The Writer's Perspective by Maria Schneider - journalism

5 Nifty Google Writing Tools

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:32:39 GMT

Hi, writers,

Maria is likely sipping exotic neon cocktails and hanging out with top writers as the Maui Writers Conference wraps up in Hawaii, so this week I’m taking over The Writer’s Perspective and the WD fort in Cincinnati, wearing an old lei from a luau-themed office party.

I originally planned to blog about nationwide newspaper cuts (our local Cincinnati Enquirer mentioned today that 15 newsroom staffers have accepted buyouts), but I’m working on some great material for the January/February issue, so let’s go with a less grim topic—let’s go with some of my overly abused Google writing tools.

Here are five free, simple, nifty writing tricks I picked up as a reporter that can be surprisingly handy when editing or writing.

•   Google Phonebook: Looking to hunt down the phone number of that mysterious source before deadline? Go to Google.com and type “phonebook: John Smith Nevada.” Now you have all the John Smiths in Nevada, and you didn’t need to root through any hulking yellow tomes.

•   iGoogle: My over-checked guilty pleasure. At iGoogle.com, you can set up a custom web page, and you can even tailor it to your own writing and reading ends with a database of free widgets. For instance, mine has both of my e-mail addresses plugged into it, seven news feeds, a word of the day, an artist of the day, a dictionary form, a thesaurus form, a daily literary quote and a strange “Writer’s Idea Bank” tool. Overkill? Probably. Perfect for compulsive e-mail-checking writers? Definitely. (Requires free Google account.)

•   Google Docs: This is a relatively new one in my lineup, but one that I’m increasingly using. At docs.google.com you can find the tech behemoth’s free online word processor, which allows you to write, edit, save and even format your material as you would in a normal program. Upside: You can access your writing anywhere without a flash drive. Downside: No internet connection? Ut-oh. (Requires free Google account.)

•   Google Calculator: I didn’t get into writing because I was good at math, so it’s a good thing search engines are. Simply type “456*993” into the browser and you’re a whiz. If you still remember what square roots are, you can do those, too.

•   Define: The crown jewel, crucial for helping your writing (or settling arguments) when you don’t have a dictionary or Internet connection handy. Text message Google with your cell phone (466453) and write “Define: Athabascan.” Soon enough, your mobile phone is telling you all about Alaska and Western Canada. Texting Google also works for movie times, weather and directions.

For more, visit google.com/help/features.html. What are your favorite writing gadgets and widgets?

Read on and write on,

Zac

--

Zachary Petit
WD Managing Editor

Digital Voice Recorder Recommendations

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:54:14 GMT

Hi Writers,
I'm all set to travel to New York tomorrow to cover the Thrillerfest writing conference. I'm going to be writing live from the conference on this blog as well as special show dailies for our e-newsletter subscribers (sign up via writersdigest.com if you're interested.)

Alas, as I've been preparing to be the ace reporter at Thrillerfest, I've discovered that my voice recording devices are oh-so-last-century, as in, they *gasp* use tape.

Imagine interviewing people who spend their days dreaming up stuff like watches that detonate bombs and pens that are really surveillance cameras and—oops! (@#$#!)—ace reporter has to stop and flip the tape!

So I'm shopping today for a digital voice recording device. I've just about talked myself into an iPod classic with microphone attachment, but I was wondering if any of the other ace reporters out there have recommendations.

Let the recommendations begin! And don't forget to join me all week long for the inside scoop from Thrillerfest!

Keep Writing,
Maria

Ian Frazier on Humor Writing

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:17:57 GMT

Hi Writers,
I read this great piece in The New Yorker May 26, “Tales from a Chelsea Soup Kitchen” by Ian Frazier. It's a feature about how he started a writing workshop that operates in tandem with a NYC church-based soup kitchen.

I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say about how to operate a writing workshop and gave some good idea-generating topics. Unfortunately, the article isn't available online, but I did find this podcast with Frazier, in which he talks about writing humor. Whenever a New Yorker writer has something to say about writing, I listen.

Here's a bit of the transcript from the podcast interview, which runs about 15 minutes (and I promise, well worth your time):
Sometimes people write funny things and I say, you know if you just made it a little longer and added a little plot, you’d have a humor piece here. It isn’t just people in this workshop. It’s people in general. They’ll get something funny, but it’ll just be a line or two lines. Even now I think because of TV I think that’s become a problem—that people write really, really short. So all of the suggestions of where this could go, you know there’s all this potential here.

[Humor] is something that you really can’t hit by aiming at it. It’s not like you can go out and get the facts and report them and now here’s a humor piece with the facts. With reporting, if you work hard you can usually pull something out. But writing humor doesn’t respond to working hard, necessarily. I mean, you could just sit there and look at the page all day and maybe something will come. But writing humor for me is more like a watchful-ness. You have to watch. When you say something funny, or someone else does, it’s more like you wait for the piece. I think maybe it’s more like writing a poem. I’ve never really been into that at all, but I assume a poet would get to a certain point and say, gee, I know I need a fifth stanza here, but I don’t know what it should be. And then maybe the poet doesn’t think of anything for five years. I don’t know I can imagine that; I’ve had it happen with humor pieces. I’ll get to a certain point and say, you know, up to here it works but I don’t know what to do next. It’s a sense—you have a sense of humor.

