Ink Thinkin

Random thoughts from Dy Larson of Ink Think, freelance editor and copywriter

Thursday, March 31, 2005

The Validation of Publication

There are a lot of writers in the world. Some of them are even published.

Do you have to be published to be a writer? Well, if you ask on any of the numerous writing listservs I belong to, the answer is a resounding "No!" Whether this is true, or just something that is passed around writing groups like a snuggly security blanket is anyone's guess.

I can tell you most of the time I don't feel like a writer. I'm a pretty damn good editor, but don't write as much original material as I think a 'writer' should. So, most days I'm not a writer.

Today is not most days. This is just a flash piece I wrote during a writing practice group last Spring, but several revisions and a couple submissions (and rejections) later, it found a home. The Spring 2005 edition of e-clips went online today, with my flash story "A Few Many Tattoos". Take a look, if you get a minute.

eclips Spring 2005

Today I AM a writer :)

Monday, March 14, 2005

Blog Blog Blog

or is it Blah Blah Blah?


A week later and I still don't get blogs. I told some friends I'd started blogging & they immediately shot me links to their blogs. I am apparently behind the curve.

But, honestly, what IS the point? Obviously a number of people have blogs that serve as personal/family newsletters, and are really only of interest to the people involved or related. Why is it public? I know I had the option when creating my blog to make it members only. Since (laugh long and hard here, it's ok, I do) this is supposed to be a bit of BSP I didn't go that route.

My favorite example is a blog I stumbled across a while back. I can't tell you whose it was, or when, I think I followed a link from a link from a link... you know how it is. This woman was publicly declaiming how hard the struggle is to gain permanent custody of her grand-nephew who was born out of state to her niece who was then incarcerated and gave temp custody of the boy to a couple she'd met before getting into trouble. It goes on to mention that the blogger and her family already have permanent custody of this niece's first child.

Now, I ask you, am I the ONLY person who wants to know WTH is really going on here? If you're gonna put that much info on the web, spell it out for those of us who can't read between the lines. I almost wish I could find that blog again to see if they've answered any of these questions... Almost.

Instead, I think I'll take my memory of the vague outline of the story and file it away somewhere for future use in fiction. This is definitely a Lifetime Network movie waiting to happen. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one to write the script.

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Sunday, March 06, 2005

Shameless Self Promotion

Ah, my first blog. I am actually a little ashamed to say I am not an avid blog fan. The only ones I've ever read were linked to from someone's email or website. I've never sought them out. I don't have any bookmarked to see what new wit, wisdom, or gobbledygook some stranger is pounding out on the keyboard that day. In short, WTH do I have my own.

Truthfully? I *don't* know. I just don't. I just joined a new (to me) writing group, MomWriters (www.momwriters.com) and a number of the messages from other members included blog links this weekend. I was intrigued. I followed the link. I read their blogs...

In a way, blogging is a bit weird to me. So many of them are essentially personal journals published on the internet. How brave is that? I'd be terribly afraid I'd rant on about a neighbor driving me nuts, the 'evil' kid who teased my daughter at school, the moron teaching my new writing class, whatever, and a few days later the person in question would come up to me with a printout of my blog and want to know WTH my problem is. Trust me, with my luck & karma, this is EXACTLY how it would go.

So, I'm planning this blog to be a bit more professional, a bit of blatant self-promotion. I have recently hung out my shingle as a freelance business writer and virtual assistant. If you want to know what a VA is, check out www.ivaa.org; they have a great definition that I don't want to re-type. Obviously, if you write, people want to know what you've written. Well, now I can add blogging to my currently painfully thin list of credits and move on, and send them somewhere to get an idea of my style. Maybe. Still not sure I want to actually tell anyone I'm doing this!

That ought to be enough to get me started. Since this is only semi-professional, I can now admit I'm going to post this and go indulge in another guilty online pleasure, a rousing hour or so of 'City of Heroes'.

G'Night World - Wish me Luck (or at least a minimum of typos)
Dy

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