Observation of Quality

Being a writer involves being a reader. It's no big surprise that most writers are very discriminating about what they read. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I know that when I read a badly written article, it can cause something akin to nausea. I'm not talking about a few typos here and there; think tense shifts, there/their/they're and your/you're misuse, etc.

So for me, being fairly unproven in the field, it's gratifying to see that writers who I think well of are fond of the same things that I am. To me, it's a small acknowledgment of my ability to recognize quality which then allows me to be more confident of my own judgment.

For example, I'm a gamer in every sense of the word. I just love games, whether they be board games, card games, or video games. So I end up reading a lot of articles about games and gaming.

Among other things, I own a PS3. To keep up to date, I follow two websites fairly regularly: PSX Extreme and the Official Playstation Blog. Being a bit of a social networker, I've reached out to both Ben Dutka, PSXE's editor-in-chief, and Jeff Rubenstein, the Playstation brand's Social Media Manager. Not long ago, Jeff posted something through the Playstation Twitter feed with a link to Ben's review of the upcoming game Heavy Rain. I replied to it that I was glad to see Ben's work get some much deserved recognition (it really is a fantastic review and well worth the read) only to get a reply fairly quickly from Jeff about how much he likes Ben and the rest of the PSXE team's work.

While it's not as good as seeing glowing praise for my own work, seeing someone agree with the glowing praise I give to someone else's work has its own good feeling attached to it. For me, it adds to my self-confidence in my ability as a writer. And whether that's valid or not, sometimes it's what I need to be able to keep writing, which can only improve my ability. So it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Testing the waters again

It's been a long time since I've written anything here. In fact, I'd pretty much completely gotten out of practice with writing. However, the birth of my son had me looking for ways to express my feelings and keep track of them for the future (when he's a teenager and I'm trying to remember why I didn't strangle him as an infant) and I started http://watchingconnorgrow.blogspot.com.

I've been keeping updates going daily for over a week now and I think I'm almost ready to start expanding again. The key to writing, after all, is just that: writing. If you write something every day, it becomes easier to write. Like any skill, it takes practice and even the most naturally gifted writers who don't hone their art pale in comparison to an ungifted writer who works hard at the craft.

I'm not going to try to post to this blog every day, but as I start testing the writing waters again, I want to keep track of what's going on. I've also got a bunch of reviews to write up for http://diningbythewater.blogspot.com, so maybe I'll finally be able to get that going properly.

In the meantime, I have an important post to write, so until later...

New blog ready!

I've started the new blog I mentioned previously. It's at http://diningbythewater.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact me with questions and/or comments.

On again off again

It's been a busy couple of days for me.

Ernesto hit me pretty hard with rain, causing me to scrap my plans of going to Dragon*Con (http://www.dragoncon.org) as I do every year. Originally, it was just for fun. And for the most part, it still is for fun. But ever since I began writing, I realized that it was also a business trip.

One of the most interesting things about professional writing is that you can take whatever you enjoy and make it a part of your business. Do you like going to restaurants? Work on writing reviews. Love to catch a live sporting competition? Get a column or a blog together. There are a lot of things that you can do, whether you just need an outlet to express yourself or if you feel you have something that other people will find genuinely interesting.

And it's rewarding on a lot of levels. Not only do you have the chance to make yourself heard, but you can make money doing it if you find an audience. Plus, a lot of money that you put into business related activites can be taken out later as a tax deduction.

Speaking of taking things you enjoy, I'm planning another blog, this time on restaurants and chefs in the Hampton Roads/VA Beach/NE North Carolina area. I had been attempting to do a restaurant review column for a local paper, but nothing ever came of that, so I decided that I would just strike out on my own. More on that as it develops.

I'm also exploring the world of free, online writing classes and will have a review of the one I'm currently enrolled in as soon as it's completed.

That's all for now, except to say that I have just ordered a new smartphone (the Motorola Q, if you just need to know) and will soon be able to make posts from everywhere, as well as include audio, video, and still pictures. More on how to use this as a part of freelancing once I figure it out, myself.

Until later...

