Ink Thinkin

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

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Word Love - Perseverate

Had breakfast with my parents yesterday and my father used a word my mother and I agreed could not ~possibly~ be a real word.

P E R S E V E R A T I N G

Does that look like a real word to you? Honestly? Me either.

Turns out it is (who knew) but at least I can tell my father it doesn't mean what he thought it meant.

He used the word in a way that implied he thought it meant a mounting level of hopeless frustration--I think, the word caught my imagination, the usage did not, other than I am ~quite~ sure he didn't use it any way that implied the word's actual meaning.

I'm not sure how to rephrase the definition of this word without losing clarity, so I'm just going to link to the word of the moment today.

perseverating at freedictionary.com

Webster on perseverating

Ya'll enjoy!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Resignation

Anyone who writes does it because they love the written word, they love language and it's permutations, they have a vision or an idea to communicate. They do NOT write for the money (there's a reason writers are usually lumped into the "starving artist" category!).

I resigned from my paid blogging gig today.

My regular business is building up, slowly, but it is building, and what I was doing for them paid... Well, let's just say it was about a tenth my hourly rate. Each blog entry was taking 1-3 hours to be researched, written, proofed, edited, and to find links and royalty-free photos to go with. It was not sensible for me, as a business woman, to continue. The effort to reward inbalance was just too great.

So, I'm footloose, fancy-free, and available. Need a writer?

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Word Love - Enquiry v. Inquiry

Word love? Yes, that's the title because, quite frankly, I love words. I love the way we have such a variety of ways to express ourselves with language. I'm hoping to make this a semi-regular feature as I come across words that pique my interest.

*****

I was working on a piece for a client this morning and was trying to decide whether I should use inquiry or enquiry and if there was a significant difference between the two.

I found there isn't really one, it seems to be a matter of preference.

Inquiry is a question or the examination of something in the search for information (truth)

Enquiry is a variant of inquiry. If you dig a little deeper, since that's the first line of the definition in several of the dictionaries I reviewed, the definition of the word for itself is not exactly the same. Enquiry covers the ground of inquiry as a question, a request for information or the search for knowledge, but it is also the term more likely to be used when referencing the research of a matter of public interest or law (i.e. there was en enquiry into President Clinton's dealing with Ms. Lewinsky).

So, both are correct. From what I've seen inquiry seems to be more commonly used in American English and enquiry in British English, but maybe that's just my perception of the matter. Inquiry also seems to be more frequently used in business writing where enquiry seems to appear more in social and literary writing.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Writing Book Rebel

I am starting to seriously think I'm not cut out for working through writing books. I finally started Les Edgerton's book, "Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing".>

Chapter One (thus far, I haven't finished it yet) is talking about all the things that help stifle our natural voice, pretty much all of which I agree with. A big one is the basic rules of writing we are taught in grammar school and the assumption so many people make, some of them English teachers, that the rules are inflexible. His favorite one to make fun of is "Write in Complete Sentences." Fair enough. A lot of the time people don't speak in complete sentences and naturalistic modern writing should reflect this.

Mr. Edgerton takes it too far. Or his editor did. There are waaaay too many incomplete sentences. A number of them seem to be incomplete solely for the sake of saying, "Look! It's ok to write in incomplete sentences, I do it ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME". It isn't a matter of an assumed subject or for emphasis, it has hit the point where it's just coming across as lazy.

I really want to read this book because finding my own voice is something I struggle with, but his (lack of) sentence structure is driving me crazy. I don't know if I'm going to make it to Chapter 2!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

I'm Lovin' It

It's 130 in the morning.

I'm trying to pick up a new ghosting gig and promised I'd have my finished piece to them by Friday. In my mind that means mid-day Friday, not the 11:59pm I occasionally get away with in the virtual world.


I'm tired. My preschooler will be up in 6 1/2 hours. I just started the coffee brewing.


And I'm jazzed.

I don't particularly want to write this article; its subject matter is something in which I have no interest and for which I have no need, but I will. And it'll be good--or at least as good as I can make it.


Why?


Because even though it means I have to do things I don't want to do for far less money than McDonald's pays, I love it.

I love words. I love playing with them. I love the build-up before I sit down to write, the time, sometimes hours, sometimes days, where I roll all the things I want to say around in my head to put together a cohesive whole. I love the feeling when I ~know~ I've got it right. If you've ever felt it you know it; if you haven't I can't explain it.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Oh I Wish I Were a Lawyer...

(to the tune of "I wish I were a rich man")

Why would I wish to be a lawyer? Is it the glamour? The money? The never ending student loans that have to be repaid?

Nope.

I was talking to a client today and mentioned that when writing for clients I don't charge for my "ruminating" time (currently ;-) since I am not actually writing even though it is an essential part of the process. Her comment was, "Why not? Lawyers do."

Wow. I want to get paid to think up myriad ideas, half of whom will be thrown out before the project is completed. I guess that's where *my* ethics come into play.

I don't charge for ruminating, the long walks I take with the dog while I piece an article together in my head (long before fingers hit a keyboard or a pen touches paper), the time I spend driving home from the grocery store reworking a phrase I'm not happy with in my head.

I *do* charge for actual topical research, like the time I spend finding industry-specific jokes for a client's newsletter (at their request).

Yea, I wish I was a lawyer. Or at least billed like one. Fortunately for my clients, though, I don't.