One thing that makes me really angry is the claim so many media outlets are making to have citizen journalists. Most of theses claims start out fine and good, but they end up being nothing but crap.
No, they end up less than crap. They end up being nothing.
Nothing at all.
I don't know what happens. The person responsible for overseeing that moves on, gets bored, finds another job and doesn't train a successor. Maybe the successor gets bored and finds another job.
I signed up for our local writers group to be a 'citizen journalist' in two of the local papers. One Brown County paper (The Brown County Press), one Adams County paper(The People's Defender). I'd write the articles, and submit them online (for the online editions of the paper.) The person at the other end had to approve the articles and then okay them before they could be posted.
I have no problem with that. If there isn't some regulation, anyone would say anything, and respectable newspaper sites would soon all look like Topix sites. Even Citizen Journalists should be concerned with concepts that at least resemble news instead of middle school name-calling.
The problem occurs somewhere down the line, when things change at the other end of the process. The CJ blogs in the Brown County Press lasted just under a year before the editor at the other end just quit approving things for publication. Nothing was going through. It wasn't just our articles that weren't going through, it was anyone's. Everyone's.
No Citizen Journals were being furthered, but the blurb remained on the website encouraging sign ups.
The People's Defender stated that after they got a feel for your writing, if all was well, they could and would set the articles to auto-approve. I could write them, and they would post. Good deal.
Except that within three months, no one there was approving anything. let alone setting anything up for automatic. It was, and is, very much like throwing one's words into a black hole.
I have a lot of articles submitted and never approved. What am I to do with these articles? True, they are no longer timely, but that isn't always an issue. These are my words, my work, and I crafted them as carefully as I could. They were intended, after all, for a journalistic website.
I can't use them anywhere else, since they more or less belong to the papers they were intended for. Even if that isn't strictly true, I can hardly take the articles elsewhere. What if someone decides to go ahead and publish them, even after all this time? How does that make me look, as a writer striving for professionalism?
If you are thinking of signing up somewhere locally as a citizen journalist, please consider these points. Check out the editor, check the execution. Don't let your work go to waste in someone else's database.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Routine Romance
It's amazing how boring genre romance novels can be after you've been reading outside that field. Thrillers. for instance, can be arson or kidnapping as well as murder or escape. Family saga or adventure type stuff is as varied as people.
Not that there aren't outstanding romance writers, even those that follow the formula. There are, and most of them grow away from the formulas and let their skills shine. It doesn't matter if the skills are character development, plot, description, or just a convoluted mind. Good story telling is good story telling.
The reason I'm bringing it up is because the genre publishers are really slipping up. Recent romances that I have read are full of typos, grammar errors, and just plain silliness. The problems are almost worth the reading. A recent novel referred to the smart guy and the tough guy pair as the brain and the bronze. Another book from the same publisher informed me that the man's heart raced, and then his pulse did too. (That one struck me as so funny I texted it to many of my writer friends.)
Why read, you might wonder, if the stories and story telling are so bad.
These books, these (incompetent) authors have been published. Like any Unknown Author, I would like to be published. The best advice is always to read what is getting out there.
But do you know what? I believe I'd rather remain an Unknown than to publicly display my idiocy, my editor's inattention, and my publisher's uncaringness for the whole world to see. There's nothing noteworthy in my people's pulse keeping up with their heartbeat, and my brains guy is the one who's bronzed. It might bake his brain, but he's still pretty. and the story is about the brawny guy anyway. He's so much more interesting!
There's an old saying about keeping silent and being thought a fool or opening your mouth and removing all doubt. I think that should apply to being published, too.
In the meantime, I have a list of publishers who are really good for a laugh.
Not that there aren't outstanding romance writers, even those that follow the formula. There are, and most of them grow away from the formulas and let their skills shine. It doesn't matter if the skills are character development, plot, description, or just a convoluted mind. Good story telling is good story telling.
