Posts from — February 2008

I was throwing around in my head the idea of a short story about people who were born on days or at times that are in some way rare.

The ‘Leap Day Conundrum’ – for lack of a better term – is something people born on February 29th deal with. It’s not that big of a deal really in a practical sense. Depending on where in the world you live, your legal birthday is either the 28th or March 1st on the other years. I doubt people born on Leap Day think much about it except when people act like they had a revelation and ask if you realized you were a Leap Baby. I guess it would put a damper on things when you turned 21 if the bartender decided to turn you down on the 28th.

Perhaps you could develop an interesting story around several people together who were born at unusual times: Leap Day, twins born across the daylight savings time ‘fall back’ hour, or the first baby born in 2000 being the more obvious ones. You could pick some that are less obvious: born on the first day of Hanukkah when it falls in November, on Easter when it falls on the spring equinox, or when Passover and Easter fall on the same day, to bring about some good religious themes. You could also work in people born on infamous days in history: September 11, the invasion of Pearl Harbor, and so on.

Since it only comes every four years (though not always, as you’ll see), let’s go over some fun calendar facts, just because we can.

• Leap years occur every four years except when the year is evenly divisible by 100 (e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900). However, there’s an exception to that rule, too. If the year is divisible by 400, the rule of 100s doesn’t apply. As a result, 2000 was a leap year.
• It is possible to go eight years between leap years. The last time this occurred was between 1896 and 1904. It will occur again between 2096 and 2104.
• Why do we have leap years in the first place? The actual solar year (how long it takes the Earth to go around the sun) is approximately 365 1/4 days, meaning that we get a quarter of a day behind every year. So, leap years help us catch up.
• Why do we skip leap year every 100 years but add it back in every 400? The keyword above is approximately a quarter of a day behind each year. Currently, the solar year is about 11 minutes short of 365 1/4 days. This means we have to throw in another fudge factor every 100 years by taking out a leap year and every 400 years by adding it back in.
• Even all that fudging doesn’t completely solve the problem. There’s enough error left to compound over a long period of time that it’s estimated that in the year 4909 we’ll be a full day off even with all the leap years between now and then. People way too concerned about this are asking for the year 4000 to be designated as a leap year even though it’s divisible by 400. A logical, wait-and-see approach may be merited, both because the solar year will ever so slightly change over time as the orbital speed of the earth slows and the years get a smidge longer and, well, because no one alive right now should really care enough to act on it.

Why do I know all this? Beats me. Sometimes random knowledge interests you at some point and then sticks in your brain.

What does this have to do with writing? Well, they made a movie out of Groundhog Day, and other movies since have been based on the idea. Could be fertile ground here for something!

If you write a novel set at some turn of a century, you can thank me later for helping you know whether that year was a leap year.

I also think it was part of the solution of an Encyclopedia Brown story I read once.

Again, here’s another marginally writing-oriented post. Writers do need to exercise their brains a little outside the written word on occasion. Besides, we’re kindred spirits with visual artists.

The “Big Spanish Castle” illusion will cause you to have a “yeah, right” moment when you read the instructions. Just do it. You won’t believe it otherwise. It freaked me out the first time I did it.

The theory behind this is based on the concept of afterimage. You can find a neat experiment and explanation of this here.

The guy who created the castle illusion also includes a helpful tutorial on how to make your own from any image (look below the image on his page).

What I found interesting about both of these was that after going through the experiments once and then going back and doing them again later, I could sense a moment when what I was staring at started to look ‘different’, which seemed to coincide with the moment my retinas got ‘tired’ (see the afterimage link above). I didn’t have to wait the full 30 seconds, just until I sensed whatever it was that was different.

If nothing else, it’s a fun diversion. So enjoy, then get back to writing!

(and all other visitors too!)

If you got here by way of one of our words at The Big Word Project, all this worked! Welcome!

I started this blog because I make my living and my life as a writer. I eat, sleep, breathe, and think writing during most of my waking moments and many of my non-waking ones.

I’m looking to expand the content of this blog as time in our freelance workdays permits, but until then, stay a while, read the posts, and subscribe to our blog. More importantly, leave a comment! Say hi, ask a question, say something witty, say something not witty, or do whatever gets your muse perked up.

For starters, I suggest reading my Some of my other beliefs post along with the page on my main site called Writing Otaku to give you some introduction. Or, just start reading and don’t worry about it.

Glad you made it!

Happy Birthday to the Gutenberg Bible! On this date in 1455, what in my mind is the greatest invention in human history was first put into action with the mass printing of the Gutenberg Bible in Mainz, Germany.

Just think about how the written word affects every facet of our lives. As words became available to the masses and one’s message became so easily distributable, the ability to influence society increased exponentially. Every social revolution and cultural transformation that followed owes their success to Gutenberg.

The influence of the written word has taken another quantum leap forward with the Internet and blogs. Everyone has a voice now, everyone can be heard by millions, and it’s nearly impossible to silence anyone. It’s not without its problems, but it’s also proven to be the world’s greatest leveler.

As writers, may we be good stewards of all the tools we’ve been given.

This isn’t explicitly about writing, but I think this is a fascinating site. Obsolete Skills is compiling a wiki-style, master list of skills that used to be important in our society but no longer are.

A ’skill’ can be actual job skills (programming in BASIC), everyday actions people no longer perform (dialing a rotary phone), or skills that just aren’t useful anymore (like doing hexadecimal conversions in your head – which was questionably useful to begin with). Sadly, at one point I did all three of these. One caveat – some things in the list really are still used and remain useful – like understanding the Dewey Decimal System – so clearly this is a work in progress.