Any thoughts about what Frazier has to say about humor writing? Post them here.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Ira Glass on Storytelling

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:10:21 GMT

Hi Writers,
I want to share this wonderful, instructional video I came across: Ira Glass on the art of storytelling. I'm a huge NPR "This American Life" fan and I also recommend "This American Life" on Showtime, which I suppose you might call short video stories of real people.

The following video was produced to educate aspiring video producers (via Current TV). Glass gives such a great description of the storytelling process, demystifying it and breaking it down into understandable pieces. Good to know whether you're communicating through writing, video, radio or podcasts—good storytelling is good storytelling.

The series is broken down into four parts and I'm posting #1 here. You can watch all four parts in less than 15 minutes. Parts 2-4 will show up in the Related Videos on the You Tube page.

Let me know what you think...

Keep Writing,
Maria

Journalism: Breaking In

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:15:43 GMT

Hi Writers,
To follow up on my last post about landing a journalism career, I asked our newly hired managing editor, Zac Petit—who graduated from J-school three years ago—to share his thoughts.

Here's Zac:
Ahh, journalism—long hours, low pay, shrinking newsrooms, coffee overdoses, sadistic deadlines, weekends spent covering garage sales boasting glamorous taglines such as “world’s largest.” But don’t fret.

There’s also a glorious upside: seeing your first 1A story, building impenetrable staff camaraderie with your “war” buddies, getting paid to write and edit regularly, seeing readers take an interest in your work, knowing you didn’t get a job in mathematics.

Journalism can either be your worst nightmare or your best friend. For many professionals, it’s both. As one writer here put it, “Basically if you want to go into journalism you have to look at it as a calling. … you have to do it because you love it, and live it, or else it’s not for you.”

My advice? If you’re just starting out and you don’t have any strong connections or solid clips, start small. Try a newspaper, a routine launching pad for scores of media professionals and authors (including greats like Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut). For me, a jaunt out to a small rural daily was an ideal place to quickly learn the trade. Not only was it a journalism boot camp, but it also provided a rare opportunity to experience everything in the profession at once, from basic reporting and photography to advancement in bigger beats (in newspaper jargon, beats are basically your hallowed turf, such as the police or county government beat). If you work hard, lose a little sleep, get all your facts right and build some solid clips, often you can be out and on your way to a bigger publication in a year.

As for the college degree, it may not be necessary at every publication, but it definitely helps. A quick glance at the reporter hub JournalismJobs.com affirms that most places require a journalism or mass communications credential as a prerequisite. If you’re in a college journalism program, embrace internships, write for the school paper and seek out some freelance opportunities. If you’re not enrolled, do everything you can for starter clips, experience and connections: Write for free, network and talk to professionals to gain an understanding of the industry. When it comes to that first journalism gig, these are the things publications will be looking for—and it just might prevent you from having to move out to the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, journalism is hard. But when you talk to media professionals who have stayed the course, they’re likely to begrudgingly admit that it was well worth it—even if they did have to cover the occasional “World’s Largest Garage Sale” once or twice in their early days.

Zac will be contributing to The Writer's Perspective from time to time, so please welcome him. Also, feel free to post any comments or questions for him here.

Keep Writing,
Maria

So you want to be a journalist?

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:14:39 GMT

Hi Writers,
I just hired a new editor this week to join the Writer’s Digest editorial team. In the process of screening applicants and going through the whole interview process with a number of fine journalistic candidates, I realized a few things that I thought might help those of you who are looking for a career in journalism.

The media landscape that new journalists now face has changed quickly and dramatically, and, unfortunately, merely being a superlative writer isn’t enough any more. Magazines and newspaper staffs have been downsized at just about every media company, and the editors and journalists who remain need to have a whole new set of skills.

So for the aspiring journalists and editors out there, here are a few old school and new media tips for landing a paying gig.

• Good writing and editing skills are still critical. Take all of the journalism classes you can because they will teach you to think of writing as a job and not to be too precious about your words. English classes are extremely useful too—to help you to recognize good vivid, imaginative writing. Being an excellent verbal communicator is as important as it’s ever been. But being an excellent verbal communicator who’s flexible enough to write for varying platforms—print, blogs, community sites, video scripts—will land you a job.

• Publish everywhere you can. Don’t be afraid to start small: your school paper, the local alt-weekly, whatever. Being published, even in smaller outlets will prove your tenacity, which is crucial if you want to survive in 21st century journalism. Note: a MySpace page doesn’t count as being published. But an essay published in a reputable online journal does—even if you didn’t get paid for it.

• E-Media skills worth developing:
A working knowledge of HTML
Experience with managing an online community forum
Professional blogging experience
Some graphic design knowledge, including InDesign
Digital Photography and PhotoShop
Video production and editing (in this era of free commercials via YouTube)
Digital audio recording and podcasting

And above all, you have to love it. Also, it doesn't hurt to marry well, too, just in case (sorry, couldn’t help myself).

If you have more tips for landing a journalism job, please share here.
Keep Writing,
Maria