The reason I'm bringing it up is because the genre publishers are really slipping up. Recent romances that I have read are full of typos, grammar errors, and just plain silliness. The problems are almost worth the reading. A recent novel referred to the smart guy and the tough guy pair as the brain and the bronze. Another book from the same publisher informed me that the man's heart raced, and then his pulse did too. (That one struck me as so funny I texted it to many of my writer friends.)
Why read, you might wonder, if the stories and story telling are so bad.
These books, these (incompetent) authors have been published. Like any Unknown Author, I would like to be published. The best advice is always to read what is getting out there.
But do you know what? I believe I'd rather remain an Unknown than to publicly display my idiocy, my editor's inattention, and my publisher's uncaringness for the whole world to see. There's nothing noteworthy in my people's pulse keeping up with their heartbeat, and my brains guy is the one who's bronzed. It might bake his brain, but he's still pretty. and the story is about the brawny guy anyway. He's so much more interesting!
There's an old saying about keeping silent and being thought a fool or opening your mouth and removing all doubt. I think that should apply to being published, too.
In the meantime, I have a list of publishers who are really good for a laugh.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
While I'm griping: What happened to scIFi?
While I'm griping, I'll move on to my other big gripe this week, or month, or season.
What in the world has happened to Syfy (once Scifi) channel? They once had some of the most interesting programming anywhere. They did a lot of their own movies (Earthsea). They picked up discontinued network shows (Firefly/Serenity) Their regular programming was a mix of reality programming (Destination Truth, Fact or Faked) and odd fiction (Eureka, Haven).
Since before Thanksgiving, they've been a faint echo of Chiller network, rehashing and rerunning, over and over again, horror movies. Did someone in their office forget to change the calendar from October?
Some of it has been fine -- nothing wrong with horror on "Friday the Thirteenth", for example. But most of it -- there's nothing original in the movies they've been constantly replaying. How many times can we watch the three versions/chapters of the Halloween series? How many times is anyone going to sit through Troy? And disasters are fine for 2012 The End of The World. Creatures are coming out of all the cracks this old world is showing as it falls apart and blows away, but can't someone please -- pleasepleaseplease -- get rid of that damned Dinocroc for once and for all?
The only original syfy programming has been Ghost Hunters and Face-Off. Ghost Hunters I watch, Face-Off I don't. Doesn't appeal to me, but it belongs in the line-up.
That is, it did, back in the day when they actually had a line-up.
The network teased us a bit back at Christmas, advertising widely that Haven, Eureka, and Warehouse 13 were all coming back brand new,
They did.
For ONE Christmas themed episode each, that was rebroadcast extensively until the aforementioned Friday the Thirteenth.
I feel cheated. I feel that Syfy has turned its back on the fans that made the network such a great place to watch original programming. Maybe they ran out of ideas. Maybe they've made enough money and just don't care anymore. Maybe they fired all the writers and no one has told them how many unemployed writers there are out there. Maybe the adventurers and skeptics all went home for very long holidays
Because I don't care any more. I'll watch my horror movies on the horror movie channel, and instead of watching TV I'll read a book.
Or write one.
Original ideas are out there. Someone just has to look.
It could be an adventure.
What in the world has happened to Syfy (once Scifi) channel? They once had some of the most interesting programming anywhere. They did a lot of their own movies (Earthsea). They picked up discontinued network shows (Firefly/Serenity) Their regular programming was a mix of reality programming (Destination Truth, Fact or Faked) and odd fiction (Eureka, Haven).
Since before Thanksgiving, they've been a faint echo of Chiller network, rehashing and rerunning, over and over again, horror movies. Did someone in their office forget to change the calendar from October?
Some of it has been fine -- nothing wrong with horror on "Friday the Thirteenth", for example. But most of it -- there's nothing original in the movies they've been constantly replaying. How many times can we watch the three versions/chapters of the Halloween series? How many times is anyone going to sit through Troy? And disasters are fine for 2012 The End of The World. Creatures are coming out of all the cracks this old world is showing as it falls apart and blows away, but can't someone please -- pleasepleaseplease -- get rid of that damned Dinocroc for once and for all?