Max

On the decline of the state of written communications

I'm a semi-professional writer. I don't expect everyone to be able to communicate with the same degree of skill that I do. But in a world where written communication has become so widespread and so easy, I /do/ expect people to take some care and make the effort to craft their words instead of butchering them. But more and more frequently, I see the signs of devolution in the written language.

It's not a simple case of people spelling things incorrectly. Spelling mistakes happen and not every application has a built in spell checker. My father has a PhD in English Lit and his spelling is just short of atrocious.

It's not a matter of grammatical errors. The vernacular is the common language and with the exception of formal events, I wouldn't expect people to speak in a formal manner. Hell, even Shakespeare didn't write in 'absolutely grammatical' English.

My biggest peeve is people who don't even bother to make the effort. I'm sick to death of all of the 'r u's and 'its so kool i cant belieev it lol's that are mucking up the open text forums of the world. Call me a snob, but I feel very strongly that it's important to make the effort to use the language properly.

One of the most beautiful things about the English language is its complexity. It can be used for subtle word play, for lyrics, and to express abstract thoughts. It has taken/stolen from many other major languages to form a very special means of communication. But it seems like people are losing their love of the language in the minor convenience of being able to type 'r u' instead of 'are you'. In and of itself, that would be fine. But it leads into further laziness in the use of language which ends up with a nearly incomprehensible pile of pseudo-words making up a pseudo-thought.

I despair for the state of the world when people become too damn lazy to learn to type a few extra keystrokes in order to make their thoughts something a little more special than 'lol'.

Just another Friday

My father and stepmother are coming to visit with my wife and me this weekend, which was the major reason I was unable to post for most of the week, as my wife and I were busy getting a million and a half things done. Like finishing the bathroom renovations. But I digress...

My father has been a freelancer for most of his professional life. He's spent a few years at a few corporations, but primarily, he's been out on his own. And he's good at it. We're going to be spending some time this weekend going over my current plans and (I hope) he'll be giving me some more pointers.

Short post today. Got a lot to do in a very little time. But I'll post more on Sunday or Monday with details.

Delays and new happenings

Well, life being what it is, I haven't been able to sit down and write out an update since Friday. Without bringing too much of my personal life into it, let's just say that it's been entirely too busy, recently. However, there has been an event of some note in the world of my writing career.

I'm a member of a few groups that deal with things I feel strongly about. The most notable is the World Future Society. But the one that is closest to my heart is the Heinlein Society.

For those who don't know about it (which I suspect is a majority of my audience), the Heinlein Society is an organizaton that was started by the widow of the speculative fiction writer Robert Heinlein before she passed away. The main purpose of the group is to take what enrichment they have taken from Heinlein's philosophies and works and pay it forward by seeking to do what they can to make te world a better place.

This 'payment' takes many forms, but primarily the work is focused on the promotion of education through the form of getting more books into libraries and the creation of scholorship programs. They also have an annual blood drive and have recently given the first 'Heinlein Prize,' an award created to honor achievements towards promoting the commercial development of space and space flight, a subject that was very dear to the heart of the late writer.

And how does this impact my career? Well...they need a newsletter editor. Or, I hope, needed. I spoke with the president and chairman of the Society yesterday and, while my qualifications are not exactly iron clad, it's a volunteer position and no one else has stepped up. So, pending a final approval, it looks like I'm going to be given an opportunity.

For more information on the Heinlein Society, check out http://www.heinleinsociety.org.

Friday - I manage to continue my experiment

I've gone into some of the details behind why I started this blog. One of the reasons I didn't mention, though, was something I've been lax about for a long time.

One of the most important lessons I've ever neglected to heed is that writers need to write. Every day, you need to write something. Even if it's garbage, the act of putting words on paper (or an online outlet) is absolutely essential. It's like any other sort of activity: you need to train to get better.

So I'm making sure that I post here at least every week day with an attempt to post on the weekends, as well. After all, it's tough to show people what you can do if you're not doing it.

I might post some more today, if I get inspired. I have some things about customer service that have been rolling around in my head since I started listening to 'The World is Flat' on audiobook.