If you need a bit of writing inspiration, go there, pick a random ‘obsolete skill’, and write about a character who has that skill. Great cure for writer’s block!

Somewhere in your 30s, you become both tragically unhip and oblivious to the jargon that builds up in professions not your own. As a writer, though, if we are to communicate well with our readers, we have to try our best to keep up with how the world talks to each other. Whether it’s a marketing letter, a technical document, or two characters in dialogue, you need to know the language appropriate to your audience and your writing.

Here are a few sites I’ve used to do help me with this.

• Acronym Finder – It’s pretty much what it says it is.
• Abbreviations.com – This site is a nice compliment to Acronym Finder!
• The Free Dictionary – They cover jargon galore with their Medical Dictionary, Legal Dictionary, and Financial Dictionary.
• Urban Dictionary – Here’s a resource of slang for the woefully unhip. [salty language alert for those of you who care]
• Text Message Shorthand @ Netlingo – Personally, ‘IM speak’ drives me bat-crazy, but you may need to translate it…
• The Phrontistery – This site celebrates the incredible depth and breadth of the English language with whole lists of obscure words. Word-ophiles will love it. Go for the words but stay for the Compendium of Lost Words, lists of words that fell out of use long ago but ones you may need if you’re writing something like historical fiction.

Enjoy!

While just getting something published – even in a non-paying market – can be fun and rewarding, neither you nor I are going to turn down some cold, hard cash for our writing.

While something like Writer’s Market is an invaluable resource for breaking into paying markets, it’s also intimidating. There are plenty of smaller, friendlier-feeling, new-writer-welcoming markets out there far too numerous to make it into Writer’s Market. Keeping up with these opportunities requires a personal touch and a passion for helping all writers succeed.

That’s where C. Hope Clark’s FundsforWriters.com comes in. Every two weeks, Hope sends out a newsletter that lists grant opportunities and well-paying markets and contests only. At a ridiculously cheap $12/year, you can’t beat it.

I heard her in an interview a while back and love her spirit and commitment to her work and to writers everywhere. She has a ton of material on her site, so go have a look.

I recently discovered the FreelanceSwitch blog, and it easily made it onto my daily reading list. Their purpose is to offer advice, share their wisdom, and create a community atmosphere for freelancers everywhere. It’s a place where freelancers can work together to overcome the challenges of freelancing and find ways to improve their chances of success.

Definitely check out their recent article “How Much is Your Time Worth?”, the ever-present issue that freelancers everywhere wrestle with.

I’ve only explored a fraction of their extensive site so far. Go now and check it out!

Lake Superior State University maintains a List of Banished Words that they believe are some combination of overused, annoying, trite, wrongly-used, or otherwise worthy of being expunged from common usage.

I think they’re too hard on some of these words, but for the most part I agree with them. I like the word wordsmith because of its connotations of attention to craft, quality, and artisanship. I agree with them, though, that the way wordsmith is commonly used has sucked much of the positive meaning from it. That may be their point. When people drive good words to turn bad, it’s time to banish them for a while.

Some of these words and phrases are great to use sarcastically in your writing. (”Back in the day, we didn’t even have YouTube!”) If it’s something your character would say, use it!

I’ve read a lot of advice over the years that writers should focus on getting the words right and leave the graphic designers to deal with fonts and the other pretty stuff. Employed writers often work as part of a diverse team where everyone has a specific role. Writers who work at ‘non-writing jobs’ and write stories and poems in between the nooks and crannies of their day often don’t have time to worry about anything else.

With the proliferation of self-employment and self-publishing, it’s getting harder and harder for writers to just write copy or stories. Competition for freelance work can be fierce. The more writing and design services you can (legitimately) offer, the more likely you are to get work. The more design work you can do on your book, the better it’s going to sell. If you rely on self-publishing houses to do your design work for you, expect much more often than not to be disappointed.

What I find fascinating is that graphic designers are typically much more willing to write copy for the pieces they create – such as brochures – than copywriters are to offer a design to go with their copy. Traditionally, these have been two separate fields and remain so in many places. A great designer who can write adequate copy or a great writer who can at least do adequate design are instantly more marketable.

Does this mean you should punt outside help from anyone? Of course not. But if you seek outside design help, you should know enough to know the right questions to ask and to evaluate how good that help is.

I feel that the days of just providing straight copy to a client are quickly waning. In talking with prospective clients, I discover that many of them have received bids for just writing the text for their project leaving them to wonder, “you mean I have to find somebody else to do the design and printing?”

I think if you bid on a job to produce an e-mail newsletter, you ought to know how to actually create and lay one out in HTML as well as how to use a couple of online services who help companies distribute those newsletters. The copy in those newsletters is still the most important part, but most clients I’ve talked to or worked with want more than a Word document with the copy in it. They want the project done so all they have to do is click Send.

That said, there are still plenty of places that want the copy and then want you to go away. That’s fine. They’re set up for that kind of process. I think, though, that there are ten orders of magnitude more places that would hire you if you could take them from beginning to “click Send”.

If you dread learning the skills needed to do that, then don’t. Aim for places that just want the copy. I’ve just found that I have a lot more options if I can provide more services. It helps tremendously that I love learning this stuff, and it gives me a place to express my creativity in those areas.

It feels good when talking to clients to say, “I write and…” Your “and” should be something you love, or are at least fascinated by, that also adds value to your writing services. That “and” will get you work.

So, what’s your “and”?