The only original syfy programming has been Ghost Hunters and Face-Off. Ghost Hunters I watch, Face-Off I don't. Doesn't appeal to me, but it belongs in the line-up.
That is, it did, back in the day when they actually had a line-up.
The network teased us a bit back at Christmas, advertising widely that Haven, Eureka, and Warehouse 13 were all coming back brand new,
They did.
For ONE Christmas themed episode each, that was rebroadcast extensively until the aforementioned Friday the Thirteenth.
I feel cheated. I feel that Syfy has turned its back on the fans that made the network such a great place to watch original programming. Maybe they ran out of ideas. Maybe they've made enough money and just don't care anymore. Maybe they fired all the writers and no one has told them how many unemployed writers there are out there. Maybe the adventurers and skeptics all went home for very long holidays
Because I don't care any more. I'll watch my horror movies on the horror movie channel, and instead of watching TV I'll read a book.
Or write one.
Original ideas are out there. Someone just has to look.
It could be an adventure.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
In Media Res
This is advice often given to writers these days. It's the latest publishing gimmick, and now the darned habit is bleeding over into episode tv. The shows are starting with -- say someone getting fired. Then they go back to before they got into the trouble that got them fired.
I don't like this as a regular thing. Every now and then is okay, but not two or three shows in a row, and not as even a semi regular opening. (It's okay as a tag or ad, if it's a program that has used that format regularly.
There are a couple of shows that I now turn off if the new episode starts with the story's climax.
For what it's worth, I think it's also bad writing advice, unless well done. Beginner writers often ask "Where do I start?" For years the obvious answer was to start at the beginning. It often takes a lot of writing and reading to decide when the beginning of the story is, but it's a place to start.
Notsomuch in today's publishing market. Today we are advised to start the story near the end and tell it all as a flashback. (Another style of writing that has to be well written to be readable.)
Sorry, major media. A good read or a good program has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In that order.
I don't like this as a regular thing. Every now and then is okay, but not two or three shows in a row, and not as even a semi regular opening. (It's okay as a tag or ad, if it's a program that has used that format regularly.
There are a couple of shows that I now turn off if the new episode starts with the story's climax.
For what it's worth, I think it's also bad writing advice, unless well done. Beginner writers often ask "Where do I start?" For years the obvious answer was to start at the beginning. It often takes a lot of writing and reading to decide when the beginning of the story is, but it's a place to start.
Notsomuch in today's publishing market. Today we are advised to start the story near the end and tell it all as a flashback. (Another style of writing that has to be well written to be readable.)
Sorry, major media. A good read or a good program has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In that order.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Blogging
I've been reading a lot of blogs about blogging, so I decided to add mine to the mix. Most of them are about focusing on the topic of your blog.
I should be okay there. My blog is about life, and that's a pretty broad focus.
More specifically, I hope it is about the absurdities of life, and the finding of the positive in the negative. It's up to me to make it about that.
Yes, the writing is important. Writing is why I'm writing a blog, but it isn't 'about' writing. There are many of those and, eventually, they aren't anymore. They still claim to be, though.
Writing is crazy, life is crazy. Writing life is crazy. Everything has its funny side, or a sunny side. Sometimes it's hard to see, and we need to be directed where to look. I hope that's what I accomplish with this blog.
And if it interests others in my writing, that's good, too.
I should be okay there. My blog is about life, and that's a pretty broad focus.
More specifically, I hope it is about the absurdities of life, and the finding of the positive in the negative. It's up to me to make it about that.
Yes, the writing is important. Writing is why I'm writing a blog, but it isn't 'about' writing. There are many of those and, eventually, they aren't anymore. They still claim to be, though.
Writing is crazy, life is crazy. Writing life is crazy. Everything has its funny side, or a sunny side. Sometimes it's hard to see, and we need to be directed where to look. I hope that's what I accomplish with this blog.
And if it interests others in my writing, that's good, too.
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