitally. However, it is also becoming more difficult each day, as the average reader gives only 15 seconds of their attention to an article. People tend to “skim” long-form content and blog posts instead of digesting paragraph after paragraph of text.
People are getting tired of consuming content through the same types of format, so they are looking to other options for reading. More and more people are choosing paper books instead of e-readers because, although paper books are long-form content, they aren’t as harsh on the eyes as digital devices and provide a much-needed break from glowing screens. Sometimes, people simply like to hold the real thing instead of reading text from a device.
Shoe on the Other Foot: Lessons from a Writer Turned Editor
I am a complicated person.
One day you’ll find me loftily tossing away the instruction manual for my “much assembly required” bookshelf, and the next I’m picking through search results for “best floss.”
I simultaneously love process, order, structure, and organization, and enjoy sending it all up in flames. (Ask my college best friend about the time I undid his perfectly alphabetized DVD collection when he wasn’t home.)
As a writer, I embraced this Pandora’s box of eyebrow-furrowing paradoxes. “Call it my complex creative spirit,” I probably said, on one of my high horse days (to which there was much eye-rolling in the land). You can usually get away with such woo-woo excuses when you’re a writer because, let’s just say it already, no one really expects you to be super reliable.
You know it’s true. Writers rank up there with dreamcatcher makers, crystal collectors, self-proclaimed animal mediums, and Santa Claus in terms of how much adult people believe in us.
It’s part of why a lot of editors and writers fight.