Using Grammar and Good Manners to Save the World

Here, in case you missed them, are some of my favorite posts from the year:

• Pulse Warmers: What little things help you through your day?

• Loot and Plunder: Do you follow through? Or do you leave people feeling like they’ve been pillaged?

• Let the Yeast Do the Work: Because writing is remarkably like baking bread.

• Anticipation: A rare appearance of a poem I actually wrote.

• Spinning Words: Because specialized vocabulary can be fun. (There were two more installments, here, and here.)

• Pet Names: Do you have pet phrases you keep nearby at all times? How well-trained are they?

• Right to Write Right: How important is correct grammar to you when you read?

• Why I Write: Because it’s the best fun around, that’s why!

• Four Reasons to Turn Off Your Computer: (This one should be pretty self-explanatory.)

• Is What You Write More Important than How You Write It?

• Putting Together the Pieces: Because my favorite part is seeing how all the plots, characters, and selling points all fit together.

• How NOT To Get Your Novel Published: Tongue-in-cheek, kind of, but if you don’t want your novel published, these can be important tips! Plus…

• How NOT To Get Hired as a Writer: The companion piece…

• Shoot for the Moon: Because there’s no dream too big.

• Where the Action Is: Are the best stories the ones where events drive the story? Or where the characters do? (Or both?)

• Wanted: Literary Agent of my Dreams: Because it never hurts to put out into the universe what you’re hoping to find.

• You Can Lead a Dog to a Story: Because sometimes what your readers take away is not what you thought you were giving them.

• It’s Puzzling: Building a plot is a lot like creating a puzzle–it’s a lot of backward engineering to make sure everything works.

• Writing Makes Everything Possible: Without it, we’d still be in caves, right?

• Let’s Not Forget Civility: Life is too short to let the DIPs (Delusionally-Important People) ruin it.

• Lost Your Train of Thought? What can you do when your train of thought left the station without you?

• 9 Things You Need on a Freelance Resume: Apparently even freelance writers need resumes, so it’s best to be prepared.

• 7 Reasons a Good Schedule Can Keep You on Track

• 5 Tips for Better Time Management

• Can a Game be a Story? Can an event that’s happening in front of you be defined as a story?

• Why a Copywriter Needs to Tell Stories: Because stories aren’t just important in fiction, they can be the best selling tool you have.

• I Am Woman, Hear Me Blog: Apparently the battle of the sexes isn’t over … not even on the internet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I know I have!

{ 3 comments }

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Because, hey, even if you don’t celebrate December 25th as a holiday, you might at least be lucky enough to have it off from work, or be taking at least a few hours off to hang out with the family. And even if you don’t even do that, I certainly hope you have a wonderful day, so … be as non-denominationally merry as you can!

{ 1 comment }

• Do you have a magic trick to get your writing started each day?

• Do you have a specific routine that you must follow before you can settle down to work?

• Do you have a lucky charm on your desk? A piece of jewelry you must be wearing? Some kind of talisman to ward off writers block and bad grammar?

We writers seem to be a superstitious bunch. If we don’t get to read the morning’s Pooch Cafe comic, we can’t write. If there was only enough coffee for three mugs full, we can’t write. If the internet is broken and we can’t check our email, we can’t write. If we can’t find our fuzzy bunny slippers, we can’t write. If we can’t find our favorite green pen and have to use a blue one instead, we can’t write.

This intrigues me.

I don’t think of myself as having a standard routine I have to follow each day to write. I don’t spin clockwise three times and spit on my shoulder (ick), or drop crumbs as offerings to the Writing Gods (and my dog), but that doesn’t mean I don’t have certain things I need just so to be able to write–especially the creative, fiction stuff. I can’t stand having clutter on my desk, and I can’t write at all with any type of audible words around me. No television, no radio (except, perhaps, classical music). If there are words to be listened to, my brain tends to latch on and then I can’t think of my own. Heck, I can’t fall asleep with the television on, either, I’m too busy listening to the dialogue.

While I lack a specific, superstitious routine, though, I do have a couple personal talismans I like to keep around.

One is this necklace:

Hope necklace

I bought this back in 2008 from Kathryn Riechert’s Etsy shop, when we started having family financial issues and I needed something tangible to remind me that Hope was vital. Except for the weekends when I usually don’t bother putting on any jewelry at all, I’ve worn this just about every single day since then. The fact that the chain constantly eats my hair I just put up with because, well, hope can sometimes be painful. Even an optimist like me can use a reminder now and again.

Penny for your thoughts ring

The other is this ring from Nina Gibson Designs, which I find wonderfully symbolic for a freelance writer. First, it’s made from money … sure, it’s just a penny, but when you collect enough of them, it really starts to matter … and anyway, it’s the symbolism thing.

Penny for your thoughts band

And then, the band is stamped with “Penny for your thoughts,” which is the whole point, don’t you agree? Because my thoughts ARE worth money, and even more, I want people to be offering to pay for them. Anyway, it’s symbolic (and it didn’t come in silver dollars, which would have been way too big to wear anyway).

So … I shared mine.

What lucky routines, talismans, charms, superstitions, or habits do YOU have to get you writing?

{ 2 comments }

You may have heard, it’s been all over the internet today– in the freelance writing world, at least–our buddy James from Men with Pens is, in fact, not a man at all. She is a single mother who was driven to writing under a pseudonym as a means for putting food on the table for her two kids.

Why the pen-name? Because it was easier to find work, easier to get the rates she deserved, by using a man’s name. She (and it’s going to take some time to get used to this pronoun) says that when she would apply for the same job, using both her real name and her pen-name, the name made a difference.

I was still bringing in work with the other business, the one I ran under my real name. I was still marketing it. I was still applying for jobs — sometimes for the same jobs that I applied for using my pen name.

I landed clients and got work under both names. But it was much easier to do when I used my pen name.

I find this fascinating and not a little depressing.

I was born in the mid-1960s and have lived my entire life hearing about feminism, equal rights, the NOW organization, the glass ceiling … all of it. Women earn less than men for the same work. Many jobs aren’t “suited” for women because they’re too technical, important, or whatever nonsense. (That works in reverse, too; just try being a male nurse or kindergarten teacher). Women’s Studies was an available major when I went to college, as if women needed our own, pink, ruffly little classes so we’d feel included while not interfering with the important, male-dominated topics.

The point, though, is that I grew up believing that I could do anything I wanted to, and that, by the time I was an adult, the fact that I was a woman wouldn’t matter anymore.

I can’t tell you how sad I am to learn that that’s not true, not even on the internet. Not even when it’s a matter of writing, which can be done equally well (or badly) by men or women–writing talent is NOT gender-based.

Do I blame the talented and driven James Chartrand for doing what she had to do to support her family? Not in the least. Do I feel betrayed or deceived, by the male-persona lie, not to mention left out for not having known the secret? Well, maybe a tiny bit, in the first few minutes as I pulled myself up off the floor. (Concussion from falling to the floor will do that, you understand.) After the shock wore off, though, I was filled with nothing but admiration for the way she tricked that gender-biased system … and, a little, a wish I’d thought of it first.

But here’s my question to you.

Why do you suppose that this gender bias exists? Especially in the freelance writing field?

In the multitude of comments in Copyblogger’s post today, there were a couple mentions of the old New Yorker cartoon. “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” If you’re hiring someone to write a webpage, does it matter if the writer is a man or a woman? Maybe, perhaps, in some instances. If your site talks about tips and tricks for breastfeeding your baby, a male writer might not do as good a job as a woman–though I’m sure he could still write decent copy, with some research. And vice versa for a site on, say, motorcycles (or pick the male stereotype of your choice.)

My biggest question, I suppose, isn’t why clients might assume that they could pay women less than they’re paying men for the same number of written words … they probably pay them less for answering phones, making sales calls, and working in human resources, too. It’s what they DO. They pay women less.

No, my biggest question is … why do we women let them? Why do we accept less pay? I can (almost) understand that in some traditionally male-dominated professions, women are still having to prove themselves. (I mean, gosh, it’s only been a few decades, right?) But … writing? Women have been writing for centuries, and it’s not like we spend our time swooning on the chaise these days, in between embroidery stitches. We’re too busy running after our jobs, our kids, our spouses, our dogs, and our sanity. You know, just like many of the men are.

Is it because we were taught differently? Did our mothers somehow encourage us to accept less, even while telling us to reach for the stars? Or is it simply because we have not put our collective foot down and say, “Enough, already?” I’ve never been a radical feminist, even when it was popular. I figured I already deserved equality, and any perqs beyond that were up to me.

Thanks, James (or whatever your name is), for showing everyone that gender doesn’t matter when there’s a brain and a talent at work.

You know, for those people who hadn’t figured it out already.

Yes, my name is Deb Boyken, and yes, I am a female writer. Proud of it, in fact.

Not only that, I’m proud that almost every comment I’ve seen on this topic today–mostly from the freelancing/writing community–has been supportive and generally in the “What difference does it make?” arena. At least we writers know the facts.

It’s the writing that matters. Not the gender.

Now, we just have to convince the rest of the world…

{ 20 comments }